Hey guys,
I'm experimenting with the idea of building a Mendel. I'de like to keep it on as tight a budget as possible. Are there any recommendations you guys have to keep costs low?

I'm a tad bit confused with electronics sets on the wiki, what is the current best/cheapest solution? I don't mind spending a day or two soldering excessively small components onto a board.

For people who have made budget Mendels, what has your overall costs been? Try to keep it in USD and incl. shipping.

Lastly, do you try to make money printing things, if so how? Or are you guys more in for it as a hobby?

I may ask for some help later on once I decide whether or not I can/want to build one. Still a tad bit on the expensive side as a hobby for me. Anyone wanna try and convince me?

Thanks in advance

I'm a tad bit confused with electronics sets on the wiki, what is the current best/cheapest solution?

We had a very recent thread on this, which is worth reading:
http://forums.reprap.org/read.php?1,81655

Are there any recommendations you guys have to keep costs low?
http://reprap.org/wiki/What_Tooling_Do_You_Have?

http://reprap.org/wiki/1X2_Tallcat needs more test pilots, so I'd suggest you do up one of those.

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-Sebastien, RepRap.org library gnome.

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Remember, you're all RepRap developers (once you've joined the super-secret developer mailing list), and the wiki, RepRap.org, [reprap.org] is for everyone and everything!

Whoa @ tallcat! Thats nice haha.

Next is the size of a room! lets print some chairs to sit on :-D

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[omemon.wordpress.com]

Hmm...
Here are a few money saving tips:

Buy stepper motors with long cable attached, and if possible, with four pin female connectors.
Cost savings is about $30.00 and three hours of your life.

Buy your threaded and smooth rods from Home Depot or Lowes, but make sure they are clean and straight. Grab a 5/16 nut and turn it the full length of the rods to make sure there are no dings.

Buy the nuts and washers on line and look for the best deal.

Don't use hardware end stops. That'll save you another $30.

Get a RAMPS pcb and source the components individually. If you get it from Ultimachine, check their prices on components as well, as they are often as not cheaper than Digikey and Mouser.

Use a sheet of cambric instead of kapton tape, or just go for the blue painter's tape, although I think that stuff is overpriced.

Print in PLA. ABS needs extra hardware like a heated bed.

use mechanical endstops instead of optos (~$1 microswitches).
Kapton can be obtained from dealextreme very cheaply $5 for 25mmx30m this will cover a bed many times over.
printing larger parts even with PLA can be difficult without a heated bed.

Just finished mine, looking like its just over $500.00 i went as cheap as i could with the ability to upgrade as needed with ramps electronics. here is a google doc with my spreadsheet with all that i found might be able to get away a little cheaper(maybe). I dont want to discourage you but, be ready to spend alot alot ALOT of time on this i think im +100 hours with build and calibration and still not happy yet. so just be prepared to dedicate alot of time. is it worth it frick yeah, one of the coolest hobby i have ever found.

Price Breakdown Mendel Prusa

***If i did it again i do not think i would go with the clonedel, I probibly would try to get best quality parts i could even if they were a little more money***

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 05/10/2011 03:12AM by xjcrawler01.