almost decided to go solidoodle, why pay more for diy?

I used to be indecisive, but now I'm not so sure....

I have been trying to work out what 3d printer to get. I am not an engineer or an electronics whiz, I am at best handycapable, no problems with ikea furniture, but alot of started projects stall because I lose interest or motivation.

I have pretty much decided to get "a" 3d printer but now am a bit blinded by choice. I dont have a real use for one, it just seems cool to be able to spit out small plastic thingy's.

Self sourcing an open design kit seems doomed to a long build time waiting for stuff to come via post, and then having to adjust everything because its not quite as the BOM intended.

There are not truly cheap "everything is in one box" kits, that build a stable reliable printer that I can see.

If I were to diy it I'd go the MendelMax as it seems to offer the solidest platform, that being said the "every bit in a box" style kits are $1300 or thereabouts. I have no doubt this would be a great printer.

For $550 I can buy the solidoodle 2 and it arrives ready to plug in and print.

Pros of the solidoodle
Price
prebuilt

Pros of the mendelmax
Bigger print area
upgradeable / enhanceable

Here comes the question I suppose, but feel free to correct any misconceptions above
How much of a hindrance will a 150x150x150 build area cause?
Have I missed a printer that maybe falls between these 2

I would like to have something by late October, as it will be my birthday present, I am eagerly awaiting reqorts from solidoodle buyers to backup my thoughts on this printer, but am pretty sure they havent really even started shipping yet.

Could have posted this in lots of places, but chose here as Im a melbournite, and the easy availabilityof self sourced bits is not as easy here as in the US or UK and affects the end decision.

GaZ

Hiya Gaz,

I'm very new to 3D printing myself.

I was one the same boat as you just a few weeks ago. I wanted a 3D printer, but didn't to self source everything (due to lack of skill and know-how), but also wanted some kind of kit which would allow me to learn along the way.

Came very close to buying a solidoodle for the convenience and the price, but I did a bit more research and came across the ORD bot hadron.

[www.automationtechnologiesinc.com]

It's not exactly reprap, but it is based on the proven makerslide technology. I waited for ages for it to come back on the market in a kit form. The one in the link comes with all the mechanical parts + motors. You just need to source your own power, hot end, electronics etc.

The Hadron Ord Bot, which is the one for sale, offers a larger print bed than the solidoodle. After you buy everything needed, it'll probably end up being around $850, which is more than the solidoodle, but you get a much better performing printer.

Another option is a kickstarter project I saw recently called the Vision 3d printer. It's a full reprap and a fill kit, including EVERYTHING you need to print will set you back around $800. Big build envelope too.

Good luck on your search mate.

The hadron looks good, similar prices to a mendelmax hardware kit, but seems to require less added to it. Thanks for the heads up will definately be looking at that further. For completion it requires a full set of electronics, psu and heated bed and plate to sit on top and some wiring, anything big I'm missing?

Had seen the vision 3d, but at the time it didnt look like it would get backed, now it has its a definate choice as well.

GaZ

Hi..

While it's good to buy a 3D printer all ready to go but doing so doesn't give you the smarts to fix a problem and can be very off putting when you can't find the answer.

Now by building a 3D printer gives you skill you that will improve your life. Yes, it does cost a heap more but tracking down the stuff you need is all part of the fun, what printer to build, parts to buy, electronics to buy, do I build them or make them myself, what motors do I use, extruder, hotend and so on..
All this will give you the skill to do so much more as it did for me, I have bulit 3 printer, a CNC router, CNC drill mill which lets me make my own PCB's and now I'm working on a Hi-Res 3D printer, I can desgin parts via CAD and print them, make a change to the part and re-print, all of this skill I have learnt from building a 3D printer and asking questions.

In these time it's easy to op out and just buy something that you just turn on and if it don't work the first time it will sit in the cupboard.

When I first started there so not many places to get help here in OZ, but how you can buy more parts here, get heaps of help, you only need to ask. One of the best places to get help is the Reprap IRC channel, this forum and the Reprap website/wiki.

Auzze

Okay so if I wanted to about face on this, mendelmax and hadron look great, but at the speed this whole technology is moving may be better to spend less now and upgrade later. Is there anyone in Australia supplying an ikea style kit (all the complex bits done, just bolt together all the bits in the box) at the $600 or therabouts mark. Local to melbourne would be even bettter. I can see a few places selling full linear bearing prusa kits for between $500 and $700. Have at this point ruled out the max, would build a hadron in preference, but weighing this against a pretty standard prusa from a local source might be a better option. Solidoodle is still in the mix for all the wrong reasons.

if you are a local supplier feel free to reply here or pm if its deemed spam to do so in a non sale thread

GaZ

Started purchasing bits for a hadron ordbot tonight, nothing will be here before August, but on review the cost of a packaged platform plus kick starter single extruder left very little to self source, really all I'll need is a board, heated bed, and wiring loom

hey kwando what electronics are you going with, tempted to go orduino and lava hotbed, as soon as my buildlog forum account is activated Ill be emailing frob for a price, see whether he may do a wiring harness as well.

GaZ

hey gazob I'm interested in a hadron too, where are you sourcing you parts especially the makerslide? It seems almost impossible to get here..

Hadron kit from [www.automationtechnologiesinc.com] $399 + around 70 postage to AU. I can see the enjoyment in bolting together a 3d printer, and lots of pain and frustration in filling a very specific BOM.

Hey Kwando, hadron kits should ship this week, what direction have you gone re electronics?

Orduino and azteeg x3 both seem to be weeks if not months away, ive just asked reprapdiscount for a quote on what i believe to be the remaining peices, given I have the extruder / hotend coming from the qu-bd kickstarter, and can source a power supply myself.

Im actually getting a bit excited, building the build plate has me a bit concerned, but I suppose I will work it out.

almost considering buying another extruder / hotend and stepper as Im not real sure when the qu-bd offering will get here, but thats probably just me being impatient

GaZ

Hey Gazob I ended up ordering the same hardon kit. I asked how they're going with the kits and they sent photos of an example build and said they should be shipping this coming week.

seems there was an issue with the eccentric spacers, we just have to be patient... just another thing im not terribly good at

My Ramps and heatbed stuff turned up from Hong Kong in like 3 days, Chelsea from qu-bd keeps sending us positive updates leading me to believe they will get the kickstarter extruders sent early August (next week), so hopefully by mid august all the pieces will come together and I may even be printing septemberish

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/25/2012 03:50AM by gazob.

Hello,

I ordered a Solidoodle on May 1st. It still isn't here and I am told it will be 3 to 4 more weeks. :-(

Regards,

Brian

My ordbot build platform kit is on its way, from the US so expecting a couple of weeks
QU-BD extruder hasnt shipped yet but hopeful in the next week or 2, then a 2 week wait.
ramps 1.4 complete, wiring loom, hotend, lcd display all purchased and received
filament ordered from repraper last night, 1kg ea of abs and pla, 2 week wait.

so im probably aroubnd 3 weeks before i can really start, but as this is meant to be a birthday present for October, at least one family member would like me to wait till October, but that will kill me...

GaZ

hey yall,

im new to this and 3d printing seems very exciting thing for me ot do to prototype stuffs very qwikly.

i almost wanted to order soliddoodle but seems like, the co kinda ... errm died or something? no updates no new exploits in youtube, etc?

my first inclination was to go with ultimaker, from the sounds of forumers etc, it seems like 1 nice product.

however weighing costs factors n etc, it seems if i can get my hands on a small printer, i could easily then make a bigger and better (more precise) printer? isnt that the case? from the looks of it, arduino has been the base of the more rigorously used and abused HW with firmware options, are there others? exteeg supply chain seems to have died. so are arduino and exteeg the only way to go for hobbyist controllers? what options do i have if i intent to experiment to 0.05mm Z?

cheers

HI redreprap

If you want 0.05mm Z, then most of the printers should be able to do it.

On most printers the Z is driven by threaded rod. With standard threaded rod it's 1mm (for 6mm dia) or 1.25mm (for 8mm dia) per turn. Common steppers are 1.8 degree per step (0.9 degree are available), so fractions of a turn (to get 0.05mm) are easily doable.

What you probably should look for is a nice solid frame and making sure your threaded drive rods are straight and precise. Even the MendelMax with the leadscrew for the Z might be worth it (as it will be very precise), but I don't know if that will do 0.05mm Z well (due to the pitch of the leadscrew).

Brian,

What is your order number and when did they give you the estimated ship time? Mine is #1758 and I received an email telling me with in the next three weeks I should receive mine. I getting worried that they are not going to be able to fulfill our orders at all.

John

John,

Mine is 542. I finally had it delivered on Friday.

What happened was that about a month ago I asked about it, on the RepRap IRC, and was told 3 to 4 weeks. So, I waited until Thursday, a week and a half ago, and asked again. I was told another 3 to 4 weeks. I waited a week and asked again. I figured I would start bugging until I got somewhere. So, it was shipped Thursday and I received it on Friday.

Go onto the reprap IRC and find a guy that goes by "solidoodlesuppor" and start making noise. The solidoodle guy is usually online weekdays from about 9AM, EST, to somewhere around 5PM, EST. I don't know the exact times; but, that should be pretty close.

Regards,

Brian



John McCloud Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Brian,
>
> What is your order number and when did they give
> you the estimated ship time? Mine is #1758 and I
> received an email telling me with in the next
> three weeks I should receive mine. I getting
> worried that they are not going to be able to
> fulfill our orders at all.
>
> John

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/13/2012 11:14PM by reifsnyderb.

Hey Hey, ordbot arrived today! Unpacking it right now :-)

yeah got mine last friday and was largely built by saturday lunchtime.

Build doco is pretty sparse but the schematic stle documents have pointers to each subpart which is really useful when working out which screws or parts to use at each stage.

If I was starting again tomorrow I would definately take the time to lay it out and run the motor wiring internal to the makerslide, and am contemplating that even now. I am waiting on 3 replacement stepper drivers and the endstops, then the extruder and Im done.

Here is mine as it sits, the smart panel is currently ziptied to the top of the handle one of my first prints will be an enclosure for the smartpanel that integrates with the left hand makerslide top cap and secures in the tslot.

[img.photobucket.com]

Let me know if you have questions

GaZ

I bought the Solidoodle II. I printed. Less than a week later the print head jammed. After several emails back and forth over several days with Solidoodle support, it is still jammed. Not happy. See my full review on my blog: [www.robots-and-androids.com]

Riverside Robots Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I bought the Solidoodle II. I printed. Less than a
> week later the print head jammed. After several
> emails back and forth over several days with
> Solidoodle support, it is still jammed. Not happy.
> See my full review on my blog:
> [www.robots-and-androids.com]
> ew.html


And then you google search every mention of the word solidoodle and post a link to your cry for help. Printheads jam, it happens, try and determine if its hotend or extruder by seperating the two and seeing which one functions, if you can manually push filament tyhrough the hotend with a little force, then its the extruder side, check the hobbed bolt or whatever solidoodle use to drive the filament.

Hi Gaz,

Very nice to see the assembled picture. Looks very good. How did you go with the printing? Cant wait to hear.

I have just finished the assembly of my Prusa (bought from 3dstuffmaker). The instructions form the supplier are not so great, infact very pooooooor . Support team is approachable but not so helpful. They are in the journey of improving. Not that I can recommand...

I have just finished my first two complete prints. They look like some sort of shape you can recognise but no where close to where I want or what people are able to get. (see attached)

I am from Melbourne, Are you?

Ive been printing for a little over a week now, had some success' and lots of failures.

The qu-bd extruder ended up not working well out of the box so I put it back in the box and bought a reprap style gregs wades extruder and hotend from scwerta at [extrude3d.com] . He was very helpful and the printed parts I recieved were top notch.

Some of the issues with the qu-bd extruder now have a solution, but at this point I am having good success with the standard extruder hotend and will not be changing back for a while.

Ill post some pics of how it now sits and what some of my better prints look like, maybe even a couple of the more memorable failures, largely Im happy, just having slight issues with overextruding in large items.

GaZ

here are the easy ones to gather together.

Finally got my head around a couple of calibration issues. Not taken with the greatest camera in the world, the blue and orange filament are from www.3d-printer-filament.com the white from repraper.com all filament less than $30 kg delivered, and no complaints, the blue is a very vivid semi transparent pla.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/17/2012 09:22AM by gazob.

How can I join the mailing group. If you can let me know the location and time of next meeting I am happy to join and share my progress in 3D printing

---

Dressmakers
Beach Wedding Dresses

broken850:

If you're after CCHS (which is what I think you're after), then the following links will help:

Mailing list/Google group: [groups.google.com] - Follow that link and subscribe.

Main website with useful info: [www.hackmelbourne.org]

Details about the location: [www.hackmelbourne.org] - The location is not yet public, so follow the instructions on that page to get the details.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/18/2012 07:44PM by Cefiar.

gazob Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> here are the easy ones to gather together.
>
> Finally got my head around a couple of calibration
> issues. Not taken with the greatest camera in the
> world, the blue and orange filament are from
> www.3d-printer-filament.com the white from
> repraper.com all filament less than $30 kg
> delivered, and no complaints, the blue is a very
> vivid semi transparent pla.
>
> [img.photobucket.com]
> C_0152.jpg


Good to see your prints, they look great

gazob Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> Finally got my head around a couple of calibration
> issues. Not taken with the greatest camera in the
> world, the blue and orange filament are from
> www.3d-printer-filament.com the white from
> repraper.com all filament less than $30 kg
> delivered, and no complaints

Hi gazob. I'm looking at filament suppliers ATM. Since your post how have you found the filament from these sources? I'd like to buy Australian but didn't want to spend $$ while I'm still setting things up and most likely using up a fair bit while coming to grips with 3d printing. Any tips on calibration for this printer?

Like you I have an ord bot on the way with the ramps board and q-bd extruder already here. I couldn't justify the exorbitant price the ebay seller wanted for the lcd display so I'll put my own together for a fraction of the cost (it also helps when I have most of the bits lying around in the parts box).

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/07/2012 08:40PM by rocketwiz.

see here [forums.reprap.org]

I would buy more from them

The qu-bd extruder however out of the box is probably not the best, I spent 4 days and then gave up and bought a gregs / eades extruder and hotend from [extrude3d.com]

Looking at the faric8r support forums for the qu-bd extruder my experiences arent uncommon, with many choosing to match the pretty good supplied hotend and motor with a minimilistic mk7 extruder like this [www.thingiverse.com] when i track down the right bearings 623zz's ill give it a go, have already printed the left and right handed bits.

I could give you my settings in marlin firmware as a starting point, but I just started with whats already documented on buildlog.net and automation technologies. The ordbot platform itself runs smoothly, take your time putting it together right the first time, and you wont have any issues. The things you need to get your head around are just learning through mistakes about what does and doesnt work, and what small changes in temperature and slic3r settings can improve in your prints.

GaZ