Noob RepRap Questions
Posted by darryn
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Noob RepRap Questions October 02, 2012 05:57PM |
Registered: 11 years ago Posts: 17 |
Hi All.
My name is Darryn and I am from Cape Town, South Africa.
After reading a lot of information about 3D printing, I have decided to take the plunge and build a machine.
There does not seem to be a big RepRap community in South Africa, so I am hoping that all you knowledgeable folks will be able to help me on my way.
Just to make it clear, I am a complete nood with 3D printing, hence all the questions I will be asking ...
Will the Prusa Mendel Iteration 2 be a good starting point for a complete noob?
If so, were would be a good source of the printed parts?
I see that there are companies/forum members that sell the printed parts, but I can't seem to find anyone in South Africa.
I was thinking of taking the files to a 3D printing company, and getting them to print them for me, as I know no one with a 3D printer. If I had to go this route, what type of questions/instructions would I be asked by the company doing the printing, eg. type of plastic, etc. ?
More questions about WHICH .stl files to print will follow ....
TIA
My name is Darryn and I am from Cape Town, South Africa.
After reading a lot of information about 3D printing, I have decided to take the plunge and build a machine.
There does not seem to be a big RepRap community in South Africa, so I am hoping that all you knowledgeable folks will be able to help me on my way.
Just to make it clear, I am a complete nood with 3D printing, hence all the questions I will be asking ...
Will the Prusa Mendel Iteration 2 be a good starting point for a complete noob?
If so, were would be a good source of the printed parts?
I see that there are companies/forum members that sell the printed parts, but I can't seem to find anyone in South Africa.
I was thinking of taking the files to a 3D printing company, and getting them to print them for me, as I know no one with a 3D printer. If I had to go this route, what type of questions/instructions would I be asked by the company doing the printing, eg. type of plastic, etc. ?
More questions about WHICH .stl files to print will follow ....
TIA
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Re: Noob RepRap Questions October 03, 2012 02:55AM |
Registered: 14 years ago Posts: 3,742 |
You can buy a completely assembled printer for what you would pay most commercial 3d printing companies to print your parts. And normally you would have them print in ABS as it is the cheapest and strongest of the plastics offered.
Bob Morrison
Wörth am Rhein, Germany
"Luke, use the source!"
BLOG - PHOTOS - Thingiverse
Bob Morrison
Wörth am Rhein, Germany
"Luke, use the source!"
BLOG - PHOTOS - Thingiverse
|
Re: Noob RepRap Questions October 03, 2012 04:29AM |
Registered: 11 years ago Posts: 525 |
Safest noob route is to buy a kit. You get all the parts and you know it will work. There are many good suppliers worldwide and I found buying from the States wasn't prohibitively expensive, although some US citizens do pile on the shipping charges so compare them. I bought a partial kit for a Mendel Prusa V2 from MakerFarm.com and it was a very nice product with reasonable shipping charges. There are other sellers who I'm sure are just as good so find the one that works best for you with shipping.
I bought a partial kit as a lot of the bits are heavy to ship (like the rods and bearings) and are available locally just as easy. The original Prusa design philosophy was to make it out of stuff that was readily available worldwide and cheap so you will be able to get the bearings and rods locally I'm sure.
If you research it extensively you can make your own kit and bypass the resellers altogether. The print files are available on either Thingiverse or Github and if you put a want-ad here on this forum you will find plenty of people who will print you out a set of parts for around $100. You need to know which printer you want to build and identify the STL files you want them to use. If you go this route it will be a challenge sourcing the correct parts to go with the printed parts but it is do-able.
Let us know how you go on this, I'm sure there are plenty of readers who are almost at the same point as you and want to see how hard it is etc. and put up some pictures of your printer when you build it too please.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Richmond, New Zealand
Thingiverse ~ YouTube
I bought a partial kit as a lot of the bits are heavy to ship (like the rods and bearings) and are available locally just as easy. The original Prusa design philosophy was to make it out of stuff that was readily available worldwide and cheap so you will be able to get the bearings and rods locally I'm sure.
If you research it extensively you can make your own kit and bypass the resellers altogether. The print files are available on either Thingiverse or Github and if you put a want-ad here on this forum you will find plenty of people who will print you out a set of parts for around $100. You need to know which printer you want to build and identify the STL files you want them to use. If you go this route it will be a challenge sourcing the correct parts to go with the printed parts but it is do-able.
Let us know how you go on this, I'm sure there are plenty of readers who are almost at the same point as you and want to see how hard it is etc. and put up some pictures of your printer when you build it too please.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Richmond, New Zealand
Thingiverse ~ YouTube
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