Introduction

Hello out there, I'm new at this forum and new at 3D printing. My friend and I loaned a 3D printer, had all the parts for a prusa mendel i2 printed and are now in the process of building our own.

We changed some things, thinking it wasn't very obvious why it was as it was. For instance, we skipped one of the z-axis motors and made one motor drive both axes. We also changed the printbed, with less space in between the supportive aluminium plate and the heatbed. We did this with the help of my husband, who is a fine-mechanic engineer.

We've placed the endstops, attached the motors. It looks a bit like a prusa, very impressive, but it is only hardware. By now we have a lot of wires, and several computer components and not much of a clou how to get on. Reading the posts in this forum I realise the hardest part has still to come. So you might hear from me.

Till then!

The reason for having two z-motors is that it turns out to be cheaper and simpler than having some sort of belt driven system. While it is certainly possible to link the two z-rods with a belt or something, you then need to ensure decent tension, and for this you need to hold the z-rods quite rigidly, which can lead to z-wobble. Using two motors costs probably $10 more than 1 motor, but the amount it saves in belts and tensioners etc is worthwhile.

I'm not sure about the printbed (there are quite a lot of variations in heated beds) but I know I have quite a large separation between heated surface and the rest of the y-axis to make sure that printed parts do not get too hot.

Do post in the forums if you have any problems with the electronics, but as long as you go for a reasonably popular set of electronics I hope you manage to get printing soon