Prusa i3 or MendelMax 1.5?

Getting ready to make the jump into 3d printing. I plan on buying a full kit and building. I believe I've settled on either a Prusa i3 or a MendelMax 1.5 both kits fit in my price range. I'd be interested in hearing opinions on which one you all would suggest and why?

Thanks!

Have you looked at the smartrap?
I built my first printer with the model prusa i3 wood box frame.

But if I would know about this printer then so would I probably start with it to get the hang of firmware,pronterface,slic3er all problems with if you plug things wrong etc.
When you know so could you simply upgrade it and print out new parts for a larger machine

But I have to say I love the prusa.

Forum..
[forums.reprap.org]

There home page....
[smartfriendz.com]

280 euros for a raw kit where you have to touch up the parts before assembly.

If you look at ebay so do a lot of people sell small kits already!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/10/2014 08:22AM by Cliff Mellangård.

I've been researching this exact same question. From what I've read in other threads, the build difficulty of the MendelMax 1.5 makes it less appealing to first-timers, especially since there's not much benefit over the Prusa i3 design.

At the moment, I'm leaning toward an i3, and just sourcing all the parts rather than buying a kit. I found this seller on eBay who offers a barebones kit that includes an aluminum frame and all the 3D printed parts for $100 plus shipping:
[www.ebay.com]

Of course I also just found a company that has me rethinking my strategy. This place offers a complete kit for $349: [www.replikeo.com]
The only problem is they are apparently a fairly new company, located in Viet Nam, and I can't find anyone who's actually received a printer from them...

Thanks for the replies. I guess the only question I have is this: Is there a significant difference in the print quality/resolution between the mendel and the prusa builds? If not, I'll most likely do as you are doing and source my own Prusa i3 build from various parts vendors, mostly ebay.

When I started my build so did I not have to much money and ordered the plastic parts and while I waited so did I build the wooden frame as its not that expensive.
When I got the plastic parts and my frame whas done so did I buy all metal rods like smooth and threaded and started sourcing the screws.

I bought the electronics in small steps as I didt have that much money but started with 3 motors as I could afford it and then ended up with constructing my own single motor height adjustement mostly because of bad funds.
But it ended up working extremely well

Keep in mind that most Chinese dealers take ages to send the stuff 4-5 weeks for most of them.

Large parts of my build whas wait time for parts.

Sometimes is it worth it to use a bit more money and buy from a more expensive dealer and get parts within a week.

This is how my build ended after 3-4 months
That silly voice is me

[www.youtube.com]

Iam going to update my thread with some tips and discoverys I made during my build but iam also doing a prototype of the new smartrap that is even cheaper and more stable then there own
I will post that build in there thread when I have done some more on it.

[forums.reprap.org]

Good luck and happy building

Quote
dmel75
Thanks for the replies. I guess the only question I have is this: Is there a significant difference in the print quality/resolution between the mendel and the prusa builds? If not, I'll most likely do as you are doing and source my own Prusa i3 build from various parts vendors, mostly ebay.

You can get good prints on either machine. It's down to tuning and optimizing.

I would also suggest to not use a nozzle under 0.4 in the beginning.

I got my extruder with an 0.3 nozzle that keept on clogging and other issues while setting extruder speeds etc.

The smaller the nozzle the better experience you should have I belive.

Everything from getting prints to stick and quality and clogging is so much better since I switched to a 0.4 nozzle

And I can have faster print speeds now as I where forced to a max of 25-28 on the perimeters before even with low quality fast prints.

Thank you for mentioning www.replikeo.com.

We are not based in Vietnam anymore but we relocated to China. A fair amount of people received our kit and sent us nice feedbacks about it, we hope to get some good reviews as well.

You are more than welcome to try our complete Prusa i3 kit which is ready to be shipped.

Best regards,
Replikeo Team

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/11/2014 02:59PM by replikeo.

I'd be interested in the Replikeo machine. What's the difference in the iron/aluminum/plexi? Is one better than the other? How long does it take to ship to the USA?

The iron frame is 3mm thick while aluminum and plexiglas frames are 6mm thick, the difference is mainly about design, but printing result is the same.

We offer different methods of shipping according to your country, from the fastest to the most affordable, for the USA it takes 7 to 15 days for the fastest.

Best regards,
Replikeo Team

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/13/2014 05:13AM by replikeo.