RepRap parts in Ireland?

Hi Keith,
If you want to get up and running quickly then buying a full kit from a single source is a good idea. Reprappro.com supply a good product and have a very experienced team to help you if you need it along the way.

I've not built that specific reprap, but I'm sure if you contact them they could point you to some of their users for a recommendation. I can print sets of parts but if you're more interested in using the printer than building a printer then you'll be better off buying a complete kit.

What do you mean by "Is it worth it?" ? Do you mean is it worth building a 3d printer? or do you mean is that specific reprap value for money?
Regards,
NumberSix

Limerick.

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[numbersixreprap.blogspot.com]

Hello there,

For info, I'm based in Dublin and very interrested into building a 3D printer.

I've reviewed the instructions to build one the only thing that seems a chalenge for me, apart from the budget and the patience, is the soldering.

I've tried several times and never been able to get anything to stick at the right place.

Any advice?

Cqui

Touch the soldering iron tip on the component leg and the PCB pad you are soldering (at the same time) for about 1 second, then apply the solder wire to the junction of the tip and component. Hold for a further second until the solder has flowed smoothly into the joint.

hey all. got my reprap mendel together. my prints are working out well although I do need to do some more fine tuning.

anyone know of an Irish based reprap supply shop? I'm working on a reprap Ireland website for us to get together and share our Ireland specific experiences. we could also pool resources to group buy things like filiment. making it cheaper for all of us. would you guys be interested in something like this or am I wasting my time?

Hi Keith,
There's no Irish based reprap/3d printing specific supply shop that I'm aware of, and I've been keeping an eye on things for quite a while now. You can get all your nuts and bolts and stuff locally alight but when it come to stepper motors, electronics and hot-ends you really have to order on-line. The shipping is a killer as you probably know, but I don't think there's the level of interest in Ireland yet to make it cost effective for someone to negotiate a bulk-buy discount, save on shipping, retail in Ireland at a reasonable price, and still make a small profit to make it worth while. There just doesn't seem to be the demand. It's a pity.

What would you see the advantage of a separate Irish website about RepRaps being? I'd be inclined to say that unless you were seeing significant traffic in this section of the forum "Ireland RepRap User Group" you won't get many visitors to a separate website. This forum has global visibility and anyone from Ireland really interested will eventually make their way down to this section. If they want to make contact with other Irish RepRappers the first thing I'd suggest they do is post an introduction in this section. A website wouldn't do any harm but as you say, you could be wasting you time right now. A lot of what you'd publish on it might be already be on the web already, and if you wanted to publicise Irish events or report on some gathering that took place then why not post it here?

You can see from how many views and responses a particular post gets so you can gauge the traffic from that. The interest level in Ireland seems very low, to my amazement and disappointment.

If you want to best show how things are going for you, and get engagement from interested Irish people (and the rest of the world for that matter) then you should start a blog! www.blogger.com is quite a popular blog hosting platform. It logs good statistics also so you will be able see how many of your visitors are from Ireland specifically, on a daily, weekly, monthly basis.

I'm based in Limerick. I share my RepRap activities regularly on my blog [NumberSixRepRap.blogspot.com] Feel free to give me a shout any time. I'll watch for your posts if you post any questions but it's sometimes difficult keep up to date. You can PM me also via the forum if you need to contact me.

Good to see signs of RepRap life in these parts!
Regards,
NumberSix

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[numbersixreprap.blogspot.com]

Thanks for your great reply NumberSix.

I think a good informative site might help a few more Irish people to get involved. I'd obviously have to do some promotion to get it seen.
There are a few of of us around. Might not see a huge amount of traffic at first but it could grow as interest does.

Even with the reprap wiki there is a lot of research needs to be done before you start building. A separate Irish site could give a good starting point to someone in ireland completely new to 3d printing. The reprap.org wiki is a bit tough to navigate for newbies. A lot of the Irish sites information would be cut/paste/link from the wiki but also with more information for those living in Ireland i.e good companies to use for supplies either locally or from online sellers with delivery rates.

I'd be willing to set up irish 3d printing mini events to get people interested in the technology. Gotta play my part in a 3d printers being in every house just like inkjet printers. Obviously the technology is still a way off being there but we're getting there.

You have a great blog going there. If I do finish a site would you mind if I link to it?

Can you tell me where you get your filament? Gotta order and not sure which site to go with. I'm using 1.75 pla

Thanks again for all your help

keith

Hi Keith,
I'll be happy to support you if you are willing to create an website with an Irish focus. You can point to my blog if you like. That's not a problem.

I got my last filament from ReprapSource in Germany. Their shipping was the most competitive. I'm not sure they would be your best bet for 1.7mm though. I'm using 3mm which is cheaper per weight in general.

I've shared shipping costs with a friend in the past, but I'm not sure how that could work for us given we don't live near each other, but I'm open to the idea of sharing shipping costs in general if we could work something out.

Out of curiosity who did you buy your printer kit from in the end? Which kit did you get?

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[numbersixreprap.blogspot.com]

I bought the reprappro mendel. It was a fun build. It all works well thankfully. It took me 51hrs to build mainly because I haven't done anything like that since leaving cert engineering so I had to double and triple check everything.

Might be able to work something out with the shipping. My friend is going to college in Limerick so should be able to work something out. There is also a new site called parcelmotel.com where you can get items sent to their depot in northen Ireland and they will deliver it to one of their depots down south thus taking advantage of the cheaper UK delivery rates. Haven't used it yet myself but i'm hearing good reports.

Thanks for your permission to use your blog. Don't have a whole lot of time at the moment but when I do I'll get cracking on the site. I could even start a basic one and update it as I go along.

I saw somewhere that you are using repiter host software. How do you find this? I just downloaded it but haven't tried it yet. I've been using pronterface but I think after only just looking at the repiter programme it seems a lot better.

Thanks

Keith

Evening Gentleman,

Don't know if this is the right forum, but figured you might be able to help.
Have some experience with programmable controllers and ardu1no and would like to build a 3d printer.

The plan is to learn as much as possible on the first run an then maybe invest in something with better capability, so the expectation of the first build is to learn rather than produce.

So the question is, as a first timer, with no build experience, limited coding capability and basic workshop
Should I:

Purchase the Huxl3y- known quantity, with reasonable output
Go for something lower end (Mak1-bot?) & get the extras (heated bed etc.) - new product, steep learning curve, plenty of learning?

Based in Dublin, and delighted to hear have a few ppl to share stuff with, as expect major headaches ahead!

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Regards
Conr

Hi Conr,
Welcome to the forum!

I'm sure you'll get responses here in this sub-section, but if you post your questions out on the main "general" section, by creating a new post, you'll probably get the world of responses. Expect all sorts of advice out there!

It's also good to post here in the Irish section because you'll get advice from an Irish perspective.

Whether you build from scratch, or buy a kit depends on what you want to get from this as a hobby. Your experience with controllers will be valuable in terms of understanding how it works I expect. Things are quite evolved at this point in terms of controlling boards, firmware, host-software (for talking to your printer and sending the gcode), and there is a great choice of slicing software and CAD options out there also.

I notice there are some design types not on the front page of the www.reprap.org page, perhaps they aren't considered true RepRaps, but designs that use sheet material (aluminium / wood / Dibond) are worth considering even as self-builds also (see Nophead's Mendel 90 for instance [hydraraptor.blogspot.ie] (he's selling kits that are amazing quality and good value. He's a long standing member of this forum, and a legend in terms of capability and experience.)

You could also see if there are others in the Dublin area, either building, or having built a printer, and arrange to go see a printer in action.

Do a bit of reading around and post the options you are considering as you get close to a start. People can offer further views then.

Regards for now,
NumberSix
(Limerick)

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[numbersixreprap.blogspot.com]

Hi lads, how could I learn more about building one? I live in Cork now too, maybe there are some groups in city?

Hi Marius,
You could start by reading through this section of the main RepRap site: http://www.reprap.org/wiki/Build_A_RepRap
Detail on the Mendel90 is also worth read (it's not listed in the other group of printers) http://hydraraptor.blogspot.ie/2012_12_01_archive.html

From there you could decide whether you might want to scratch build, or perhaps build from a kit. Feel free to post more questions as they occur to you and you will build a picture of what's involved quite quickly. There's a huge amount of information in the many subsections of this forum also.

I'm not aware of any RepRap specific group in Cork, but if you and any other interested folks want to organise something, then I'd be happy to travel down and share my experiences.
Regards,
NumberSix
(Limerick)

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[numbersixreprap.blogspot.com]

Hi all,
Im considering a prusa i3 kit from makerfarm or similar, just wondering if anyone has built one?

Regards
Huey

I'm in Wicklow and want to get a machine up and running. Are there any kits being supplied in Ireland. Ordering from UK has a couple of hurdles, namely payment options and postage.