Newbie building his first 3D printer

Hello everyone,
I found out yesterday about the RepRap community and after reading for 2 days I decided to build my first 3D printer.

I was thinking that this would be a good one to start with, seems relatively easy and inexpensive to build, but it is still my first one.

While I'm reading as much as I can, are out there instructions, step by step, that even a complete newbie can follow?

For example, how do you control the temperature of the hotend? are there sensor? connected how? I can't seem to see this part explained anywhere

Are you looking to build the Smartrap or the SmartrapCore?

Look for post from RCJose, He does some excellent guides on either one... plus videos...

Whichever control board (RAMPS,MKS,Azteeg,etc...) you get is capable of controlling the hotend temperature. It uses a thermister in the hotend to measure the temperature and regulate it to whatever the gcode tells it to. There is another thermister in the heatbed if you use to do the same.

i was thinking to do my first one without heatbed.

Which one is the easiest and more economical to make? I was thinking about the smartrap as it seemed to be the easiest reprap to make, but looking at the smartrapcore I starting to think this may be a better option, what do you think?

I think, if you have the box building skills, the Core is probably the way to go.

but both a pretty good.

I'm messing a bit around with the settings and it seems there are many more parts to be printed with the cube than the mini, is this right?

How so? I would have assumed the cube needed less parts to be printed as the cube gives most of the structure

Hi.
If i'm not wrong for the core u need to print 13 12 parts (2 bearings holder, 2 motor holder. 2 carriage Y, 3 piece Head, 3 piece Z axis).
Fore the smartrap i count 16 piece and stop countig ... (counted from github).

I think the Core is really easy and i'm building one too..

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/10/2015 03:27PM by Zlob.

Thanks for the mention, mike!

Here is my blog which coveres both the smartrap and smartrapcore


Here is my build video series on the smartrap


Here is my build video series on the smartrapcore


There are various vendors on ebay selling the printed parts for the smartrap. I have not seen one for the smartrapcore. If you can purchase or get someone to print the parts for you then you can go with either one. If you utilize the openjscad and size up/save the stl files you can always search for a vendor via [www.makexyz.com] Just upload the STL files and they will put you in touch with someone in your area that can print them out for you.

Hi Zlob,

there are 14 pieces to be printed, and by my calculation that would be the biggest expense at £37

smartrap instead seems to have smaller parts, making it cheaper to print components...

where are you sourcing your components?

Hi rcjoseb

could you post the links again? i can't see them.

I have used 3dhub to see how much my 3d printed part would cost, and the total was the one I wrote above, is it a fair price?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/10/2015 04:57PM by Italicus.

actually, one thing I have noticed messing around with the jscad is that the printed parts never scale.

doesn't matter if the printing area is 500x500x500 or 5x5x5, the printed parts have always the same dimensions.

is that correct?

The only things that should change is the space for the wood and the rod size. Bigger machine just means longer rods and bigger box...

This will get you to RCJose's stuff


https://smartrapbuild.wordpress.com

That makes sense
For some reason I thought everything would scale.

Thank you for the link, it turns out it's the blog I have been going through all day

http://smartfriendz.com/en/3-3d-printers

If your in Europe, you may be able to purchase parts directly from Smartfriends. If your in the US, maybe we can help you out.

Thank you madmike8

for some reason I didn't think of that...

Buying directly from smartfriendz would indeed lower the cost of roughly €5, but I would have the reassurance that the pieces are properly printed, plus it would be shipped home which is nice XD

Has any of you tried to use motor from cd/dvd drives instead of the nema 17? would that work or are they too weak?

I think they would be way too weak except for something extremely small and light. Search $60 waste printer on instructables.

You might find some good Nema17 steppers from older large printers and things.

On the cheap stepper printer front, I saw this today.

Cherry 3D Printer

I don't think I'd try it till I saw a video of it printing though... Still requires a Nema 17 for the extruder...

the $60 printer is what has pushed me to try, but i fear it is so small that I wouldn't be able to print parts for bigger printers. unfortunately the print area is not indicated in the instructions.

thank you for the link, it seems interesting. let's see if i can make an hybrid between the 2...

The smartrap is a great little starter printer. I used it to print all of the parts for the smartrapcore and I had it to a point where the quality of the printed parts was excellent.

You can always start off with that one, "get your feet wet" and learn about all of the ins and outs of 3d printing. Once you do decide on the smartrapcore, you can print the parts and then just get new rods or use the existing ones if you don't mind going with a smaller smartrapcore.

I really don't recommend the Cherry $60 printer as your first printer. It hasn't been tested, or the kinks worked out.

Either of the Smartraps have, and they both work good. The Cherry $60 printer uses all the same hardware (RAMPS/Rods/Bearings/Belts/Pulleys/Stepper Drivers/Bowden Tube/Hotend) except for the steppers that the Smartrap uses. So, wouldn't you want to go ahead and get the right steppers and build something that's proven?

There's got to be a electronics surplus place near you were you might find some steppers cheap... Or alibaba... eBay...

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/10/2015 08:02PM by madmike8.

Doh! Double post.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/10/2015 08:03PM by madmike8.

Good Morning !
For the printed parts, i use some printer i have on hand.
When mine will be ended, i can print it of course.
For the stepper, i will try with NEMA 11 but i think that CD/DVD stepper are really too small for us.
I have bought the stepper on EBAY ( Ebay Stepper Motor. The link is for 10 piece shipped from Germany, that is a must for European people.
And fantastic for italian ones, like me
If u don't need 10 motor, the seller have also 5 motor stock.
Arduino, Ramps, and some electronic stuff come from UK via BANGGOOD; Other parts come via ALIEXPRESS.
If u need detailed info, i will send u a pvt message, as I don't know the policy of this forum about links & commercials

Hey Zlob

considering the prices of the ebay seller I think buying from aliexpress is more economic, unfortunately where I am now there are no electronic disposal center, but I can ask my friends back home to go check the one close by, there must be 4 people throwing away old printers.

can you send me he links of the things you bought from aliexpress? considering delivery in Italy my BOM would be:

3d printed stuff = 45€
5 nema 17 = 40€
mega2560 + ramp 1.4 + lcd 12864 + 5 A4988 = 26.93€
3m gt2 belt = 4.11€
3 gt2 pulley = 2.43€
10 608zz = 3.14€
12 lm8uu = 6.49€
Sensor Inductive Proximity Switch LJ18A3-8-Z/BX* (necessary?) = 3.6€
j-head + ptfe tube = 6.30€
mk7 gear = 1.02€
20m of pla filament = 4.49€


so without considering the 8mm tube, frame and screws that I will buy from local diy shops, my costs are at 143€, if I manage to find the motors from old printers costs should reduce to little more than 100€.
to be honest i was hoping to reduce costs to less than 100€, but i'm not sure where else I can cut costs...

also, is everything I need in that lists or am I missing some components?

Italicus, you got PM

Another thing I wanted to ask: is the LCD necessary for the correct functioning of the printer or it can work without it?
how does having/not having an lcd impacts the printer?

The printer functions fine without an LCD, but must be connected to a computer/octopi for it to run.

The LCD mainly just lets you print without a computer connected through the SD card.

did some adjustments to the list, I will post links to the objects I will buy, in case someone else like me is going through the process of going through various BOM.
Is there anything I'm missing from this list that I should buy?

3d printed stuff = 45€ [smartfriendz.com]
5 nema 17 = 0€ (there is a recycling area near my hometown, we'll find motors there)
mega2560 + ramp 1.4 + lcd 12864 + 5 A4988 = 23.73€ [www.aliexpress.com]
5m gt2 belt = 4.32€ [www.aliexpress.com]
3 gt2 pulley = 2.43€ [www.aliexpress.com]
10 608zz = 3.14€ [www.aliexpress.com]
12 lm8uu = 6.49€ [www.aliexpress.com]
8mm Proximity Switch LJ18A3-8-Z/BX* = 3.36€ [www.aliexpress.com]
j-head + 1m ptfe tube + fan + thermostor = 8.45€ [www.aliexpress.com]
MK7 Extrusion Gear = 0.85€ [www.aliexpress.com]
20m of pla filament = 4.49€ [www.aliexpress.com]

Total €102,26, to which I will add the box, rods, 12v adapter and screws.

Is it all the pieces I need or am I missing something?

I have tried to mess around with the jscad, but when I select to put all the pieces on one table to print it's to big, and when I manually try I can't put all the pieces neatly sitting on one plane.

Has any of you prepared 3 stl plates with all the pieces like there are for the smartrap mini?

Once I set my parameters in OpenJSCad (http://create.youmagine.com/OpenJSCAD.org/#), I downloaded the STL file for all of the printed parts. Once saved onto my pc, I used Cura to separate the parts out into individual stl files. I then put together plates that are common, such as all of the bearing mounts, so that I could print them together at once.

I covered this in my first build video.

i didn't know you had another channel, I was checking the one were you explained how to modify the 10$ j-head, now I feel stupid.
I feel even worse knowing that I could right click the pieces....

ok, i downloaded the file again and noticed there are pieces in it that weren't there before, what is that big cylindrical piece? it doesn't appear anywhere else


EDIT:

well, it turns out a new version came out, that's where those new parts came out

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/12/2015 07:57PM by Italicus.