Prusa Mendel from scratch

Hey there, RepRappers!

I'm looking into making a few (probably three) Prusa Mendel repraps. I've copied the vitamins bill of parts off the wiki page and I'm pretty sure I can get all the fasteners, the threaded rod, and the springs fairly easily. The smooth rod might take a little bit of looking but should also be pretty easy, as with the bearing (but not sure where to get that). The two belts required - are they supposed to be closed loops or can I get one long length and cut it into two pieces?

I'm not too sure about some of the finer points. What electronics will I need? From some brief googling, it seems like gen6 is the easiest option. Does the extruder listed in the reprap bill of parts have a seperate bill of parts? So, what parts for Wade\other extruder should I buy at the same time as the other components?

As I'm based in Sydney, Australia, is there anyone nearby who I could source the required components from?

Thanks in advance,
Stuart

Don't have a Prusa myself (tho it's the next thing to build most likely), but the list of suppliers on the Australian Suppliers wiki page should prove useful to you. If you find any more local suppliers, feel free to add to it. Note that as shipping around Australia is (usually) relatively cheap, don't be afraid to shop around the country. I got my steel rods from Qld and NSW, as it was cheaper than local (Vic) even with shipping. In both cases they were well packaged to avoid being bent in transit.

I personally went down the RAMPS route. I know a number of guys in Qld (all involved with HSBNE) did their own variant on Adrian's Pololu electronics. There are a few people that have Gen6 locally as well.

The extruder parts aren't part of the Prusa Mendel BOM, so look at the Wades Geared Extruder wiki page. There is a 'hobbed bolt' that you need to make that requires a bit of post processing (using a tap and drill press), but the rest are just straight purchases. Note that the small piece of threaded or smooth rod should be easily obtained from off-cuts of existing smooth/threaded rod.

PS: Check out the Sydney RUG page, and the Sydney Hackerspace Robots and Dinosaurs.

I purchased my threaded rod from a company in Gosford. I am in Singapore visiting our daughter for ano week. They also have the ball bearings. I obtained my smooth rods from old printers and laser cartridges.

I don't have my motors yet and I am building my own electronics using a Propeller chip.

Whoops, looks like I was a bit terrible in replying to this.

Thanks for the comments, guys. In asking some people about this, it seems like bulk-ordering some stuff through Blackwoods is probably the best way to go. So I'll buy the threaded rod and smooth rod from there and the washers\nuts\bolts that I need a lot of (as they only sell in 100 packs). For the fasteners I don't need so many of, I'll get them from local hardware stores.

That leaves the electronics and the belt. The belt needs to be 5mm wide, and only 10mm lengths are sold anywhere, so I'll still need to work that one out. Does it need to be a closed loop or can it be open?

Don't forget the hot end/nozzle for the extruder: [reprap.org]
I think the hobbed bolt could be considered pretty trivial compared to the construction of this beast. This "detail" seems to get overlooked a lot from what I've seen and it wasn't easy to track down the wiki page for it.
Good luck!

mechanarchy Wrote:
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> That leaves the electronics and the belt. The belt
> needs to be 5mm wide, and only 10mm lengths are
> sold anywhere, so I'll still need to work that one
> out. Does it need to be a closed loop or can it be
> open?

The belts can be split, see here: [www.reprap.org]

The belts for x and y are open loop.

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