Which printer should I build?

Recently Ive been considering building a 3d printer. This would be my first build and I am amazed at how many different printer options there are to build. Im looking for a cheaper printer with good quality and something pretty sturdy. Multi-color printing would be nice but its not really nessesary. Also I would like a good sized build area and possibly the ability to be somewhat portable. Can someone point me in the right direction? Thanks!

**Also I would prefer to build the printer myself and not a fully assembled one**

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/18/2013 12:28PM by Jacobblue34.

You can probably have the most of those "wants" but not for cheep. Multi-color printing will also add up the costs. Usually sturdy and large print size means heavy, which makes portability an issue. I would figure out which traits that you've described are important to you and work from there. What's your budget and what is a have to have. After you give me some of that info I can prolly give you a recommendation. Let me know and I'll shoot ya some ideas of where to start.

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Portability, multi-color, and look nice (not look like a piece of garbage, look like it has a nice casing, etc.) are want to haves.
Sturdy is a must have.
Budget is around $500-ish (USD) can do more it will jsut take longer to save

Do you know anything about the FoldaRap? and also how long does the average reprap take to pay itself off by printing parts and such?

I checked out your websites and you have a very nice machine there. Good work.

I couldn't tell you how long it would take to pay for itself because I don't sell parts. Most people don't sell them either so finding out that info might take a while. Plus no matter which RepRap you buy there will be a learning curve if this is your first build. You have to consider time to configure and calibrate. Almost any reprap can be configured and calibrated to print in good quality. I just thought of a printer that might work for you. Its called the ROBO3D . I usually don't recommend repraps that are just out of the kickstarter phase but this one is in the $500 ish range, it looks portable and it has decent print volume. It is also sturdy and has a casted outer support frame. I've emailed back and fouth with the owners as well as the designers. They always respond quickly and are very helpful. Its worth looking into.

The photo I attached is just a rendering of the reprap I'm recommending .

** Thanks for checking out my sites. If you ever need any help I'm always available for fellow builders. Happy building.**

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I knew I was forgetting to mention something. I forgot to mention that I wanted to build it myself. From what I can tell the ROBO3D only comes fully assembled. Unfortunate, because that looked like an epic printer.

(Edited the OP to reflect this remembered part )

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/18/2013 12:29PM by Jacobblue34.

If you're willing to wait a little while they will be offering kits and some open source stuff. I talked with the owner and he said they will be offering them soon. Some of the printers I would check out are, " see me cnc's" version of the Prusa i3. Its stronger and more portable then the standard i3. Mendelmax is also a sturdy printer with a good sized print volume, but it will cost ya at least $ 800+ if you source the parts yourself. I would check those out and let me know if that's the kind of stuff you're looking for.

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Out of those 2 they are very close. Seemecnc only has the prusa i3 frames but the mendel max looks nice too. Those are pretty much what im looking for (I think). But I couldn't find some info on one thing. Can those printers run of a SD card with the files on them? Also, how long do you think it will be before there are kits for the ROBO3D? Thank you for your help as it is really helping me gather info while I save to get one of these.

Edit: Whcih is the better plastic? ABS or PLA? And what are the differences?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/18/2013 01:51PM by Jacobblue34.

The see me cnc is the same specifications as the standard Prusa i3. The only difference is the y axis bed supports, top mounts for the z axis are stronger and the z axis motor mounts are stronger as well.

Another one to look into is the mendel 90 by Nopehead. It is very well designed with great support as well as excellent instructions. There is also a huge following and I've never once heard of a complaint about his product which is not common in this industry.

As far as printing with PLA it is less problematic and doesn't require as high of extruded temps. It also doesn't need a heated bed, it is made out of plant matter and has a non-toxic sweet smell when printing. ABS is less flexible and has a bad smell when printing and should be used in a ventilated room. I prefer PLA but certain parts require the use of ABS plastic.

Pretty much any printer can be ran off of SD it comes down to the electronics used. I always use RAMPS for my repraps, it costs a little more but is well worth it. It supports SD printing, LCD screen and I believe you can add an extra extruder but I would look it up to make sure. Multi head printing is just now starting to get all the bugs worked out so I am waiting till they are more reliable. As far as robo3d's kits I'm not sure on the timeline but you can go to their website and email them directly. I was just told it would be soon.

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Coming at this from another angle, you may want to consider a very widely supported machine for your first printer. Prusa i2's are fairly cheap, and most of the components can be 'upcycled' into another, better machine like the i3 or Mendel90. You may even find someone willing to print you up the parts at cost if you're lucky.

Don't get me wrong, the Prusa i3 and Mendel 90 are great machines. The Prusa i3 is very portable (Prusa actually packs his up and travels the globe with it in tow), while the Mendel 90 is pretty much a piece of furniture - very sturdy, but heavy if you use MDF to construct it (least expensive method).

Food for thought.

EDIT
i2 to i3 in 2nd Sentence.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/19/2013 09:17AM by akhlut.

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Ive seen the mendel90. It looks like a very good printer. I probably would pay more for it to be lighter. Also I am emailing the ROBO3D group for more info. Finally, I found a neat little $50 RAMPS addon that has an lcd, sd reader, and a rotory encoder ( what this is? I have no clue.) This would be worth the $50 for overnight and stand-alone printing and doesnt appear to be to bad to install.

i have the lcd thing you are talking about, its great and allows you to not only run standalone, but also to monitor the temps and adjust the speed on the fly. the rotary encoder is just a knob for scrolling on the screen.

If you want portability, a Reprap Huxley is the way to go. Its print area is fairly small 140x140x100.

Any place that I can find the mendel90 kits in the US? It looks pretty good from nop head but all the stuff is in a different currency from him. (I am probably mistaken but I believe the prices are in euros.) Or is it better to get the parts myself from different suppliers? Thanks again!

Nophead lives in the United Kingdom and the currency there is pounds (£).

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ah. I really should familiarize my self with foreign currencies.

Each color is going to cost you around $175 all in with a hotend, motor, gear, mounting, tubing controller and a roll of filament. If you are doing more than 2 colors you are going to need a Bowden tube setup. PLA is easier with direct drive, but opens up a whole set of considerations with Bowden. Perhaps you should start by building what appeals to you in design, has some stiffness (which you will need for multi color) has some size to it (which you will need for multi color) and begin as bare bones as possible. That way you can get started, and work through the engineering issues not all at once.

Yes maxx mayham I agree. I would start off with the basics. Good strong structure and start with 1 extruded. Once you get everything down then start thinking about multi-color setups. This will save you a huge headache. All major projects like this should be broken up into sections. Master one section at a time and complete each section before moving on to the next. This will help solve the majority of problems before moving on which will help you to not get overwhelmed. I've found that this is the best way to do projects especially ones that are new to you. In the meantime I would spend a lot of time posting and going through forums and blogs to learn as much as you can. This will help prepair you for when you start asymboling your reprap. Best of luck

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I am starting to really consider building a foldarap. Because it can be easily folded up and put away it would be much easier to keep clean and such. Also, I got an email from the ROBO3D team that said they just released the diy kits for pre-order. (Im not sure where though, personally I couldnt find it)

If you get a foldarap let me know . I would love to see pics on how it all goes together. Good luck and happy building.

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Reprap squad one more question. For the electronics on a reprap, can I use any board? Or do I have to use the one specified in the BOM? Because on the foldarap the electronics they recommend are to a website in another language and its basically chinese to me. Can I substitute RAMPS 1.4 for any electronics?

Typically any builder will recommend what they have found to work out best for them and their build. You shouldn't have any problem using RAMPS. I have never built a foldarap but like I said you should be fine. Here's an example, nopeheads mendel 90 recommends a melzi board I believe for his build but lots of people have built it using all kinds of different electronics. Those have been built with no interference. The only consideration I would take into account is the mounting bracket, location of predetermined electronics and the size the designer has allotted to put the electronics in. Other then that and given the fact that RAMPS is super compact you should be in great shape.

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Ok and with RAMPS I dont need another board correct? I jsut load the software on it and such?

Some kits will come with it. You will need ramps, the driver boards ( little rectangular chips) 4-5 of those pololu, and an arduino Mega. The Arduino goes on the bottem, on top of the Arduino is the RAMPS board and on the RAMPS is the pololu rectangular looking driver chips.

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Ok, where can I buy those electronics. So RAMPS is like an add-on to the Aruino Mega, and the pololu driver chips control the servo/stepper motors? Ive done a small amount with pololu equipment for robotics but this is completely different.

Hi Jaccob,

the RAMPS is an arduino SHIELD, which means its a board that you mount on top of the MEGA2560.
The Mega2560 is the board that you program, and the RAMPS is the board that helps you connect everything together!
On top of the RAMPS, you add 4 or 5 DRIVERS (polulu drivers or any other A4988 compatibles, stepstick etc..).

If you want, i can supply you with these and many others (simply PM me). There are also many good sellers out there, i wont mention names there as i fear to hurt others.. but if u need a list of sellers PM me and i will send you on a private PM.

Ok thanks. I was just confused about what all these different boards and SHIELDS and stuff. That makes more sense. Ill PM you but I cant order any just yet. Thanks guys!

You can find the ramps board, Arduino Mega and pololu drivers just about anywhere. Search for them on eBay and a lot of times you can get a kit that will come with SD card slot or LCD. Since your not buying for a little while I would check for these packaged deals and watch the auctions on ebay. A lot of times you can get deals that are way better then typical sellers but, always check there ratings or ask around to see if anyone has used the seller you are looking at. Happy building buddy.

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