Cost Options

I am trying to build a huxley printer, but I am trying to find out if it is cheaper to just buy a kit with everything but the printed parts (I have a friend with a 3D printer), buy the parts myself, or a combination of the two. Does anyone have any advice?

For most people the kit will be the cheapest option. If you are willing to spend a lot of time scrounging and waiting for the really good deals on multiple sites you might get it cheaper, but it doesn't take too many mistakes to erase the savings you get from self sourcing. Shipping costs from multiple sellers can often erase the savings of buying surplus stuff. On the other hand, if you only have $50 or $100 to spend per month self sourcing will get you started faster.

Thanks for the advice. I started looking at a few of the parts from the instructions and I had no clue what some of them were, so I guess getting the kit would help with that, too. Just wondering, do you know of any good places to get the kit? I live in the US so if the company was there I could minimize shipping costs.

If you can get a lot of hardware from a local supplier who deals with machine shops and such, that really cuts down the cost of the nuts and bolds side of things. With a friend printing parts for you, it would be hard to find a kit that could beat those prices if you are good at finding online deals. Don't forget to include shipping costs!

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Yvan

Singularity Machine

The only problem with that is that the instructions online are not very clear about some parts (what is a z anti-slash spring anyway?!). Also, since I live in the US, it is hard to find screws, nuts, and rods in metric sizes, and since they don't translate well to our units...

The specialized shops that sell nuts and bolts, like Fastenal have every imaginable size known to man. Personally, I find Fastenal prices good, but I get much better prices at a little place(OSI Industrial Sales Ltd.) tucked into the far corner of a local industrial park.

Conversion from metric to SAE nuts and bolts is easy for the most part. M3 is 4-40, M4 is 8-32, and M8 is 5/16". Sometimes an SAE nut will not fit in a metric nut trap, but that rarely is a big issue. Smooth rod should be M8 to fit the LM8UU linear bearing of course.

Don't tell anyone, but my Prusa i1/2 has a couple of 5/16 threaded rods in it...

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Yvan

Singularity Machine

To help keep costs down you can always find linear rods in old printers and scanners along with other goodies. Sometimes you can find good stepper motors. I built a Printrbot original for about $150 doing this. It is very time consuming.

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Apparently, some electronics scrap dealers will sell you old stuff by the pound. Worth a look, you also get very good bushings with those smooth rods out of printers.

Oh yes, and did I mention I got 36 inches (I know, here metric stuff comes in 36" lengths) M8 "drill rod" from OSI for about $5 CDN? That works out to about $15 for a Prusa instead of the 304 smooth rod which is not as hard wearing.

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Yvan

Singularity Machine

Would you have any suggestions for good places to get a Huxley kit (minus printed parts)?

I'm not sure where You might find parts for the HUxley as it is an old rap rap. It's basically a mini Mendel. I would recommend going with the full size version as it's a lot easier to source. If you want the Huxley specifically then get a BOM and self source parts.

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--------------| For Everything |--------------------------
Check it out here:
[reprapsquad.wordpress.com].
---------| For Everything Prototype Related |------
Now featuring comp case mods:
[RepRapLab.wordpress.com]

--------------| Find us at Twitter|------------------------
@REPRAPSQUAD (RS Main)
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@REPRAPSQUADHQ (ProtoLab)
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the cheapest way to get reprap is if you dont buy reprap parts.


what i will say, buy reprap plastic kit, or ask someone to print it for you.
then linear berings from ebay, but under the lm8uu, not reprap bearings...

smoothrods and all vitamins in local hardware store, minimum stainless steel.(i have payed 6 rods 500 mm long, stainless steel 10 mm diameter 55$)

timing belt and pulleys also in local hardware store..

woo Wrote:
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> then linear berings from ebay, but under the
> lm8uu, not reprap bearings...


Don't forget that linear bearings can be printed too (using PLA or Nylon ; ABS sticks too much).
see for instance :
[www.thingiverse.com]
[www.thingiverse.com]
[www.thingiverse.com]

Printed by an accurate reprap, they actually perform better and with less noise than the cheap chinese lm8uu.

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Most of my technical comments should be correct, but is THIS one ?
Anyway, as a rule of thumb, always double check what people write.