Costs

I am very interested in building a RepRap, but a big problem I am encountering is cost. What would you guys say is the cheapest printer to build, either self-sourcing or from a kit? Thanks.

You can build an i3 Prusa for 400-700. Thats not too bad.
If you are looking for 200ish then save your pennies.

I agree. If you buy cheap stuff, things will going wrong with your prints. That's particulary disappointing for the newbie. Especialy when a lot of factors works together to makes things worst. Then you will spend more money to get thing go nice. IMO, save money and buy a quality kit. You'll get nice components and support as needed. Whatever you do, you will spend a comparable amount of money, around $650. Do self sourcing only if you can have opportunities, like a machinist friend, quality used components from work, and so on. Buying at low cost components is a bad choice, especialy chinese stuff that won't do properly what they're meant to do.

---

Collective intelligence emerges when a group of people work together effectively. Prusa i3 Folger (A lot of the parts are wrong, boring !)

Cost is not a problem, it's something that comes naturally with a product it is related to quality, but you can save and shave costs when making parts yourself from wood/metal if you have a workshop.

The cheapest to begin with would be the Prusa i2, as it used superdirtcheap threaded rods that you can literally buy everywhere.

If I were to buy all the extrusions I needed for that printer at my local hardware store, I would only pay around 15euros (20 dollars) for them. Then I would need electronics, and you can make the connecting parts out of wood first. The more difficult parts you can ask for someone to print them for you for a small payment. Parts like the extruder and Z and X carriages. Or you just buy all the printed parts in one package, as they aren't that expensive anymore anyways.

---

http://www.marinusdebeer.nl/

I built a prusa i2 for less than £300 but have played and improved it since then.
But no problem building the basic machine for less than £300.

Gordon

I'd have to agree that the Prusa I2 is the way to go. It is a bit more labor intensive to build than some other models. I sourced my parts from all over. Looking back I should have bought the Makerfarm kit.

Thanks for all of the info. I was doing some more looking around and I saw the 3DPrintMi. Its print area is slightly smaller than the Prusa, but the BOM says that it costs about $300. I was just wondering what you all thought about that printer, and if it is any good.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/2014 05:49PM by driver351.

Not sure if you've thought about getting one of the bunch of prusa i3 'kits' out there but take a look at the Folgers one on ebay with shipping its about $360ish, you get everything and the i3 should be a quicker build with it being easier to square up everything due to the plate for the Z axis. Just remember this is a kit and you will have to 'play' with it to get good prints. I started out looking to source out a printer and quickly discovered that if you don't have access to existing 'junk' to help reduce the cost then these kits are pretty close to the same price.

You can go to the Folger technologies site and get it cheaper.

Well I own a Folger. And I do not recommend buying it. Too much problems to think mine was an exception. Thru, I'm still looking forward Folger's awnser to the encountered problems since november 17th... The frame is not stiff enough, the overall quality is low. Some parts were broken, some rods bended. The cold end warms up. The PLA parts are fragile. The linear rods are not 8mm but 7.5mm and the linear bearing make noise and loose balls. I needed to replace a lot of parts which costs me more than a better kit (Czar, 4 example).

---

Collective intelligence emerges when a group of people work together effectively. Prusa i3 Folger (A lot of the parts are wrong, boring !)

Quote
Zavashier
Well I own a Folger. And I do not recommend buying it. Too much problems to think mine was an exception. Thru, I'm still looking forward Folger's awnser to the encountered problems since november 17th... The frame is not stiff enough, the overall quality is low. Some parts were broken, some rods bended. The cold end warms up. The PLA parts are fragile. The linear rods are not 8mm but 7.5mm and the linear bearing make noise and loose balls. I needed to replace a lot of parts which costs me more than a better kit (Czar, 4 example).

Well put me down as the exception then since mine works as advertised. It is possible that later versions have issues since they've sold so many but unless I hear more people with issues I'd say your's was the exception.

That machine works well for you ? fine ! That does not mean things you can't get better. You may like the Folger's kit depending of what you expect. If you takes it individualy, Folger's kit does what's meant to do : printing. I'm a CNC user. I own several type of carriages on my different machines, some are expensive. I may appreciate the overall quality of any machine. When a kit uses 7.5mm rods with 8mm bushings, it's a huge gap. The result is a poor printing quality, even at low speed. Through, the 8mm linear bearings are the lowest possible quality definitely, the balls that easily falls out of them are not of the same diameter... Yesterday, a third Y bushings broke (my rods are mounted paralel within 0.05mm). The problem comes from the part and from the rubbish linear bearing. The conception of that part is fragile, there's a weak point : not enough material at the junction of the cylindre and the plate :

That combined with a too low temperature print with a tendency to delamimate, and it's the crack. The LM8UU are too big for the Z carriage, I had to addapt the part to mount them. A kit should be easy, you don't want some parts to don't fit to others. It's an important point. Most of the zip tie holes were obturated. Another work to do on the parts. A 5mm threaded rod is 10° bended (!), some zip ties, nuts and screws missing. Some parts of the acrylic frame came broken into a nice shape package.

The two other weak points of the kit are : first, the extruder, the most important part of any printer. It's minimalistic. No tensioning system at all. I got some1.65 black filament, and it's not perfecty driven. I print ABS only and @ 235°C the cold end is not cold any more.That means I cannot print at optimal temperature for some of my filaments. If you print PLA only, you may not have the same problems. Note my print head felt down (less of 100 working hours!), broken at the thermal barrier point. I replaced the hotend by a shop made E3D style hotend, with a huge printing quality improvement. Some friends at the fablab have better results with a better cold end. Conclusion, the Folger's extruder is rubbish.

Second, the aclylic frame. I did not expected the 6mm frame was 5.3mm. And did not expected that was that flexible. I saw wooden frames, aluminium frames, and it makes a huge difference. Acrylic is the worst material ever for the frame.

Last but not least, there were 20 days before shipping. Then 8 days for shipping. Then I had to mount the kit. I tryed to contact Folger as fast as possible. And gave him enough time to awnser. Too much IMO. Then I opened a Paypal reclamation. And Paypal closed it because the payment was more than 45 days old. So I did not have any waranty. I get no awnser at all from Folger. I have to deal alone with missing parts, dammage ones, and my broken frame. Anyone who wants to buy a Folger kit should know.

You want to buy a Prusa I3 kit ? Go for an aluminium frame (or wood frame) no risk to brake and as stiff as needed, get a rework version of the parts, strong ABS parts, with a good extruder included (a wade still works pretty well), and a good hotend (exagon, e3d or Jhead style). That's the start for a good kit. The Folger's kit does not propose that stuff, don't buy it. Definitely.

Edited 8 time(s). Last edit at 11/28/2014 05:37AM by Zavashier.

---

Collective intelligence emerges when a group of people work together effectively. Prusa i3 Folger (A lot of the parts are wrong, boring !)

You must have the most screwed up kit ever then since my rods are all 8 mm. I've been printing ABS since I got it working at either 230 or 240 depending on which brand I use and as long as I have the extruder fan running all the time I don't have any issues with air prints or slipping. So you bought cheap 1.75 abs and find out it's no where near 1.75 and blame the extruder when it doesn't work?

As to the response from Folgers I will agree that it's not right that they haven't responded, they should have and it reflects badly that they have not. I know at least one employee does read this forum, specifically the one thread on the Folgers kit, it would be nice if he resounded to let you know Folgers at least knows about your problems.

All in all what I get from your post is that you bought the cheapest kit you could find, I haven't seen anything cheaper then the Folger Tech prusa i3, and then complain about the quality of the pieces. I got the kit expecting that I'd have to fiddle or replace a bunch of stuff to get it working the way I'd like and actually discovering that it mostly worked minus a few tweaks was a big bonus.

If you had spent a few hundred more you MIGHT, and I emphasize MIGHT, have had none of the issues you've brought up but after reading through the groups on this forum and other sites it really does seem to be a crap shoot whether it be printed part quality or hardware/electronic components or getting support in a timely fashion from any of the big or well known names in the field as well.

In your opinion, I complain without a cause. And you suppose I buy cheap. Fine. Fist, here's the filament I use. I'm not an expert on filaments. It's not the cheapest I could get. (prices in europe are around 13€/kg for cheapest ones. Those costs me the double. Those are not the most expensive one too : 50€/kg. So it's not premium filament but I guess good enough to do correct prints. That's precisely what I do with the same printer and same settings since I installed my new hotend. So I guess the filament is not to blame. Appreciate that I live in Europe and to bring home a Folger's kit, you need to add $100 for shipping and customs. That does not make it that cheap to me. Sometimes I buy things from the states, and usualy the quality talks. I've read the Waltermixx topic, and he was (and still is) very enthusiast about his machine. I met some frends in a fablab, and saw different printers. Now I know a bit more about Pursa I3 versions, and I discovered that some makes (Rework, I3x...) are ways better. They are about the same price I payed. I could even pay $100 more if I was shure the machine worth the money. Anyways, It's my first 3D printer, I thought that kit could be good enough for a good start. Frankly speaking. Except the electronics, anything I see on It, I would like to change it. I dunno if I will. Maybe it's better to startup a new printer with better frame and carriages. Be happy, that will costs me a lot !

---

Collective intelligence emerges when a group of people work together effectively. Prusa i3 Folger (A lot of the parts are wrong, boring !)

Yes it's my opinion just like your signature is your opinion. Why would I be happy if it costs you alot, I couldn't care less what you pay or don't pay. Since you're located in Europe why not buy from a European supplier?? I can't believe that a similar priced prusa i3 isn't available closer where it doesn't cost 100 bucks to ship, frankly at a hundred more I would have sourced the machine myself over here in the US.

You surely know better than me about the European market and taxes. Frankly speaking, you pretend to know better who I am, what I do, what I buy and what I shoud have bought. That's just funny, I'm not upset at all. About the price. it's not more expensive to print rework improoved ABS parts instead PLA old make ones. The same for 5/16" instead of 8mm rods. The same for flat nozzle instead of sharp ones. There's many examples in the Folger's kit. But you don't want to understand. It's ok, I don't care. You are absolutely delighted by your Folger's kit, I'm happy for you. People are different and to not expect the same. Don't get me wrong, that's not bashing. Just I'm not satifsied with what I bought. I wish John could read this to improve his kit while staying within the same price range.

---

Collective intelligence emerges when a group of people work together effectively. Prusa i3 Folger (A lot of the parts are wrong, boring !)

While i can understand some people are happy with their kit and some are unhappy, can we please avoid the kind of language previously used in this thread.

---

-=( blog )=- -=( thingiverse )=- -=( 3Dindustries )=- -=( Aluhotend - mostly metal hotend)=--=( Facebook )=-

When you look at electronics companies who have successfully managed to radically lower prices on consumer electronics which work well, at least initially and provide a straightforward user experience, and perform an ultimately useful function, you start to see the same names over and over again. Some more familiar than others, all decades old. Look at document printers, for example, HP sold one heck of a lot of them for quite a high price before getting to the point of being basically disposable, as they are today. Billions of dollars, millions of hours of engineering to get to the point of making a product that is both good and cheap. We as a group have an awful long way to go before tomorrows holy grail printer becomes yesterdays technology. $300? $200? I guess it's easier to convince a potential customer than a spool of plastic. I make things the old fashioned way for a living, so I know the value of a good tool. Cheap printers are good for one thing however - they are god for improving the skills of anyone who takes the resources to improve them, to get them to work as hoped. IMHO.