Getting started in Canada

Hello everybody,

I'm new in the community and I'm pretty much coming into this almost blind. I used a cnc machine to mill a circuit board and I have made bluetooth RC and a few other projects during colleges.
Though I can never wrap my head around building a 3d printer and getting most out of my money for it. There's the low tier $500 3d printers and the high tier dual extruders and what not $5000 to $10,000 3d printers.
I've mostly been looking at kits and prebuilds. I know the print quality and and speed plays into the pricing as was as aesthetics such as larger print spaces, but what specs do we look at factor the print quality and
speed? Is it possible to upgrade a low tier kit to perform as high or even higher than the prebuilt printers like the Ultimaker?

Also where does one get kits/parts/prebuilds in Canada and which would you recommend with a <$600 budget and where to purchase filaments? (I just know of Digikey, Robotshop, and Adafruit)

Question summary:
1. what specs do we look at factor the print quality and speed?
2. Is it possible to upgrade a low tier kit to perform as high or even higher than the prebuilt printers like the Ultimaker?
3. where does one get kits/parts/prebuilds in Canada and which would you recommend with a <$600 budget and where to purchase filaments? (I personally just know of Digikey, Robotshop, and Adafruit)
Bonus 1: Is it better to buy parts and build from scratch (without a kit).
Bonus 2: What are the common problems owning a 3D printer?

I know this might be covered in the Wiki, but I've been putting this off and skimming the wiki once in a while without really reading it properly.
I hope to hear back and finally get this ball rolling

Parts that I have just laying around now:
Raspberry Pi B
Raspberry Pi B+
5 continuous rotating servos
3 Arduino Unos
and I think a 425 Watt PSU

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/06/2016 04:25PM by rayzerd.

This is all just my opinion, I'm sure someone may disagree. But here is my two cents worth.

For just starting out, I would (and did), buy a kit. Once you build a kit, you realize just how simple the mechanics are, and then if you ever wanted to design and build your own to meet your needs, then you could a little easier.

The kit I got was from FolgerTech. I had issues building it, but more than likely, any kit will have its problems. I figured out most of my problems from YouTube.

Once I got it running, I was very happy with it. My total price was around $300.

I have seen parts printed from cheap printers that looked just as good or better than the expensive ones. All filiment fead printers work the same way. The key is in the calibration. Watch a ton of YouTube videos, take your time, and get it properly adjusted, and a $300 printer can print out a part exactly like a $2300 printer.

Also make sure you have a good extruder. I replaced the junk clone extruder that came with my kit with an e3d v6 hot-end. I had to build the extruder from scratch to accept the v6 hot end (I printed the Toranado geared extruder from Thingiverse), but it was well worth the effort. I'm having problems now, but that is a failed cooling fan that I have on order.

If you really do not want to 'tinker' and do all of the calibrations and adjustments, the you should look into something you can just plug and play, like a maker bot, or a lulzbot or something like that. Personally if I had the money I would get a lulzbot taz4.

As far a filiment goes, I only use colorfab. Do not buy cheap filiment from eBay. There is a lot of junk filiment out there. E3d online sells filiment, and they only sell good quality brands.
Good luck, and this forum is here to help. Don't be afraid to use it. I have received tons of help here. I feel bad receiving more help than I give, so hopefully something I said here is helpful to you.

filaments.ca is a good source for filament, and I've also had good luck with Solutech abs from amazon.ca which works out cheaper if you buy a couple of rolls and get free shipping.

I personally bought the parts myself and built a Prusa i3 rework without a kit. I don't think there's a huge advantage to this over getting a kit unless you get a spectacular deal. But I do suggest one of the kit-type printers first: it's good for understanding the mechanics and perfect a s a starting point. Then when you realize that you use it all the time you can think about a second machine (I'm building mine right now).

The top-tier choices offer a few extra options, such as sd card printing, wifi, easily swappable extruders, etc. but mechanically the systems are very similar. If you're confident in using your hands to build your printer orthogonally, you shouldn't see worse quality than in commercial systems. To get the most out of your printer (printing speed and quality) you'll have to play around more with a kit, but the learning experience is well worth the while.

For filament, I've actually had good luck on ebay with the obviously Chinese-manufactured spools. Very cheap and worked well for me.

Common problems? heatbed won't heat, extruder won't heat, leveling, parts won't stick, layer height, crappy top layer, etc. Read, read and then read some more of this pages topics. Everything has been asked and answered. Good luck and have fun.

Other common problems; an irrational tendency to keep buying different types of filament to try out, and obsessing over the next printer design even though the current one isn't finished.