Parts Procurement

I'm planning to build a Prusa, and I've begun to procure parts. I've found most everything but there are just a couple things I'm having trouble with:
- I purchased a vitamin kit (fasteners, belts, rods, and bearings) from thingfarm to make things a little easier for myself
- I purchased a set of printed parts with Wade's extruder (and a hobbed bolt kit) from EckerTech
- I plan on getting all my electronics from ultimachine

That's what I know. What I don't know:
- I know this is going to sound stupid, but I haven't been able to find any information on it - Where do I get MDF for my thicksheets? These need to be laser cut, right? If I walk into a hardware store and say "I need two pieces of MDF 4-6mm thick, one 225mmx225mm and the other 140mmx225mm" will they be able to help me out?
- The documentation for the hot end in the wiki seems a bit scattered unfortunately. The Prusa page says to look at the Wade assembly manual, which gives a brief description and links to the deprecated Mendel extruder page: [reprap.org]. That redirects to the current Mendel_extruder page, which defers to [reprap.org] for nozzle instructions. It seems that this is the current nozzle design people are going with. The description is pretty intimidating though. I don't have a large shop in the back yard with every tool known to man, I live in an apartment. I would love to just purchase a kit somewhere for the nozzle, but I haven't been able to find one for sale

Thanks for your time, guys. Really excited to get this thing running. I've been playing around with designing things in OpenSCAD, and I might have one or two submissions to thingiverse before I even get my printer put together

Update:
I found this thread [forums.reprap.org] so I should be able to build my nozzle with a kit purchased there. Now the only things I need are the thick sheets. Anybody have any advice on how to get them without cutting them myself? If accuracy isn't as too important, I could just cut it myself.

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These need to be laser cut, right?

No, they are simple rectangles so they can be cut with a saw.

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If I walk into a hardware store and say "I need two pieces of MDF 4-6mm thick, one 225mmx225mm and the other 140mmx225mm" will they be able to help me out?

Yes in the UK I can go into B&Q and get 6mm MDF cut to size. You have to buy the full sheet and they will cut it up for you. The first four cuts are free and then 50p per cut but often they don't charge for more.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/15/2011 05:02PM by nophead.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

OK, thanks nophead. I'm in the US, so hopefully I can go to Home Depot or Lowes and get some MDF cut to size.
Unfortunately, the thread about nozzle kits is old and he isn't selling them anymore so I will need to get the parts elsewhere. Please post if you have any suggestions! Are there people who do this kind of thing for a living that I might be able to find locally?

unicoder Wrote:
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> Unfortunately, the thread about nozzle kits is old
> and he isn't selling them anymore so I will need
> to get the parts elsewhere. Please post if you
> have any suggestions! Are there people who do this
> kind of thing for a living that I might be able to
> find locally?

Check out MakerGear.com, you can get a hold of Rick in their IRC channel and he can help you out picking a hot end. I use one of theirs and have put several pounds of PLA though it with no jams.

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Thanks for the tip, I think I'm pretty set now. For the hot end, I will get a superpack+wad extruder mount from makergear.