Anyone building a mendelMax?

Can you get the MendelMax extrusions here in NZ?
$168 US for these delivered ($208 NZ today)
[cgi.ebay.com]

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Richmond, New Zealand
Thingiverse ~ YouTube

Just wondering why it seems like people are all over the MendelMax but hardly anyone is building the Mendel90 yet. The Mendel90 is super sturdy, trivial to scale in any axis, the build volume is an actual cube (rather than having to take into account how the extruder on a Mendel will whack into the frame at various points above a certain heights). I have a Sells Mendel and don't see the point in moving to a MendelMax, but I can definitely see the attraction of the Mendel90 (I am partway through collecting the bits to build one).

You cant get t-slot of this size in Nz cheaply.. Ive tried... and documented... on my blog...
At the time I got mine via a friend in the USA and paid two lots of shipping. (this was before store.mendelmax.com, and no one had any on ebay) was about $191.70 Nz landed (wasnt coloured)

See [dustsreprap.blogspot.co.nz] and [dustsreprap.blogspot.co.nz]

$208nz for black t-slot seems a good deal to me.

I have a working Mendelmax (well it was till I pulled it apart again to re wire it and and add the missing pins to my ramps, and changed the hobbed bolt)
There is a second Mendelmax in Christchurch also, he brought a kit minus electronics from the mendelmax store.

Lenbok,

There is two a guys making two mendel 90 in Christchurch. Ive seen the mechanical assembly, but I don't know if they got any further

My personal opinion is its good, well finished up. Most printers arent really printers they are shells. With no thought to wiring at all.

I don't however like all the wood. But thats a personal thing, I don't like wood.

Thanks Dust, looks like you have done the leg work already. The t-nuts at $1.08 each is a bit of a downer.
The attraction for me of the MendelMax is the engineered rigidity and the possibility of improved resolution/print quality.
I am mid-project building an oversize Mendel Prusa cum Mendel Pro at the moment so I'll see how long my enthusiasm lasts.

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Richmond, New Zealand
Thingiverse ~ YouTube

You can use half height m5 nuts (from what ive been told) I haven't verified this

But the t-slot nuts are really nice, I would image normal nuts would be quite tricky to hold in place and tighten...

Dust Wrote:
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> I don't however like all the wood. But thats a
> personal thing, I don't like wood.

Then don't make it out of wood. NopHead recommends Dibond, or you could even use aluminum plate. Or acrylic or polycarbonate. Or whatever stiff sheet you want.

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The guy in the States says he can ship three for the price of one but that would push the price over the GST free limit so not really an option.

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Richmond, New Zealand
Thingiverse ~ YouTube

I am building a modified mendelmax. I have used the half height m5 nuts and they work well. Advantage you can add them at any time. I am going for a real lead screws for the Z sourced from china and not have the stabilizer bars. Also I have had made 12V 200w kapton heaters with glue one side to stick to glass end up about $25 each. I have decided to redesign the X to 10mm rods and space them another 10mm apart so a 40mm fan can sit between. I got my aluminium from USA but am looking at getting the next lot from china.

[www.aliexpress.com]
or
[www.aliexpress.com]

I have got a number of 48mm and 40mm Nema 17 steppers in at about $20 for 48mm and $18 for the 40mm
Also got 100off 608 bearings at about $0.50 each.

I get my glass here in chch cut and tuffened to my size and its less than $10

OK placed an order and dealt with the chinese translated chat room about shipping. All up cost me US$60 for 6m of extrusion.
They say 1-2 months delivery so I'll check in when/if it arrives

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Richmond, New Zealand
Thingiverse ~ YouTube

Aliexpress seems to have everything! Just FYI, the recommended(?) Nema-17 link that comes up in the IRC channel is this:

[www.aliexpress.com]

Yes those are the Nema17 steppers that I have and from the same supplier. Have not run them up yet but hopefully next week. I have probably got over 200 items from Aliexpress and only a few have had problems and each time I have got my money back. I do go for the suppliers that have been around for a while.

Aliexpress is cheap, but if you can combine with other Goodluckbuy items then these seem to work OK (disclaimer: I only have a sample size of one):

[www.goodluckbuy.com]

Might just buy 10 of those Aliexpress steppers: 5 for another printer, 2 for a robot, 2 for a Drawbot for the whiteboard at work, and one spare...

OK So I've ordered all the aluminium extrusions and t nuts from china. I might have ordered the wrong nuts but I've only ordered 30 of them so far because I misread the bill of materials, so I'll wait and see if they are right when they arrive. I'm still building a large scale prusa so I'm not short of things to do while I wait.

Next issues are the x and y slides and the lead screws and nuts. There are at least two designs for the x and y slides one which use round rod and one which use precision slides. The latter would be better if I can figure out what they are and where you get them. What design are you guys (Dust & Trutrack) using?

The other issue is the lead screws and acme nuts. I am still trying to find an affordable source of these.

I have also started an order for all the socket screws, a set of motors and a few bearings which I will add to when the first order arrives.

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Richmond, New Zealand
Thingiverse ~ YouTube

Im still using round rods. But from what I hear the slides are better. From talking with the mendelmax guys online the slides are being made for them in bulk. Ie dificult if not impossable to get elsewhere in 1 offs. They are made by "PBC Linear"

A good source for Acme threaded rods and nuts is TechPaladin:

[techpaladin.com]

If anyone's interested in sharing shipping to NZ, let me know. You're looking at $40 US for a pair of rods, nuts and stepper couplers, plus shipping.

Do the acme leadscrews make much improvement over a standard threaded rod?

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Richmond, New Zealand
Thingiverse ~ YouTube

The most important aspects of the threaded rod are that it is straight (or thin so it deflects without pulling on the X axis) and has accurate threads. ACME lead screws tend to be straighter than general threaded rod, and also tend to have more accurate threads. High quality threaded rod can be just fine, however.

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So thinking about machine design now. The standard frame size is 300mm wide (x), 420mm deep (y) and 340mm diagonals (z-ish) for a build area of 215x235x190mm. To get any bigger than this I would have to make my own hotbed and I like the pcb ones I am currently using so I will stick with the stock size.
It looks like the 1.5 is the latest version [www.thingiverse.com] anyone know of any improved parts worth including?
I am keen on the 8mm rod for the axes and will probably buy polished hardened rods like these [www.aliexpress.com] for the axes.

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Richmond, New Zealand
Thingiverse ~ YouTube

What X-ends are you using Dust?

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Richmond, New Zealand
Thingiverse ~ YouTube

Im using standard Prusa X ends, as my Z screw nuts are the same size as m8 nuts.
I did have to file them down a little to get the 36 tooth pulleys to fit

Where are the a 36 tooth pulleys?

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Richmond, New Zealand
Thingiverse ~ YouTube

Original v1 Mendelmax had 36 tooth GT2 pulleys on both X and Y axis. The X ones where fractionally to large for the space they are in on a standard Prusa I2 motor X end.

Mendelmax now comes with 20 tooth pulleys, much smaller diameter

[store.trinitylabs.com] (picture is not accurate)
they really look like the one in the front of this [4.bp.blogspot.com] (this is my MM before it got converted to a 1.5 model with the steppers down the bottom)

I hadn't got that far ahead in the planning, I guess I was expecting it to be XL or T5 belts and the usual 12 tooth pulleys.
My alloy and motors are on the way and I'm slowly printing out all the plastic parts now. It looks like Blacks have all the fasteners except the T-nuts and it looks like they are available from Aliexpress too, just haven't worked out which ones to order.
It looks like I have the option of 8mm or 10mm smooth rods for Z so I'm assuming 10mm is the better option?

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Richmond, New Zealand
Thingiverse ~ YouTube

10mm is current standard for Z smooth rod on a mendelmax

As for better? In theory yes, less likely to bend or warp.
In reality it not like we building a milling machine. Its a little over engineered, but thats not necessarily a bad thing.

The 1.5 files come with parts for both sizes so I'll just go for the 10mm ones - it can't be much more for the rod or bearings

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Richmond, New Zealand
Thingiverse ~ YouTube

If you use 10mm for the X there are some problems you need to check. One you can not get a 40mm fan down between the rods. Check that the belt lines up between the carriage and the ends. If you plan to use a quick change carriage then the belts may not. I have redesigned the X to have 60mm space between the rods. Redesigned a quick change carriage and X-ends but I am using proper lead screws 1204 type each end with no stabiliser rods. Also had to redesign the quick change extruder to fit Jhead. Should have the machine running next week.

Trutrack, we are only talking Z rods not X rods.

trutrack Wrote:
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> If you use 10mm for the X there are some problems
> you need to check. One you can not get a 40mm fan
> down between the rods.

You can if you file down the fan case slightly on each side. That's what I did, as I use 10 mm rods for all three axes on my over-sized mendel max. I am replacing the X ends and carriage with ones that have 65 mm spacing though, to give me more room for a multi-extruder setup.

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I'm pricing 10mm rods for the Z and 8mm for the X and Y in chrome precision hardened linear rod, looks like it's quite affordable so I'll let you know how that goes.
Next up are the lead screws and nuts - not a lot of info on these. I'm guessing 8mm? and how long? must be about 400mm?

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Richmond, New Zealand
Thingiverse ~ YouTube