If you were starting from scratch today & you had a $800 budget...

Yes another newby (sorry)...

I've been plowing through so much reading material that I've got myself into a state of confusion. I've come to the conclusion that it doesn't matter too much what I buy as long as it's recent & it can be adapted accordingly as new ideas & designs emerge. I've got an electronics/control systems background & fully expect to be dabbling into code & modifications before long but I need advise on a solid setup to get me going without huge hurdles facing me at the first bend (bigger hurdles can come later) I live in Northland & ideally I'd be able to get what I need on my next sortie down to Auckland & through an internet transaction or two (preferably localish).

So if someone can set me up with a shopping list & places to get the items, I'll be very appreciative.

..oh & if there's a distinct advantage to raising my budget you'd better let me know that too, as it might be worth checking in with the boss to see if she will allow more funds!

Cheers

a few questions that may help.
what are you looking for in a printer?
what type of objects do you expect to be printing the most?
is accuracy and detail more important than print speed?
is this just for funsies? if the printer looks kool while printing is that more interesting?

with carefull shopping and sourcing parts online, you should be able to build most of the different printer types within your budget, deltas, prusas, mendels.

if it were me and i was starting again/ my second printer i'd be shooting for a GUS Simpson, just because it looks neat.

for the most part whichever printer you build, you will still have most of the parts for the other printers allready in your first one, so if you hate it i suppose you could print parts for a different printer, buy a fewmore vitamins salvage and re-build. alot of people have done just that with repstraps.

... a few questions that may help.
what are you looking for in a printer?
what type of objects do you expect to be printing the most?
is accuracy and detail more important than print speed?
is this just for funsies? if the printer looks kool while printing is that more interesting? - Zerker

Difficult when I don't have any real "feel" for things yet but I'll have a stab... Expandability, versatility, I'll be printing off updated parts, tools, electronic boxes, crafting pieces for my wife, pretty much anything that grabs my attention on-line, robotic parts, remote control flying craft parts. Accuracy & detail rather than speed. Initially with PLA or ABS but ultimately I'll build further printers focusing on using different feed materials such as clay, ceramic or other materials. But I'm sure in a few months I'll have a much better idea of the limitations.

Starting out from scratch again I'd still go with the ORD Hadron, but my second printer's going to be an OB1.4. I think there's a lot to be said for having two. That way one can always be working while you're making parts and tinkering with the other.

...if it were me and i was starting again/ my second printer i'd be shooting for a GUS Simpson, just because it looks neat. - Zerker

Why did you have to go & mention the GUS Simpson? now I can't get passed that... although I think it's going to take a little while & a bit more development before it becomes main stream. So much of it is itself printable, it's so compact & it's a joy to watch in action.

I agree, it is a beautiful printer, however there are issues with it and it appears to be quite complicated to setup, I would love to print the parts for it or a Morgan once my own printer is up andrunning. I personally think that for a first build something much simpler is the way to go, well at least if you plan to end up with more than one printer. the "Main stream" printers have had the majority of the bugs worked out or discovered and help is never too far away should you run into one of these problems.

I'm having a few problems with my first build and it's just a boxframe Prusa i3, I'd hate to think what trouble I could have gotten myself into with a more complicated first build.

As I say there's so much information on the net....

I'm now starting to get an idea or two & I'm really keen to get involved with the Kossel Mini using open beam with as many printed parts as possible to start with.

So now I'll start pulling together the parts & planning my build. Hopefully I'll find local support... Thanks for your insights.

I'm pretty sure one of the Christchurch guys Dust was building one, and even had some spare parts for sale at one point

I am indeed building a kossel mini and have 2 sets of 1515 t-slot extrusion for sale, $45 per set. (I got spares, when I imported some)

If you in chch you can pickup, otherwise shipping is quite tricky and probably costly...

Also making up a list of where I got what. you don’t have to follow it, but it may be useful [goo.gl] Is a work in progress

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/2014 01:57AM by Dust.

Great idea Dust but unfortunately I'm in Kerikeri. I'm hoping Makershop in Auckland will be able to help me with OB & most of the electronics and PSU. Other than that I'm pricing up the basics - plastics, preassembled push rods, motors, belts, hot end (not convinced yet), extruder & fittings via TriDprinting .com, sliders through Aliexpress.

I was also considering a complete kit from Blomker just to simplify everything & sort out any modifications later but their kit lacks a beefy PSU and any local LCD display & is a little more than I was hoping when you factor in shipping & GST, so I've been umming & arring. Of course if you can suggest any alternatives I'd be keen to look at them.

The Kossel Mini

As I had a few days off work I ended up going with the Blomker Kit option to get as much done as I could. Blomker based in Malaysia was good to deal with & prompt in both responding to my queries & processing the order. Ordered on Thursday arrived the following Wednesday & pretty much built by Friday afternoon. But I still haven't received my shipment of filament with which to test it! I priced up the individual components online first & the kit at a cost of US$699 with US$99 delivery wasn't a great deal more. The assurance that all the components would work together & give me the best use of my time at home was the deciding factor. I exchanged the included 5A PSU for a more beefy 30A unit at no extra cost, when I placed the order. The kit included all the basic components - Arduino, Ramps 1.4, sliders, open beam, plastics, pulleys, hotend, fan, all nuts & bolts & motors with a good set of visual instructions (available on line) What wasn't included were any tools, LCD display or plastic boxes in which to mount the electronics.

In the process I learnt a few things....
* The M4 & M5 taps needed for threading some of the plastics weren't easy to find in my town & could have caused an unforeseen build delay
* The largely visual instructions needed a few extra descriptive words in places particularly with using the calibration software , The steps were in a specific order & trying to jump ahead in places meant having to dismantle a few steps & repeating in the correct order.
* The plastic parts were tight around the open beam & over tightening the bolts can cause the plastic to split! (araldite epoxy to the rescue!).
* Making up the push rods & holding them in place whilst the glue dried turned out to be more difficult than originally envisaged but the using the open beam as assembly jigs was essential.

Something to note....

It's been a Month since I started printing with my Kossel Mini, I quickly purchased & added a graphic LCD display which I got working immediately. What I didn't pick up on until I started printing objects with a lot of circles was that the added processor requirement of this new display was causing the processor to momentarily stop moving every now & then while it was processing the next set of movements. This was barely noticeable but caused small lumps to appear on the printed objects surface as although the head was stopped the plastic still flowed from the hot head. After seeking a bit of help in the forums it became clear that the Arduino ramps 1.4 was only just coping with the delta calculations & the USB communications with pronterface on my laptop. Keeping this additional display required that I limit the print speed to cope.

For anyone following in my footsteps I would now recommend starting with a beefier more future-proof processor like an Azteeg X5 or Smoothie board with Smoothie firmware which support delta configurations with ease.

Yes a graphical display is to cpu hungry, a standard 4*20 LCD Ive been told is fine.

I was planning to use a Azteeg X5 regardless.

.... & 3mm filament gear from memory. Thoughts of my next build are evolving towards a slightly larger Kossel mini using the standard printed parts but slightly longer extrusions & push rods to give me my desired build area & going the x5, 3mm route as well. Hmmmm! Food for thought!

The steps were in a specific order & FIFA 15 XBOX Coins trying to jump ahead in places meant having to dismantle a few steps & repeating in the correct order.