Recommendations for a beginner?

Hello to those in this part of the globe. I have a few questions on printing in this part of the world.
What is the best way to get started printing with what one has to hand? Re: Forum
Like I have said I have access to the electronics to make boards with through board components. What I need help with is
the hardware side of the printer. What options do I have in the way of the linear slides? I know I can use drawer slides but if I can avoid
spending on those(as they will be used for a very short time till I can upgrade(Probably to PLA bushings)) I will.
Any other recommendations for hurdles I may come across trying to get started in this corner of the world(customs taking a interest and delaying parcels, tax and other fun games)?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/21/2016 10:47PM by LRTNZ.

The usual Good/Soon/Cheap tradeoff applies... choose any two.Since it seems that "Cheap" has been forced on you, you get to choose between Soon or Good.

Seriously, if you want to do 3D printing cheaply, the thing to do is to spend ~NZ$300 on a 3D printer kit from AliExpress. Keep every shipment under NZ$400 and Customs won't be interested. You'll still spend more time than you want on setting it up and getting it printing nicely. If you want to do 3D printing soon, spend a couple of grand on a good printer.

If you want to design and build your own 3D printer, then you can buy stuff from AliExpress far cheaper than from NZ retailers, and everything you might want. But you won't be able to buy the electronic components for less than the assembled boards from AliExpress. You can get cheap filament there too (figure on $20-$30 per kg).

The downside of AliExpress is that it takes a month or so to get anything, unless you're prepared to pay big-time for DHL or similar. And AliExpress is a bit Wild West... beware of ripoffs, and the quality is sometimes poor. Anything you buy of TradeMe will almost certainly have come from AliExpress, but you do have the advantage of less shipping time, and maybe Consumer Guarantees Act protection.

Echoing the comments in the other thread: You won't get a printer built in 10 days.A home-made printer is going to take a year of tuning to get it to do anything useful, especially if you're rolling your own from bits you have lying around the house. Forget wooden blocks or PLA printed bearings or drawer slides as linear bearings. Get some real LM8UU ball bearings if you're going with 8mm smooth rod.

Would some $1 office printers for the linear guides work? On Trade Me there are some that are bust and are on there. Would those slides be accurate enough?
I certainly don't want to build the printer in 10 days. I am needing a project to go back to and work on over 1-2 months+.
I have the stepper motors and electronic components to build up the control circuits so I will work on that while/ if I need to wait for shipping.
Wouldn't places like aliexpress buy filament in bulk from Alibaba? Alibaba has even cheaper filament, something like >$5 a roll.
Anyway I am also once I get the printer running on commercial filament, I am planning to extrude my own.
$300 budget is no go. I may seem crazy but I am planning to do it for $100 or less. Call it an added challenge. As I have the steppers, wood for most of the frame,
components to build the circuits(dad does electronics as a hobby and has a large stock of components) the main things are : Filament, Bed and linear guides.
The hot end I will make as I have the resources to do so. Have a lathe,mill and small stock of material.

Hey there, I built my 3D printer almost entirely from NZ based parts. There are some things you won't be able to find at all in New Zealand. I chose a printer that required a particular electronics board that was only built by three people in the world... one went out of business during my build, one sold total crap, and the most expensive one turned out to be the most reliable. Another gotcha for my particular printer was the thickness and availability of materials. Mine is designed for 5mm acrylic, which simply does not exist anywhere in New Zealand... I called like 10 different suppliers who offered several thicknesses except for that exact one.

The MK2 heated bed can be found on TradeMe pretty easily. As far as I can find, only makershop.co.nz carries the aluminium Mk3: [www.makershop.co.nz]

LinearMotion and CNCKits in Auckland carry linear slides, though my design used linear bearings on stainless steel rods. I sourced nearly all of my weird bearings from nzminitaturebearings.com, but one (the LM12LUU) had to come from overseas.

One surprisingly hard thing to find was all the tiny screws of various heads and lengths. Don't bother with Mitre 10 and Bunnings... Anzor will have everything you need.

Just be resourceful. If you don't find exactly what you need, have a think about what will work until you can find it.

Also, if you need access to a printer, National Library in Wellington does PLA prints for $3 per part + $1 per hour: [natlib.govt.nz].

Good on you to have this plan, through I totally agree New Zealand is a hard case for 3d printer.

For hardware side, Aliexpress is always a good place to check if price is the thing you care the most. There are quite good sellers, and many of them offers free shipping, but you do need to pre check the product reviews before order, because there are also many not so good dam ass on there. I am really sure you can get some qutie good quality liner rail for around 10~20 SUD which also won't give you any trouble in custom. All other things like stepper motors are also available. Do some search and see what you can do with it. Ebay is also a good resource but it is pretty much the same story as Aliexpress, actually you can find quite few familiar face on Ebay who also have stores on Aliexpress.

Local stores like Mitre 10 may also have things like leading screw and 2020 aluminum, but you do need some luck to find them and their cutting isn't very accurate.

Another option is buy a DIY 3d printer and adding your own parts on, it might be even cheaper than find everything here locally. And when you have a printer, it will also give you more options to build your very own one, because you can print out some parts. Tevo Tarantula is a quite good starter printer, which is easy enough to build, and works very well. It also have a large and active facebook group to support users. And most importantly: IT IS CHEAP, so it won't give you trouble in custom. Have a look into the facebook group and see what are they doing will give you some idea about what is going on. I am quite happy with mine and plans to do some of my own upgrading with it.

Good luck with your plan

Definitely not any 2020 or 2040 aluminium at Mitre10 (or Bunnings). I've contacted several aluminium extrusion companies in New Zealand, and neither they nor their suppliers carry it. Ullrich suggested that they're probably proprietary dies, and not produced in NZ

CNCKits.co.nz is the only NZ based supplier that I've found for 2020 and 2040. They're based in Auckland. Makershop.co.nz carries OpenBeam, which is similar.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/25/2016 10:02PM by 0x0000.

Interesting, I have got two pice of 2020 aluminium from Miter 10 in Blenheim during 2007. Although they aren't for building 3d printer and I have to spend half day to tidy up their rough cut. Anyway they are always changing their catalog, I won't be too surprised if they are not doing it anymore. Just like I can't find any M2 screws now day, if no one buying them they will just gone forever.

Quote
Solomon262
Interesting, I have got two pice of 2020 aluminium from Miter 10 in Blenheim during 2007. Although they aren't for building 3d printer and I have to spend half day to tidy up their rough cut. Anyway they are always changing their catalog, I won't be too surprised if they are not doing it anymore. Just like I can't find any M2 screws now day, if no one buying them they will just gone forever.

Anzor has M2's if you still need them

Thanks mate, I still need them so I will have a check.