Look at building a Prusa Mendel. Any help appreciated

Hi,
Me and some friends (ithinkthatmaybe and some others) are looking at building a Prusa Mendel.
Is there anyone in NZ that could print parts for the Prusa and wades extruder for us.
Are there any parts that are hard to find in NZ. Dont want to get half way through building to find that we cant find a part.
For the electronics side of things we are looking at the RAMPS controller. Is this a wise choice?
Any other stuff we should know before we start getting parts in?

Thanks
Byron

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/02/2011 08:17PM by ZL3DXT.

There are definitely people around who can print you the parts for a prusa - I've done a few myself. Tell us where you are and you can probably find someone local (who can possibly even help you out if you get stuck at some point).

[reprap.org] is a good resource for working out where to get parts from.


Cheers,
Len.

Im in Christchruch.
I've been looking at reprap.org. Just sifting through all the info.

We are in Christchurch, so Im hoping that should make it relatively easy to get hold of some parts. We have also been wondering about The stepper motors and drivers. As we are trying to do this on a relatively limited budget, spending 30 dollars per stepper motor driver would not be ideal.

cheers
Sam

Also what are the specs on the motors? will any nema 17 motor work for the axis and the extruder?

Byron

PM me if you want a set of plastics I have a set of Black available now in Nelson that I could post out

---

__________________________________________________________________________
Experimenting in 3D in New Zealand

Just out of interest.
There are a few components that ive been having a bit of trouble finding suppliers in NZ, such as the 608 bearings and belts
any wisdom on this matter would be appreciated.

nzminiaturebearings.com provided me with the bearings at a fantastic price and with great service. They are also listed on the NZ suppliers page here [reprap.org] (just noticed that these links are abbreviated -- click through to see the full link; the same probably applies to the one earlier in the thread) if you haven't spotted that page. My build isn't finished yet, but I can't see the bearings being a problem. The belts I'm having to import, but perhaps someone else will be able to help out there.

I got some reasonably cheap motors in from Australia, but without having been able to test them yet, I wouldn't want to recommend them at this stage. I learned after buying mine that apparently the extruder needs a stronger motor than the rest, so I'm eagerly waiting to see whether mine will work or if I'll need to buy another.

I opted for the Sanguinololu electronics, although I also found it hard to identify criteria for making an informed choice.

Very happy to share stories and tips as you progress.

Also Wilsons bearings can get the bearings and belts as well as [www.smallparts.com.au] these people in Oz. The Nema17 stepper motors can be found on deal extreme reasonably priced but I think from memory you would need to order 10 to get them for around $15 each

---

__________________________________________________________________________
Experimenting in 3D in New Zealand

Thanks for all the help so far.
We have got a blog going and we will keep it updated with our progress.

Here is a Link to the blog

Cheers
Byron