Has there EVER been a RepRap set sold on this thread?

I just read through every post on the For Sale thread, and can only find 1 example of where the RP parts for a Darwin or Mendel was posted here.

Lots of talking about offering the parts, lots of people asking for the parts.

Is there another place where these parts are offered, or was there literally only 1 set actually sold on the market in the last year?

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repraplogphase.blogspot.com

I've also noticed that there's a number of people offering parts for sale that haven't actually printed the parts yet. I'd be a bit wary of that, as I know how much effort it takes to print a set.

I sold a set cheaply here last year (for a case of beer), and I traded another set away last month, but I think the issue is that the demand for parts is still pretty high. For the few folks that have managed to print out a complete set of reprap parts, there's enough demand that they don't have to resort to a for-sale forum to find a recipient.

I do plan on putting a few more sets of parts out there in the next few months; I've got one producing machine and two nearly complete daughter machines, so it should take me less time this time around.

The real problem is that it takes close to a month for most folks to print out a complete set. Once that starts to drop, and it is dropping already, we'll see a lot more parts showing up.

Wade

I have printed about 40 parts for Mendel, and I keep finetuning all my settings. I suffer from pretty serious bugs too.

The thing is, that there are parts, where only the raft takes 1.30 hours to print...

So until I dont have 5-10 machine continously working I cant really offer RP parts to the public. I'm working parallel on other issues, like hunting down suppliers, talking with manufacturers, etc.

But believe me, if somebody really want to make business out of this, he cant offer RP parts at material costs at all. I dont think the material costs will be a significant part of the finale prices.

Or we can go on the lasercutters way, what bitsfrombytes and makerbot did.

Also bitsfrombytes offered moulded part of the beginning, still they converted the manufacturing into laser cutter parts.

I consider the whole lasercutting story a failure on the project itself. It just gives a negative reputation...

> I consider the whole lasercutting story a failure
> on the project itself. It just gives a negative
> reputation...

I completely agree, but read the tea leaves differently.

The structural framework, whether it's laser cut, or RP, is always less than 40% of the total cost of the rig. The non laseruct/RP parts of a Mendel is 400 Euro or $600, that's $250 less than a Makerbot, and 350 euro less than a Repman.

Honestly I think the RP parts have been drastically under priced when being sold. The RP parts are superior to all lasercut alternatives head to head. They don't break, allow for easier building, are less prone to failure, allow for repair (you can glue the pieces back together if you have to), look better (even though the Repman is VERY pretty), and weigh less.

MakerGear was at one time getting $250 for a laser cut Makerbot set, it costs over $200 to get a Ponoco Lasercut set. Why should a RP parts set go for less than $350, when it is so much the superior of it's laser cut alternatives? Laser cutters are expensive, but once you own them it's pretty much have the same cost structure as a RepRap, but much faster.

If it takes 72 hours to print a Mendel/Darwin, and if you don't know the person, your time is at least worth minimum wage in the US. That would be $522 + $25 dollars for plastic and electricity. BTW Englands minium wage is $9.50 or $685 for time printing.

Considering the excitement the Makerbot $1 pulleys brought to the community on the printed side, I think a $650-$725 cost for printed parts for a Darwin/Mendel would excite the RepRap/RepStrap owning community just as much. The cost would only stay that high for a year or two at most, because very quickly the market would flood.

As Mr Bowers said "That's the problem with self replicating machines, you only get to sell it once!"

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/06/2009 03:10PM by spacexula.

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repraplogphase.blogspot.com

The amount of labor involved in getting a reprap working well is probably the big thing. If you amortized that over a few kits I think it would be much more than 72 hours per kit. So, the real price is quite high if you were to look at it from the perspective of someone trying to break even. Now, obviously reliability and automation can cut down on the labor figure quite a bit, but it takes a lot of time and experience to get to that position. The parts that have been sold have been almost donations to help get the project running.

I wonder how much a set of parts would go for on Ebay.

I saw a set of second hand used Darwin parts go for £176 the other day.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

what if i made a silicone mould of all the mendel parts and cast them in resin? I could cast full sets in ten minutes

YES that would be the way to go to quickly produce sets that could be sold to get a good number of Mendels out there but it requires:

1. A full set of high quality Mendel parts (nophead?) to make the moulds from...
2. And either several runs, e.g. 6 frame vertices = 6 runs or 6 moulds...
3. Someone willing to take this on as a project. I suspect that you could easily sell 100+ such kits in a very short time based on the current demand (possibly more).

Since I want to start building my Mendel in February 2010 (I live in Germany) I will definitely be looking for a set of Mendel components at that time. If they can't be obtained I will be forced to go the RepStrap method like so many others but would greatly appreciate not having to go that route.

How much do the raw materials i.e. resin cost for the volume required for the Mendel RP components?

I'm sure that they would go like hot cakes for $100 per set (and even at $200 per set you would probably sell quite a few).

There is already someone on this forum selling just the 6 frame vertices for $30 per set!

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/05/2010 08:42AM by rhmorrison.

Moulding parts that are designed to be extruded is not at all easy. There are lots of internal holes and captive nuts, etc, that would require multiple cores rather than just a simple split line.

BfB used to sell moulded versions of the Darwin parts but they soon changed to laser cut, presumably due to the manual work involved.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

Oh well, the dream was nice while it lasted.

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Bob Morrison
Wörth am Rhein, Germany
"Luke, use the source!"
BLOG - PHOTOS - Thingiverse

i haven't had a close look at all the mendel parts.. but here is something i just cast in resin (a part for a kick drum)





this was just a 1 part mould (pictured mould is inside out).

maybe the majority of the parts could be done in resin that would save alot of time for the trickier ones to be printed out

Now imagine that piece, with 2-6 captive nuts, and 2-4 bars ran through it. It can be done, but it's going to be hard on the molds, and your sanity.

Better to take the money you would spend on the silicone/resin and just pay for a second printer. Static cost for silicone is close to the cost of electronics/rods/screws for a printer. Better to build a second printer.

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repraplogphase.blogspot.com

mmm. but if i had a printer or two i could cast the whole set minus the tricky ones, and have a whole set done pretty quick. I'm going to experiment with it anyways.

following on that line of thought -- i have no experience casting things, but a bit printing them -- would it be possible to /print/ some moulds, then fill them full of resin? at least for the very large pieces it might be a way to bootstrap things a bit more quickly?

Resin sticks to ABS like mad, especially ridged ABS.

If you really want to cast some stuff:

[reprap.org]

Adrian Bowyer's guide to casting parts

[www.tapplastics.com] : Great Resin, reasonable price

rtvmoldmaking.com US source for low viscosity 22a as refereed to in the Soft Tooling For Casting section of RepRap. (US supplier is significantly cheaper, but this stuff is expensive in the 1st place).

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repraplogphase.blogspot.com

I can offer short cuts here.. we usually make a master in RP then use it to duplicate parts using an epoxy or silicone die and cast components. In short run production we use this technique to make parts from original..You need to use techniques based on part or component and decide accordingly. It saves time in duplicating and you get much better finished parts and more uniform. A lot is required to amortise the tool costs..Parts can be in several materials like glass filled resin or filler based resins.
JAGS

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JAGS
DESIGN FOR A CHANGE!

I'm offering complete kits for 350$ email me for details. this is everything, if you want it to run from sd card it would be 450$


James