Looking for Prusa Mendel RP parts

Hi all,

Brand new to this, but really excited to get started. I'm a recent Florida ME grad with too much time on his hands! After digging around, I've decided to start with a Prusa build. I'm looking for a set of ABS parts for the Prusa along with the parts for Wade's Geared Extruder. They can be SAE or metric, though I imagine SAE is probably going to be better for me in the US (right?). I'm just looking to get going.

[reprap.org]
[reprap.org]

I've looked around on ebay, I just wanted to see what kind of prices I could get here.

And I promise the FIRST thing I'll print is more Mendel parts, I feel like there is a shortage of sellers!

Whatcha got?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/28/2011 03:15PM by ajsg8r.

There is a shortage of sellers because people/buyers want free stuff . Some of them/sellers added up all the work and time involve in making parts, they realized, that they make more money by collecting cans or working at some fast food restaurant. If you look on ebay some of them are so competitive they are willing to sell it at $40. Just keep on bidding once knowing they have another one coming. It's just a matter of time before you get it at minimum bid. An alternative is to make it out of wood using your hands. It's hard work, but at least it's free. You need a pair of hands, some wood from the trash, and a saw and bingo, you got some free parts.

ps. if $40 isn't cheap enough I think the second option would be best. There are machines starting at $0.99, but I don't think they have any intention of selling it at $0.99. And besides, I don't think you can get one for $0.99 anyway.

I think the reprap market might disappear in one or two years or maybe sooner, due to the fact some people jack the prices so low, there is really no incentive to keep on producing them. The market is literally being destroyed. It's a race to the bottom. Lets see who can do more for less or work for free. The winner will still lose since the person needs to work more for less.

Good luck to you.

Snoopy,

$40 would be awesome for me. I'm not getting in to this thing to make money off of selling parts for more printers, and if that is what this community is really standing on, I can definitely see it crumbling quickly. "Supporting itself, so it may continue supporting itself" would be an awful existence. It sounds like maybe there is a bad taste in your mouth about the parts market, that maybe people are making these machines strictly to sell parts for them to other people and are making them in such quantities they can distribute them at lower prices than really seem fair. When I commented on there being a distinct lack of sellers, I was including the number of listings I saw on ebay but maybe I have bad timing. To be fair, I did see a few. So if I interpret what you said correctly, the few that are making the parts are making all of the parts at such a price it is silly and not worth the effort for additional people to produce them?

My vision is to have a working 3D printer that I can tinker with, make plastic parts for things I break or machines I'm prototyping, and maybe once I get enough experience with the whole setup to add some ideas I have for color changing mid-batch, or swapping different extruders etc.

Is that the general consensus? Buy your parts off of ebay?