Mendel in NJ?
Posted by Benbo231
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Re: Mendel in NJ? February 07, 2010 08:49AM |
For $200 you may not be able to get what you need.
It may help to think of the reprap as four systems:
Electronics
Motors
Cartesian Robot
Extruder
You CAN probably get the electronics and motors for that price - makerbot and www.alltronics.com. Pololu's stepper driver is a good price and liable to be more available, though it does require heatsinking.
The parts for a McWire cartesian bot, which can be driven by the official electronics and motors, can be very cheap. Especially if you avoid lasercut plastic, any board you have on hand will probably work OK. Except cardboard. Well, unless it's some really thick corrugated, I suppose.
The extruder can be a bitch. I still haven't got mine working. I recommend a stepper driven extruder w/ reifsnyderb's parts. Note that this isn't what I did, it's what I wish I'd done
To reduce your total cost beyond that, you'll have to look at scrounging. Old dot-matrix printers are famous for having stepper motors that are easy to re-purpose, some people (like myself) have managed to re-purpose electronics as well. If you have or can get access to a cartesian robot, then of course all you need is the extruder. A milling machine can often be changed into a cartesian bot by adding the electronics and motors. The fact that you'll scrounge an old computer PSU is already taken for granted. Parts for building a cartesian robot can be scrounged, ACME threaded screws from old scissor-jacks, for instance.
But all of that will increase your man-hours-to-build figure tremendously. The least time to build option is to buy a repman or makerbot complete kit, which is of course more expensive.
--
I'm building it with Baling Wire
It may help to think of the reprap as four systems:
Electronics
Motors
Cartesian Robot
Extruder
You CAN probably get the electronics and motors for that price - makerbot and www.alltronics.com. Pololu's stepper driver is a good price and liable to be more available, though it does require heatsinking.
The parts for a McWire cartesian bot, which can be driven by the official electronics and motors, can be very cheap. Especially if you avoid lasercut plastic, any board you have on hand will probably work OK. Except cardboard. Well, unless it's some really thick corrugated, I suppose.
The extruder can be a bitch. I still haven't got mine working. I recommend a stepper driven extruder w/ reifsnyderb's parts. Note that this isn't what I did, it's what I wish I'd done
To reduce your total cost beyond that, you'll have to look at scrounging. Old dot-matrix printers are famous for having stepper motors that are easy to re-purpose, some people (like myself) have managed to re-purpose electronics as well. If you have or can get access to a cartesian robot, then of course all you need is the extruder. A milling machine can often be changed into a cartesian bot by adding the electronics and motors. The fact that you'll scrounge an old computer PSU is already taken for granted. Parts for building a cartesian robot can be scrounged, ACME threaded screws from old scissor-jacks, for instance.
But all of that will increase your man-hours-to-build figure tremendously. The least time to build option is to buy a repman or makerbot complete kit, which is of course more expensive.
--
I'm building it with Baling Wire
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