Newbie at 3D printing wanting to build a RepRap

[Stephen Cobb]

Hi guys! Great to see a local group I can talk to about 3D printing. I've looked on Reddit and chatted with some ppl there, but locals are more hands on and have a better perspective with local issues and troubleshooting.

I'm obviously very new to 3D printing. I've been looking around on Google Sketchup and getting familiar with the program. I've looked into a few 3D printer options and I've been told to stay away from things like the Peachy Printer...

To get my ball rolling I've turned my eye into RepRaps as they are DIY from the ground up (sometimes). More specifically the SmartRap or SmartRapCore.

What are your thoughts and suggestions on my situation? Would you suggest an easier/simpler/basic RepRap or even a different approach?

Thanks for your input and I look forward to hearing from the community.

[John Biehler]

What are you interested in doing? Is the process of building the machine as important as the 3d printing? 

There are lots of other options that are more aligned with 3d printing output than Sketchup...check out any of Autodesk's software (123D Design for example) - most of it is free for non-commercial use.

While kits are sometimes cheaper (and come with educational aspect of learning how it all works), the assembled units (like the Wanhao Duplicator i3 for example) can be very solid first printers for the hobbyist willing to spend the time dialing in the printer (which you'd have to do with a kit anyways) at a very decent price point.

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[Stephen Cobb]

I enjoy building and learning as well as having a 3D printer. I know some aspects may be complicated, but would prefer a kit over a pre-built.

With a RepRap I'd like to modify and upgrade it as I see fit.

I could be wrong, but RepRaps (kit or not) are usually cheaper than assembled printers. I have a budget of about 300-400 so I don't have a ton of room money wise...

[Ashley Webster]

A year ago I would have recommended the Mendel90 kit from Nophead but he stopped making them, so I'd say the i3 kit from Josef Prusa is next best.

http://shop.prusa3d.com/en/3d-printers/59-original-prusa-i3-kit-with-lcd.html

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Mr. Ashley Webster

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[Stephen Cobb]

That's a bit beyond my price range. I'm hoping if I build and source a lot of the parts, I could do it cheaper. Unless there is a possibility to do that with this model

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[John Biehler]

You're pretty much at the bottom of the budget range and may be hard pressed to build a decent machine for that price point.

Here's some kit prices to give you an idea (in Canadian) of the costs: https://digitmakers.ca/product-category/3d-printers/kits/

Even sourcing everything from China will still likely be beyond your budget but I'd love to be proven wrong.

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[Nick Wimpney]

probably one of the cheapest to build would be a delta, like the rostock, but only if you're good at building things.  I bought a lot of the stuff for my most recent one from hobbyking.

Bearings, pulleys, belts, carbon rods, rod ends.

That is a pretty tough budget, though.  A friend of mine added up a printer from ebay and hobbyking sources, and it still came to 367USD.  There are ways to shave that down, but I would say, as a beginner, you would probably be better off saving up a little more and looking into those kits John just linked while I was typing this.  :)

Sometimes going too cheap just means you're going to end up rebuying expensive parts when the cheap ones fail.

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[Nick Wimpney]

If you do try and source your own parts, keep in mind that the Canadian dollar is bad right now, and sourcing anything online adds a lot of shipping costs, so often you'll be better off finding a couple sources that have a lot of the parts you need, even if they're not the cheapest.

[Stephen Cobb]

While my budget is 300-400 CDN, if I acquire the pieces in batches, it will spread the cost out over a period of time. I don't expect to have the printer done and finished in a short period of time... Probably over a few months or so.

Does anyone know much about RepRaps?

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[victor...@axiom3dprinting.com]

Hello Stephen,

I am in the process of building a second reprap from scratch using a variant of the Prusa i3. I am currently sitting in the $500 range and I have not yet purchased the smooth and threaded rods yet. I purchased most of the parts when the Canadian dollar was at par with the USD.

For more information on repraps, have you checked out reprap.org yet? I find they are really good for introducing the important concepts and ideas behind reprap.

I also have a couple other printers, one kit and two pre-assembled (one of them is the Wanhao Duplicator i3 V2 - the same on that John suggested from Digitmakers.ca) I have been very impressed with it so far and find that it is easy to upgrade and maintain. In my opinion, it is well worth the price.

If you need any help, feel free to send me an email.

Victor

[Edward Simpson]

Hi,

I'm right in the middle of building a second Kossel Mini from scratch, it's ended up in the $450CAD range, using mostly canadian sources and an entirely 3d printed frame. I can recommend the kits from ElectronicGeek.ca, I got my first printer from them back in september, had to upgrade the hot-end but it's been solid and reliable for nearly 5 months of heavy use. You might also want to browse through craigslist, I've seen repraps & parts on there occasionally, also Seacans is currently selling a $330 Kossel kit locally. The Richmond Public Library also has some programs to intro 3D design and printing along with a couple of Makerbot Replicator 2's that can be reserved for small prints.

Hope that helps a bit,

Edward Simpson

[Stephen Cobb]

Hi Edward,

What do you think about the kossel printer? I honestly don't know about the Delta style and they seem more complicated than the other linear styles that I've seen. To me it means more difficult to repair and such... Maybe I'm wrong?

Is the kossel printer from seacans a decent quality? Or basic crap?

Thanks!

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[Edward Simpson]

I've been using a Kossel since November 2015, overall it's less complicated to assemble than a Prusa i3 or other coreXY style-printer, it is a bit more finicky to calibrate/program for the first time, but it's more mechanically stable than most reprap designs, I've driven mine in a car a couple of times and it's printed just fine afterwards. Looking at the picture of the Seacans kit, it looks quite decent, only weak point is possibly the hot-end, it looks like a e3d v5 clone of some kind and those are a tossup if they work or not. Overall, if I was starting out today, I'd go with the Seacans kit and replace the hot end with a genuine E3D Lite6, that should result in a decent & reliable printer.

Edward

[Stephen Cobb]

Thanks Edward for the info! That really helps!

I'll be looking into RPL and trying out their printer.

What's your thoughts on this on on CL?

http://vancouver.craigslist.ca/van/ele/5447310770.html

On Mar 18, 2016 18:23, "Edward Simpson" <r2a...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Stephen Cobb]

This one looks decent, but the frame is acrylic. Would it be possible to 3D print upgraded PLA parts? Thoughts?

It's more around my price range too :)

http://vancouver.craigslist.ca/van/ele/5487013689.html

On Mar 18, 2016 18:23, "Edward Simpson" <r2a...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Edward Simpson]

Both of those printers are good places to start, as for the acrylic push i3, it's very easy to upgrade and modify especially since there's dozens of modified/varied parts available on sites like thingiverse. Two upgrades I'd recommend would be adding a aluminum heat spreader for the i3's build plate along with an auto-level, both are already installed on the i2, and can be critical to the reliability/ease of use since, if you read the forums, both are sensitive to being moved around, i2 less thanthe i3.
Edward