Reviews for DIY 3D printers?

[Mike Wirth]

Gang,

Haven't participated in this group for a couple years -- busy with other "maker" projects in electronics, metal and wood.  But just spent three days with my 11-year old grandson, doing a bunch of prints on a Makerbot Mini and Replicator 2 at an educational biz, getting him interested.

Was all too successful :-) Now, of course, he wants his own printer (and I do, too).  So would like to build a couple.  Two main requirements: reliability (which I suspect mainly means a reliable hot end), and speed (my heavens, but the Makerbots are deathly slow for any reasonable volume! Rostock videos sure look interesting).

Is there a collection of curated "wisdom" on current open source DIY designs (e.g., similar to the latest version of the Make reviews for commercial units)?  Or do I just need to attend the next meeting of this group and get your advice? :-)

BTW: Just for reference

• I have my own metalworking facility with lathe and mill, even metalcasting (including zamac and aluminum)
• I do embedded system electronics design, PCB design and fab, and MCU firmware for my day job.
• I'm actually working on a prototype BLDC motor driver for educational robotics use.
• I even have a bunch of parts already including steppers, some high quality linear bearings, etc.

So I feel comfortable launching into a project like this, but would sure like to start from the "best" initial design.

TIA,

Mike

PS: When and where is the next mtg?

[Ken Snyder]

I would advice coming to the next meeting.  There will be several different printer designs, each with their strengths and weaknesses.  Each owner will be happy to tell you all about their printer.

The next meeting is at The Tech Shop in San Jose on 2nd St. at 7pm-midnight.

Hope to see you there,

Ken

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Bay Area RepRap" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to bay-area-repr...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to bay-are...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/bay-area-reprap.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[Tom McCollum]

Mike,

If your goal is mostly to print, I think you'll be better off getting a built printer first and then graduating to building your second printer. I tried to build a printer from a kit (Mini kossel from makergeeks.com). It was a waste of time and money. Incomplete kit, poor customer service, not the highest quality parts. I punted and bought an assembled printrbot simple metal (for less than all I put in the kit, btw). I have learned enough about printing from all the tweeks necessary to get good prints from the simple metal. But what is great is that you can print something immediately out of the box. 

Tom

tom mccollum

510.708.4337

www.tommccollumarchitect.com

[Mike Wirth]

Ken and Tom,

Thanks for the quick replies.

Ken, what day is the meeting?  Wednesday?

Tom, actually the analysis, design, and building is part of the desired journey for this budding scientist/engineer :-)  And for me, who considers himself to be a "tool builder", the same is true in spades.

Current thinking on the smaller side is an Ultimaker-style design.  On the larger side, Rostock Max looks interesting.

BTW, to partially answer my own question, I found the following online review (which includes a kit/DIY section):

https://www.3dhubs.com/best-3d-printer-guide

Mike

[ken.s...@gmail.com]

Wednesday 

Go Big 3D Printers