Trying to get parts of a Wilson TS 3D Printed for a fair price

[Daniel Friesen]

I'm thinking of putting together a RepRap Wilson TS in the "near" future, but I'm having a hard time trying to get the 3D printed parts for a fair price. Does anyone have an idea?

The Wilson TS is a fairly recent model technically still in development, so it isn't being sold in kits like the Prusa i3.

I saw one Aliexpress seller selling the 3D printed parts for a Wilson TS. However these parts were older parts. Recently there have been a few improvements to the 3D printed parts of the Wilson, intended to make it easier to assemble (wider holes to avoid the need for cleaning them up with a drill, slots to show things are in all the way, etc...). For reference this set of parts for all the fundamentals of the printer was priced around $50.

I looked into getting the parts printed by someone locally through 3D Hubs by uploading all the .stl files, but the prices were unreasonable. The cheapest quotes were for well over $300 to have the printer parts printed in ABS.

I combined the two largest parts of the printer (the y-motor and y-idler pieces) into a single .stl file and tried uploading that. For those two parts the cheapest quotes were above $50. When I opened up that same .stl file in Cura and did some calculations the materials cost was only about $5.

[John Biehler]

The material costs are one a small part of the equation though. Running a machine for hours or days for a kit isn't a fun or easy thing to do so its only fair the person is compensated. It's also why I stopped doing kits because it was a race to the bottom in the market and tying up my machine that long for $50 just wasn't worth it. 

Worst case buy the cheaper older kit and then print the upgrades yourself with it. I did this when I build my first Prusa as the design files weren't close to being final when I started and my vitamins would only be compatible for so long before I'd have to change them. I had to draw a line in the sand and build what I had parts for and stop worrying about the improvements that were coming out daily. 

There is a good chance someone here will offer to help out though. 

Good luck!

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[Daniel DeGagne]

Trying to judge the cost of an item by just the filament cost isn't a fair comparison of the real costs. Not gonna go all accountant on it but image how much time it takes someone to get a print off there machine. an hour is a reasonably estimate if all goes well. Its about a 50% chance that it doesn't then you need to spend that time again plus materials to reprint the item.

I don't charge by the cost of the filament but by the time it takes to print. So a print thats .1mm layers costs almost 2x as much as .2mm layers. And I have a minimum charge as well of 2 hrs.

Something to be aware of not just buying parts but also if you start selling parts yourself in the future.

[Rob Hall]

Shoot me a link my machine has been idle
We work out a deal for one in the notion to get someone else up and running

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[Daniel Friesen]

I contacted the seller of that kit of older Wilson TS parts and told them about all the updates. It seems they may be willing to print the newer kit parts for me, I sent them the exact set of newer STL files I need.

[Rob Hall]

I looked iit up on thingiverse not the newest set but i could maybe print a set
For you we could work out a deal

Are you doing a m10 rod version or a t-slot version
Send a pm so we could sort out a price but we can do it all the parts should fit on my print bed

I am going to start printing a new printer soon anyways so i am sure we can work out something

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[Rob Hall]

Sorry i should have read better i would have knoww your  doing the tslot version

[Daniel Friesen]

Thanks for the offer. That seller seems willing to print the updated parts for $62.83, so I might go with that for now.

Btw, the canonical location for the files for the Wilson are at:
https://github.com/mjrice/wilson/tree/master/stl

I'm having the TS variant printed, with the (now default) direct drive extruder, push to fit pieces, tensioner; and the alternative fan shroud for the E3D HotEnd.