Where to source 3D printing supplies in Ireland?

[mel]

Hi guys

Just wondering where you bought 3d printing supplies for your projects ? is there a local shop/site or do you get everything shipped from the UK (or from elsewhere ?).

Cheers

[Shane Fitzpatrick]

I sourced parts where I could.  I got RP parts printed in my college, the threaded bar, smooth bar and nuts, bolts etc came from local shops or wherever I could find them.  Maplin's off Parnell St was invaluable for little things that I kept forgetting, heatshrink, wire, tools and such.  I took a trip to Radionics in Rialto on the advice of Dave and picked up some things.  you could probably get a lot more there than I did if you prepare in advance.  I was just looking for ribbon cable which they didn't have in stock.  I bought a thin roll of Kapton tape on ebay from somebody in Limerick.

As for ordering online, I used XYZprinters.com and reprapsource.com for parts and Form Futura for filament.  Try to get everything from the same place and all in one go.  I ordered things piecemeal because I couldn't afford it all at once and ended up paying a lot in shipping costs.  You can pick up an Arduino board in Maplin's if you want to buy it local but I don't think there's anywhere in Ireland selling RAMPS boards. I could be wrong on that though. 

Do you know what printer you're buying or building yet?

If you're going for a RepRap, I'd recommend Nophead's Mendel90 kit for £499.  I've heard nothing but good things about it and it's got thorough build instructions.

[mel]

Hi Shane

Thanks for sharing your experience. The shipping costs you mention are one of the things I'm a bit worried about. Especially with the consumables being a kilo minimum.

I'd love to go the same route as you and build my own printer but I know myself and it would take me forever  to get an "almost working" printer. So I'm looking at a pre-assembled printers instead.

I'm new to 3d printing and a bit reluctant to pay over 1000$ for a 3d printer when I have never used one. Also, the technology moves so fast that I'll be bummed if I pay a lot for a printer that is quickly "outdated "..

So with the specs being "assembled and cheap", I'm left with a limited choice of printers. I'm tempted by the Assembled Printrbot LC (v2) (around 680€ including shipping) or the Printrbot junior (even cheaper but PLA only).

I wonder if anyone has gotten theirs hands on one of those and could share their thoughts.

[themodelmaker]

Hi Mel.
I made Printrbot and I don't recomend it. It was waste of time and material. It is not stable. The bed is shaking the whole machine while printing. I made it with acrylic, it cracks when screwed too much, so meaby original plywood wersion can be tightened harder, but I doubt it. Choose reprap instead. The A frame makes it more stable because supports bed and z axis in 2 places. I see Printsbot adds extra parts to fix this problems.

[Shane Fitzpatrick]

I have an almost working RepRap Prusa and it's ok so far.  I've had issues with my build because of inexperience and such.  Some other people I've talked to with the Prusa have been able to get very good quality prints so I guess it's true that the RepRap will give back what you put in.  Like I said above, Nophead's Mendel90 kit seems to be a top quality assembly which you can look at here for a decent price.  I don't think I'll have my Prusa after September as I'm working out a deal with my college for it so I'm planning to get a Mendel90 after that.  Since it has pretty complete build instructions and good support (Nophead is very active on the forums) I think it should be a good investment.  Dave and some others have Ultimakers and again, I've only heard good things about them.  They are a bigger cash investment though but less about tinkering than the RepRap and more about making things.  Look at the Mendel90 build instructions and see if you are comfortable with what's required for it.  Here's the link to download them.

https://github.com/nophead/Mendel90/blob/master/dibond/manual/Mendel90_Dibond.pdf

[conr]

Shane Fitzpatrick, your my hero...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WssvDwtWNo&feature=youtube_gdata_player

we bought a prusa Mendel from oranage knob / romscraj... And are working through the bluid...it was only ~600 EUR, but is very easy to build and u learn a lot. The Wades extruder is a bit iffy,we may buy the machined one (extruder)from makeshop.

Stiffness seems to be key and the PM design is about 2yrs old. You do learn a lot, and it is very well supported, but I may get the back board and acryllic components for the Mendel 90...and use the romscraj parts. The ultimaker is pretty cool, and works well, but based in the PM experience, if I had the time/ money I would probably go for a aluminium frame multi- head ...rep rich has some good videos!

Again, well done Shane we r only 70% through our build, it is hard yards, but the best Lego set I have ever had!

[Brendan]

I built a Mendel90 and am quite impressed, build was relatively simple, it took about 20 hours mostly due to rechecking and being hassled by the kids, I reckon without distractions you could do it in half the time.

The first print was pretty good even without calibration, I put this more down to the inherent stiffness of the design rather than any build skill on my part.

I have been using lemon juice on the glass bed for cleaning and the residue from the lemon seems to help PLA stick quite nicely.

[Shane Fitzpatrick]

I'm not sure what I've done to deserve such praise, but thanks!  Have you got any photos or logs of your build conr?  Is it the all metal extruder you're looking at?  I think Michal mentioned buying one of those at the meet up in TOG last week, they look really interesting. 

I agree it's great fun putting the kit together, it was possibly one of the most satisfying moments of my life when I actually got a print out of mine.  I wasn't overly sure whether I would end up with a several hundred euro paperweight or not.