I am looking after a good instruction for MendelMax 1.5

[FlorianDE]

Hi guys,

I want to built a MendelMax, but unfortunately I cant find a good instruction. Maybe you can help me, the language should be Englisch or German.

Kind regards

Florian

[Sean Mitchell]

Hi Florian,

Which version of Mendelmax were you looking to build?  1.5 or 2.0?  Have you purchased anything yet?  

The instructions really depend on what choices you make for the linear motion (bearings, bushings, rail+car) and what parts you get. It's best to read all you can but ask lots of questions, we're all nice here.

A good start for 1.5 is here

For 2.0, check here

Are you in Germany? Wo denn, ich wohne in Köln :)

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[FlorianDE]

Vielen Dank für deine Antwort :),

 

ja ich wohne in Deutschland, sogar "relativ" in der Nähe. Ich wohne in Ascheberg (ist in der Nähe von Münster und ca. 100 km von Köln entfernt). Ich möchte gerne den klassischen Mendel 1.5 ohne Schiene bauen, da ich die Kosten möglichst gering halten möchte. Generell möchte ich so viel wie möglich selber machen, da ich so die Kosten gering halte und es zählt für mich das Motto „Der Weg ist das Ziel“, da ich mich am meisten Lust auf den Bau habeJ.

Lässt sich der MendelMax 2.0 eigentlich schon auf DIY-Basis bauen, also ohne das Kit aus den USA zu bestellen? Wenn ja wäre das ja eigentlich auch eine Idee den zu bauen anstatt den 1.5er oder?

 

Entschuldige übrigens, dass ich erst so spät antworte. Ich nutze nicht sehr oft Google+ und habe gedacht, dass bei einer Antwort eine Benachrichtigung oder so kommt ;)

 

MFG

 

Florian

[Sean Mitchell]

Hi Florian,

It's best in German that we communicate directly, so as not to spam the group's inbox with our messages (most of us receive these messages as email in our inbox).  I have sent you a note directly in German.

With the printer, I'm of the same opinion as you - the goal is the project itself, not the final product.

It is possible to self-source a MM2.0, you will have to have the parts laser cut.  It shouldn't be too difficult, I know Mike has posted the parts online and you can download them and prepare them for a company that does laser cutting.  Most require a DXF or DWG file format.  Mike uses Alibre (now called Geomagic Design) to design the parts, which you can get a 30 day trial of it for free.  In november they also have a sale where the personal edition goes for 50% off, so it will only cost $99USD.  Until then you can use the trial to get your parts done.  Because of volume discounts, it may actually be cheaper to go with the kit, unless you're looking for the adventure of doing it yourself (or want to spread the costs over the entire build time rather than having a single cost of $700).

I have built another printer, an aluminatus myself, which I needed to have two parts laser cut.  I did it at prokilo, and I can send you the prices if you're interested in what I paid for the cutting (though note that the MM2.0 pieces are much smaller, I had two pieces cut for the aluminatus that were 590x527x3 and 280x280x5.  This should mean your parts will cost significantly less than what I had to pay)

I believe the MTW kits are cut with waterjet cuts.  Waterjetting is much more expensive than lasering.  A disadvantage of laser is you will need to postprocess your parts a bit, the laser leaves sharp edges which need to be sanded down or rounded off.  Also there is a bit of discolouration around the cuts with lasering.

For 1.5 or 2.0, you can decide which you want to build and which suits your budget.  I find the 1.5 has a problem with the X axis if you try and use it for CNC work.  When the toolhead bites into material, the axis flexes inwards (this would also happen if you tighten the belt too tight on your printhead).  If this affects the printing at all, it is minimal, it's just not good for cutting I found.  A disadvantage of the 2.0 is it is relatively new and there is less community experience with it (the 1.5 has multiple companies selling their own versions of it, examples are makers tool works (the original designer), lulzbot with their AO-101, Ultibots and a few others).  I think also the 2.0 will be a bit more expensive if you use the fancy IGUS rails, but I haven't acutally priced anything out.

I have a number of german companies that I have had a good experience with, which offer the parts fairly cheaply.  I have posted this before to the group, but a summar is:
Motedis - for the aluminum profiles, since Misumi doesn't sell to individuals in Germany. 
Ebay MPietrzak for the chromed rods, leadscrews, and possibly the bushings
Igus - for the leadscrew nuts, possibly the bushings (would be a bit more expensive than mpietrzak, but made of plastic and very good quality), and if you choose the Mm2.0, the rails.  Their headoffice is in Cologne
GRRF: for the pololu drivers, some electronics and they have very good quality filament
colorfabb (in the netherlands): they have also very good quality filament
ProKilo: for laser cut metal, for heatspreader aluminum sheets, and your bolts / washers / nuts etc.
Watterott Elektronik: for electrical stuff (espeically if you choose smoothie on a breadboard for your electronics)

For some things I haven't found a good supplier in Germany, and the following things I have ordered from the USA (check out Makers Tool Works, Ultibots or lulzbot): borosilicate glass, kapton heaters, hotend (I really like my budaschnozzle from lulzbot, I have just ordered myself a j-head from hotends.com which I have yet to receive).  The prusanozzle is also new and from Josef Prusa, ships from CZ.

The rest of the items I ordered from China.  usually it takes 3-6 weeks and I haven't had to pay much for duties/taxes since most of the items are under 20€.

I'm not sure what you are thinking about for electronics, but I have been playing with a smoothie on a breadboard and I'm quite impressed.  It is much faster than an arduino (8bit avr @16mhz, where smoothie is 32bit arm @120mhz).  Depending on how skilled you are with electronics, you can build one for around 50€ + drivers - otherwise it would cost you 20€ for ramps at the cheapest, plus 20€ for an arduino mega + drivers.  Smoothie is fairly young, so some features like the onboard ethernet do not work, but all the "required features" for printing are working.  There are a number of really cool hardware features which are coming, like control from a Wii game controller, onboard ethernet direct on the board.