Building the kit as a beginner?
Hello, new on the forum and for the first time considering a 3D printer.
At work I got the change to experience a wanhao 3 printer, and 2 Leapfrog HS printers. Especially the Leapfrog printers are a big turnoff, while solidly built custumer support is a joke. However, I would like my printer at home. And I'm trying to find out if I can reduce the price of a MK2 kit by making some parts myself.
As said I have access to two Leapfrog HS printers and both ABS and PLA filament. Also I have a 100W lasercutter at work and all the knowledge to use it.
I'm very excited about the self calibrating features of the new MK2 and the multiple fillament option using only 1 extruder. But my questing is can I make it for less then 750 euros?
I suspect that I can print the plastic parts and cut the frame, I might be able to buy some mechanical parts from cheaper resources but the heated Bed that makes the magic possible should be bought?
Could you give me some advise?
Re: Building the kit as a beginner?
I suspect that it would cost you more to buy the parts than buy the kit, and you would not get any support from Prusa, because you didn't buy their kit.
they have no idea what quality parts you had bought or what imperfections you had engineered into the setup.
I have a friend who decided to make their own prusa...
I ordered my Original Mk1 Prusa i3 after they had ordered their parts.
I received my kit, built it and used it to re print many of the parts that they had bought that were not useable as supplied, primarily because they had ordered mis matched parts from multiple vendors. ( she has had to buy some items twice because the originals were incompatible... which has upped the price. she has used a PC power supply, which does not fit into the printer so has to stand alone... which is a bit of a fault liability...
Their kit is now assembled, and whilst they can melt and squirt plastic, using it, they can't reliably print anything of quality. 😮
in the meantime I have printed hundreds of items... sure I messed some up... but most have been good prints, and her printer is still not working, 😡
Mine has been upgraded to Mk2 Specification, and that also worked out of the box...
I am awaiting a multicolour upgrade, ... it's a little delayed, but that's because Joe Prusa's team are working to ensure it works out of the box....
in the meantime I have ordered a second original Prusa i3 Mk2... It's a kit, again and I expect it will work using the supplied parts out of the box... (ok there's a little factor of assembling the bits... but I have done that before... so no big issues there....)
Meanwhile My friends printer has looked like a bomb went off in an electronics scrapyard for about two years... 😯
and she recently bought a different printer so that she could actually print something herself.... so her overall cost is higher than mine... 🙄
Your guess is as good as mine as to whether she will ever finish the first printer...
regards Joan
I try to make safe suggestions,You should understand the context and ensure you are happy that they are safe before attempting to apply my suggestions, what you do, is YOUR responsibility. Location Halifax UK
Re: Building the kit as a beginner?
Thank you for your respons.
I ordered a kit,