Thinking of a Prusa

[richb007]

Hi
I want to get a 3D printer but not sure which type to buy.
The Prusa's appear to be the best kits and i know building one teaches a lot about the subject but are they any good and which brand is the best??Sintra/Geeetech??
The price is so much less that a enclosed printer.
Im not scared of building it but should i be?? will i get quality from something i build or should i leave it to the experts???Will the resolution be OK?
The Sintra and Geetech are on ebay of £250ish. I like the sound of that.
All good advice is good advice.
R

[iDig3Dprinting]

Hi richb007,

You should not be afraid of building a kit, it obviously will depend slightly on your practical skills but it really is not very hard, just be conscientious and take you time. We built one by sourcing all our components, if you follow the train of the articles on building a 3D printer it will give you some insight into the different components that are used.

We cannot comment on the quality of the various kits, people have issues with them and with some respect I think there is a bit of luck as to whether all the components are in a good state, but for £250 what do you expect. But, even if there is a quality issue you should be able to get parts replaced under the manufacturers warranty and also it is easy enough for you to find replacement parts and upgrade them. People are designing upgrades and tweaks all the time, especially for a common design like the Prusa i3.

We use a Prusa i3 all the time as it is our test 3D printer, used for testing 3D printer filament samples. It does work very well, at least the one we built does. We have used all manner of different filament materials on it (ABS, PLA, HIPS, NinjaFlex, WoodFill, CopperFill, MouldLay, LayBrick, Nylon, Carbon etc........ .......) to good effect.

Having an enclosed build area, as in a 3D printer like the UP Mini 2, can be an advantage for some warp prone materials like ABS or Nylon, but you could add a DIY enclosure at a later date.

Your choice of printer is really going to depend upon what you want to print, how big the prints need to be, what functional properties the end print needs to have and how much money you have.

Feel free to ask questions, you can direct message us via our contacts page, email is prefered.

[richb007]

Thanks for that.
As for what I want to make, im not sure yet but ill start with starwars models and the like.
It seems the prusa has 200x200x180mm which seems large. More expensive enclosed seem to be smaller.
Is there a quality quantifier like on an ink jet i need to look for. eg dpi?? I assume its the layer thickness. I want to be able to customise once happy, even add duel extruder.

[iDig3Dprinting]

The thing most people look at is layer height. if you have low layer heights, typically 0.1mm then that results in less visible layering, but it you want to print fine detail then nozzle size (they usually come with a standard nozzle size of 0.4mm) is the thing to look at. However it is simple enough to get smaller nozzle diameters, down to about 0.2mm. Other things are positional accuracy and microsteps, which are typically 1/16 of a step (this is to do with the stepper motors and their control by the stepper drivers). it is unlikely you will be able to pick this on a kit.

But remember the smaller the layer height and the smaller the nozzle the less plastic is extruded at any given point therefore it takes longer to print. We typically print at 0.28mm (optimised layer height for our set up) with a 0.4mm nozzle. Large nozzle sizes are very useful for printing larger objects, but with obvious effects on surface finish.

The prusa build area is more than adequate for pretty much everything, you can always cut the model up into smaller parts if you need to make a larger object. but if you print a large object the it will take a long time. some prints can take in excess of 12hrs if they are big and detailed.

you will more than likely, if you get into it, look to update your design.

[richb007]

Thanks again, im getting more confident each post...
This is the Prusa im looking at.
What do you think of the specs.....

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/171791865692? ... 1436.l2649

[iDig3Dprinting]

We have bought some sinitron electronics and they seemed OK. Make sure you get a fan to cool the board down. Ramps boards are good but their weakness is the resitors for the heated bed circuit that can reach a cut off temperature.

The down side maybe that it is acrylic framed which is not very rigid. We have no experience with acrylic framed Prusa but the general consensus is that this can be a weakness. As to the quality of the threaded rods, printed parts and bearings we cannot say but they are likely to be towards the bottom end. The upshot is it will probably be fine but we couldn’t say for sure. You wont know until you get it. See if you can find some reviews.

[Cindy]

what do you think of this prusa printer?
http://www.reprapmall.com/index.php?rou ... uct_id=159

It has more simply structure

[steveprinters29]

Prusa 3D printers are certainly one of the best equipment and deliver high-quality outcomes.
Here are some of the best 3D printers in this category:
• FLSUN 3D Cube Metal Frame Large Print Area 3D Printer
• FOLGER Tech Reprap Aluminum 3D Printer Kit
• GEEETECH Prusa I3 M201 - Color Palette 3D Printer
• MAKEMENDEL | RepRapPrusa I3 DIY Kit
• WANHAO I3 Fully Assembled - Steel Frame - Version V2.1
• GEEETECH Prusa I3 X - HIGH Speed & Multi Filaments Support

https://www.3dprintersonlinestore.com/wanhao-d7-plus