Message from @tgotr
Discord ID: 358712451178561546
kits are easy to put together but bear in mind you're gonna need a fair bit of tools it will not come with to calibrate it well
at minimum you need calipers and a dial indicator is really worth getting too
that already puts you out of the $200 budget for the cheapest kits i know of
Yea, I've been looking to get a cheap 3D printer. I don't want to pay a lot.
also: be comfortable messing around with firmware, because you'll need to write firmware onto the board yourself, and you're gonna be editing the firmware too
i would say wait for the mp mini delta
if you really want a sub-$200 printer
mp select mini if you can find it on sale, $220 msrp but sometimes it drops to $180
you can go full diy on a 3d printer for under 100usd, but you kinda have to already be comfortable with EME or robotics or mechatronics or whatever they're calling that field lately it seems to change every few years
I am a fabricator by trade, so I am fine putting shit together
and you'll be doing a lot of dumpster diving and repurposing other machiens to make that happen
specifically look for old thrown-out printers and optical drives
they have steppers and rails and gears and bearings
and if you're okay with it being super tiny optical drives have entire assemblies you can use as is for an axis
I've already built a small 3D printer with CD drives. Been using it more for a mill tho
in that case: what is your biggest caliper, how long
6 inches
same, 's why the kossel kit was such a pain for me :(
had to do a lot of "okay, is this value right? no, slightly off, change firmware, flash, how bout now? no, still off, gdi"
but one can make it work with patience since you can measure test cubes with a caliper that size
i just want like a fkn 12 inch caliper
only the expensive Real Machinist Tools brands seem to make them though
i live well enough but i can't exactly sit here and drop a grand on some mitutoyos for a specific project like that
I use a 12 inch Caliper when welding, they can be a pain in the ass on their own
if you have access to one use it
you'll be up and running with a delta kit way faster
ah OK.
OH, thing to note with the sub-$200 printer kits
you _must_ replace the power supply, and you _must_ put a fet between the heated bed and the hot bed connector on the board
otherwise you will have fires, maybe not immediately, but it will happen
ahhh. a fet?
you simply do not fit a safe and reliable 25A+ power supply in that budget, and the boards cannot handle the current a hot bed needs
ohh
so you put the heat bed output on the gate of the fet and wire that up to the power supply directly instead of putting all 20A of that through the pcb
not a problem. 20A Power supplies aren't hard to come by. What is the voltage required?
16A minimum, but honestly if you aren't putting 20A through that bed you aren't getting much use out of it for the plastics that it helps
depends, you have 12v and 24v pritners, most are 12v
Ah ok. Well shit, I have a ton of 12v 20A PSUs from laptops
all the beds can run on either and i would actually recommend getting a 24v supply to run the bed and maybe just give it its own controller instead of having the 3d printer control that
you'll get same power with less current