First 3D printer - UK choices

Hi,
I,ve been looking into building a 3d printer, and the huxley seems to fit the bill.
In an ideal world and in the spirit of open source I,d like to obtain as much of the parts
as possible myself in order to learn and keep costs down, but I don't think its
as practicle in the UK as it is, for example in the US. For one thing, parts are not
quite so easily obtainable, or as cheap here. There are a couple of kit suppliers
here, but the prices are not too encouraging. I,m not knocking the prices though,
as thats how they make money, and fund their expertise. I would still like to see
cut down kits, so that the expense can be made gradually rather than in one hit.
Also, for example, I have electronic skills and Arduino knowledge, so I could make
the controller myself.
Would anyone from the UK care to comment?
Also out of interest, is there a UK source who can supply the printed parts for a huxley?

Many thanks!

Texy

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/06/2012 07:01AM by Texy.

I have an eMaker Huxley - it's fantastic. If you are happy running 1.75mm filament (it's a little more expensive than 3mm) then it is indeed a very good machine to start 3D printing with. Not hard to assemble and the eMaker print profiles and firmware make it easy to get good results with.
You can buy a kit from RepRap Pro with or without plastic parts.

Many people here in the UK will sell you a set of plastic parts.

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[richrap.blogspot.com]

Thanks for the quick reply Richrap.
Yes, I emailled reprappro a few days ago to confirm the UK prices of with and without plastic parts kits - still
waiting for an answer! I heard they are a bit slow with responses. If they are so slow with drumming up new business,
how quick will they be when they need to support the product they sell. I guess I,m in no hurry at this stage.
You also raised a concern with the huxley of the 1.75mm filament size. It seems to be harder to get (again in the UK),
so less competition and higher prices - do you have to hand a resonably priced UK supplier of 1.75mm filament weblink?
Another question, why is the huxley using 1.75 and not 3mm like the other models? Or in fact, why not just use a 3mm
hot end anyway?
So, could you for example, offer me a price for the huxley plastics (PM if need be)?

Thanks again,

Texy

Hello Texy,

UK Prices are as follows:

Full Huxley kit including shipping to UK address: £420
Huxley Hardware kit including shipping to UK address: £352

I have also replied via email.

Best wishes
Sally

OK, thanks Sally,
I have also replied via email.
(Asking if the kits are in stock).

Texy

The eMaker huxley is a much better design than the Techzone Huxley sold here in the States. The tech zone model is basically a miniature "Sells" Mendel and is complicated to build and tech zone doesn't have the best instructions to go off of.

I assume it uses 1.75 filament because it requires less torque to push through the bowden cable. Not sure what size motor is uses for the extruder but I know at least the x axis is a NEMA 14, meaning it has less torque than a '17 but is also a lot smaller.

Yes the extruder is NEMA14.

I saw one printing recently and the quality was very good.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/30/2012 12:30PM by nophead.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

Texy Wrote:

> how quick will they be when they need to support
> the product they sell.

Usually very quick, and quite a lot of people in the UK have one now, so the forum and IRC channel is usually the quickest route to an answer.

> You also raised a concern with the huxley of the
> 1.75mm filament size. It seems to be harder to get
> (again in the UK),

Not really a concern, only for the price, Don't buy dirt cheep stuff, it's usually very bad and being 1.75mm just makes the problems bigger if it's not good quality.

In the UK I would say use Faberdashery PLA.
Or Makerbot ABS (1.75mm) but that's also about £50/kg

> Another question, why is the huxley using 1.75 and
> not 3mm like the other models? Or in fact, why not
> just use a 3mm hot end anyway?

It's Bowden cable fed from the extuder to a very nice hot-end, very light weight and reliable.
It can print fast at high quality.

It's usually not a good idea to try and bowden feed 3mm plastic, so 1.75mm is normal for smaller machines and light-weight hot-ends.

> So, could you for example, offer me a price for
> the huxley plastics (PM if need be)?

I'll PM you.

> Thanks again,
>
> Texy

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[richrap.blogspot.com]

I,m a bit concerned about the running costs of 1.75mm filament - weight for weight it's much more expensive.
EG from the faberdashery website its typically £2.72 per 100gms for 3mm filament, but £6.33 per 100gms for 1.75mm,
both based on a 100mtr purchase.
As the mendel kit from reprappro is still in development, there is no price on the website, but there is a kit from another
company here :
[www.thereprapkitstore.co.uk]
and the price is £450.
I am concerned that the build instructions are incomplete however :
[reprap.org]

Decisions, decisions..............

Texy

The problem with both reprappro models is the use of 1.75mm filament, which means higher running costs.
The problem with thereprapkitstore is that they don't respond to emails and also the wiki builds are incomplete, which
is going to cause added confusion to a newbie like myself.
I've started to tally up costs sourcing parts myself and its overtaken the full it suppliers and its not even a complete bom yet, and no
'free' 100mtrs of filament. That's including soldering the electronics, which isn't a problem as I'm an electronics engineer.

Texy

Thingfarm used (last year) to sell pretty much everything you needed to build a prusa (excluding plastic parts), but they seemed to have cut back there catalogue massively.
If you have a few hours spare its worth trying to source the parts separately as it will save you a lot of money and you'll get exactly what you want.
At the moment its the EU sites (much lower shipping costs and better delivery times then US) which have the best selection, but there are a few good UK based ebay and emakershop sellers.

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My Reprap blog

jds-reprap.blogspot.com

Thanks Joe. I only used eBay to start building a bom and getting prices together, but I soon exceeded £400.
Even if I could source locally in hardware shops, it's a small amount of parts needed for the total build - there are still a lot of specialised parts needed that
are not available in the high street, at least in the UK.
It's a shame because I can justify spending a few hundred pounds on the build spread over months, but
spending £450 in one hit kinda sucks.
Texy

Have you had a chance to look at our H-1 kits? They are based on the huxley design, and a full kit, minus out controller board (we use mach3) so you can run an arduino set up is under $400 shipped, depending on what else you want to get? Over 300 machines all over the world now

[seemecnc.com]

We have a good manual for assembly and running now, our forum has a lot of useful ideas to help you out too.

Im sourcing parts for prusa mendel at the moment(in UK as well). no sure abt Huxley but prusa mendel doesn't seem to cost me that much. Try eMakershop dot com, there are some UK suppliers that sell at a reasonable price. You save a further 20-30 quid if u solder the board urself(u mentioned u familiar with Arduino rite?).

So I got Sanguino 1.3a kit + stepper motors+ NEMA17s + hot bed for abt 140; Vitamin(Fasteners, LM8UU bearings, Rods, Timing belts ect) for abt 75; Hot end for 40; I recon I'm few smooth rods and some nuts and washers for extruder away from a full kit. I get printed parts from my lab that saves me abt 60. Still, I recon you could manage to source everything for just under £350.

Well I've started today to look at building a 3d printer.. which brought me here. I much prefer buying all the bits in myself and 'making' them all work.. although the road is much longer it's much more fun :-)

I've been looking into making a Prusa Air 2.. I fancy making the frame out of acrylic (someone in the USA is selling one on ebay) and then building it up from there. I've got a dfx file off the website I can send to a plastic's company we use.. and would be more than happy to get multiple frames done if needed. All at cost price which I wouldnt expect to be that much.

I've done a little work on the arduino.. but more on coding in vb.net and flash but I'm happy to help where I can.

Still know nothing really but doing lots of reading :-)

Steve

We can help with providing high quality but inexpensive 1.75mm filament. Feel free to look at our website: www.3dprinterparts.org.uk

Talking about 3D printing I can say that this is the best innovation for now. Because it opens wider opportunities to all of us. Now 3D printing is maybe costing too much, but in the future, after about 3-4 years when this thing will be available for everyone I think people will no go to fix theirs broken things but they will create another one.

The side that everyone can use different material to print model shows us that it is really universal thing. If we now can create real guns just from  weapons 3D model, that some time ago was 2D model.. to cookies to eat for a Christmas..or clothes for fashion shows.. or even now it is 3D printing pen ! What`s next ?

Also, I am going to buy simple 4 Point Curved Shuriken and print it because I am preparing a presentation about the 3D printing benefits on cold weapons sphere and want to have just for real example. I want to show that everyone could have their own created weapon so simply and by this actually it could grow insecurity level. So we all have to think how we can use newest innovations in the best ways ! An I have it printed by UP ! 3D printer For me it was my first and the best 3D printer...

At moment ive started to buy stuff for my i3 total cost up to now for bearings aluminium frame and rp parts 95 quid so far thats sourcing the parts which I know ive made a saving