I consider myself to be a medicore rep-rapper. I'm not quite as analytic about things as many others here. That said, I do have enough knowledge to help others get started with this hobby (affliction). Last year I began teaching classes at community college to teach students how to build a 3D printer. We used the QUBD TwoUp kit for the first class. That was an awful experience. QUBD lost any future business they may have seen from me.
For classes after that, I decided to build my own kits using a printer of my design. The main reasons I took this approach are:
- Reliability - I sourced all the components and ordered extras to have in inventor. No issues with supply and quality (which was a BIG problem with QUBD)
- Ease of assembly - My design is about 70% printed. I created all documentation and ensured simplified construction
- Cost - While the QUBD TwoUp is cheaper than my retail price of around $350/kit, the print quality and robustness of my design is far beyond the TwoUp.
By taking this on I challenged myself. I wanted this to be as 'grassroots' as possible so I created all the parts myself on my own printers. For the past two months my two cartesian printers have been printing almost nonstop. During that time my prints have mostly been successful. Once my production is complete, I will provide the total number of parts I've printed. It may very well be over 1000 parts between my two printers. I've gone through around 5 or 6 1kg spools of filament. I've broken some things and have had a couple of total failures/borderline disasters. It's been a fantastic learning experience and I will share that here.
