Merging Two Printers: A Noob's Nightmare

So mistakes were made...

A few months back, I bought the Prusa i3 from FolgerTech, but recently saw a great upgrade pack for the Prusa that included autocalibration and a couple other neat bells and whistles. Unfortunately, I found out that the RepRap Prusa and the Original Prusa are two different things (I'm still a noob to 3D printing).

So now I have the upgrade pack for the Original Prusa, but I have the RepRap Prusa printer...
I have an idea of how to merge them, but have a few questions.

Now for the flood of questions!
Is the Arduino/Ramps combo interchangeable with the RAMBo board? Same code and everything?
Is the print fan absolutely necessary?
And lastly, the frames are different sizes and the Original Prusa frame has been marked out of stock for several weeks now on their website. Is there another place to get this larger frame or even a CAD file that I could get it laser cut?

I want to keep as much of the upgrade package as possible because I like the upgrades. I'm open to any suggestions!

Thanks!

Upgrade package: [shop.prusa3d.com]
Printer: [folgertech.com]

I think you are going to end up just buying the rest of the genuine prusa parts to build his machine using the upgrade kit. I can't see much working from the folgertech one easily except the power supply. I do not believe you can flash prusa's firmware to the ramps / arduino and without that you couldn't take advantage of the features you want anyway. Maybe the bearings and smooth rods would work from the folgertech kit?

You should go through the prusa assembly instructions and make a parts list then see what you have and what you would need to get.

---

Newbie with Folgertech 2020 i3.

"Is the Arduino/Ramps combo interchangeable with the RAMBo board? Same code and everything?"

No. Same CPU, different pins and rambo has additional hardware features, like software controlled current limiting, extra mosfets and software controlled microstepping (just enough to make porting a PITA, ramps support has been removed from the source)
You would not be able to use the binary firmware provided by Prusa, you would have to compile your own from source.


"Is the print fan absolutely necessary?"

If your printing PLA, yes, or expect really crappy prints

"And lastly, the frames are different sizes and the Original Prusa frame has been marked out of stock for several weeks now on their website. Is there another place to get this larger frame or even a CAD file that I could get it laser cut?"

I have asked their chat.... cad files for the current plate are not available (not cool for a supporter of open source)
The old plates CAD are still about, but I don’t know what has changed. Power supply and control board mounts seem to be the obvious changes.
[github.com]

Need to find someone with a kit and a A3 photocopier, take a scan of the current plate and a ruler for dimensions.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/30/2016 05:34AM by Dust.

That information was perfect, Dust.

I had a feeling that I would need to get the RAMBo. Also, thanks for the link to the CAD files. I'm not too worried about the missing mounting points, and if I feel like it, I can drill those myself.

I'm currently looking into Ponoko for laser cut acrylic unless someone has a better suggestion with lower prices.

Thanks for all of your help!

Stay away from Acrylic, get an Aluminum frame.

You can use the current Mega board and implement some of the features with it, assuming the upgrade package is mostly the bed and extruder and Z motors.

I would recommend you to save some money and buy a p3steel frame and then add all the upgrade parts in it, you will end up with a much solid and reliable printer this way.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/30/2016 09:28PM by ggherbaz.

Definitely stay away from acrylic, it cracks if you look at it to hard!

Also would need to be a lot thicker than 6mm for similar strength.

Thanks for the advice, but I had already placed my order for a 6mm acrylic frame. I was planning on reinforcing it with a piece of 1/4" or 1/2" ply anyways to prevent the flexing.

If that gives me any problems, I'll buy a P3 Steel frame. I already need to buy to RAMBo mini plus other miscellaneous missing parts, so I'm going to stay on the cheaper side for now.

We were all newbies once. Many of us in the reprap world have similar stories. Mine was I bought the cheapest printer available and did not even get what I paid for. Many parts came dead on arrival and when I finally got it going the prints were awful. I replaced my wooden frame with a P3Steel and replaced original parts as they failed. In time I had a damn good printer with none of the original parts.



With a little ingenuity a good reprapper can make parts to adapt add-ons to their printers. For instance if you want to add an induction sensor for autoleveling you might be able to use the following: [www.thingiverse.com] . You will still be able to keep your 3d printer intact.

I do not know how closely Prusa followed his own standards when he designed his Prusa Plus and how well this kit will fit on an original standard Prusa frame. You may end up in the same boat even if you buy a standard original Prusa frame. You may want to bite the bullet and buy the Prusa Plus for which this kit is designed for, or at least contact Prusa.

If this is not your choice and you want to go to a standard Prusa, I would go with the P3Steel anyway. It does not crack, contort or have other problems you may encounter with acrylic. Do not get a Geeetech aluminum frame. It does not use Prusa's standards. P3Steel uses Prusa's standards and is easy to upgrade if you want. If you look at the Wiki topic on this site for P3Steel you can find several manufacturers for the P3Steel frame or you can go on e-bay. There are two types of P3Steel frames, the Version 2.X with the standard 200 X 200mm build plate and the version 4 with a 200 X 300mm build plate. On e-Bay you can get the larger frame from [www.ebay.com] . The question becomes, how much can you scavenge from you old printer and how much can you use from the upgrade kit? For the large P3Steel Frame you will need 10mm smooth rods for the Y-axis along with 10mm bearings. Your other rods may or may not be long enough for the X and y-axes. The motors I see on your Folgertech printer look puny. You may or may not be able to use your printhead and X-axis printed parts. Switching to metal parts is a big improvement. You should be able to use most of your old electronics, but you may need to extend some of the wiring. Your power supply should be good. You may or may not be able to use your threaded rods. You may need to replace your belts. As msaeger stated you may end up building a whole new standard original Prusa, but I will add that you may still not be able to use your upgrade kit to make a Prusa MK2. Please contact Prusa before trying to continue with this project.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I hope this helps.

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/01/2016 05:15PM by Lymphomaniac1.

@Lymphomaniac1

re firmware, you missed the point

The Original Prusa mk2 has custom firmware, that only run on Rambo (unless someone wants to port it, and even then you lose the advanced features as ramps is just not capable of them)

One of the feature that most people want is the auto alightment stuff, where by it uses Fiducial markers on the heated bed to work out the skew of the machine (in X and Y) and correct for it in software.

No other firmware has this feature (yet, that I know of)

Sure you can install marlin, and then its like every other I3 clone on the market, nothing special

Dust:

Thank you for the info. Note taken. I removed that section from my post. I have read a lot about the MK2 but I have not seen one yet. Still my main point is that there are no guarantees that mjdonovan410 can make a Prusa MK2 from an original standard Prusa I3 frame. He needs to contact Prusa Customer Support.

Lymphnomatic / Dust

I have most of what I need, but am waiting on parts to arrive. With everything I own, I can build the MK2 if I have the extended Prusa frame (260mm gap instead of 200mm) for the larger print bed and the RAMBo Mini. The other things missing are basic hardware such as screws, "extruder springs", and a bearing.

It'll be another week before my frame comes in, so I'll let you know if a success or flop.

Bump! Got it to work.

Soooo... Using the clear framed Prusa i3 Reprap version printer kit and the "Original Prusa" MK2 upgrade kit, I needed to buy the following:

Rambo Mini
Print Fan
Bearing for Extruder
Extruder Springs (Springs from clicky pens work too)
LED Screen
Ponoko Acrylic frame
Scrap plywood for frame support
Misc M3 screws in different sizes
M3 Nuts & Washers

I might have missed a few other small things, but in the end, the major cost was the Rambo Mini board. All of the extra additions cost about $225 USD. With the upgrade kit at $200 and the clear frame Prusa i3 printer at $280, it is about equivalent to buying a new Original Prusa i3 MK2.

With that being said, it was a lot of extra work, but you get 4 motors, heated bed, mega/ramps, acrylic frame, and 3D parts for a second printer.

PM me if you have any questions about the details of the build. Print fan is still on its way, but with ABS, it hasn't posed a problem.

Currently printing an ABS Mario Thwomp. Mylar coated wood enclosure not included in pricing, but can be done for about $50.


Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/11/2017 08:20PM by mjdonovan410.

Well Done!