On 28 Sep 2015 23:19:45 +0100 (BST), Theo Markettos
wrote:

T i m wrote:
Yes. I built a MendelMax 1.5 with / for a mate who would only buy one
(in kit form) if I agreed to help build it with him. ;-)

More costly, but we bought an Ultimaker 2.

Is it also open source OOI? We actually wanted to build something
(open source) so we could then fix it if / when we wanted.

It's a printer, it Just Works.
Take STL file, load into software, set quality dial, save to SD card. Put
SD card into printer, select file, press Print. Thassit. Oh, and wait
somewhere between 10 mins and a couple of hours.

;-)

Or presumably you can also print direct from a PC (if you wanted)?

PLA is 30p/m, and usually an inch cube plastic widget comes out at some
fraction of a metre.

I guess that depends on the density of the print? Ie, if you are
printing 100% (density) and using .3mm nozzle and .3mm layers then
assuming 1" to be 25mm that would be (83 x 25mm / layer, 83 layers?)
more than 1m of filament?

Changing PLA isn't quite to the level of changing
cartridges in a regular printer (you have to pull out the fibre from the
back of the machine, it helps with feeding/unfeeding but you still have to
poke in into the feed tube), so you don't want to do it after every run but
it doesn't require any special skills.

Similar with the MM. It also needs to be done hot.

The thing I liked most is there is zero calibration.

Similar with this MM. The X and Y axis positions are set from the home
end-stop micro switches and are not critical (as long as the print job
ends up on the bed g).

The Z axis is a bit more critical re setup but once set (and it takes
about 5-10 mins to do with nothing more complicated that a strip of
paper as a feeler gauge) seems to be pretty 'hands off'.

Ok, if you change the nozzle and the replacement is slightly longer /
shorter then you may have to re-tweek the Z but we printed a
micrometer mount for that so even that is pretty easy / quick now. ;-)

It could almost be a
Windows printer - except it doesn't have driver hell like Windows printers
;-)

I can't say I've really experienced that myself (over many many years)
but have with the much less common / popular alternatives (OSX /
Linux). ;-)

Cheers, T i m