On 25 Apr 2018 13:23:04 GMT, David wrote:

Having just read an interesting "What I did with my 3D printer" thread, I
wondered which 3D printers DIYers used, and why.

A mate, liking the idea of one, conscripted his Mrs to do the research
and along the way asked me two things:

1) Could I give them any advice re what to get and:

2) Whatever they got, could I help them build it (they wouldn't get
one if I said no).

As I hadn't even used one and only seen them on the telly or at
Engineering shows *, I did a bit of Googling and found several things
I understood to be important and fitted 'our' prerequisites.

a) It needed to be a kit (none of us had the time or experience to
source all the bits individually).

b) It needed to be rigid.

c) It needed to be RepRap / open source as much as possible.

d) It needed to come from the Uk (for support / spares etc).

e) It needed to have a good rep.

She ended up with a MendelMax 1.5 (kit) and we (he and I) built it up
in our spare time and I'd have to say we were very pleased with it.
The very first real test print, a 20mm cube turned out to be just
that. ;-)

I was then worked hard every day (often 10 - 6) printing all sorts of
stuff for all 3 of us and also bits for others, as the mood / need
took us. It's very much like this:

https://www.ultibots.com/mendelmax-1-5-kit/

It's also printed all the plastic parts for two more printers now. ;-)


A quick look online seems to show printers in the £200-£400 range so there
would have to be a significant saving to cost in for making one off parts.

That didn't even come into it for us.

I can understand the "Uh, duh, because 3d printing!".

;-)

Just wondering if
anyone has cost justified a purchase on the savings over buying stuff or
throwing away something as unrepairable.

I haven't ... as that wasn't (as you say), 'the point'.

More the point though, some of the practical uses we have put it to
have allowed us to do stuff that would have been very expensive or
very difficult to have done without and so we consider it to have paid
for itself (in time and convenience, if not in cost etc).

Cheers, T i m