Investment Time/Money

Ok so now that I have all the materials its time to total everything up. Including the time for the build. I did not record time for the calibration and running tests, only the physical build.

Total Physical Build Time: 11hrs

BOM:

Item	Supplier	Item #	#	Unit Cost	Total
M8 Linear Rods	McMaster Carr	90024A080	6	$      8.31	$    49.86
M8 Threaded Rods	McMaster Carr	1272T17	3	$    15.72	$    47.16
M8 Rods Shipping	McMaster Carr	-	-	$     6.17	$      6.17
Nema 17 Stepper Motor, Wired	Ultimachine.com	UMN17MTR	5	$    21.50	$  107.50
Motor Shipping	Ultimachine.com	-	-	$    10.66	$    10.66
"Vitamins", Heatbed, Plastic Parts
Extruder, Gen6 Electronics	Makerfarm.com	V2KIT	1	$  439.95	$  439.95
Kit Shipping	Makerfarm.com	-	-	$    15.80	$    15.80
Power Supply 12VDC 20A	Ebay	-	1	$    28.78	$    28.78
Orange ABS Filament 2.64lbs	Ebay	-	1	$    32.00	$    32.00
Filament Shipping	Ebay	-	-	$    30.00	$    30.00
Total Cost					$  767.88

Update 4/3/12 had to add a sheet of glass. I bought picture frame replacement glass to put on the heat bed when printing (as recommended to me) since I had problems with my print sticking to the blue tape. This added $1.98

An important thing to note about the build cost is the actual build is 

767.88-62.00(consumables)+1.98(glass)=707.86

Power Supply

New power supply arrived! $28.78 +12VDC 20A power supply. I took a standard PC power cable and cut the end off to wire it up. If you do this BE SURE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING. This is very dangerous and caution needs to be taken. You need to make sure the proper wires are hooked up to the right locations and that the voltages are good. Make sure to use heavy enough wire (such as this power cord) for the AC input. 

I have been playing with the printer before this arrived, but with a "hotwired" computer power supply. Also please dont do this unless you are sure you know what you're doing as it is very dangerous.

Victory!

So after hours of trouble shooting, trying four computers, I finally figured it out.... I needed to turn the power supply on. Stupid I know, but I honestly thought that the power supply just powered the motors and that the board got power through the USB port. Well I tried installing the drivers and everything again to get the computer to recognize it and it worked with the power on, and the whining of the motors stopped! Before this the whining was a very high-pitched noise that was really annoying. So maybe it had nothing to do with the trim pots! gonna turn them back up.

Defeat

admitting defeat for the night... powers up but I cant get connection to the computer. I cant seem to get the drivers to install

Power!

Gave her some power (with a hot wired ATX power supply) will have more details later... high pitch whiney noise from the steppers.... apparently too much current, need to turn the trim pots down...

Wiring [almost] Done

 The top down view with extra wiring bundled on the acrylic mounting plate for the circuit board

Front view, tried to bundle wires in the neatest way possible. Lots of wires to the circuit board made it tricky and hard to really hide them. 

Ink (ABS filament)

Sorry the picture is a little dark... But here is the filament I ordered! 

I ordered it from ebay. I purchased 1.2kg(2.64lbs) of 3mm ABS filament in bright orange. I thought the price was really good but forgot to look at the shipping cost. Shipping was $30!!! Because it came from a foreign country it took a while to get it through the post office. They wouldn't deliver to the apt. and I couldnt make it to the PO during business hours but I caught the postman as he was leaving the building and he went back in and got it for me after-hours. All in all it cost me $62 which is still reasonable since I figured $30/lb and it ended up only being $23.50/lb. They even included a little of their green filament!

Electronics

In process of attaching electronics and running the wires.... no picture yet, once I get things in place I will be sure to upload a picture. Put in 2 hours for the night!

Getting Close!

 Hot End Parts

Hot End Assembled

Table attached (not the heat bed yet) and all axis complete, hot end mounted!! 10hrs of build time (might be 11 I forgot)

Attaching the X

 So I ran into a problem when mounting the X-axis. I didnt have it properly spaced! The directions didn't say how far to space it so I completely looked over it. Thankfully I have a nice clamp that doubles as a spreader. Another problem that I had was the spacing for the Z-motor mounts. If using metric you need to add an extra set of washers to both sides to compensate for metric nuts being thinner than SAE nuts. 

X-axis being mounted on Z-axis. My water glass is holding it up right now and I am so thirsty! Wish I had a straw :)

Extrude Head

 Since I need to wait on a new Z motor mount I switched gears tonight and did the extruder head.

The "Gregs Accessible Extruder" inner workings

Completed, a quick 35 minute build.

X Axis Complete

X axis complete

Y Axis Complete

Y-Axis complete! Motor attached, stage attached, and belt in place. Done for a few hours.

Y Axis Base

Y axis base started

Excellent Customer Service

So I have the framing done and all perfectly spaced. I ran into a little issue with a delaminated z motor mount as seen below. I contacted MakerFarm and they are sending a new piece Monday morning! Living up to their customer service :) Try getting that with some other vendors.

Basic Framing

Basic frame taking shape after 3hrs 10 minutes of total work. Note that I might be slower since I am taking time to make sure the adjustment lengths are within 1/32 of an inch

Front Supports

Got the front assembled! For those that dont know, keep in mind that with any of the build pictures any parts in red were printed on a 3d printer.

First Triangle

So excited now that shes taking shape. Heres a photo of the first side.

Cut Rods!

So here we are again.. I got my rods all cut today according to the lengths on MakerFarm. I made sure to error on the long side (+.125"/-0). Not sure if this will have any affect on the build yet. But I will soon find out!

Im excited to start putting pieces together! This is going to be an awesome weekend with St Pattys day included. [I will not be mixing festivities with building ;) ]

Orders

..
I decided to go with a kit since I was affraid I would be leaving parts out left and right. Or either that buy incompatable things. I was mostly worried about forgetting the various plastic parts not knowing what was what. MakerFarms Prusa kit was also V2.0 so it had some updates that improve on the original V1.0.. The kits and materials needed for a V2 are a little elusive as nont many people have published what exactly is needed. I decided to go with metric since most people who build these use metric and though there would be more support if needed.

Makerfarm also has great directions on how to assemble different portions if you do decide to source your materials from all over. I purchased the kit on March 7th and it arrived on the 12th. ($455.75 with shipping) This included all the plastic parts, the extrude head, gen6 electronics, heatbed. Basically everything but rods, motors, and power supply


I also purchased 5 stepper motors prewired at Ultimachine on 3/7 that arrived 3/14 ($118.16 with shipping) It came with 2 samples of their PLA plastic too!

After lots of research on what length rods I needed. I found the correct information on MakerFarm once the new build guides were posted (on 3/11). Monday I ordered six 1meter M8 rods, and three 1meter 8mm linear rods  ($103.19). They were delivered today 3/15 and I was rather annoyed with their choice of packaging. The rods were in a cardboard tube and filled the diameter of the tube about 10%. There was nothing from preventing them from banging together. Thankfully after close inspection the smooth rods were not damaged from the threaded rods hitting them!

I plan on making the cuts tomorrow. Hopefully they turn out nice!