First steps, and frustrations

So, i finally had some spare time on my hands, and i decided to give it a go!
Step 1 according to the reprap forums was to take a rubber mallet, and drive a short 2020 extrusion into the corner pieces to "shave" off some of the rough inside. So that's what i started off with.

They should have warned that its a really tight fit! 20 minutes later i found myself with 3 bottom corner pieces, and 3 short extrusions totally stuck in there. They just wouldn't budge. After searching around, i found a very helpful tip the next day that told me to soak the stuck corner in hot water, and then hit it with a mallet. luckily, that worked a charm. I was already browsing ebay to buy replacement corner pieces...

Next step: drilling the top corner pieces so that the M3 screws that will hold the top bearings can fit in the badly printed holes:
Immediately i ran into frustration nr2: apparently my drill died. The battery which is supposed to provide 11v only provides 6.5v now, so probably one of the 3 battery cells died after 1 year of collecting dust in a closet.
It's still under warranty, but i know i can fix the battery pack myself with a spare 18650 battery, but not without voiding the warranty... I don't want to void my warranty, but i want to continue building the printer now... the struggle is real!

So i started off with things that i can do. I started building the bottom and part of the top frame.
The first corner was a bit of a struggle. after that it was smooth sailing. You care basically repeating the same steps 6 times.
And then i ran into problem #3: bad quality nuts. they provide these special nuts to lock 2020 extrusions, but they are of bad quality. the screws didn't grab a couple of them properly, and the worst part is that you only find out about that when you push everything together, and to replace it, you must take it all apart again.

After inventing a couple of now swearing words, i have to say that i cant be disappointed for today.
Below are pictures of the progress.

I made more pictures of the building itself, but i found out tonight that the SDcard was still in my laptop apparently. So no pictures saved, and only pictures of the final result.

Hopefully i can make some more progress in 2 days.

Unboxing and first impression

So my kossel kit arrived. Seems like everything is there.
My first impression: the quality of the printed parts is so-so. Their own printer certainly has some problems with overhangs. Even my micro should be able to create higher quality prints than that (but unfortunately not the right size, so reprinting it with my micro is a no-go. I will probably need some brute force, a dremel, and a good drill for everything to fit.
I really like the extruder that came with the kit. easy to use and adjust the tension. I think this is one of the higher quality parts in this kit.
Lots of screws, nuts and bolts.... not going to count that all! lets assume it's all there.
The printbed is of way different quality than i assumed (for the better). I expected a thin heatbed, and a separate aluminium slate to fit on top of it, but apparently it's one solid heatbed. Looking nice flat, and sturdy. Pleasant surprise there.

and last: good looking rods, and big heavy rod ends.... wait... what?! didn't i get a refund because i didn't want to use their rods and ends, and ordered carbon fiber rods and traxxas ends because of that? It seems like they still shipped me the whole package.

Some pictures below.

On it's way

So.... the Kossel kit is on it's way. should be here by September 15 or 16. The kit set me back around 310 euros. I asked Sintron to ship it without the rods and rod-ends. They refunded me a part of the kit, and i bought Traxxas rod ends, and carbon fiber rods to replace those. I hope i made a good choice there.

Time to buy a new printer.

So, i've decided i want to buy a new 3d printer. As a bit of background information: this will not be my first printer.
I got the 3d-virus from a a friend of mine: Kenny. He owns a Prusa I3. sweet little machine. I was hooked immediately and wanted a printer of my own.
At that time my eye fell upon the highly successfull kickstarter campaign of the M3D micro 3d printer. It was very affordable, promised great things, and looked like a machine that even i, as a newbie, could get to work.
Since i was to late for the kickstarter campaign, i preordered one in June 2014. Promised delivery february 2015. Real delivery: May 2015.
I had great fun with this machine, but boy... you need to have patience. Even for its small build volume, more complex prints could take up to 50-60 hours if you wanted good, consistent quality.
I like my micro.... but i started to get hungry for more. More speed, more space, more power, more height....
When my micro had its third mechanical failure which required me to get spare parts directly from the supplier (which was cheap and pretty fast, but kind of annoying that they are the only supplier for these parts) i decided it was time to upgrade to a new printer.
After doing some research i decided to go for a Kossel printer. The delta style alone is just awesome, but a couple f more things made me decide to go for this model:
- Precision. Delta style printers are known for their precision
- Low parts count
- Speed. a GOOD delta should be capable of achieving high speeds.
- Price. A Kossel kit isn't too expensive.

Since i'm in a tight budget (wife limited), I bought a full kit from ebay from Sintron. It's way too cheap to be high quality, but that's OK with me. I plan to upgrade this printer along the way with higher quality parts when needed.

In this blog i will keep you all updated with my quest to build my first reprap printer. And show some of my work on the micro.