I was curious to see about what you guys are seeing for a final build cost. I have all of my parts printed and I will be milling the frame here shortly. That being said I am now in the process of shopping for parts. I am seeing a cost of around 306$(assuming I used a heated bed). Is that way off base? I am just curious what other people have paid before I move forward.
As a side note, I see that there are similar printers for 330$ such as the monoprice version of the wanhao di3. Would you guys say that this machine out performs off the shelf printers, or are they similar in speed and quality?
Thanks for your help!!
I only ask for information. building my own machine is fun and I am pretty set on doing so.
I spent closer to 400. But i used real wood for the frame, fried a mega and spent extra on pet sheets for the bed.
Once you get it tunned it perform as well as anyother machine would. Im getting crazy good prints. Which I’ve been meaning to share more often in my thread.
Ive recently printed some stuff for the bath room, including a coral soap dish and tooth brush cup, and a wall mounts for my echo dot. All came out really nicely, even though the cup got knocked off the bed and is missing a few inches from the top. But it still works and looks good.
I also reprited all my mp3dp parts using the same machine and they all look amazing.
My one suggestion is to download the pursa edition of slic3r. It works wonders.
Yes I forgot to include the printed material and the frame material in my cost. So it looks like I am right around the same cost as you. It seems like you really like the quality of prints that you are getting, what printer were you using prior to this build?
Hello guys, I am new to the forum, but been reading all I can for a good bit. I am planning on building the MD3DP as of today, but the build cost is continuing to climb. By using the BOM from this site, and using Vicious1 as the shopping cart, it appears I quickly get up to $427 and that doesn’t include the printed parts, screws, bolts, wood, or zip ties. Am I missing something, or is this now a $550 machine to build? Thanks. Jay
I definitely added the mini Rambo, not sure found the ramps to include. But either way way I cannot see how guys are building this for less than the parts alone cost.
Sounds more like it. Thanks… do we know if the newer style build that Ryan posted a short time ago will use these same components and just change the plastics?
It uses a couple less of the shorter 5/16 bolts and a couple more of the longer, but it’s pretty close. Find yourself a “farm hardware store” like rural king or tractor supply. They sell hardware by the pound. Much cheaper than lowes or home depot. They are a little anemic on metric stuff though, I get all that from Ace hardware.
I think of it more as a fun project. I would not compare it to the generic I3 kits from aliexpress / ebay. Those are complete trash and not worth your time, I promise.
If you want to buy a printer I 100% recommend any printer from https://www.prusa3d.com/ There is no better printer out there. I am a fan boy, not only is Prusa and his team leading the charge on almost every single new feature, they don’t charge unheard of prices for it.
I just kinda enjoy doing some things myself and I really am not into some of the new features. I try to leave it open enough for you all to add what you want. The build cost is higher than I would like as you can see there are no fancy expensive parts so I can’t find a way to make it any less expensive. I do run mine 24/7 and pretty much only have to do a bearing swaps once a year. You can bring the prices down a bit buy ordering some other stuff, I just can’t endorse an import Ramps any longer they have swapped out too many components and they do not last anymore.
This printer came out of my need to up my production. I had bought 2 different bottom of the barrel printers and they both died very shortly after putting them into service, prusa was back ordered and I had a shop full of parts, and a growing list of back ordered printed parts, so I milled up a printer. Necessity is the mother of invention.
I am 99% ready with the new version just to change a few things I didn’t like about the first one.
No no Prusa yet, they are getting a few too many features now. I like the plane simple things (that I know I can easily fix quickly).
I am running 4 MP3DP’s and one V2, sometimes I run a MPCNC to catch up. Prints are much faster now with 0.5mm nozzles so that saved me from building a few more printers.