Brian Benchoff wrote a very interesting article over at HackaDay pointing out a problem he sees with RepRap. His position is that RepRap is not standardized enough, and that we Admins should select the winners.
I had to laugh when he advocated "Intelligent Design", which is based off a 2000 year old book of poetry as a model for us to follow. Reality doesn't bend toward fairy tales.
Traditions more than rules
There is currently one main Cartesian bot for RepRap at the moment, the Mendel. You might say that there are 3 : Prusa, Sells, and Mendelmax, but if you look closer they are is effectively only 1.
Prusa, Sells, and Mendelmax Share the same Smooth Rod size 8mm or 5/16, same spacing between the Z threaded rod and Z smooth rod (30mm), Horizontal Z rods, those Horizontal Z rods spaced 50mm apart, and extruder who's mounting holes are 50mm apart, Nema 17 motors, 2 smooth rods on the Y axis, spaced 100mm apart, an equilateral wedge shaped frame, long structural members holding parts printed on another reprap. Because of this commonality you can interchange the XYZ&E of any of the Mendel Family back and forth; you don't have to design a whole new bot. Even Printrbot is mostly a Sells Mendel with the outer frame removed.
Who decided on this? Did the Admins come down from on high and dictate it, or did we hold a council to decide it? Nope, the gravity of the existing design (Sells, and now Prusa), pulls everyone back to these standards because those who share want other people to use their parts, and people who download parts are more likely to change out 1 part more than they are 3-4. Are these the optimal sizes? Likely not, just like having your nerve for your vocal cord go from your brain though you chest and back up to your vocal cords is not optimal, it's just the way things have evolved, and they work.
RepRap.org Retiring / Kingmaking Designs
RepRap.org's Admins are selected by Adrian from the community at his discretion. Mostly it's people who have done a good bit for the community and our main purpose is to give him advice about the community. We are not paid; mostly we are not commercial interests (well besides selling RP parts or the odd end here or there). We are not the experts, the experts are the thousands, and I do mean THOUSANDS of developers out there. They decide what RepRap's take off, not us. That's how it should be.
We have our personal preferences, I prefer the Prusa Model, some of the Admins prefer Rapman/Darwin style machines (crazy folk), others think Sells Mendel is the best design. I am sure we will get some Admins eventually that think Printrbot/Wallace, because of their lower cost is best, or Tantillus because it's mostly 3d Printable, or maybe even some day a person will win the Gada Prize and someone will think it should be the "official" RepRap. It's a fools errand.
It upsets me that Botmill is still selling a Sells Mendel, and if I had my way I would put a huge sign out front of their website saying they are doing you a disservice by selling you an old design. I would scream to all the blogs that the $50-$75 Printrbot saves you is not worth the loss of print quality at high z axis levels at high speed. But the great thing is Adrian likes the Admins to walk softly.
RepRap: Just another in a long line of Open Sourceish hardware projects.
I am new to Kites, Paper airplanes, CNC, electronic prototyping, kit cars, kit airplanes, DIY PC, Sculpting, etc etc etc etc... What kit should I buy to get started? Go into a forum based around these are any number of others and get ready for a nerd fight. It's no different in RepRap. What's the best beginner 3d Printer? It really depends, what do you want? What do you know? How much time to do have? What do you like the look of? All of these effect your choice in all those hobbies listed above, and they affect us to.
The way I answer the question of what your 1st printer should be is by looking at your technical skill and money level.
If you’re a technically minded person:
$400 and Less Wallace or Printrbot Self Sourced
$500 and Less Prusa with a wades Extruder self sourced
$700 and Less Mendelmax self sourced with a Makergear styled extruder (IMHO the best self sourced machine you can build)
$825 Makergear Prusa Kit
$1300 Mendelmax Kit
$1575 Ultimaker
$1700 Up! 3d Printer
$10,000 Vflash by 3DS
Not technically minded (They want to get to printing ASAP with as little technical learning as possible).
$1200 Assembled Prusa from Lulzbot
$1300 Assembled Mosaic from Makergear
$1700 Up! 3d Printer
$1750 Assembled Replicator from Makerbot
$10,000 Vflash by 3DS
As long as that list is of stuff I recommend, there are tons of options I didn't list, but they should not be thrown away. I would not suggest a Botmill Project to my worst enemy because of their known history of white washing the forums and sending "assembled machines" that are not really assembled. But the last thing I want is for Botmill to go away, maybe one day they will improve their quality and go to a RepRap design less than 3 years old... I will keep waiting. And don't even get me started on the popsicle stick / buggy electronics Techzone 3d printers with wooden hot ends...
You think we are fragmented now? Just give us another 6 months!
Lemon Curry a UV Photopolymer DLP 3D Printer based around RepRap is coming online with several projects running in parallel.
Thanks to the work of Unfold & ttsalo we might actually have a paste extruder that will really work well in the Moineau stepper extruder. So I expect to see commercial Paste 3d printers in the next 6-12 months.
Several People are working on 3d Printed CNC mills ATM, expect to see those soon enough also.
ARM electronics, off-carriage extruders, inkjet multicolor printing, multiple extruders, glass-based high temp extruders.
And god knows what else you crazy developers out there will come up with, next thing you know I will go into the RepRap IRC and will see someone running one of these in their garage.
From one of the Admins to the rest of the RepRap community, keep fracturing, keep making it complicated for the new folks, because the reason it's hard to decide is RepRap is a candy shop, and Willy Wonka is only just getting started.
Thanks Adrain for starting such a scary fast evolving confusing and beautiful machine as RepRap.
I had to laugh when he advocated "Intelligent Design", which is based off a 2000 year old book of poetry as a model for us to follow. Reality doesn't bend toward fairy tales.
Traditions more than rules
There is currently one main Cartesian bot for RepRap at the moment, the Mendel. You might say that there are 3 : Prusa, Sells, and Mendelmax, but if you look closer they are is effectively only 1.
Prusa, Sells, and Mendelmax Share the same Smooth Rod size 8mm or 5/16, same spacing between the Z threaded rod and Z smooth rod (30mm), Horizontal Z rods, those Horizontal Z rods spaced 50mm apart, and extruder who's mounting holes are 50mm apart, Nema 17 motors, 2 smooth rods on the Y axis, spaced 100mm apart, an equilateral wedge shaped frame, long structural members holding parts printed on another reprap. Because of this commonality you can interchange the XYZ&E of any of the Mendel Family back and forth; you don't have to design a whole new bot. Even Printrbot is mostly a Sells Mendel with the outer frame removed.
Who decided on this? Did the Admins come down from on high and dictate it, or did we hold a council to decide it? Nope, the gravity of the existing design (Sells, and now Prusa), pulls everyone back to these standards because those who share want other people to use their parts, and people who download parts are more likely to change out 1 part more than they are 3-4. Are these the optimal sizes? Likely not, just like having your nerve for your vocal cord go from your brain though you chest and back up to your vocal cords is not optimal, it's just the way things have evolved, and they work.
RepRap.org Retiring / Kingmaking Designs
RepRap.org's Admins are selected by Adrian from the community at his discretion. Mostly it's people who have done a good bit for the community and our main purpose is to give him advice about the community. We are not paid; mostly we are not commercial interests (well besides selling RP parts or the odd end here or there). We are not the experts, the experts are the thousands, and I do mean THOUSANDS of developers out there. They decide what RepRap's take off, not us. That's how it should be.
We have our personal preferences, I prefer the Prusa Model, some of the Admins prefer Rapman/Darwin style machines (crazy folk), others think Sells Mendel is the best design. I am sure we will get some Admins eventually that think Printrbot/Wallace, because of their lower cost is best, or Tantillus because it's mostly 3d Printable, or maybe even some day a person will win the Gada Prize and someone will think it should be the "official" RepRap. It's a fools errand.
It upsets me that Botmill is still selling a Sells Mendel, and if I had my way I would put a huge sign out front of their website saying they are doing you a disservice by selling you an old design. I would scream to all the blogs that the $50-$75 Printrbot saves you is not worth the loss of print quality at high z axis levels at high speed. But the great thing is Adrian likes the Admins to walk softly.
RepRap: Just another in a long line of Open Sourceish hardware projects.
I am new to Kites, Paper airplanes, CNC, electronic prototyping, kit cars, kit airplanes, DIY PC, Sculpting, etc etc etc etc... What kit should I buy to get started? Go into a forum based around these are any number of others and get ready for a nerd fight. It's no different in RepRap. What's the best beginner 3d Printer? It really depends, what do you want? What do you know? How much time to do have? What do you like the look of? All of these effect your choice in all those hobbies listed above, and they affect us to.
The way I answer the question of what your 1st printer should be is by looking at your technical skill and money level.
If you’re a technically minded person:
$400 and Less Wallace or Printrbot Self Sourced
$500 and Less Prusa with a wades Extruder self sourced
$700 and Less Mendelmax self sourced with a Makergear styled extruder (IMHO the best self sourced machine you can build)
$825 Makergear Prusa Kit
$1300 Mendelmax Kit
$1575 Ultimaker
$1700 Up! 3d Printer
$10,000 Vflash by 3DS
Not technically minded (They want to get to printing ASAP with as little technical learning as possible).
$1200 Assembled Prusa from Lulzbot
$1300 Assembled Mosaic from Makergear
$1700 Up! 3d Printer
$1750 Assembled Replicator from Makerbot
$10,000 Vflash by 3DS
As long as that list is of stuff I recommend, there are tons of options I didn't list, but they should not be thrown away. I would not suggest a Botmill Project to my worst enemy because of their known history of white washing the forums and sending "assembled machines" that are not really assembled. But the last thing I want is for Botmill to go away, maybe one day they will improve their quality and go to a RepRap design less than 3 years old... I will keep waiting. And don't even get me started on the popsicle stick / buggy electronics Techzone 3d printers with wooden hot ends...
You think we are fragmented now? Just give us another 6 months!
Lemon Curry a UV Photopolymer DLP 3D Printer based around RepRap is coming online with several projects running in parallel.
Thanks to the work of Unfold & ttsalo we might actually have a paste extruder that will really work well in the Moineau stepper extruder. So I expect to see commercial Paste 3d printers in the next 6-12 months.
Several People are working on 3d Printed CNC mills ATM, expect to see those soon enough also.
ARM electronics, off-carriage extruders, inkjet multicolor printing, multiple extruders, glass-based high temp extruders.
And god knows what else you crazy developers out there will come up with, next thing you know I will go into the RepRap IRC and will see someone running one of these in their garage.
From one of the Admins to the rest of the RepRap community, keep fracturing, keep making it complicated for the new folks, because the reason it's hard to decide is RepRap is a candy shop, and Willy Wonka is only just getting started.
Thanks Adrain for starting such a scary fast evolving confusing and beautiful machine as RepRap.
