Velleman K8200 + upgrade

[Antman]

I was looking at some budget friendly 3D printers and i found the Velleman K8200
It will take some time to build it (as it is a building kit) but i am fairly handy, so i do not think hat should be a problem.
Big advantage i find about it is that there is an upgrade available to place a bigger print bed so i can make bigger prints.

Anyone has this printer and can tell me if it is worth its money?

Thank you

[curious aardvark]

looks like a fairly bog standard I3 clone. All metal frame, which is good.
Plenty mods of thingiverse.

Can't think of any major reson why not :-)

[Antman]

thx, hope to be able to order one by the end of next month.
I need ant-nests to put my colony's in and i want to make them myself

[ralphzoontjens]

Velleman K8200 (aka 3Drag in the USA) are well engineered machines. With the printbed moving, their accuracy is a bit coarser than other printers. But it is easy to operate and very reliable. I have had one for about 8 months with much success.

Because they are so reliable, you can also buy a used one which will likely perform just as well. These are often seen in schools because of their budget.
Designers/makers more often go for the Prusa i3, it is a bit superior in print quality and moddable but less build volume.

[curious aardvark]

so are your colonies in spherical pods, or different ?

I've had a sphere kit for few years, without actually setting it up, my buying it coincided with all the red ant nests in the garden apparently vanishing. All we have now are really tiny black ants that apparently will escape from the pods/antspheres.

There are lots of big (relatively speaking) above ground nests where i walk the dogs, they started cropping up a few years back when we had a wet winter where it rained every single day for 4 months. But again really tiny black ants. I guess they could adapt to the wet weather and the reds couldn't.

Fascinating things to watch in action. I had one of the cheapo flat panel colonies for a while, till the ungrateful little buggers decided to escape :-)

I have often thought I could expand the original sphere kit with 3d printed stuff, just need some ants. lol