I took delivery of my 12" I3V kit yesterday.

Ordinarily, I would share an obsessively detailed log of my experiences with something new.

But not this time...

Instead this will be more of a stream of consciousness record of whatever comes to mind during the assembly, tuning, and usage of the printer.

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A little background: I didn't really think too much about getting a 3D printer up until maybe 1.5 months ago. I had told myself that I wasn't going to make the purchase until I really had some other reasons than to just build one. In some sense, it had to earn its keep.

So..., I started a list of items that I wanted/needed that a 3D printer was uniquely suited to provide with the proviso that no printer would be bought until I had at least 10 items on the list.

Heh..., I was a little surprised as to how quickly that list grew. Some items were minor, but nice-to-have, but others were really compelling and aligned well with my other interests, chief among those is pottery..., which seems strangely appropriate.

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So, list in hand, it was time to pick a printer. I'll skip all the details, but I will say that PrintRBot was in the lead for a long time. I liked the mechanical aesthetic of Brook's machines, and was hoping to get a Metal Plus. Unfortunately, I had too many nagging doubts about "issues" with the Plus, and was sorta indirectly steered in the direction of a reprap style kit by comments from someone on the PrintRBot forum.

As I looked into the reprap/open source/kit options, it really became apparent that quite possibly a functionally and practically better choice could be had outside the store-bought options. True, "better" is judged from my specific interests and needs, but there ya are.

Ultimately, my search took me to Makerfarm. What finally sold me was:


  • Utility of the finished product.
  • Adaptability.
  • Support of the reprap community, and this forum in particular.
  • Success of others with assembly/tuning.
  • Colin. I swear, I don't know how he does the support thing, but he does, and its incredible.


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Some early decisions:

Controller Board: Initially I was gonna go with the RAMPS, but decided on the RUMBA since it seems to position things better when/if comes the time to contemplate a conversion to 24V.

12V vs 24V: I was tempted to build the machine as a 24V system from the start, mainly owing to concerns about heating the 12" bed. Based on comments from Colin, I decided to stick w/ 12V for now and save 24V for another day.

Vinyl Tubing vs Metal Flex Couplers on Z: Decided to stick with the tubing until I've gotten some experience with the machine, on the off chance that the tubing will act as a clutch in the event of an, er, unplanned Z excursion. I would almost be tempted to sacrifice accuracy/reliability early on by lubing the tubing to make sure it slips in the event of "badness". Later, I'd switch to the metal couplings.

Power Supply: I'm a little ashamed that I've decided to go with the cheap option, but mostly for reasons unrelated to "cheap". I got one of the $23 specials off of Amazon..., hopefully it will work out, at least long enough to get things working. What really drove the decision was entirely unrelated to the printer. I needed some obscure spark plugs that no one was stocking..., but they were available as "add-on" items on Amazon. I had kept forgetting about them on earlier orders, and so I figured I'd roll the dice with the cheap power supply, and AT LEAST get the darn spark plugs.

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For now..., that is all!