Hi

I've been posting bits and pieces of this all over the place. It's going to be a lot of "Bob talks to Bob" as I post bits and pieces. If you have not already read:

http://3dprintboard.com/showthread.p...ld-by-Printbus

Read it now. There is a lot of information in there that applies to building any of these printers. There is *far* more detail in that thread than I can possibly come up with. He also does a much better job on that printer than I have the patience to do on mine. Yikes !!!

First up, why this printer? I'll stick to the MakerFarm stuff and not try to look at every printer under the sun.

1) This beast has a *big* print area. Of the MakerFarm models, it has the biggest build area. Bigger is *always* better

2) The frame on this printer is quite sturdy. In some cases big gets you into problems. With the heavy frame, this is a very stable printer.

3) The V-Slot construction is very neat. Bolting things onto the printer is easy. With the "cube" design, you have a lot of area to bolt things onto.

4) The bits and pieces that make up the printer are first class. There is not choice of "metal vs something else" on this one. The base machine comes with all the metal mounts.

5) Other than the metal plates, everything in the kit is "open source". If you decide to modify something, there are sources for everything. You are not "locked in" to much of anything on this design. Face it, you *will* decide to fiddle something ...

6) The "bang for the buck" on this printer is way beyond the other kits. If you upgrade the 10" or 8" kit to "full metal" so it is apples to apples .... this one is a much better deal.

7) I've been down the road with the "wood" and "acrylic" frame printers. Go for one that is metal. They last longer and hold settings much better.

There are a few choices on the printer. Some are fairly easy others are a bit more difficult.

1) You get to pick hot ends (with some extruders). To me this is a slam dunk. Get the full blown e3d V6 and skip the Lite version. You do not loose anything by picking the full version. The Lite cramps your filament selections down the road.

2) Filament !!! It is *totally* unclear from the web site, but there is a hidden reason to get the filament with the printer. The shipping is free. If you are shipping a long way, that can matter quite a bit.

3) Extruders. This is where it gets a bit hard. The single direct drive extruder works quite well. For another few dollars you can get a Titan. No printed parts ...hmmm. There also a dual extruder option. It is fine as far as feeding filament. Like any two head dual it is heavy and the second head can hit stuff. The key thing about this printer is that it *can* be set up to give a full print area with a two head dual setup. In some cases, you loose an inch of print area. Not with this printer.

One thing that makes this pretty easy is support. Colin is great. I've bugged the poor guy to death over the years. This is not my first MakerFarm so I *know* how that's going to go. Even with the "I can't find the XXX" ... "Bob, look in the box .." conversations he does a great job. (Yes, it's *always* in the box ..).

So what did I buy in terms of the 12"?

I got the basic kit with a full boat of filament. I got the dual extruder. I have another single extruder printer and wanted to try the dual. Who knows if I'll get a single extruder parts set and go with a "swappable" extruder setup. Only time will tell.

I got the MeanWell power supply listed in the instructions:

http://www.trcelectronics.com/View/M...E-350-12.shtml

It's $45 from distribution.

After I bought the kit they came out with:

http://www.trcelectronics.com/View/M...S-350-12.shtml

It's $34 from the same manufacturer and distributor. It's the same power level and it's smaller. It also has a slightly better warranty. The "small" is in the height dimension. It's 30 mm vs 50 mm. That gives you back 20 mm inside the print area to move things around. Having more print area is *always* a good thing. Since it has the same X and Y dimensions, it drops right in on the printer. The mounting holes appear to be in the same location as the bigger printer. We'll see how that conversion goes in a few minutes ....

Bob