Kossel Pro

[KDog]

Backed this on Kickstarter two years ago. Over a year late in shipping but the quality of the printer is excellent. Took three days to build and pretty much fired up and printed right out of the blocks. This is the big brother of the Kossel Mini repraps and was designed by Terence Tam of OpenBeam and Johann Rocholl. It is open source and a printed version is available on github. Pretty stoked to finally receive it.

[Brian_Krassenstein]

After realizing immense success in the crowdfunding and pre-selling arena, OpenBeam has decided that it is time to get their delta-based 3D printer, the Kossel Pro, more firmly in the market. OpenBeam has now partnered up with two distributors to sell the Kossel Pro 3D printer kit. Both new partners, Solarbotics and MatterHackers, will feature the Kossel Pro on their websites for $1,349. OpenBeam will thus gain support of established distributors in the 3D printer and 'geek culture' web space, and be able to concentrate their continued efforts on improving their offerings. Check out more details on this new partnership in the full article: http://3dprint.com/37777/kossel-pro-3d-printer/

[ChopOMatic]

I'm building my Kossel Pro kit right now. The quality of the parts and the engineering appear outstanding. The big disappointment is the lack of good instructions. No, that's an understatement. The instructions are a disaster. I like the concept of instructions they use, which is a series of online Powerpoint presentations with text and pictures to walk you through each element of the build. Easy to update so that everyone always has the most current and complete instructions. Unfortunately, that feature doesn't appear to be in use.

[KDog]

The forces behind the Kossel Pro have proved to be a huge disappointment to the community. Documentation is very poor, there has never been a BOM released and updates and communication are few and far between. The printer itself was over a year late and there are still folks waiting for their assembled kickstarter printers. Users are bricking boards and breaking parts due an unbelievable lack of support. If you read their forums you will find folks whose printers have been down for months waiting for replacement parts or even an answer to their inquiries. While my printer is doing great, I came into it with a lot of experience building and operating 3d printers and relied much less on the company to help me. In good conscience I cannot recommend this printer or company to anybody.

[ChopOMatic]

I finished assembling mine earlier this evening. It was late so I haven't powered it up yet. Kdog, you happen to know of any good startup instrux out there from the community? There's literally nothing from OpenBeam. BTW, it was the very end of the build when I noticed that they didn't include either a power cord or a USB cable. I have plenty of both so it won't slow me down, but I find it unthinkable to sell a $1300 device and not include a power cord.

I complained about the poor documentation on the OB board and Terence responded that build instructions were a lower priority than instructions for startup, calibration, etc. On one hand, I see his point since there are NO startup and calibration instructions, LOL. OTOH, any kind of kit without clear instructions is an incomplete product, plain and simple. That's triple true when it's a kit that requires tedious assembly and significant precision. I should've researched a bit more before the buy. If I'd known that the company was two guys doing this on evenings and weekends, I probably wouldn't have bought.

All that said, I can't wait to fire her up tomorrow. I do love the quality parts and the very solid way it all came together.

[KDog]

This post should help a bit: http://forums.openbeamusa.com/thread...255/#post-2615

In the end this printer is a typical kossel. If you search for kossel calibration on youtube you will come up with a few videos to help. That's how I did it.

If you do decide to flash your firmware, do yourself a favor and don't do it the "easy way" as given on the forum as this has the potential to brick your board. Do it the "hard way" with the arduino ide version 1.0.6. Don't be concerned that it won't work with the latest version of arduino. It won't and that is all there is to it. Don't try reloading a different bootloader. That way lies madness.

Take a bit of time to learn about the delta geometry. It is more complicated than one would think and can help you understand problems you are having with the printer. This also is on the web somewhere.

Cheers,

KDog

[ChopOMatic]

Big thanks, Kdog.

[MiniMadRyan]

Have been following this printer since first reading about in the second Make 3D Printing guide (okay, that was the OB Mini Kossel, but same idea). Looks like a great printer aside from the documentation. If I had one, or the money for one, I'd write up a build guide for it lol

[KDog]

Initially the end effector was the thing that everybody thought was unique about this printer. In the end this has turned out to be the weak point in the design. There are relatively few fans options in that size and they are really inadequate for cooling in general. Also, there is no way to add any of the more common "new" hot ends to this effector. Folks are designing a new, printable, end effector that will overcome this but then you are looking at a printer that has very little to offer over any other delta and at twice the price! Take my advice and roll your own. It isn't that hard. You should easily be able to source all the parts for under $500.

I'll stop now but could go on and on. As I said before, my KP is working fine but I can't recommend it.