A few weeks back a friend of mine posted a link on facebook for makerbot.com I was very impressed. But once I started looking into purchasing one I was surprised how pricy the kit was. $1300 seemed a little too much for what was included.
I started doing some research, and found the grandfather project for makerbot is RepRap. I have decided to build the latest RepRap (Prusa). I have started to collect my parts from ebay.com a few guys are offering some nice kits including "vitamins" (nuts bolts bearings ect). I was able to find a complete electronics kit at techzonecom.com is nice is the kit is complete.
Right now this is how my project is breaking down price wise:
Prusa kit from ebay.com : $165
Makerbot Electronics techzoncom.com : $215
So right now I’m @ about 380 plus shipping. I still need to source the "hot end" and my stepper motors. Right now I can get the steppers for about 30 bucks from ebay (bidding as I write this) and the "hot end" kit from makergear.com is about 75 bucks.
So with all the parts its right now, I should be @ 550 ish with shipping.
For a good overview of a 3D CNC printer check out this video:
What I really like about the RepRap project, its fully open source. And you can modify and upgrade the RepRap a lot easier then the makerbot. Not to mention it can replicated 50% of the parts to build it self !!
-DJD3D
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