RepRap Guru prusa i3 V2 B 3D Printer

i gave 5 stars because this is a $300.00 DIY printer, and i was able to assemble it, and print in 2 days. this being my first 3d printer, i am happy with it even though the build was pretty tough. lets start with the X carriage: the plastic motor mount on the right side of the carriage had to be drilled out to make the carriage short enough to mount to the acrylic frame. I was very careful and used a drill bit the same size as the smooth rods so as to not introduce unwanted movement or flex in the axis. after drilling out the mount for the rods, it was still very difficult to assemble the carriage.the nuts that are suposed to slide into the plastic end pieces for the z axis threaded rods, were loose and caused so much slop in the movement that the x axis carriage would not move evenly or smoothly along the z axis. it was impossible to level the print surface untill i drilled and tapped a set screw into the plastic housing to hold the nuts in place.Z-Axis: the x axis carriage is raised and lowered along the z axis by twin rotating stepper motors turning a threaded rod on either side of the x axis carriage. one of the rods was bent bad enough that is was visible prior to installing it, but not significantly enough to affect the accuracy of the axis. the z axis end stop is flimsy and needed to be reinforced due to the axis not going to the same home spot each time. a simple spare nut from the "spart parts" bag was enough to lock the z axis end stop in place. the bearings on the top of the acrylic frame needed to be glued in place due to the bend in the threaded rods, they kept coming out. a drop of 5 minute epoxy on each is holding them in place nicely.Y axis: the Y axis went together very well. the only trouble is the end stop cannot be placed where the manual calls for it because it is exactly where the metal frame mounts to the acrylic frame. I had to bend the lever on the micro switch and place it just right so the table does not crash into the switch, but the micro switch is still tripped when the plate moves to the end stop.I had no problems with the extruder, or loading the firmware into the Arduino. I did have a bad stepper motor controller on the RAMPS shield, but fortunately they send a "spare". the kit should include some type of wire management, something like they show in the build manual would be nice, but anything is better than nothing, which is what it has. the wiring is plenty long, all i had to do was use my soldering iron to "tin" the stripped ends of the wire.There is no main Power switch, not a huge deal, but it would be nice to not have to unplug the printer, instead just turn it off. the zip ties they supply for the linear bearings are very weak, and hard to get tight enough without breaking them.all in all, i do love the printer! having very little knowledge of 3d printers, i was able to build, calibrate, and print my first part within 2 days. the directions are for an earlier revision, but still pretty simple to follow. the laser cut acrylic fits together flawlessly, and looks great. I expect to have to make minor modifications on any DIY kit, so the trouble with the z axis in my opinion is not a big deal, but the problems i had with the x axis concerned me until my first print was complete.

I bought this 3D printer knowing full well that it’s a DIY project, meaning that I have to assemble it myself. Which is fine but after 11 hours of putting it together I realized that the Z motors won’t align, so, thanks to Amazon, I could exchange it. The second build only took 8 hours... and after weeks of trying to calibrate it I realized that the problem is that the parts are CHEAP!! I know what you’re thinking, but even the screws deform (which I’ve never seen before) after just some tweeting (which is required for a RepRap design). And customer service is mediocre AT BEST!! Thankfully I purchased it through Amazon for easy returns

I got this amazon gift card from work and had already done my holiday shopping right before black Friday ... guess what I did!Edited: dropped to 3 star after fiddling with the bed, felt that too many small issues, and a one or two big ones are annoying me. While I find that level of involvement fun, I don't think everyone will feel the same.====Buy it if you are relatively confident in tinkering and willing to accept having to figure out whether you are facing a part problem, build problem, or calibration issue.Overall: “B”I think its a relatively good kit with some issues.Parts: I did find some issues with my parts that needed revision. Most (all) parts a generic ones you will find for DIY kits on 3d forums, etc.Completeness: This is a good functional printer, but lacks some of the nicer touches other kits have such as auto-leveling and a good quality filament spool.Documentation: Build manual is most of the time easy to follow, but it references older iterations of the hardware which makes things such as the “bill of materials” not quite match up with the current kit. It also ends abruptly without providing advice on how to get to your first successful print after getting the software installed.Software: Open Source and Open Source software. The newer slic3r and (look for the Prusa Slic3r build) are really quite functional.Service: I have exchanged emails with the service team a few times and have a good feeling about their customer support where they helped troubleshoot some problems I faced. They also replaced a faulty part in my kit.Completeness: “B+”The kit has a heated glass bed. This will be useful functionality that better kits ought to have; lesser kits on Amazon will lack this. The build plate is of a nice size, giving a 200mm square build service.The kit is also very Open Source and uses parts one could source as part of the DIY community. That means there is probably a solution for you confusion and ideas on where to go next.With this kit you should end up with solid foundation for printing PLA, PETG, and ABS. Getting into more exotic materials like wood or carbon reinforced plastics will require minor but accessible and affordable tweaks. With a little effort, and there will be some, this should be a satisfying project.Parts: mixed “B” and “C”Electronics. (B) Perfect for a dive into the DIY 3d world. No issue with the arduino clone or the RAMPS 1.4 daughter board. The stepper motor drivers were largely okay but I two nits with those: they could use a little sanding to make them not overlap with each other; second, the potentiometer on those are really finicky (adjustable with a phillips screwdriver) it took me a long time to get those tuned.Heated bed (C). It works but its also a little saggy. I clipped on all four sides to address this. I have some trouble heating my bed and current Marlin firmware errors out with it. My workaround is to heat the bed before doing anything else.Stepper motors. (B+) I found the same NEMA17 1.8deg motors used elsewhere on machines without too much problem. They work just fine. I would say “A” range motors would be in the 0.9deg range and only slightly more expensive.Frame is well enough, nothing fancy but put together well enough. Blue (removable) loctite for the large threaded supports iis needed if you don’t want the printer to shake itself apart. (B+)This hot end has me hot and bothered! (D) My biggest gripe is with the “extruder feeder” - the part that pulls the filament to the hot end. On my kit the spring was far light and as such the filament would not feed properly and my results, esp. on inner fills, show missing lines and impartial fills. RRG support worked with me over the course of a week and helped me get this right. I worry about others may notice the extruder feeder slipping (listen clicking and stalling during prints).The glass was slightly too big for my build plate once the nuts were added. (B-) I used a dremel and sand small scoops in the chamfered corner sections. This did not take much work but was arguably more danger than I was looking for as a small piece chipped away.The linear bearings have a bit of grind as much as they have roll. (B) A little grease and the stepper motors don’t seem to mind. I will likely upgrade these.The chord to the power supply uses the following color codes: yellow, blue, red. (C for danger) The build manual hints at some of these non-standard color codes but I didn’t find a perfect match for this in the guide and I really didn’t want fry the thing.I used alligator clips and an outlet tester to confirm which is the load, neutral and ground, From what I gather this chord is an old European color code that is no longer standard … but using a US end? It’s weird. This typifies what I think RRG is doing: finding good, but cheap parts, that work with few exceptions. To fill the gap they have a good support team to help customers through the build process.Documentation: “B”When I did my build the build manual is version 1.4; configuration manual version 1.1. My notes reference these documents from late August, 2017.Build Manual: “B”Bill of Materials incorrect with one of the bags: there’s an amazon review out there that calls this out too. I think it was bag No. 2. There are some large nuts not listed and the counts don’t add up. Don’t worry, march on, even though it annoys me they don’t have correct manual.The manual covers at least two different version of the kit prior to this one. I noted that in my kit there were hex-shaped bits in some of the molded plastic parts. The manual gets a little confusing where you end up bouncing between following pictures. The manual should be revamped for this generation of the hardware kit.The manual is generally easy to follow with some few exceptions. Getting the stops correct requires a little thinking. One thing lacking in this manual was how to lay out all the wires. As noted elsewhere the kit comes with just a few zip ties, and no wrapping for the wires. On top of that, how you actually lay these out should be diagrammed somewhere. Mine looks like something I would find buried under the hood in my truck.Page 17 shows the left and right side panels. I installed my backwards because I was not aware the center frame has a left and right side orientation as well. From the front (fins stick out to the back) the LCD knob hole needs to be on the right side. In my case this just means I’ll print out an LCD display and remount it elsewhere … better for me anyhow.Configuration Manual: “B”The configuration manual has some information on setting up Repetier Host and Slic3r. However beyond that you are left guessing which of the config settings you should copy and which you should not. Most of these settings (now that I know better) are decent but this needs more text to explain why they deviate from the defaults.Post build calibration: “C”That is … where to go to next? This is super easy to forget if you know something about 3D printing. I, however, am quite the naif when it comes to this world. Maybe it's all on YouTube?PICTURES!Here are some of calibration my prints with Essentium Engineering Grade PLA. I chose this because they are US made, are a top-tier player in the 3d filament world and are involved with developing high end filaments. I don't know if its much different than general purpose filament PLA such as 3D Solutech Real Black 3D Printer PLA Filament I mention because they are different grades. My blue test print object is from 3D Solutech See Through Blue PETG.I also have my "zombie monkey" print which is exemplifies the stringing and stalling that was happening before I fixed the extruder feed with stronger springs to avoid slipping along the hobbed nut.Filament: Essentium PLALayer Height: 0.2mm1st Layer Height: 0.35mm (no more than your nozzle width)1st Layer Extrusion Width: 175% (smaller traces 150-175 than default)1st Layer Speed: 30mm (keep it slow!)Bed Temp 1st Layer: 60CBed Temp Other Layers: 55CExtruder Temp 1st Layer: 115CExtruder Temp Other Layers: 110CBrims: someI also have good prints at “208/55C and 202/55C” with this filament.My calibration print objects:gingerbread window : thingiverse thing:2633832gears from (because: gears!) thingiverse thing:2405185thumb wheel (scaled 0.6) from thingiverse thing:1659528Last thing to say here: where to go next? thingiverse and tinkercad. At least that’s where I went.Software: “A”Slic3r and Repetier-Host are excellent starting places. Prusa also has a version of Slic3r that may be worth using. The RepRapGuru firmware is based on an older version of Marlin.Service and Support: “A-”Where I found the parts okay to slightly subpar I also find the service from their support team willing and able to rectify these. They answered my email on Saturday, have sent me a replacement part for my extruder feeder along with tracking information. They eyeballed from one of my first test prints that “hey, you have your filament too hot” ... try this.These guys are a US company. That’s not to say the parts are from the US … remember even your phone parts are made overseas. They shipped my replacement parts for my faulty hot end from somewhere on the East Coast.