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I am building a reprap prusa i3 so what do recommend me to do ?

and do you any tracks or hacks to build and develop it the best way ?

hope some will read this and help :smiley:

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Well I bought my i3 rework second hand and have been fixing the faults that the person who built it left for me. Here are my suggestions

  • Consider a mk3 heat bed, the aluminium will distribute the heat better than with earlier versions and you will be able to use an inductive auto-levelling sensor, which allows for easy z endstop setting and automatic levelling, saving a lot of time and failed prints - this is my current project, parts are on order!
  • build your x and y carriages with tenioners (parts available on thingyverse), or print these parts as soon as your printer is working, keeping the belts tight makes a big difference to print quality.
  • make all your cables long enough, my cable run to my extruder/hot end was made too short and it is problematic
  • make all your connectors to go onto your ramps board properly - I have had loads of trouble with badly crimped connectors for my thermistors meaning failed prints etc…
  • generally spend a lot of time doing everything really well now, it will save you countless hours and wasted filament later.

Good luck.

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I also recommend investing in a good quality hotend already from start. I started with a cheap j-head copy which didn’t gave good results at all. After I melted the hotend trying to print ABS I switched to an E3D v6 (I’m using 1,75 mm and a bowden extruder). That hotend is amazing to print with; PLA, ABS and I have even printed some Nylon. For sure it doesn’t need to be E3D v6, but you probably want to spend more than $20… :wink:

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Check the Prusa-i3 Group on Thingiverse.

There are a lot of nice ideas for improvement.

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Piusa i3 - great choice!

I think now Prusa i3 Rework is good starting point.

For me, the biggest improvements I’ve done are replacing heated-bed polymer fuse to 14A and MOSFET to monster one. Now the bed easily heat up to 100 Celsius degrees. I also added electronics cooling fan and print cooling fan as addition to standard hot-end cooling. You can do this by purchasing RAMPS fan extender. Also direct drive extruder with Minimalistic Mk7 replacement by whosawhatsis - Thingiverse works pretty well.

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Just follow all the advises , they are very good. All i can say it’s that if you want to save money, you can do like what i’m doing : I’ve printed all the lm8uu, the frame, the nuts, bolts and the screws, all in Abs and it works well. You can find all the .stl files in thingiverse. Of course you must already have a 3D printer or found a fablab.

LM8UU : Printable LM8UU bushing v3 by triffid_hunter - Thingiverse , 14 Printable LM8UU linear bearings test plate by DeuxVis - Thingiverse

The Frame : Prusa I3 Printable frame, Y-carriage and Modified Y-ends for 8mm rods by chocjulio66 - Thingiverse

The nuts, bolts and screws : ISO Metric Nuts and Bolts by TrevM - Thingiverse , Printable standard M8 Hex nuts and washers by obijuan - Thingiverse , NUT JOB | Nut, Bolt, Washer and Threaded Rod Factory by mike_mattala - Thingiverse

And some creations by myself : Thingiverse - Digital Designs for Physical Objects

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Hey @Mohammed_JD,
I know that @ & @ are experienced in building these, and @alexfinnemore has just wrestled one into existence so might be able to help.
Good luck and send us pics of your printer and prints when you’re set up.

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thank you all for your great and helpful ideas and advises, I’ll keep it in my mind while I’m building the printer, thank you again ,

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thank you very much for these great advises , but I wanna to ask you , you see I live in Syria, and there is nearly no 3d printers , or if there is, to print some thing will cost you a lot , so I was thinking that I could make the printed parts using a cnc or make it from wood or so , do you think that this could be helpful ?

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thanks :slight_smile:

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thank you :slight_smile: , will this won’t be save of money in Syria ! , a little printed piece will cost you like 30 or 35$ !

I hope I can change this , any way do you know if wood or making the printed parts by cnc would be a geed alternative ?

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Done ! thank you :smiley:

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While looking at these parts I think it’s possible, but remember that CNC milling is not as easy as 3D printing.

You can find some non-printed-parts designs. It may interest you: http://www.buildlog.net/wiki/doku.php?id=ord\_bot:the\_ord\_bot

It’s not as good documented as Prusa i3, but you still fit Prusas electronics into this.

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thanks I appreciate your help :slight_smile:

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thanks, which do you think is better to start with? o.2 mm or 0.3 or 0.4 ?

also I am ordering the hot end from china ,and I’ve discussed with many companies that make 3d printers kit , all most of them offer stainless steel E3d-v6 Hot end , do you recommend me to order this ? (yes, it will cost me more than 20$ maybe 25$ :D)

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I use E3D v6 0.4mm with bowden extruder, and it works flawlessly. Also, I doubt the functionality of a $25 hotend. I have no experience with the cheap allmetal hotends out there, but a genuine E3D hotend cost more than 25. However, the cheap one could be just fine. :slight_smile:

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thank you :slight_smile:

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If you have access to a cnc, I recommend that you use it to cut the parts of your frame. Make sure that the base of your frame is very rigid, as it will help to make the printer easier to calibrate and more stable. Good luck with your project!