I like the mini-Mendel, don’t get me wrong, but there isn’t nearly the kind of documentation for it as you would find for the full fledged Mendel. Sure, it’s a little cheaper, but a Mendel gives you nearly four times the build area. Since the price barrier to entry into the RepRap project just isn’t that high, the bigger issues are probably going to be quality of documentation, support, skill level required, and interest. Is there a detailed mini-Mendel construction guide somewhere?
Tag Archives: area
Optimal RepRap sizes
To my thinking there’s basically two optimal RepRap sizes (in terms of build area):
- A small RepRap with a build area just large enough to replicate it’s largest part, one at a time
- A large RepRap with a build area large enough to print all of it’s own parts in a single print job
Random tangent: wouldn’t it be cool if all RepRaps came with the designs for their own printed parts already on board? Just fire it up for the first time, calibrate, and start printing replacement parts. (I realize this isn’t quite feasible – in order to be ready-printable the files would need to be in S3G format and the machine would have to run the STL’s through it’s own Skeinforge settings).
I love it when a plan comes together
A MakerBot operator in the SF bay area just ordered a roll of blue, red, green, and yellow each. With any luck we’ll be splitting it up among five people. I can’t wait!
MakerBot, Mendel, Mendel-Mini Build Areas
Owning a MakerBot, I’m not even sure why someone would need something to print pieces much larger than the MakerBot build area. Printing something as large as just the maximum build volume of a MakerBot would take ages.
- Darwin’s build area is about 23cm x 23cm x 10cm: 5290 cubic centimeters
- Mendel’s build area is about20cm x 20cm x 14cm: 5600 cubic centimeters
- Cupcake CNC’s build area is 10cm x 10cm 13cm: 1300 cubic centimeters
- Mendel Mini’s is supposedly approximately 11cm x 14cm x 10cm: 1540 cubic centimeters
While the official longest print logged on the Makerbot website is Zach’s Disney head, clocking in at 2 hours and 45 minutes, I’ve read about people printing for up to 8 continuous hours. If the build volume for a Mendel is 4.3 times that of a Makerbot, it would take more than 34 hours to fill that build area.
When you’re printing a door hook in 15 minutes, it doesn’t pay to drive to the hardware store. When it takes 34 hours to print a big plastic brick, you’re better off driving to the gas station, filling up your tank, driving to McDonald’s, filling out an application, working an hour, quitting and demanding your paycheck, driving to the hardware store, buying a single brick, and then driving back home. I figure that kind of silliness would only take half a day or so. Heck, with 34 hours, you could do this at least six times over.