Tag Archives: bearings

A complete-ish RepRap sold

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A few days ago I posted about a RepRap Mendel for sale on eBay with all electronics, motors, belts, etc fully assembled. 1  The auction (for a set sold in Ireland) settled at 760.00 Euros or about $1,017.18 USD.

Frankly, I would have thought it would have sold for more.  Printed parts are still selling in the $300-$450 range, electronics clocking in at $250 or so, bearings at $50, and all the other bits probably costing another $100 for belts, rods, nuts, bolts.  This means just the materials would cost $700 – $800.  Then there’s the delay and extra expense of sourcing all of the parts for yourself.

Interestingly, I had thought the bottom had fallen out of the RepRap printed parts eBay market.  However, a set of printed Mendel parts just sold on eBay for $455 on April 5.  I suspect the difference is that these parts are being generated and sold in the US which makes for an easier and slightly cheaper transaction

  1. To be fair, the seller mentioned it would require some adjustment to start printing. [↩]

Z axis wobble from bearings?

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I’ve seen it suggested on the MakerBot Operator’s group (I forget who…) that Z axis rod wobble can be introduced where the bearings fit on the Z axis rods.  This is an interesting possible source of error… and a solution!

It would seem that if the placement of the bearing on the rod can introduce warp, it might be able to slightly counteract warp as well.  I’ve gotten my Z axis wobble mostly under control.

Printed Pulleys Assembled!

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I’ve just take the first step to building my MakerBot!  Admittedly, two of the bearings were already in the printed pulleys, but that’s just not the point.  I’ve taken a material step towards building it!  Huzzah!

Printed pulleys assembled!

Printed pulleys assembled!

Oh, and I don’t think I was supposed to have a pack of 8 extra bearings.

No, no, I’m supposed to have these 8 bearings.  I suppose it would help if I read the directions.  (I’m just so used to grabbing things and tossing them together and expecting them to work.  I guess it’s a little more complicated than that when you’re building a robot, eh?)