I purchased the MakerBot Deluxe Cupcake CNC kit – which came with plenty of tools and TONS of plastic. The Deluxe kit came with things that you’ll need to operate your MakerBot such as the USB2TTL cable, power supply, and ethernet cables.
However, the wrenches and hex keys could be reused to build another ‘bot. Parts printed up on a MakerBot could be used to print several very useful, and sometimes expensive, parts for another MakerBot. The plastruder toolhead is $125.00 without the circuit board. If you could print up the dinos, printstruder, idler wheel, and insulating retainer ring, you’re replacing all of the lasercut acrylic parts ($50.00 at MakerBot). A persistent person could even replace all of the plastic spacers, wooden or plastic pulleys, the various wooden holders (Z rod caps, Z stage guides, X end rod caps), and probably even the entire Y stage with printed parts. 1
Heck, if you had all of those parts you would basically just need a box in which to install them all.
Hmmm. Anyone feel like designing a printable Y stage?
- In fairness, the Y stage would have to be printed up in several pieces due to size limitations. [↩]