Look right next to where it says “EU Plug” and there is a button to push for US Plug 
is that subject to a tax incentive ? If not, bah, but otherwise, hell yeah, that’s what I would have liked to have at home to learn manufacturing techniques and to build cool stuff.
LOL. Apart from being of questionable ethics, knowing me, I’d run into some kind of snag that would result in me barely missing the return window, and having 2 3D printers. Not that 2 3D printers is a bad problem to have, but…
That, my friend, is an excellent suggestion. Hmm…we tend to end up with a good many of the 3M easy-remove hook mounting strips…bet you could print a reasonable facsimile of those hooks to make use of the extra strips. 
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Yes, I saw that…after I posted my reply. 
Sadly, no. In fact, we basically get to pay for school twice. Once through property taxes, and again when we pay for books, curriculum, etc.
I’m pretty sure we’ll jump on 3D printing soon-ish. But it may have to wait a month or two. I’m still recovering from paying taxes this year.
That would be an awesome plan except that the printed parts are the cheapest parts. Probably about $10 of the total cost. The hardware, motors & electronics are where the bulk of the cost comes from.
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@ devhammer - It seems that 3D printed components are remarkably inexpensive; and with the printer at this price point it’s actually cheaper to buy the cow than buy the milk. I calculated the cost of getting things printed and imported from shapeways. The result is that not only would the parts be stronger (since shapeways parts are fragile like plaster of paris) but also a lot cheaper, in the shipping + vat + duty + o.p.t department. My only downside thus far is the sheer amount of time it takes to build a part. It seems long to me; I may have to buy another one.
Update 1 on Geeetech build. Z motor mounts have been my speedhump. They had way too little tolerance built in to the new slot arrangement so that when the anodising was done the parts no longer fitted. That held me back a few hours while I found an appropriate file and then carefully shrunk the tongue and widened the slot. Otherwise I don’t mind the way it’s all assembled, tapped holes and in my view well thought out component inter-connectsions should give reasonable rigidity leading to higher quality prints.
@ Brett - How many hours thus far?
well I was less than functional (man flu) and I spent maybe 4 build hours in total, but a fair bit of that was backwards and forwards to the garage to find tools that I wasn’t expecting to need plus lots of slow filing of the slots to make sure I didn’t over-do it. It would have been about 2 hours to get me to the point I’m at, which is the Y and Z axis bed complete as per this pic, if I didn’t have the issue with the fit
What I would really like is a CNC machine to allow me to cutout plastic enclosures. For small projects,that would allow me to make something semi-professional looking as hand cut and filing doesn’t look as good. I’ve found some machines that have a suitable X Y movement but the Z is often limited and I would prefer something with around 300mm minimum so I could machine the sides of enclosures.
@ Brett - Is that frame anodized aluminum? Interesting, if so, since the Anet A8 is plastic (lexan or similar).
@ Dave McLaughlin - Why not 3d print with ABS and use Acetone vapour to smooth?
@ Brett - I see Aldi has their 3D printer special buy back this Saturday (May 14), for $499, Australia only I think.
It is a metal frame Prusa i3, apparently a rebadged Wanhao Duplicator V2, and I’ve only seen good reviews on it. Prebuilt, 2 year warranty, and being Aldi you can take it back for any reason within 60 days.
I’m going to try and get one (apparently they went very quickly last time) as a backup for my other two. My main one is highly customized from what I first bought six years ago (heated bed, auto-leveling, high-temperature head, filament pressure sensor, custom firmware…) and works well, but I need a backup to run production jobs while I’m playing around with it.
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The cost. With enclosures at around 250 x 200 x 60mm the cost to print them is too high. Surface finish and resilience to sunlight is also a reason I would not use 3D prints.
Of course, the cost of the machine has to be considered too but with the number of enclosures I’ve done over the last few years, the return on investment would be quite quick for me.
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yep, I deliberately went for the aluminium one (note the i toward the end of that word? 
) as I didn’t want the plexi one. Geeetech also do a similar one to the Anet A8, probably similar price, but it was about AU$40 cheaper and I didn’t think it was likely as robust longer term and possibly less stable too. I’d seen people who had screwed fittings into their plexi style units and they had failures, edges breaking off etc so I opted for metal (I had always been looking at aluminium frames for my other planned build so wasn’t really a hard choice)
[quote=“C-Born”] I see Aldi has their 3D printer special buy back this Saturday [/quote] oh cool - yeah mad rush for those. For the money, I am sure they’re more than serviceable. I’m pretty happy so far with the Geeetech too, and at AU$235 for a kit it seems a great home use device if everything proceeds with no more / no significant hiccups (did I mention my Scottish ancestry and being a tightar$e? 
)
The usual old joke about the convicts sent down under springs to mind. :whistle:
All joking aside, it would be interesting to know if any past family members were actually sent to the colonies as prisoners or if they were the ones who went of their own accord. I’ve never know just how many were sent to Australia as convicts.
Oh yes, “machine breakers” and first fleeters, I believe FYI there were 568 male, and 191 female convicts as part of the first fleet. Many more after that… And not knowing feudal details, and I’ll take this back if it means we can’t be friends, McVicar is the family line I’m associated back to
I agree that this would probably be more useful for you. You could get something like an xCarve and cut a hole in the baseboard. That would allow you to sink the enclosure beneath the printer. Obviously it leaves you with other problems to solve such as how to hold the work peice.
Alternativly, i think you would need to build your own from alu extrusions. Some kind of hybrid Xcarve and Hypercube Evolution(twin z screw) might work.
For enclosures I often use a 3D printer to print drill guides the helps greatly with speed and reproducibility.
For those thinking of getting the Aldi printer, I can highly recomend it. I have the Wanhao Di3 V2 and it has been incredably reliable over the year that I have had it. Add a few mods like the Zbrace, lack enclosure and Titan Aero extruder or Microswiss all metal hotend and you have a real multi material workhorse.
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