Mendel Build and review of mendel-parts.com
I’ve considered getting a mendel or makerbot for quite some time and back in October finally made the jump and paid over $1,100 for a complete mendel kit from mendel-parts.com. Of course at the time he had listed that it would be around a 5-6 week wait for printed parts. Little did I know…
Problems that I’ve found so far since receiving the parts:
1. Power supply is European, not American despite a American shipping address.
2. Missing the 10mm length M3 bolt for mounting the motors.
3. Missing the PEEK Block for the extruder. (Will update both of these if I get them) (Update: Camiel says he has shipped my PEEK Block on 12/31, waiting…) (Received 2/11/11!!!)
4. Some prints of very disturbingly low quality were sent missing structural bits of plastic.
5. Z-Drive pulley’s have a raft on them which doesn’t appear will cleanly seperate without potential risk. Standard parts should have been 2 drive pulleys and 4 plastic washers. Considering drilling them and using as is? (zdrive pulley)
6. Z-Axis end bar clamps are thinner (around half the size) then the standard parts and will be much more likely to break.
Problems while waiting:
1. Almost impossible to communicate with the owner (Camiel) as emails go unanswered for weeks to months.
2. Shipping approximation time completely off by over a month. Promise times quoted on IRC/email were also off with the factual time ending up taking 2 months and 3 days (64 days total).
Long story short I’d have to say at this point the decreased stress to order from a one stop shop was completely ruined with problems. If I had this to do over I’d order from anyone but mendel-parts.com.
As for the build, I’ve been going now for several days, I’ll take one picture of my progress everyday to post up until complete and add them to this post.
12/21 progress
12/22 progress
12/23 progress
12/24 progress
12/25 progress
12/26 progress
12/27 progress
12/28 progress
12/29 progress
12/30 progress
12/31 progress(Final update for a bit, all axis’s work and home position themselves properly. Need missing peek block to finish extruder and start squaring the device.)
Update: As of 1/13/11 I STILL don’t have the missing part from mendel-parts.com, and have ordered from another american source instead. I highly recommend finding other sources, as that shop is just not dependable or trust-able. With any luck I’ll have my printer finished completely by the end of the week or beginning of next week. Here is one final picture for now:
Almost Done!
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