Apologies for the newb post, but hopefully you guys can check I’m thinking along the right lines before I part with my hard earned cash. Basically I’m looking to purchase/build my first 3D printer and while I have good experience with designing and building my own projects (hardware, electronics and software) I’m new to 3D printing and the the huge variety of choice which is flooding the market at the moment (both from commercial products such as those from Maplin and CPC and kit builds such as the RepRap) leaves me feeling it would be pretty easy to miss something, so just looking for some confirmation I’m on the right track.
From my research it looks like some form of RepRap/Mendel kit is probably a good way for me to go as I’m looking at a budget of around £500 to £1000 and I’m not afraid to get my hands dirty building the thing. Also as an open source developer and Linux user I’d rather use an open platform (even if its a little trickier to set up) than go for a locked down pre-polished commercial option.
The reason for looking for a kit is I’m a bit nervous of building one completely from scratch because although I have good word working experience/tools/skills I don’t really have the tools to do any complicated metal work and I don’t know anyone else with a 3D printer, so a kit which includes the basic components would be a good way for me to go.
As I’m based in the UK I’ve been recommended to check out the @nop_head Mendal 90 which I’m told is a very nice machine within my price bracket. I have to say after checking Nops website it looks like Mendel 90 is right up my street, having the structure built out of materials such as wood (which I know I can work with) gives me confidence that I can do a good job of the build and even maybe make a more elaborately decorated version which would be nice to take to events such as the Raspberry jam’s I attend.
What are peoples thoughts on this and are there other designs/kits I should be considering, have I missed something crucial? Or is it the case that these days have we got to the stage where its better simply to buy an off the shelf product such as those in Maplin? (that would be a real shame)
Thanks for any help and apologies for the long intro…
Hi @Daniel_Bull .
You’re going to find it hard to go wrong with the Mendel90 I think. I don’t own one (I build my own monstrosities) but I trust the sagely wisdom of @Sanjay_Mortimer and @Richard_Gain who both do and are strong advocates.
The Mendel 90 had a large following; the design is mature, (anecdotally) easy to print and well refined.
I’d recommend you add and http://e3d-online.com/ all metal hot end (V5) to the 90 to allow you to print nylon, polycarbonate and other high temp/exotic materials.
If you wanted alternate suggestions, the obvious other candidate would be the Prusa I3 but the 90 appears to be getting more popular and Nophead is still actively developing the design, which can’t be said for the Prusa (as far as I know).
From reading your comment - it seems like the Mendel90 is pretty much exactly what you want.
It’s a mature fully featured machine, that is easily maintained, built, and also modified/hacked on. It’s design, firmware, host software and slicing software are all provided and all run on linux.
I’ve built many from scratch myself, and also built 4 kits that came from Nophead. I really recommend the kits from him. You’re unlikely to be able to make it much cheaper yourself, and you’ll almost certainly not get as high-quality components and end product.
I have a Mendel90 that I built from nophead’s kit. Just as @Tim_Rastall suggested, I upgraded to an E3D hotend. The printer has excellent print quality, has excellent build instructions, upgrade capability, and comes with nopheads’s first class customer service. Nophead is fully comitted to the open source concept and supports the Reprap community. The kit is very complete, only needing a power supply for US and Canadian purchasers. Th e design is simple and very rigid. The best thing though is the print quality. Everyone in my 3D printer group are amazed at how much better my parts are. Adding the E3D hotend extends the material capabilities.
Since it seems you have the skills required to build a kit machine, I recommend that you do. You’ll have a much better understanding of how the machine works, and will be better able to fine tune it for best quality. Upgrades and modifications are much easier to perform since you’ll be comfortable disassembling the machine.
Thanks to everyone that responded, this is exactly the advice I was looking for. I will contact @nop_head for further details 
I am looking at one of these as well, I looked at @nop_head 's blog and he said kits were temporally I hold. Is that true? Is there a US vendor?
@Daniel_Bull like others have said the Mendel90 is a brilliant machine and a fine choice. You might also consider a Prusa i3 which are easier to build than the original Mendel machines.
I’ll check it out Daniel.
@Camerin_hahn I saw that as well. It looks like Nop head has recently joined G+ . I’m hoping he will see this thread and give us some info on his kits.
(OK my mistake, looks like he’s been joined a while but just hasn’t posted much.)
Nophead is very accessible through the RepRap/Mendel90 Forum: http://forums.reprap.org/list.php?292
I thought I saw that they were holding off to make minor kit changes, but that they were shipping again.
Cheers Robert, I’ll take a look.
Yup he paused shipping to upgrade the X axis design to something much more bulletproof. Shipping again now - I have one of the new ones and three of the old ones from him.