hey guys looking to build my own printer , i used a lot of 3d printers and repaired some but never made one .I am thinking about buying this kit ? what do you guys think?
http://www.sainsmart.com/3d-printing/3d-printkits/sainsmart-ramps-v2-lcd-2004-a4988-nema-17-3d-printer-controller-kit-for-reprap.html
A kit to “make one”? I designed mine myself looked up everything my self. Thats how you get to know what everything does and why there are problems 
i dont see the harm in buying everything together i can still design it myself
There is not really any “design” in the electronics - if you buy off the shelf, it makes no difference if you order every piece from a different vendor or you buy a complete electronics kit. The advantage of the electronics kit is the lower price and the fact that everything shows up at the same time.
Yes thats true. But for a mendel kind of printer the y carriage has the same motor as the x carriage although heavier. Better take a longer nema type ie. Just sayn
@Alan_Thomason thanks for your input, when i said design i meant the over all look of the printer . but yea i thought buying everything together in one shot would be nice
$185?? That’s okayyy… But a bit high on price. I got a RAMPS 1.4 kit on Amazon for just over $30. Includes all in this kit except for motors and the bed heater, and it has a better LCD to boot. And the reviews for it were highly rated. (Not so with Sainsmart from what I’ve seen…)
Look hard enough and the NEMA17 motors will be $60. Heat beds are under $15.
Source it all on Alibaba or BangGood and it’ll be cheaper!
I’d recommend a 32 bit processor for your printer(I love mine!!!, but if this is your first one then thhe whole ramps + arduino mega will do just fine
@Francis_Lee you got a link ?
@kenneth_rooks which brand did you go with ?
I been considering a smoothie board . It’s also worth mentioning that I wanted to either make it a fixed bed . Or a bed that raises in the Z like the ultimaker style .
It’s some Chinese vendor. The smoothie board is the one I originally wanted, but it was always out of stock and my price range. Here is the one I went with: http://m.ebay.com/itm/3D-Printer-Board-MKS-SBASE-V1-2-32-BIT-ARM-Smoothieware-USB-1GB-SD-XH2-54-TJC3-/191839368778?txnId=1259501077009
it’s smoothieware compatible and I runs it on my Delta build currently. I my opinion, that’s the best board I’ve owned. (Well 8 bit board vs 32 bit board wise). If u have any other questions please ask.
@ThatNerdMike Sorry about that! haha…
http://amzn.com/B016D6DSBW
That should get you started. I bought two and they both work (for now haha).
Everything else you can search eBay for… stepper motors maybe you can go with Tony34306 or Sidewinderinc. They both have steppers that end up being less than $10 per motor…
@Nathan_Walkner you have a link to the board and screen?
@Nathan_Walkner oh man I like the thought of a 3.5 touch screen . You have any pics of the screen interface or a video ? I don’t know what a esp 8266 is . I am new to the hardware names . Is this board considered ramps or smoothie?
I am a newbie I don’t know if that will be to hard for me
Lots of good comments here and good points, but I have replaced both my Prusa v2 and i3 with Sainsmart Ramps and that same LCD screen. $185 is a decent price for getting everything all in one shot. You can then get leadscrews from eBay like these that I just got for $10 each http://www.ebay.com/itm/322001202765?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&var=510932184506&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
They are a pretty deep pitch and a tighter thread would be better but they leave zero banding. Figure another 30-60 for an okay frame, $70 for the linear rods if you get good ones like I got from Misumi (PSFJ8) and another 50-70 for the threaded rod and vitamins if you go with a design like the i3. Then you need the hotend which for an E3D v6 is $100 and if you get an off the shelf extruder like the E3D Titan (I love mine) that is another $60. Total for that comes out to around $560 total. I have upgraded aluminum build plates and pillow block LM8UUs which jumps it up another $40-60. That’s pretty good considering I’m a bit picky and actually spent about $750 building each of mine because I went with better motors and a few other things.
As far as too many endstops, you only need three yes, but it’s nice to have the extras for when you smash one of them.
I’m running the latest build of Marlin on both of my printers and they both produce extremely excellent quality prints allowing me to sell items on etsy, 3D Hubs, and several other clients I have which over the years has more than paid for the hobby in general.
Granted I was learning the first year before I even considered selling anything I made.
Of course you could always get one of those crap $300 i3s from china but you get what you pay for 
Good luck!
@Francis_Lee agreed I bought everything for around $70 on eBay
I got the kit with the 2in1 card. And had temprature problems with it. I know of maby 4 other users having problems with the sainsmart cards. I would buy a MKS 1.4 or something else then sainsmart atm. Becuse they havent adressed the ones having problems with their 2in1 yeat.