I have an opportunity to buy a Dimension BST 768 Stratasys 3d printer for $100. That’s right, $100. Here’s the catch; no electronics. Which I am completely ok with. There is a video series on Youtube by Robert Cowan showing the conversion process of this very printer to a smoothieboard(https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0zMZkIMIyC_-wQV3izrdbhdkR_7lVKkL). The question is, is it worth it to spend a couple hundred dollars getting this running? Is the quality of this kind of printer something that is worth many hours of work and money on?
I mean if you don’t want it, I’ll take it. 
In generally they’re pretty good. Do you need to replace the nozzles as well?
Ummmm…I think I’ll keep it 
I’m not sure on the nozzles yet. In fact, I’m not sure of any of it yet other than I want it and need to figure out how to move it!
Moving it will definitely be a tad difficult. Some friends and I moved a much heavier printer a few months ago and when I make more progress with it, I’ll post about it as well.
For me, “worth it” comes down to what you learn. I have few doubts you’ll get the printer to work, but whether it will maintain the same build quality is another question entirely. I look forward to seeing the build logs.
Right, the goal is to get it to do higher quality prints. I’ve got a Cobblebot right now and am getting parts to build my own Prusa i3 MK2. Hopefully the dimension will be able to perform at a much higher level!
At that price I would buy it just for the linear parts.
It’s an ABS machine. It might be pretty good for PC too. Keep in mind that the motor drivers that Cowan uses is $300. You might be able to run it with an Azteeg X5 GT with BSD109A drivers just fine but I wouldn’t try lesser drivers than that because most 3d printer controllers use drivers that are too weak for NEMA 23 motors.
@Jeff_DeMaagd Good point on the motor drivers. In the youtube video mentioned above, Robert Cowan uses a smoothieboard with gecko drive motor controllers and it seems to work just fine for him with that setup. Expensive but probably worth it because I’ll be able to run any kind of software then
Well I guess Smoothieware
Cohesion3D Remix is another option for smoothie, slightly cheaper and since you’re going to be using external stepper drivers we make a nice adapter for that as well.
I’m the owner, let me know of any questions you may have.
Never mind, the guy’s boss sold it out from under him…I was really looong forward to this!