Posted by Martin Newbold on 21/12/2017 18:02:03:
I have to wonder if you are all buying a kit anyway ?
Most of us have bought 'kits', but as I said if you want the printed parts this is cheaper than getting them all individually. A premium kit will include better instructions, pre-loaded & calibrated software and some upgraded parts.
What most people don't realise is that unlike a lathe or mill where the wear happens on all that separate tooling, most of the wear on a 3D printer is consumables like nozzles and heatbreak tubes (with plastic liners).
There are also things like thermistors and hot ends that need some looking after. I eventually realised my thermistors were desoldering because I was neatly wrapping their wiring close to the heater cables, for example.
In any case the 3D -print philosophy is generally one of continuous experimentation and improvement as different materials and objects tend to have different requirements.
My heater tube replacement took about 10 minutes, aided by some extra connectors to make hotend swaps fast, but that included a second dis-assembly as I realised I could route some wires better which I wish I had done months ago!
Neil