Making a RepRap – Step 0: BOM
This is parts of a series on making a RepRap.
Because we’re not used to working with electronics, the BOM (Bill of Materials) of the RepRap (as found on the RepRap wiki) looks pretty frightening at first. After a second, third and fourth look things became a bit clearer.
We looked up every part in different online shops that are best for us (Belgium / Europe) and have assembled ready-made ordering lists for most parts. We chose to buy some parts pre-assembled, while the original BOM mentions them separately (to make our life a bit easier).
The original BOM can be found on the RepRap Wiki here. This is our BOM in PDF format.
Some remarks:
- Bars: All necessary bars for X/Y/Z axises are 1 item, since they’re 3 times the same
- Belts: X and Y belt are 1 belt of 10mm width, split into 2 belts of 5mm width.
- m5x20-mudguard-washer: If you can find an M4 instead of M5 that’s better, but the shop we bought it in didn’t provide it.
- extruder: We found someone on the forum who sold the barel and nozzle combined. Makerbot sells these parts separately.
- electronics: We decided to buy Fully Assembled kits, because we’re no soldering heroes. The only thing not available fully assembled at Makerbot was the endstop, so we bought an extra kit to have a backup when we screwed up (They’re not expensive)
Some other things you’ll need:
- Thin sheet: This is metal that can be gotten from anything (for example soda cans)
- Thick sheet: Sturdy plates meant as printing base. We’ll use MDF for this (Get this at your local do-it-yourself store)
- Soldering set
- Magnifying glass (to put together PCBs)
- Electronic wiring
- Jumpers
- Soldering tin
At the moment we have ordered everything int he BOM except for the Makerbot items (Some items were out of stock, they should be up again in a few days / weeks). We’re also still looking for someone to print the reprap-printable parts for us, we’re looking on IRC / Forums for those.
Time and money spent on the project so far:
Time: About 8 hours trying to make a complete list of everything we need and grasp the big picture of the RepRap
Money: € 401.44 in parts and € 35.00 in food
We’ll keep you posted on our progress!
Wish us luck.
