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Hello,

I am not sure who to ask, so I decided to put it out there online. I have an old HE3D Prusa Mendel type printer from about one to two years ago. The board blew out about 6 months ago and the printer has been sitting in the garage ever since. I don’t know whether to scrap it or rebuild it.

I would rather scrap the parts and get a few dollars back so I can by another printer (not from HE3D) for under $500 but I don’t know how to go about this. The more realistic solution is to renovate the printer and bring it back online. If I do this, does anyone know where to get started on renovating an old reprap Chinese printer? I want to install an e3d hotend with a new build plate, which would require a new board such as the rambo mini. I also will replace all the wiring (as a short circuit caused the board to burn out). Would this end up more expensive than if I bought a new 3d printer?

My mistake was getting the Chinese “build your own” HE3D printer as my first DIY build. Now I have to deal the consequences after a year of printing on it.

Thanks,

Austin

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Renovating it could be a fun project and IMO it would economically be worth it: there’s no way you are going to spend so much to just fix what’s broken. I had an HE3D Kossel as well, and despite the kit being… “meh” quality and it being my first printer at all, I had some fun modding it and making it perform at its best. A year later I eventually sold it and built a D-Bot anyway. Still, I don’t know if someone will be willing to pay $500 for a not-so-recent DIY RepRap, when there are newer, cheaper, factory-made printers out there at the moment.

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Thanks for the input! How would you go about modding this printer? Would it even be possible to hook up a v6 Bowden extruder and hotend to it, or would I have to design a new carriage for it? Do you know of any forums\instructions\models for the specific printer? I have no idea where to start!

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Unfortunately I have no experience with Mendels, but I think a new carriage might be needed. I’m sure that someone on Thingiverse has already made a suitable part (a quick search turned this up, but keep in mind that I do not know your machine well and I might just be linking an incompatible piece :slight_smile: - x carriage for E3D V6 / 50 mm axis distance with Auto Bed Leveling by MacNite - Thingiverse) I’d change the board first - a “standard” RAMPS should be fine for that machine I think, and it’ll set you back less than $20 usually. Consider buying a spare if the price is ok and the stepper drivers are of good quality. Test what there’s to test, fixing just the bare minimum to bring the printer back online. Avoid putting too much things in at once. When it’s proven that the printer in healthy, go on with the upgrades! One more thing: have you thought of cannibalizing the Mendel to build another machine? You may do as I did, pull out steppers, hotend and electronics and only sell the assembled frame.

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Thanks for the input! How would you go about modding this printer? Would it even be possible to hook up a v6 Bowden extruder and hotend to it, or would I have to design a new carriage for it? Do you know of any forums\instructions\models for the specific printer? I have no idea where to start!

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A ramps setup with lcd can be had pretty cheep I have a great x carriage with bed leveling and I can recommend a couple of great extruders to run the e3d on this machine I have a old prusa running as my main machine still

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Cool. Which extruder did you use with the old prusa? I am unsure about the width between the two railings for the x carriage, but how can optimize it for the e3d? Also, I don’t really like the heated bed because of the need for it to have a separate router (I can’t remember what it is called). Can the ramps board handle a direct connection for the heat bed?

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If the LCD is still good you could probably re-use that on RAMPS.

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this looks like a geetech lcd totaly reusable pretty sure you could have that machine up and running for $30-40

here is a link to a controller on aliexpress

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Mega-2560-R3-Mega2560-REV3-1pcs-RAMPS-1-4-Controller-for-3D-Printer-arduino-kit-Reprap/1947676736.html?spm=2114.01010208.3.19.z7yivx&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_3_10065_10068_10000009_10084_10083_10080_10082_10081_10060_10061_10062_10056_10055_10054_10033_10059_10099_10078_10079_427_10103_10073_10102_10096_10052_10050_10051,searchweb201603_9,afswitch_5&btsid=dee4a814-afeb-4e7c-9a13-7af38614f267

and the adapter for the lcd to ramps

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3D-Printer-Smart-Controller-Connector-Adapter-RAMPS-1-4-2004-12864-LCD/32700543242.html?spm=2114.01010208.3.29.bnq4eX&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_3_10065_10068_10000009_10084_10083_10080_10082_10081_10060_10061_10062_10056_10055_10054_10033_10059_10099_10078_10079_427_10103_10073_10102_10096_10052_10050_10051-10078,searchweb201603_9,afswitch_5&btsid=a49dac34-304a-459d-96ea-85370fd0d6fa

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It has a j head directly driven currently but a e3d would fit just fine

here is a link to the carriage I made

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:226440

I will have to update the pics on this maybe tonight

but if you look in my collections as well you will find many great prusa mendel upgrades

if you need them printed before you get your machine back up and running shot me a pm

also I’ll look through my parts box I may have a sanguinolo control board you can have

this is the extruder I am using

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:42495

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Thank you broncosis! I actually have a Mendel max 3 chugging away as my main printer, so I should be able to handle the parts! I would however be I interested in your board. I have never heard of the one you mentioned. I’ll also review your thingiverse file as well. I can’t start it till after Christmas, but it looks like your model could work. If I were to print a carriage, would I be fine to print it in ABS? Or something else?

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That controller comes without the stepper drivers, might I suggest this one instead?

https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/Mega-2560-R3-1pcs-RAMPS-1-4-Controller-5pcs-A4988-Stepper-Driver-Module-for-3D-Printer/110055\_1439959836.html

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Sorry for my inexperience, why are there six different boards that I would have to buy? Don’t I just need a single board and then attach all the motors and hotend and hotbeds to that board?

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The board here are a modular system so that if one part goes you can replace just that part also its one of the cheeper more reliable setups This ramps kit looks much more complex than it is There is about 10 or so boards you could choose from.

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Also good catch on the drivers I just grabbed the first link that looked not bad

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Don’t do what ive done before and ruin two circuit boards in a row. I say that because a short circuit shouldn’t ruin anything. A short circuit is a result not a cause of the problem.

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Is there a specific place I can get all these parts? Hopefully Amazon?

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Ah, I see. Thanks! Are there any on Amazon? And do these boards allow for a second extruder (not a necessity, just something I thought about). I would think the best dual extrusion system for the reprap Mendel printer would be similar to the prusa i3 mk2 setup. Could I eventually mod it into that?

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Yes they are available on Amazon as well as the heated beds Just aliexpress is the cheapest Dual extrusion is totaly do able with a bodwen setup like you have

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Yes they are available on Amazon as well as the heated beds Just aliexpress is the cheapest Dual extrusion is totaly do able with a bodwen setup like you have. This board can run 2 extruder for sure but its a pain to setup sometimes also you lose the simple way to connect a cooling fan