Hardware: Just ordered my ball bearing kit...

Just ordered my ball bearings kit from www.VXB.com

They are AWESOME! processed and shipped same day, and have excellent pricing. Since I'm not going to be redesigning the whole mendel from scratch now - which would actually be a waste of time that could be spent PRINTING things - I decided to order the reprap kit from VXB. Sure the 624s are about $1 /ea and there's 48 of em in the mendel build, which is about 0.60/ea more than the 608s if you buy in a lot of 100 pcs. but they are much smaller and here's the big thing. 608s have an ID of 8mm... M8 bolts aren't cheap. you're better off spending $0.60 more per bearing and using M4s, than if you purchase the 608s and having to use expensive bolts.

Still - for things like hobbing an extruder bolt, and other potential uses (home brew micro lathe anyone?) I picked up a set of 16 extra 608s. never hurts to have cool hardware lying around when you have a brilliant idea.

so that should arrive early next week - probably right about the time I'll get a big project at work and won't be able to touch anything.

... next, I'm planning on placing my order at Mcmaster tomorrow to pick up some of the other hardware, studding, and bar stock.

Probably will try and put together a Mouser order too - more than one project going on that could use some parts! but that's another topic altogether.