The HT comes with a heated bed. Is it still necessary to use the tape, or can I just directly apply the ABS slurry?

I use a Heat-Resistant Borosilicate Glass plate on top of the heat bed and a glue stick for printing ABS. Also use the same setup for PLA but the bed is not heated.

Hi @Cupcakehat ! Ive just checked out the MakiBox including videos on assembly of the kit and calibration. It is very affordable and the prints look good. I personally would be worried about the assembly *stress* and would be spending the 6-10 weeks lead time wait, carefully studying each frame of the time laps assembly video!
I'm very interested in hearing how you went with the assembly and what you think of the print

The box has the precision parts pre-built, so all you have to do is assemble the frame and plug everything in. I'll try and tell you guys what I thought of the building process aswell.

Hey @Cupcakehat, it looks like an incredibly good priced printer ! Which colour did you order? Have to say the yellow one looks real funky !

Good luck with the new printer, I'm sure you will have a ton of fun !

Cheers,

Jay

I got black, because it hides all the electronics.

Just use painters tape for abs, the slurry makes a huge mess and acetone is flammable. It would be great is you post your prints , try to get up close pics of the things you print so everyone can see how it's doing. I was looking at those printers , they are related to solidoodle , one of the techs from solidoodle left and made makibox so it's interesting to see how it does.

@cupcakehat. Be aware that if you have to assembe the frame, you'll prob have to mount everything else to the frame. that's where calibration and percision comes into play. Sure you can just throw it together but your prints will look like you've thrown it together. That being said, I'm sure you wont have any issues because you seem pretty compitent at assembling things. Just be aware that you'll spend at least a day assembling any 3d printer.

i just got my SD2 last week. For $600, I'm pretty happy. My only real issue, other than the factory required slightly warped aluminum bed, (back corner like Josh's) was a loose extractor. the y rod has 2 pieces of telfon that glide across it. my lower piece was super loose. I tightened it up and was good from there. (Sure I added a mirror bed, adjusted the x and leveled it but that's been it.) I'll start a thread in the 3d prining forums sometime this week with lots of info on my experience.

Good luck Hat. I hope it goes well for you. keep us up to date on this.

I'll try and tell you guys what I think of the filament quality (13$ is a bargain, hopefully it's as good as the videos show it to be) as well as the print pre and post ABS slurry treatment (ABS slurry also happens to serve well as a glue and a way to smooth out 3D printed parts, who knew? :D) I'm thinking about 3D printing the entire shell for my humanoid robot, so that'll be a good way to test a large amount of prints once I do calibration and such.

Have you listed/posted your humanoid robot idea on the Forum? I'll be very interested in your idea and look forward to your 3D printing experience : p.s. Your profile pic looks more like a "hotdog hat" and that's OK

http://www.ez-robot.com/Community/Forum/posts.aspx?threadId=4872

here's the robot without it's shell, it's already built.

Arnold is a REALLY cool ! Nice one cupcake !

Jay

Thanks Hat! Now that's a cupcake hat and yes I now remember your robot build! and its going to be even cooler when the shell starts to go on...well done!

just realized that i had created this thread and now that i've bumped one dead thread, might as well do this one too. first, the bad news: makible is now bankrupt and can no longer make or ship any and all printers, even though you pay for said shipping. good news: i had cancelled (and received payment for) my printer, so i'll try to purchase a davinci XYZ. i'll tell you if that one works out any better.

a few folks over at soliforums have the davinci and are pretty happy with it. there was also a cool hack for the filament cartridges but i think you now need to downgrade the firmware to use it.

also, solidoodle have just released/are releasing a new line of printers that may work out better for you. I haven't heard much about them yet but there seems to be one about the same size as the davinci and it doesn't use cartidges. but just to put it into perspective, i paid about $700 for my sd2 pro in january which was not enclosed and only 6x6x6. they now have an 8x8x8, enclosed, heated bed, and i think sd card support for only $600. I plan on buying another solidoodle come tax time again. sooner if i get a better job.

i still need to fix my sd2. I bent a pully in one of the stepper motors. Totally my fault but I had a fairly pleasant experience with it. Solidoodle seems to keep getting better and better and are more affordable than the all mighty makerbot. Don't get me wrong, MBs are awesome if you can afford one but as far as 3d printers go, there are getting to be plenty of cheaper and just as good models coming out.

the only negative ive read about the davinci is the fact it uses filament cartriges that you can only get from them.

i'm going to look at all my options before i purchase, and you just reminded me about the solidoodle. thanks man