jstarne1
Just like i did with the Solidoodle I am sharing my overall experience purchasing a new makerbot. I will compare some of the same prints i did on the solidoodle with makerbot. Take in mind 80 percent of the difference is firmware for the "reprap" makerbot controller and the Makerbot slicer is more consistent than the open source SLIC3R. Also I have a used unit that I have had for a week while still waiting on the new one. First things you should know is I like to get the best reasonable deal i can. I discovered a few Promos for Makerbot you can also take advantage of if you call their sales line. Take in mind not all promos work on their website. Currently ( as of April 7 2014) Replicator 2 systems are on sale at 200 dollars off without a promo code as well.
$200 off purchase price PROMO MAKERBOTFRIEND
Free Shipping PROMO LASTCHANCE
( this is emailed to you if you add any item to you cart and don't complete a order)
Filament 15% off BIRDHOUSE
at this time buy any 4 spools of filament get additional 10% off
20% gold conference pass BOT
Alternatively Amazon has makerbot filaments with free shipping if you need them quicker as well.
At this time the filaments i have and price before discounts to use are:
- Makerbot 4 rolls of white ( 8.8 pounds) $48 x 4
- Makerbot 1 roll of clear ( 2.2 pounds) $48
on the way are:
-Makerbot 1 translucent red (2.2 pounds) $65 -Makerbot 1 black filament (2.2 pounds) $48
-Ninja Flex black 1.1 pounds $60 -Ninja Flex red 1.1 pounds $60 -Ninja Flex white 1.1 pounds $60
What brand of filament do you use? I bought a bunch of filament when I bought the unit... and it was all Makerbot brand. The pricing of their filament is high and their winding is garbage... I wonder if they wind it by hand? Lol. I need to get some more filament soon because I am running low so now is a good time to switch to an alternative! Also, how do you stop printing remotely, is there an input on the electronics for that? I might use such a feature with a filament monitor I might build.
Plug it in through usb port and use remote desktop to that pc. Then use a webcam or wireless ip cam to watch your print job.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/291017053164?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
store is faveprices
14.80 plus 7 shipping per spool , a little better price than makerbots 60.00 per 2.2lb spool plus shipping and 9 dollars insurance.
That is a solid deal on the filament! Thanks again! I mainly queue most of my long jobs on SD card as my main machine is a Microsoft Surface, and it's pretty mobile.
The surface uses windows RT unless you have the latest model. I do have a dell venue pro 8 and a acer w3 as well , similar windows x86 distro tablets.
No, I have had the Surface Pro 2 and docking station running Windows 8.1 64 bit. It's a full PC and like an ultrabook. I run Geomagic Cad on it, Makerbot software, CAM...and all of my work Windows software...QuickBooks, CooCox programming environment for ARM, Atmel Studio, Visual Studio, Office 365 etc.
It totally rules, but I wish I new that the Surface 3 was coming out so quickly.
BTW, Surface was introduced with RT on the ARM model and WIndows 8.0 on the Pro model from the very beginning and at the same time: The first-generation of Surface devices (Surface and Surface Pro) were both announced on June 18, 2012.
Yea the "PRO" is the difference lol