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
Ok tiny update , for some reason my used printer extruder keeps stopping up so i am trying to figure that out. Maybe I will remove and clean the tip better. It has clogged and ruined 3 prints so far. I tried the basic trouble shooting steps and re leveling the bed. The extruding works fine for like 1 to 4 hours then clogged agian. I count my stars that the 14 hour body print was able to be finished. I have heard that a bit of wd40 in the extruder right before the print helps prevent this problem.
On the bright side I had probably had 12 to 14 prints go perfect so i guess this is part for the course on the error rate.
As for the new makerbot I believe they are finally shipping it out today and I will have a confirmation of that when I email them. They respond to emails usually in a few hours but I have noticed they are not proactive. I did get refunded 200 bucks because the price dropped after I placed my order but before the printer was shipped out.
We have this problem every once in a wile. I like to take a can of compressed air and insert the straw it comes with into the extruder as if it were filament. It wont feed all the way through because the straw is much larger then the filament. Then I blow out the nozzle till its clean. After that I do the same with WD-40. If the WD-40 comes out of the nozzle in a nice straight clean stream then you should be good.
You do this with the heat on or off?
With the heat on for both the air and the WD-40. Sometimes i have to go back and forth between air and WD-40 to get it cleared out but I always end with WD-40.
Ok I cleared it and back to printing. This time with a live video feed so i can see if it messes up.
Where did you mount the camera? That's a nice angle.
Update from makerbot , they shipped it to me overnight by fedex and should have it tommorow.
Thanks man! The Camera is sitting on the back right corner , it's a ez robot version 3 wireless cam taped with painters tape. It was the best view i could find. It is almost the view the new makerbot version 5 has.