On the purchase fence.

My question is for those that have purchased one, what has been the level of frustration of getting the whole system up and going and then to printing?

I have STLs of models that I've designed but makexyz.com has been a royal pain in the butt with no responses on print requests or "too large" "do not have the PLA filament" etc.. I've looked at shapeways website but after I do the math on the initial print run it is getting close to $100 for the printing run and I'm thinking I may as well just buy a Robo3D printer.

I'm a Mac user after using Linux for almost a decade I'm on the fence because I've looked at the steps required in the docs to get going but am wondering about people's real world experiences of unpacking -> printing.
Is the level of effort basically following the steps with a couple of detours and I'm done and going in a Saturday or is this going to be a constant pain in my ass.

Thank you for any feedback you can provide.

 

It was honestly really quick to go from unpacking to printing. Of course there's still a lot to learn but that's mostly in the software.

When I got it set up I probably could have jumped in quicker but I took it slow. Carefully testing each device to ensure everything worked, then maybe told the motors to move around for fun. I quickly got to printing the cal cube and on my 2nd go it printed perfectly.

Most of my mistakes early on were because of A) too high off print bed and not adhering B) Slicing issues printing in mid-air, etc or C) initially adhered but lack of surface area/low adhesion took print off bed.

Once you understand how a good layer looks it gets much easier to get consistent prints.

First night I managed to successfully print a N64 3d "N". Pretty low complexity but still cool to do in your first real day.

 

Thanks Mike.

Can I assume then that most of the work is up front and once setup your pretty much just maintaining the build surface between prints?
Meaning simple routine work that after you've done it a few times it takes about as much thought as cleaning the toilet to do.

 

Yup pretty much. There's some tweaking of the Z height to get the right layer height but once you get it dialed in it's tiny adjustments each time.

The proper way to calibrate is to do it before you start a print, but lately I've been cheating and getting my z height close then twisting my z rods to lower/raise the carriage to get the first layer looking how I want. I do 2 skirts to get a good idea of how the layer will look and give me plenty of time to tweak.

I only did one mod really and it wasn't even entirely necessary. I just did it so I had the option of finer tuning. This was new standoffs for the build platform as described here: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:125626 Before I did this mod my bed was reading +-.005in. After the mod all 4 corners are within +-.001in and the max deviation is +.003 which is very very good.

I've put a bunch of hours in mine and I've had it for less than a month. It really is a great printer, especially for the price.

 

Also don't forget the 20-40+ hours spent making blobs of plastic that don't resemble your intended print at all. Learning HOW to run your 3D printer and your specific filament (getting things to stick to the bed, and then not delaminate, make too many strings, temps, and speeds) takes time and experimentation. Plus settings that work great for one model, might not work At All for another. Like any tool, you have to learn how to use it.

I would -=HARDLY=- say however that you basically just have to set the Z correctly, level the bed, get a good skirt, and yer done...

 

But is this (hours and hours of additional tweaking) something that is present for all 3D printers and just standard operating procedure or is there another which would cost more than the Robo3D but not have that same amount of work?

I guess the question is if the Robo3D printer is cheaper than many others only IF you value your time at $0/hour. Or the prep is basically the same and it is a great value.

 

I've spent less time / hour of printing adjusting my robo 3d than my friend and his replicator 2. Any 3d printer will require a decent amount of adjustments regardless of cost until you get into Stratasys printer.

 

Damn you all for getting me off the fence and finally buying one.


Hopefully I get snowed in the day I unbox it.

 

I hope you get it soon, ABS+PLA or just PLA model?