Question about the Solidoodle company (Page 2 of 6)

Thanks Pirvan. Is so amazing to find out so many customers all around the web having bad experiences with this company. At the beginning I thought I was the only one. Unbelievable they are letting their brand deteriorate day by day without doing anything about that.

the only thing ever I liked about the SD4 was it had the hole pre punched in rear for exhaust fan like all models should have had. the best they built IMHO was SD2 and SD3 except SD3 should have had stronger rods and bild plate for the larger surface area used. solidoodle never learned how to make a user friendly case nor did they use great electric parts only suficiant for the job at lowest cost. but still easy to mod/upgrade later when you got more $$$ and learned how to use a 3D printer and what specs you needed for your applications.

I am happy with my SD2 wish I could find an SD3 to make a Workbench apprentice frankinprinter with better parts at half the cost and dont worry about Sam and Dudes anymore. lol

this forum does better anyways thats why SD wont come play with us anymore Sam picked up his marbles and went home years ago seems. then went China on us. thats how looser CEOs have done for over 25 years now b4 disappearing off the planet. sad but common.

Many 3d printer communities have separate sections for 3d printer specific discussions, including Solidoodle. Something like that works.

Maybe for some people, but I sure as heck have no use for the kind of knowledge I got from trying to fix a broken product, especially since it was trial and error which is in my opinion the slowest and most inefficient way to learn anything. Many Ultimaker or makerbot users might not know how to calibrate their stepper drivers or know what PID is, but the thing is they'll probably never need to, so learning it will be just a waste of time. It's all about time vs money. And BTW most of the things we spent time on wasn't even "knowledge". Figuring out after hours of testing that something isn't properly glued or not sturdy enough or is of poor tolerance only teaches you that you bought a shitty product.
I know it feels better to think that you got at least something out of all this, but I honestly think some people exaggerate it.
If anyone wants to learn basic electronics and mechanics they can build a 3d printer kit, not patch up a broken one.
I'll shut up now.

Fair enough. Ignore I also mentioned Makerbot. Haven't had experienced with them for a long time. Everything else I said still stands.

As far as support complaints go, there are no need for SD in that regard. Our (Soliforum) community is superior to any service Solidoodle could ever offer. How many times have you had phone calls/emails with another user until 10pm only to have the conversation end , problem corrected, with them saying they are halfway around the world about to get ready for work? How many times have you had someone take their own personal upgrades for next to nothing...if nothing at all? How many times have you stayed up until 1am helping someone on the opposite coast with their new machine?

All of these happen in our community every day. And we don't get paid for it like SD employees do, and we are more knowledgeable than the ones who actually make these units. This is by no means a bash on SD as a company...but a rave review of this here site! MB support would tell you to piss up a rope if you called on their lunch breaks. Not us. And we at least have a working knowledge of other makes/models. So in my book, the support comments are out the window.

There are other ways for people to find us. How else do Prusa/MB/Airwolf users find us? Through searching. We are not strictly dedicated to SD printers. And while Brad *could* buy up domain names for xxxxprinter.com or xxxxsupport.edu, keep in mind he does not ask for user fees...he pays out of pocket. The "3D printing community" is the hook if you ask me.

Sorry for the length and a hint of rambling.

Agree.

Does this mean my SD2 is appreciating in value?

the SD2 is like the Citroen 2V (European car made for decades with same spartan design) of 3D printers. cant keep it down and always a way to mod it to taste with a nice base to build on and low cost/budget able to achieve quality prints exceeding most including the $10k models. only SLA powder/resin can surpass but at a steep cost and more mess to deal with besides support material post print may even need a large lab for that type printer which BTW start as low as $30k US and sky is the limit (or your credit line).

If you aren't using your SD4 you should consider putting it up for sale, because there are plenty of people who would want one but can't get one because the wait times are ridiculous. It's a solid printer with the right modifications.

if that doesn't work out for you shoot me a PM, I have a spare SD4 moherboard I'll part with for not too much.

And if that doesn't work, then list it for sale.  I might want it and I'm comfortable modding it and don't care about the motherboard.

Former Solidoodle employee here, saw this thread and felt compelled to let everyone know what's going on - at least as far as I know, since Solidoodle doesn't say anything unless it's good news. You guys have pretty much figured it out though, Solidoodle is out of cash.

It started with the Press, which without getting into too much detail, was/is a complete disaster. Production tapped out most of our funds and the port delays meant that we weren't able to re-coup those costs as quickly as we needed. Plus, the Press pre-order campaign meant that we were pretty much shipping the printers at a net loss.

Around this time they started sporadically missing payroll here and there, but there was talk about bringing in investors so I figured we would tough it out until the round closed and once we had some operating capital we'd be able to recover. Well we closed the round, hooray! I see another poster did some digging and noticed that we refiled as a C-corp, this was part of finalizing the investment.

Turns out most of the funding was used to pay off debts and it wasn't long before the prospect of missing payroll again became a reality. Last month they called a company meeting and laid off pretty much everyone (myself included) except for those with shares and the accounting department (who were put on part-time).

Obviously there's a whole lot more to the story but the bottom line is that things don't look good. If you have an unfulfilled order, unfortunately, I wouldn't get my hopes up.  If you're looking for a refund, I would start exploring other avenues to recoup (bank, credit card, etc) because there isn't any money there, and even if there was, refunds are not very high up on the list of priorities. Spare part orders are a craps shoot depending on the part.

So that's that. I wish I came here bearing better tidings but that's the truth. I love the community here at Soliforum and it was frustrating that we weren't allowed to share with you all the realities of the situation, so I figured it was the least I could do.

Thank you very much for the information. I am very sorry to hear about what happened to you. This is more information about the company than I have heard in the last year. Deeply appreciated.