[ Closed ] Introducing Three New Solidoodle Models (Page 18 of 28)

yes die-cast wont handle much high temps. also PLA in press dont sound very doable inclosed with no cooling fan.

but even worse the workbench series still dont have a full metal extruder anything like the E3d. just an SD4 type so exotic filaments still not doable much less thermistors etc to handle higher temps. this combined with no explanation of how duel extruders deal with ooze (after seeing youtube posts in topic about this) make me think Ill just stay with my SD2 til next models and see whats up.

le sigh about the hot ends for the WB  but i suppose they were billed as modding machines and i suppose the stock nozzle on my sd2 did actually work well ( maybe just lucky)

i really wish there was more word on this extruder fan issue on the press. i mean is it so much to ask for a fan design file? it would take a tech 30 min to knock one out in solidworks.

I've decided to cancel my order for the WorkBench today. 

[Rant]
Yet another delay? Really?
We were told ship time 6-8 weeks back in August which would have mean they shipped by end of September (which by the way I knew would NEVER happen), then we get an e-mail staying "We expect to begin shipping orders by October 30th" (Silly me for actually believing this lie). Now we're told it will be mid-November. Hell they be lucky if they ship it this year! 

Same old hotend? Really?
So now I know I will have to spend even more money just upgrade to E3D V6 to print what ever I want to.  Why not at least add the option of upgrading hotends to all metal or E3D V6's. Even that would have been acceptable.

Discounted price? Really?
The workbench still has the same price I paid for back in August. Yeah not buying that one either!

So I've decided it will be better to cancel my order now, let Solidoodle keep delaying for another few months, ship out a product still not ready, then let the workbench users work out all the bugs then MAYBE (really big maybe here) place an order for it when shipping will really be 6-8 weeks (aka 9-10 weeks).  Maybe by then they will have upgraded the hotend to all metal or least provided support for it.

Come on guys, this is NO WAY TO RUN A BUSINESS!!!!!

Solidoodle here is some FREE advice for your next model you come out with. Trust me it will make your customer happy, get you lots of positive feedback and tons of free press.  It's really simple and will not cost you a dime.
Don't put the model up for sell UNTIL you have all the bugs worked out and them IN STOCK ready to ship! 

See how simple that is. That's the way I run my business and guess what, it REALLY works!.  I don't take any order for product I don't have ready to ship that day.  And if for some reason, I run out of stock for an order (only happened once before due to inventory glitch). You know what I did, I called my customer explained the error and offered them the option to cancel their order or to wait for the part to come in (Gave them the EXACT date I would ship it) and if they did want to wait, I gave them a good discount to make up for MY error.  Once I'm out of stock of an item, Customers are no longer able to order the item till they are back in stock! I don't take their money then leave them guessing when I'm going to ship their order to them.

Still don't understand why this is so hard to grasp!  But you say it cost too much to run a business like that!  Really?  If your that strapped for cash, you have to question if your running a business or a hobby. Yes it takes capital to run a business like this, but you know what, My customers are happy when get what they ordered in the time I stated they would get it.  I have plenty of repeat buyers cause of this business model. Also my business model promotes a true business image not a garage shop operation. Take out a business loan if you need to, but don't make your customers bankroll your business model!

You have people who really want your product and are willing to wait for it. Sure announce it, generate interest, but for sake of your customer sanity. DON'T SELL THEM TILL YOUR READY TO SHIP THEM!  If you had announced the workbench back in August and they they would be ready to sale and ship in November 2014, I would have waited for them. I would have been OK with any delays cause I knew you would deliver a quality product. Also MY money would have not been tied up for several months with nothing to show for it! Now all you have done is put a bitter taste in my mouth for any solidoodle product I MIGHT buy in the future!
[/Rant]

Sorry fellow forums members for the above rant, but I just had to get it off my chest.

im gonna leave it two weeks - if they have given no updates then it is clear that they have no intention of improving there communication.

I reckon if they dont im gonna cancel and order in some printrbots. I have a lot more faith in brook than sam at the moment

this fiasco reminds me of the last Christmas JCPenney had catalog sales b4 dropping most catalogs. we ordered our family Christmas with guaranteed delivery by Dec 15th meaning ordered about this time of year. we had to buy our whole Christmas in person Dec 20th with other cash due to all the last minute back orders pushing back del dates till Easter so we went through the order cancellation game waiting till Feb for refunds on credit card etc. thats why catalog stores have huge return warehouse discount stores.

That looks awesome!

In the video he said something about larger models that exist.

I bought an SD4 back in July, literally 4 days before they dropped the price from $1000 to $699. Looking back, I was mostly taken in by 8x8x8 volume (that I will never be able to fully use because the printer just isn't reliable enough to make it through a print that big), the all metal body (which was bent in several places), enclosed, and the nice injection molded door (first-time buyer syndrome? lol) I have to admit that I think that I purchased mainly on the appearance and build volume. It was my first printer, so of course I was excited.

After getting it I was very disappointed with the print quality right out of the box and after spending weeks of calibrating and tweaking - blowing through nearly two rolls of wasted filament - I was sobered. Even after all that work, the results were still disappointing 7/10 times. At first I thought it was my lack of experience, but after months of screwing around with it and reading many others' experiences, I know it is not just me.

So, then came all the upgrades trying to get a decent and reliable printer. Nearly another $1000 later in parts that might end up making it a decent printer.

For $1000, there is no excuse for not including many of the NECESSARY upgrades such as stepper motors that aren't underpowered, an adequate power supply, linear bearings in the carriages, a standard J hotend mount, pillow block bearings to stop the flexing on the transmission roller, better belt adjustment besides a hole punched in the belt with a bolt through it (really!!!??), at least semi-decent fans that don't sound like a semi-truck and stop running half the time, better wire management so the extruder wire bundle doesn't catch on the edge of the bed while printing and screw up your print 4 hours into it, Better end carriages that don't cause the extruder fan to jam the bolt into the blades when moving to the front left corner (I had to limit my Y build area to 160mm to prevent this), a Z end-stop that actually works, maybe even a flex coupler on the Z axis? Or how about an aluminum bed that isn't warped so badly it was almost unusable and misaligned Y axis rods that caused the head to move down a slope so bed leveling is nearly impossible.

Looking back, I would never have purchased this printer had I known what I know now. Maybe that is what disappoints me the most. I would guess that most people that chose the Solidoodle were first time printer owners. I know they will go through all that I went through questioning whether 3D printing just really isn't there yet. Questioning whether it is just them doing something wrong to get crappy prints. Spending lots of extra money trying to upgrade things that should have been standard. Having such unreliable prints that they can't even print the upgrade parts. Upgrades that ultimately void their warranty so they are stuck. I only hope those buyers don't just give up on 3D printing. Thankfully, my work has a few other 3D printers now and I know what is possible. Now I know that it was just a bad printer.

After completely tearing it down, I found even the metal enclosure was flimsy and bent in areas where the rods were installed (no wonder I had so many issues.)

I had been looking at the workbench for the added size and dual extruders, but it appears to have kept just about all of the things we hated about my SD4. How can a company read these complaints day in and day out and simply keep doing the same things?

Very disappointed.

check out the latest from SD LOL like we figured. https://www.facebook.com/Solidoodle/pho … =notify_me

If it's the same post I saw, SD shows an image of the Press enclosures being assembled in a Chinese factory.
This explains at least a little of the setbacks. Not saying that all Chinese goods are flawed, but because if SD were to change something, it would be a longer wait to receive the shipment.

If they also built the enclosures for the SD4s in a Chinese factory enjoy your bent up hunks of sheet metal folks. All of my case needs replacing. Such crap.

SD claims the Press is the first to have any assembly overseas. Also, they currently claim the Press has an injection molded enclosure. But as we have seen in the last few months, this may be subject to change.