i made a huge mistake purchasing the mendelmax 2,
i got carried away with the aesthetics and disregarded some fundamental design issues the printer has .
basically i didn't want to buy a printer that looked like a microwave, who could blame me.
first of all i will start with saying that i bought this product with the intention of printing solely ABS.
furthermore my experience with the company has been the most frustrating thing i have ever experienced,i
am putting this out there so no one has to endure the headaches that i have had and continue to have.issue no. 1
according to their specifications the heated bed should be at 110 degrees Celsius so that the abs adheres to the bed.
the bed cant reach it and was topping out at 106. doesn't matter what you do, so i spent hours frustrated trying to
get a print started, everything was delaminating.
as i am neewbie to 3d printing i did a quick google search, and found that a little acetone mixed with abs would help.
problem solved, sort of. the bed still doesn't go beyond 106.i addressed the issue with staff, they told me to cover the bottom of the printer with aluminum foil. now it doesn't
take a genius to realise that hot air rises and thats not going to increase the performance, not to mention how idiotic
i would feel about having something that i blew 2k on wrapped in aluminum foil. so it was put back on me, there was no "sorry sir, might be
a faulty heating unit we'll send you one straight away be patient." no i was treated like an idiot, "wrap some foil round it. "i was impatient to start a print so i did it anyway with no success (what a shock).
issue no. 2
after playing around with the printer attempting to get some good results i started to hear a crackling sound similar
to plastic tape, i stopped the printer looked under the bed, Wow the heating element is completely delaminating from the
aluminum plate is affixed to.so again i make contact and the response is, "hey go down to autobarn buy some gasket silicone and there Bobs your uncle, problem fixed."
"and i'll give you a ten dollar check to cover the costs." wtf!!!! not only is the heating element starting to burn out due to lack of adhesion.
it's going to take me my time and effort to rectify the problem with your printer. dude i'm not your guinea pig for you
to experiment your product on. in my head im thinking "i am a customer, i bought your piece of crap, rectify it yourself, send me a new one."issue no. 3
i moved on to printing something larger, they provide a CAD drawing for an LCD box so that you can operate the printer without a computer.
i'm halfway through printing, it is about 3hrs into the print and the bed skips. the weight of the glass bed(570g) plus the weight of the part about 100g lead to
the stepper motor skipping, too much inertia for the little thing.so once again i send them a msg, which are becoming increasingly aggressive due to the built up frustration. what is the reply?
just reduce the printing acceleration. so hold on, your selling me a product on certain speed performance now i'm meant
lessen it to something completely uninspiring??anyway just to get it going again, i did just that. but after some thought i am really starting to question the design of the printer.
if you have a glass bed weighing 570g, an aluminum underlay around 100g, then a supporting Y plate and sliders adds an easy 400g.
you are talking 1.1kg of bed being thrust back and forth by a 5mm elastic belt. it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realise that something
has got to give. thats the weight without the actual model that your printing, i was planning to print to the extremities of the printer,
if my model adds another 500g to the equation, the motor and elastic belt are completely under engineered, you'll significantly have
to compromise the acceleration. it's a stupid design to begin with. you have a constant variable: which is the size and weight of the
print. this print is being thrust back and forth on an axis. this isn't controlling variables to the best of ones ability. it's a joke by any designers or
engineers standards.issue no. 4
this is the one that put the nail in the coffin.i am still trying to print the lcd holder, every so often the model splits.
mainly due to the temperature difference in my room and the temperature above the bed. abs seems to shrink dramatically.once again i tell them my problem, i am advised to enclose the printer, the guy on the phone say's "i have my printer in a cardboard box,
it's 90 degrees C in there."so i got my printer and put it in the cupboard (2m squared with some ventilation). i got an electric thermometer so i could read the
temp without having to open the cupboard and compromise the print with cold air. i fire the printer up again, all is good. temperature
is about 37 c constant. 3 hours later i decide to have a sneak peek at the part. F&*^Ck!!! The printer extruder is melted. the printer
has been cutting laps for 2 hours with no filament going in or out. At this point i am fuming, i have had enough of the mediocre advice
from the clowns at Makers tool works. basically i call them a buch of morons, i demand parts to fix it, which include: a new heater, a new
all metal extruder to handle the heat associated, and i also want some reimbursement for being F^&*cked around .they ignore me, nothing , no "sorry sir, we apologize, we'll do anything to make you happy." I GOT SWEET ____.
i have now escalated this to a paypal claim. they have sent me an email denying me any further support.
Yeah that's the word's they used. if it wasn't for there support i would still have a printer to print with.
they can go to hell, they are trying to cover their ass for the paypal claim that is coming their way.also i beg to wonder what would have happend to their printer if i put it in a box like the clown on the
phone told me. what then? would all the wiring melt down, one thing for certain all the PLA parts that
it's made of would be shot!what i have learnt in my short time 3d printing is: 1. all high end professional printers are enclosed,
there is a reason for it, controlling the variables, every hour there are temperature changes. eliminate them
especially when printing with ABS. if an open printer claims that it can print abs i'd love to see it. and when i say print
i mean i want to see a large part with significant wall thickness.2. do not buy a printer with a bed that travels horizontally, your printing speed is going to be significantly handicapped
as a result of physics. printers that have a bed that only moves vertically and the other two axis are covered by
the head are significantly superior. think about it, the head never gains or looses weight, it's constant, MUCH BETTER.
and much lighter than 1.1kg of bed ,heater, support and sliders not to mention the printed object.3. Get an all metal head and extruder, it makes sense, you've got 130 degrees or more generated by the head
110 degrees over the bed, add slight enclosure, it not a place for plastics especially not thermoplastics
like the PLA that the Mendelmax 2 is made of.now that i have done my apprenticeship in 3d printing the wrong way, can someone please suggest
a good product for ABS in 2k-3k price bracket. Also this is a short hand account of what happened
there were other stupid things thrown at me that are just insulting to the brain.
In my experience they provide brilliant support
They answer all the questions even the stupid ones that have nothing to do with them,
Like where to get good quality cheap materials,
How to set it up,
And they will advise you for free if you want stuff like a dual extruder,
Also if any of the printed parts would got damaged during assembly they will send you new one in no time
And did I mention that on the IRC channel they have opened up you can as for help 24/7
The only problem is that pal would buy a DIY kit to save some money and then have no skills to put it together
Or like in case of the user that stared this post who just can’t read instructions
Allow me to clarify the issues he had
issue no. 1
According to their specifications the heated bed should be at 110 degrees Celsius so that the abs adheres to the bed.
The bed can’t reach it and was topping out at 106.
In the instruction it says that in order to print ABS you need to redirect air current from the PSU somewhere to the side
as it cools down the bed, (empty box after cigarettes worked for me in my first prints until I installed plastic part
issue no. 2
after playing around with the printer attempting to get some good results I started to hear a crackling sound similar
to plastic tape, I stopped the printer looked under the bed, Wow the heating element is completely delaminating from the
Aluminium plate is affixed to.
hahaha so first this dude could not read the instructions than he damaged the hotbed and now he has a problem
issue no. 3
I moved on to printing something larger, they provide a CAD drawing for an LCD box so that you can operate the printer without a computer.
I’m halfway through printing, it is about 3hrs into the print and the bed skips. the weight of the glass bed(570g) plus the weight of the part about 100g lead to
the stepper motor skipping, too much inertia for the little thing.
again read instructions and get your settings right . From that guys description I can read that something is at an angle
and makes movement hard or maybe he forgot to put a washer somewhere.
Once I had similar situation but that was when I did not notice when few drops of abs juice got on to Y axis rails.
issue no. 4
this is the one that put the nail in the coffin I am still trying to print the lcd holder, every so often the model splits.
mainly due to the temperature difference in my room and the temperature above the bed. abs seems to shrink dramatically.
that is not an issue with a printer in fact its not an issue at all.
the shrinkage on ABS is an attribute of ABS plastic the same as toughness is attribute of ceramics
and if you want to print large ABS objects you will find the same thing on all printers and its not easy to fix
in fact when anyone does injection moulding for ABS the mold has to be a little larger than the expected product.
issue no. 5
The printer extruder is melted
you would not have this problems if you would do your research right
just F**** read the stuff that’s in front of you or get a f**** brain
so the bottom line is that some people will always say that they are just brilliant and perfect when the whole world is bunch
of morons who only do stuff to cause suffering to the perfect ones
PS
I don’t understand whyyyyyyyyy would anyone above age of 10 would buy a makerbot
the only thing that I like on the makerbot is the look of the case
and the thing`s I don’t like about it are:
small print volume
limitations to type of plastics you can use
upgrades are not possible
Price (its extremely overpriced it will become apparent once general public learns a little more on 3d printing)
It`s the Apple of 3d printers (Only because something is popular and trendy it does not mean it`s the best, if that would be the case everyone would only play "FarmVille")
ysb wrote:when you decide to sell 'something' , printer or other thing, there is no such '..enthusiasts in a garage'...
there is a seller and a buyer.. it's time to stop to excuse this bad practice that is to sell something and expect the buyer to fix the problems itself..they didn't sell it a Do-it-yourself printer kit.
why solidoodle didn't sell their printer in france ? because of 2 things : you CANT sell a product without a warranty, and the warranty is TWO years minimum... we need to be stupid american (or almost canadian for myself) to accept to give solid money for a product without warranty...
a society like solidoodle never pass one year with a such poor design for their printer in france...
Mais quesqu' tu dit?
hum! being French and living in France, I can tell you, first you can sell anything without warranty.
you have to explicitly say so.You can do pretty much anything in a contract.
Second the legal base warranty is 1 year not 2.
however and it's my third point, a company selling stuff without warranty will not go very far, and in France even without warranty, you have basic protection. it's even worse in uk with the super duper "consumer act.
so yes Solidoodle will have to change there policy if they want to sell in Europe.
as for me that did not stop me to buy one...
I brought it in full acceptance of this fact. and for what I have read on this forum and other. They do offer an "unofficial warranty" anyway so....
je n'avais pas vu la reponse....
je persiste et je signe...
Lorsque vous achetez un produit, le vendeur doit vous garantir contre ses défauts de conformité. La garantie s'applique à condition que le défaut existe à la date d'acquisition. Vous avez 2 ans pour agir et bénéficier de la garantie, sans frais.
http://vosdroits.service-public.fr/part … 1094.xhtml
et ça couvre
Qu'appelle-t-on défaut de conformité ?
On parle de défaut de conformité dans les situations suivantes :
bien impropre à l'usage habituellement attendu d'un bien semblable (par exemple appareil habituellement prévu pour fonctionner sans fil sur batterie devant être branché sur secteur),
bien qui ne correspond pas à la description donnée par le vendeur (par exemple la couleur n'est pas la bonne),
bien qui ne possède pas les qualités annoncées par le vendeur ou convenues avec vous (par exemple une hotte aspirante, présentée comme particulièrement silencieuse, qui s'avère bruyante).
c'est non seulement valable en france mais dans toute l'europe...
sans compter que cette garantie est TOUS le temps valide et même sur un produit vendu d'occasion à partir du moment ou c'est vendu par un professionnel , et qui est au minimum d'UN an...
http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/sh … dex_fr.htm
donc NON, tu ne peux pas vendre sans garantie...
ça fait bien longtemps que la garantie d'un an, et le 'vendu sans garantie' n'existe plus en france...
au passage, je suis aussi français... à part que j'ai immigré au quebec depuis 6 ans.. et c’était déjà valide avant que je parte...
For the english speaking, i said that you CAN'T sell second hand object without a warranty of 1 year IF you are a professionnal, and 2 years for a new object EVERYWHERE in europa..
]]>I friend told me to buy a Makergear or Makerbot.......Screw Mendelmax.
I am going to call my credit card company to see if I can do a charge back to my account.
]]>I am an early beta customer of theirs. I worked through with them on the early beta issues and now my printer is the same as what they sell in the kit.
Any time I had an issue (and lets face it I'm building a printer basically from scratch there are going to be a couple) the MTW staff have gone above and beyond to get me up and running.
Everyone from the CEO there Jeff, to Max himself the designer, to the CS guys, and builders (Ryan, Roy, etc) have gone out of their way to help me and make sure I have a positive experience.
This even includes mistakes -I- have made that have nothing to do with the design of the printer etc.
My printer is printing happily and is getting print quality that I don't see often online.
They have a documentation system using google docs that allows me to give live feedback and post comments to future users on the docs to help clarify, and many of my and other's suggestions have gone into the current documentation.
There seems to be someone on IRC ready to help you almost no matter what time of morning or night it is as well.
I know this might look like astroturfing since I just registered here to post this, but come on IRC on freenode and I'll be happy to speak to anyone in person about the company or the MM2. I'm not affiliated with the company in any way except being very happy with their service, documentation, and product.
Here is a link to image of print I just did last night. I had to take the HTTP off of it since I'm not allowed to post links
i.imgur.com/ljbwOIi.jpg
]]>@OP: your extruder is deform.. not melted.. there are pictures of melted extruder where the hotend falls off!!!! All their(makersToolWorks) suggestions are valid, I bet your AC is on, since it's a photo studio. cool air is not 3d printer friendly.
and this rant is not a "MUST READ!!!". you sound like a dick head when you have a post like this.
and my suggestion, you should get makerBot, because they are overpriced!!
when you decide to sell 'something' , printer or other thing, there is no such '..enthusiasts in a garage'...
there is a seller and a buyer.. it's time to stop to excuse this bad practice that is to sell something and expect the buyer to fix the problems itself..they didn't sell it a Do-it-yourself printer kit.
why solidoodle didn't sell their printer in france ? because of 2 things : you CANT sell a product without a warranty, and the warranty is TWO years minimum... we need to be stupid american (or almost canadian for myself) to accept to give solid money for a product without warranty...
a society like solidoodle never pass one year with a such poor design for their printer in france...
Mais quesqu' tu dit?
hum! being French and living in France, I can tell you, first you can sell anything without warranty.
you have to explicitly say so.
You can do pretty much anything in a contract.
Second the legal base warranty is 1 year not 2.
however and it's my third point, a company selling stuff without warranty will not go very far, and in France even without warranty, you have basic protection. it's even worse in uk with the super duper "consumer act.
so yes Solidoodle will have to change there policy if they want to sell in Europe.
as for me that did not stop me to buy one...
I brought it in full acceptance of this fact. and for what I have read on this forum and other. They do offer an "unofficial warranty" anyway so....
]]>3D printing is not for the faint of heart or those lacking in the required skill sets of mechanical and electrical engineering, drafting, CAD/CAM, telepathy, anger management, Zen and the ability to laugh when things are arcing and smoking and conjuring strange objects never seen before on this earth.
But, I will say that launching rockets at a vendor is less likely to get positive results than a bit of give and take, patience and human interaction. Honey, not vinegar. Finally, know when to fold em, when to cut your losses.
]]>I've had a Mendelmax for over 15 months, and you can bet it took me a few months of constant play before I got high quality prints, but I knew exactly what I was getting myself into because I spent weeks researching before I even started buying parts, and continues surfing reprap forums and the rest of the internet as I troubleshooted along. That said, I ran into probably 10% of the most common issues people were running into and I'd say I had a relatively smooth learning process. But then again, I gave it time and patience. I've recently started building a MM2.0, and I'm very happy with most of the design. REPRAP has been going for almost a decade I think, and things have gone a looooong ways in just the 15 months I've been involved.
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