well I know from fishing with all types line, equipment. Braided eats up anything it rubs on as its very abrasive. it will eat through any material used as guide eyes long b4 the line needs replaced so likely it does that to the spools on printers. I have been using my SD2 for over 18 months now. (wish I had this kind of feedback b4 buying a 3D printer). but all these guys are right.

As this may be true it is only an issue if it is dragging over a surface.  In this situation it rolls nicely over the pulleys.  Hundreds of printing hours and no visible wear on the pulleys or the line.

Note taken. I do know I have a lot to learn about 3-d printing. so how does the braid keep registration.
Tin

I'm not sure I understand the question... If your asking how it stays indexed?  I would answer with another question.  Why would it need to be indexed?  If it doesn't slip (which it doesn't) and it starts at zero, so long as the steps per mm are calibrated it doesn't matter.  My thought is you should try it and see for yourself.

If your printer cannot reliably print a simple 2 perimeter 20% infill cube over and over again, then your printer needs work. A calibrated SD3 can print cubes all day long without any noticeable variance.

If you get clog problems, or inconsistent infills, then you are looking at filament/material problems.

If simple prints are easy, but more intricate prints are problematic, then the print file itself is the problem. There are tons of stls that were designed with a bunch of support material and PLA. Some print jobs have too much mass to them and all the bed heating and fans will not eliminate curling. But placing a void near the edges will change that dramatically. I have had some really big structural parts that I had made thin already, but would keep curling up on the corners. I remade the part to have internal voids and the curling went away.

The point being, not everything depends on just the printer. It depends on the printer, the filament, the print job, and finally the user. If there is consistency on all four of those, there will be consistent prints .

1 thing I do is only single prints, not multi items at same time as if ya have to kill print job for any reason you only loose the 1 partial item not 8. and loss comes out of your pocket/profits. I had to adjust my costs on 3D hubs for this and the fact they do the calculating based on zero support material and only 20% infill like powder printers do. also setup fee includes if ya have to swap filament types/color which costs filament purging head too. most owners of these printers use them for items they been making with other methods or couldnt do with other methods. resale just helps recoup some investment.

wish I could get somebody to solder connections on my board for cooling fans for left side motor and at extruder tip for bridges. I made parts for them and have fans.
the new board has micro SD slot too for better flow of G-code without skipping while doing other stuff on puter. I use laptop but gonna update battery in my UPS for printer so power fails wont loose print for at least an hour.

anyway like others said if your good at things they said and can stay with it to see things through. if 6x6x6 inches is big enough for your prints the SD2 will be best choice for 3D printer type under $10,000 where powder type start. or under $1-3K for this type.

Observation... I know its easy to get excited in this hobby... But its important to slow down and pump the brakes before launching in with difinitive statements on subjects.

Tin Falcon wrote:

IMHO fishing line is for catching fish not motion control  ! what else can I say.
I expect an sd  , danvinci ,plastic scribbler robo 3d will all perform much better .
95 % success rate probably optimist maybe after a month or so of experience.
I have not been at this long enough to give odds.
I agree 25% success rate would be frustrating.
Were you able  to troubleshoot the issue and find out why it failed .
My SD dos a lot of dance steps on the infill I can not imagine fish line not slipping  I suspect that was the the issue. can you confirm that the old printer used fish line.
Tin

Guess again.... The type of line that is being used (digital braid synthetic) was not originally developed as fishing line.  I have been slamming a Bulldog XL around for quite a while now at speeds and acceleration numbers beyond what most would think possible.  I can assure you if installed properly it will not slip even a little.  In fact myself and several others would consider it a serious upgrade.

+1.

IMHO fishing line is for catching fish not motion control  ! what else can I say.
I expect an sd  , danvinci ,plastic scribbler robo 3d will all perform much better .
95 % success rate probably optimist maybe after a month or so of experience.
I have not been at this long enough to give odds.
I agree 25% success rate would be frustrating.
Were you able  to troubleshoot the issue and find out why it failed .
My SD dos a lot of dance steps on the infill I can not imagine fish line not slipping  I suspect that was the the issue. can you confirm that the old printer used fish line.
Tin

Guess again.... The type of line that is being used (digital braid synthetic) was not originally developed as fishing line.  I have been slamming a Bulldog XL around for quite a while now at speeds and acceleration numbers beyond what most would think possible.  I can assure you if installed properly it will not slip even a little.  In fact myself and several others would consider it a serious upgrade.

let the work speak for it selfand look at what others have done with the SD.
Tin

Sold them in frustration ? lol

(I;m being a tad cynical.. but only a tad..... there is a fair few people on this forum that dumped and ran )

This is an honest answer. If you are easily frustrated, than really, the SD wont be for you. A large number of printers will be not really suited either. Dems da breaks at this end of the adoption curve.

As for the specific issue you raised - it is an issue with all FDM style printers that they A: take a long time to print and B: anything can happen during a print rendering it entirely a wasted effort.  You will never truly escape this issue. If you truly want to avoid that, maybe its time to explore using a CNC to make shot molds and doing some home injection molding.. and even *then*... it still screws up run to run and making the soft tooling is prone with issues as well. This is why production houses measure stuff in 'yield', not 'units made'... the two are often quite different and FDM at home is the same in this respect

+1 this seems like the answer you don't want to hear.  Pay close attention to your original post, re-read it a couple of times (I have). All of the things that you find frustrating will exist at some level with all FDM printers.
So if your real question is can you print reliably 95% of the time with an SD?
Well.... Myself, Adrian and Hazer can along with many others that have the knowledge and desire to learn, tinker and the understanding to make an FDM printer work.  So I guess it is up to you.