I'm still waiting to be told what size the heated bed is...

12in/12in?

And I don't get what was so hard or costy in adding some simple detachable acrylic enclosure when charging $1300.

I believe there is a patent on an enclosed printer which is owned by stratsys and they would have to license the technology from them and pay a large royalty fee (if they even allow it at all).  I'm not sure when it expires.

The carriage seems to be injection molded instead now which is also good, but it is sad to not see linear bearings on a $1300 machine.

I wonder if the above is also the case with the Apprentice.

Personally won't be getting any Solidoodle product in the future from past experience anyway. Blame yourselves for all the lost customers.

But as an objective review it seems to have fixed most of the issues of the old models, but some are still there. And I don't get what was so hard or costy in adding some simple detachable acrylic enclosure when charging $1300.

Look like somebody (Solidoodle) needs to learn about something we like to call "Cable Management"
But really, that is pretty sad workmanship.  With all the vibrations this machine can have, I can easly see a cable rubbing on the PCB and shorting out or worse causing a fire.

How is an insulated wire going to short out a PCB?

The bigger issue with that wiring is I bet it rubs the bed which will eventually eat the nylon sheath away. Source: my machine was wired this way and it always ran into the bed for the first few mm of printing. The heat is less than issue than the heat plus sharp corners of the glass.

Mount the board on the back to keep it cool is my suggestion. The fan sucking air through the bottom is not sufficient for adequate cooling of the steppers, especially because they do not have heatsinks.

Edit: Just noticed I was signed into google drive and that's why I could and you couldn't view. The links below should work fine.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2Tq2J … sp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2Tq2J … sp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2Tq2J … sp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2Tq2J … sp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2Tq2J … sp=sharing

There are 2 cables from the PSU because the heated bed gets it's own separate supply since it is high wattage.

Whats the size of the heat pad?

That's really good. What about the thickness of the frame?

This is also good to know. I'm assuming the length of the motor looped belt is 180mm?

Are the last two also the case with the Apprentice?

@widespreaddeadhead: your links are unclickable and unselectable.

The lettering for some of 'Solidoodle' on the front has come off during shipping. Hopefully that doesn't mean it had a rough trip but we'll see.

All the accessories... Along with the test filament ours came packed with two rolls of filament that we didn't order, and we didn't complain about delays to get them either, so that was very nice surprise. The glass plate isn't chipped, however still has hairspray residue on it from the test print, so it's nice to know how they do it at the warehouse. Also came with a scraper, tweezers, and a Solidoodle brand brush. The black 'L' shaped pieces form the spool holder with the PVC pipe piece. The pipe piece is very dirty and not cut very well but it does fit, just looks kind of cheap. The other black piece near the 'L' shaped pieces is another handle, there are two(one on each side of the machine) and this one is probably for the front face. They are 3d printed and look and feel nice and durable. Came with 3 clips so I don't have to take any from our business office, also nice. Other than that just has the USB cord, power supply, and instruction manual.

Looks like a mess in there, not sure if I'll have to move anything around yet.

When the wires leave this box in their protective covering they snake out of the top and drop below the build plate until they hug the back wall going up to the motors etc... It looks like if the cords get pulled around just a little bit while the build plate is up the cords could possibly could get yanked around when it comes down. Easy fix for now is to just tape them down and out of the way, might not even happen when I actually start the machine.

Picture of one of the motors and 3d printed mounts.

I'll post some more when I actually get it all put together and working.

Thanks.
It looks like a decent PSU is used, though I don't get why there are two cables to connect to the printer.

Same hotend, just two instead of one.

X carriage seems the same, just mirrored the extruder for dual extrusion and added fan on the front, also fan for cooling the print (finally!) which is nice. Kind of disappointing to still see the old teflon and brass bushings instead of linear bearings like on the extruder carriage. Also still one pillow block with a brass bushing...

Didn't really see how the front tensioners are now.

The pulleys seem to be wider, or is it just me? Does it say MXL or 2GT on the belts? Side belts are the same closed loop clamped to the carriage.

Didn't really find out anything about the size and power of the heatbed.

Proper threaded Z rod this time? And do I see a anti z wobble nut?

Y motor seems bigger than Nema 17 or is it just me.

There are 2 cables from the PSU because the heated bed gets it's own separate supply since it is high wattage.

The front pulley mounts are similar to the ones on the SD4, only they are aluminum instead of printed.

All belts and pulleys are GT2.

Same hotend, just two instead of one.

X carriage seems the same, just mirrored the extruder for dual extrusion and added fan on the front, also fan for cooling the print (finally!) which is nice. Kind of disappointing to still see the old teflon and brass bushings instead of linear bearings like on the extruder carriage. Also still one pillow block with a brass bushing...

Didn't really see how the front tensioners are now.

The pulleys seem to be wider, or is it just me? Does it say MXL or 2GT on the belts? Side belts are the same closed loop clamped to the carriage.

Didn't really find out anything about the size and power of the heatbed.

Proper threaded Z rod this time? And do I see a anti z wobble nut?

Y motor seems bigger than Nema 17 or is it just me.