Sell me on the SD3

Welcome Kyle.  My opinions below:

3D printers in this class all seem to use the same core parts (motors, logic boards, etc).  The solidoodle is a solid design so I wouldn't worry about any inferior quality/parts because of the price.  Just be aware that the technology of all hobby 3D printers is relatively immature, so that doesn't mean that it is immune to problems.

You're supposed to just grease the rails every once in awhile.  I probably should do that soon.  I haven't needed to yet, but every few months is probably not a bad idea.  Not to knock Solidoodle specifically, but be prepared to do be able to do your own debugging if you purchase a 3D printer.  The device is not that complicated IMHO, if you just apply basic mechanical skills.

I've used Octave with no problems.  No experience with other brands.

If available, get a used cheapie second computer.  Barring that, I've been considering adding a Panelolu or something similar.  There is no simple plug-and-play replacement for the computer that I know of.

An enclosure is a must.  Clear plastic (acrylic, polycarbonate, etc) sheets stuck on with magnets seems to be the default solution.  A cardboard box is also functional, if a bit ghetto.

Easy.  There is already an approved .1mm profile for slic3r.

I use slic3r to slice and pronterface to send the cgode to the printer.  This is really a matter of choice.

I don't see any reason to wait;  I don't see SD adding a whole lot soon that the smart folks here haven't already thought of.  Most people do the following upgrades:

1) enclosure (cheap)
2) thumbscrews (free, printed)
3) anti-backlash device (free, printed)
4) glass bed (cheap)

I also highly recommend:

5) z-wobble compensation (free, requires firmware upgrade)
6) filament guide (free, printed)

Some others eventually also do:
7) mk4 extruder replacement (free, printed)
8) gcode-controlled cooling fan (cheap, requires firmware upgrade)

It saddens us to hear you say that we would not improve the machine.

Here's a real improvement, that is leaving the shop today:
An aluminum z-axis (as opposed to wood.)
We shall soon be rolling out a new extruder design to replace the Jigsaw.
There are other improvements being developed as we speak.

They should be mostly interchangeable. Yes.

Fantastic, I believe that I only have one more question. I've recently read about a company using what they call "ABS plus". Do any of you know what the difference between that and the "standard" ABS filament might be and if I would be able to use ABS plus filament on a solidoodle?

Well that's not what I was hoping to hear. I believe the process that is using ABS plus is FDM. I'm not sure how much that varies from the process that the solidoodle uses because I'm new, but perhaps somebody else will. I would be interested to know if there actually is a difference between ABS plus and ABS and if ABS plus could be used with the solidoodle, or other printers.

On a separate note, I also read up on a nylon filament called Taulman 618. Has anyone experimented with this? I have seen some pretty interesting videos on YouTube and I would love to know how thin you can print the layers. For my own purposes, I would be sold on them if it could print in .05. Anyways, looking forward to hearing from those with printers.

As of Friday, all new SD2s were shipping with the upgraded bed. As of Monday, we will be transitioning the SD3s. If you order today, you should receive the new bed. We do have some back-stock of the old beds, but this should be exhausted by the time you receive your order.

We, like the majority of companies, do keep mum about exact stockpiles of parts. That doesn't mean we are giving you bad customer service: We are not obligated to reveal everything. We aren't trying to obfuscate anything, this is just our policy.

We do not reveal how many orders in are in queue.

Now, as for you, the answer here is pretty obvious. If you ordered an S3 a week ago, you have 7 weeks of wait time to go. This means that the chances are fairly overwhelming that you will receive the new part. Rejoice.

I do not know the exact date the old beds will be fully discontinued. Most likely it will be a gradual turn down, accelerated as we get good reports from the field. We like to stay flexible about this sort of thing. We exercise great caution whenever we change the machine.

I should exercise greater caution with my spelling

We've been testing the design for months, as you can see from the press photos leaked before. As you can see, we do in fact test stuff. I'm not sure where this rumor that we don't comes from. 

Testing things on paying customers is what we'd like to avoid. However, good reports from the field always seal the effectiveness of a change. No amount of testing in the shop will be the same as the real world.

The Z axis upgrade shall improve a few things. Shipping damage to the the Z-axis shall be eliminated, and the bed shall be much more reliable in terms of warping.

Also, I find it to look rather spiffy.

We have some Octave Nylon sitting around waiting to be tested. We also have their fun proprietary bed thingy. For those who are curious, we also have some wood filament samples for testing as well.

There shall be fanfare if any of that works well. We'll keep you posted.

Not at this time.

We haven't been offered coatings by a supplier. If you know of one, we'll look in to it. Suppliers are usually quite nice about offering us samples.