Solidoodle Workbench Reviews - Can't find any...

First of all put solidoodle workbench in the search block and search this forum.

In general solidoodle seems to slip in between the reviewers.  I own an sd 4 and like it mostly. Still stock after a year.

Here is my perspective  on the machine based on my experience and reading here for almost a year.

What you get a large format that will in theory print a 12" cube. And it has dual extruders.

Factory service not a great rep but I think they are trying to improve IMHO better since the dust settle from introducing 3 new models at once.

Sd will tell you it will print either ABS or PLA but here is the rub  ABS likes constant air temps  and beven bed temps lest i warps or peals up . So you get best results with an enclosure.  And as you can see the WB is open. And if you want to us pla it is best printed with a layer fan. Again not a standard feature. And if you want to print higher temp/higher strenght materials  you need to upgrade the extruders and modify the firmware  and you may need a larger power supply as well.

The carriage parts on the SD are 3d printed so you need to go to thingiverse and download the files to print new ones. The factory ones do crack or break.

Software:  I use repetier  Have not heard a lot of good about the new software but again I believe they have updated it and worked out at least most of the bugs.

Bottom line with any SD product expect to mod it at least some for best performance. An as far as help just post here.
Tin

What size and type of prints are you wanting to do and do you know what material ?
One review  here
http://www.3d-printer-knowledge.com/sol … uder-1299/

with enough research, determination, a few tools and maybe a little help from others, most things are "fixable" and/or upgradeable (unless a part is completely broken/destroyed - in which case it is usually replaceable).

You may want to do a bit of digging around and see if maybe you could find a used one? One that someone got frustrated with because they couldn't make it work right & have given up on.

I have two Solidoodle 4's, both purchased used and both modified for better operation - one is very highly modified, the other only has a couple of mods done to it - so far. I also have a Folgertech 2020 Prusa i3 with a few modifications, and we have a Solidoodle 3 that was seriously damaged in shipping - still debating on what to do with that one - scrap it for parts or attempt to fix....

The problem I have with buying new is spending so much initially, only to spend more to make it what it should have been to begin with. Buying used, you save some of that initial cost and don't feel bad about making changes to it (and probably voiding any warranty) to make it better. Not to mention the wait times involved with buying new from SD... minimum of 8 weeks, could be several months....

All that said, I can understand the appeal of having a brand new machine, untouched by others.. yeah, it would be nice. but the almighty $ is a big factor for me.

@blazin_penguin Thanks for your input!

I noticed on the Solidoodle web site that Solidoodle 2,3 and 4 have replacement parts but the Workbench, Apprentice and Press does not. Is there some level of compatibly with those products?

That is true... The consumer market units are still young.