26 Reply by Gordym

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  • From: Adrian, MI
  • Registered: 2012-08-10
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Re: Out of the Box 3D Printing

-1

I was one of the people that actually had a great "out-of-the-box" experience. The only issues I've had were related to hot end clogging and those dang connectors on the heater and thermister. I still have the original Jigsaw and original bed (no glass). I can see that the bottom of my prints would improve with glass, only because one of the screws in my bed protrude slightly, causing a hole in the bottom of some prints. My biggest complaint is with filament suppliers that can't seem to wrap filament around their spool so that it layers properly. Most of my failed prints (layer shifting, etc) were caused by filament getting stuck on the spool because a layer of filament is caught under another layer.

SD2
E3D V6
MK5 V6

27 Reply by DynamechGT

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Re: Out of the Box 3D Printing

I'm starting to get my new SD3 (arrived 3 days ago!) up and running to the point of "mostly acceptable" prints.

Don't misunderstand me, I really like my printer.  -Mostly because I bought it knowing it was a "hackers" printer that would require some real TLC but with really great potential.

It's certainly not capable of actually printing out of the box - especially from the complete lack of any real getting started guide which includes good calibration walk-throughs.  There isn't much structure to the process currently and its mostly "tweak this and hope it works".  And - they don't offer much of any good advice for software configuration which is a huge part of the equation.

They really need to improve their guide (Only one - don't send me to ten different sites)

28 Reply by solijohn

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Re: Out of the Box 3D Printing

DynamechGT wrote:

I'm starting to get my new SD3 (arrived 3 days ago!) up and running to the point of "mostly acceptable" prints.

Don't misunderstand me, I really like my printer.  -Mostly because I bought it knowing it was a "hackers" printer that would require some real TLC but with really great potential.

It's certainly not capable of actually printing out of the box - especially from the complete lack of any real getting started guide which includes good calibration walk-throughs.  There isn't much structure to the process currently and its mostly "tweak this and hope it works".  And - they don't offer much of any good advice for software configuration which is a huge part of the equation.

They really need to improve their guide (Only one - don't send me to ten different sites)

Calibration, provided on the Solidoodle wiki (referenced ad nauseum in trouble shooting):
http://wiki.solidoodle.com/solidoodle-1


As for the software, most people don't need to mess with it. I use our default settings, and it works just fine.

We only advocate two sites for start up:
www.solidoodle.com
wiki.solidoodle.com

Believe or not, most users don't have to do calibration. If everyone did, support would be quite overwhelmed!

Former Solidoodle employee, no longer associated with the company.

29 Reply by gathem

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Re: Out of the Box 3D Printing

I finally got my SD3 to print this weekend.
I am very comfortable on a makerbot replicator 2. While I am not very satisfied with the solidoodle PSU and heated bed, I have to say once you put the glass on the bed, calibrate it, and enclose it, it does produce as good or better print quality than the makerbot.

I also think it prints better at higher speeds than the makerbot. It is annoying that so much work is needed to get it to print nicely, but once you get it fine tuned, it does print well.

I didn't even need to print out any mods. I havent experienced any banding. Warping is a slight issue, but thats a bigger problem on the makerbot than on the SD3. I also ordered a PCB Mk2 with a 300W PSU, so that problem should go away shortly with those upgrades.

Once I get the linux tab standalone computer + mount, the new pcb mk2, the glass enclosed case, and a few printed mods, this will be far nicer than any makerbot at half the price.

But I wouldn't recommend a SD3 to my grandmother : p

30 Reply by 314159

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Re: Out of the Box 3D Printing

I did manage to print pretty quickly with my solidoodle 3. Not quite out of the box, as I did have to level the bed and adjust the Z stop, but that's still virtually out of the box. I'd describe those steps as tantamount to setting the thing up.
My bed also reaches 90 without any enclosure at all.

I am getting some banding, but it's not a huge amount, and its not stopped me printing the first half dozen things I tried.

I'm going to try one of these mods to reduce banding, and I've got some material to make up an enclosure, but I'm very happy with how well it works for that price.

31 Reply by mikefree41

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Re: Out of the Box 3D Printing

I have had my SD3 running about three weeks. After asking SD a bunch of questions before I got mine one of the guys said why don't you just try it out of the box first and then worry about mods. HMM. When I got mine the Y axis was sticking and loosing counts. That was an easy fix and it started printing very nicely. This week the power supply went down. Re soldered the power connection up and running again. I have not had any sticking problems. I also started with very simple pieces and am now working towards more difficult pieces I have designed. This has been more fun and less issues than I thought. Expect the worse and then anything better is great.

32 Reply by dkeeling728

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Re: Out of the Box 3D Printing

"Out of the Box Printing" is hardly false advertising with a technology thats barely out of kickstart phase. They provide you with a fully assembled 3d printer instead of a box full of nuts and bolts and printed plastic, at a reasonable price.

You have to remember you are dealing with a CNC additive manufacturing machine tool. ALL CNCs are finicky beasts from the start. a fab shop ordering a $30,000 mill has to spend the time to get everything dialed in, and many times the equipment vendor will even send technicians to deliver and setup/test the machine and teach its operator any special things they need to know to keep from "crashing" it.

last metal lathe i acquired was 90% assembled in the crate, and it still took a week of fine tuning before it had any sort of accurate repeatability.

And no, i'm not a fan boy, i haven't even received my SD3 yet. i just know what im getting into, and have the technical know how to overcome all of the challenges Ive seen so far.

33 Reply by Briggs

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Re: Out of the Box 3D Printing

Well said dkeeling728. At my last company we crashed our komo cnc machine and it cost us over 10k for repairs, and that was getting off easy. Technicians dialed it in for an entire day. The company paid 250k for the machine and all the myriad of things that went with it. It was finicky. It required lots of experience to produce great results. We were constantly building better build platforms. Sound familiar?

The solidoodle is, fundamentally, a great design made with, at times, inferior sub components. Said components can, ironically, be upgraded for not a lot of money. Major kudos to the repap pioneers for forging the electronics and software to run these little cnc machines. Kudos to Sam Cervantes and company for producing a competent machine for cheap.

I could go on but now I have to get back to printing more replacement parts for my solidoodle...

34 Reply by 2n2r5

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Re: Out of the Box 3D Printing

3D printing will save me so much money whenever I stop buying things for my printer. I actually subsidize the cost of my printer in my head with the cost savings of the things I print.

$500 set of kitchen handles
$100 yoda head
$300 Parts Tumbler (sorta)
$80.10 Bottle opener
$200 Heart Shaped Box for GF
$100 Rose for Mothers Day

Unfortunately, I also own, a presto parts smoothing station, full set of mechanical measuring tools, multiple CAD programs, and many other wonderful accessories. As I see it, I am into this printer for 5 more Iphone covers, 16 whistles, 1 pink panther woman and half a dozen carabiners. I'm just glad I didn't spend the money for a replicator 2.

SD3 w/ mods:
Glass bed with QU-BD heat pad upgrade, threadless ballscrew w/ 8mm smooth rod, spectra line belt replacement, lawsy MK5 extruder, Lawsy replacement carriage, E3D hotend, Ramps 1.4 w/ reprap discount controller, DRV8825 drivers, 12v 30A PS, Acrylic case, Overkill Y-idlers, Filament alarm, Extruder fan + more.

2n2r5's Website