Although the Makerbot Replicator 2X is now working at Team 11.
I was not thrilled with the MakerCare support offered by MakerBot the year before when I explained to them that:
1. The unit arrived with the Z axis stepper electrical connecter disconnected.
2. The unit arrived with the left extruder already clogged with something.
I did not unpack the unit - this is how it was presented 1.5 hours later when I was asked to look at it.
I finally gave up after 60 days of calls produced at lot of:
1. The 2X is an experimental printer - so 'things happen'.
2. If I just took the time to learn how 3D printers work...
(I own 14 3D printers including: Up!, SoliDoodle and several RepRap models since the early days because that's how long I've been doing that work. I also am cleared to operate NextFAB's Stratasys, Z510 and used to perform professional repairs for these devices. Additionally I have written code in the public domain for printers like this. Oh and they source some of their parts from people I work with and apparently never realized it.)
I gave up, but several of the students and the lead mentor continued to work on the printer.
One replacement part after another.
Issue after issue.
Then there's this:
http://www.amazon.com/MakerBot-Repli...ustomerReviews
and this:
http://www.amazon.com/MakerBot-Repli...ustomerReviews
So if your asking if you are the only one having problems the answer is absolutely not!
In fairness some of these issues might be that the users lack experience but hardly all of them.
Some of these come out of the box and work great.
Others seem to be disaster.
Basically a year later and a trip under the care of the lead mentor to MakerBot in person Team 11's 2X is working.
Something they refused when I offered to do it and was mere blocks away every work day last year.
In the meantime Team 11 has assembled a Prusa Twelvepro kit I got them.
Acquired a Cube.
Used my Up! printer and a small army of Bukitos I have access to at NextFAB.
I still continue to appreciate the generosity of our donors.
I thank MakerBot for finally getting this working.
However - it does not alter the simple fact that for nearly a year it was mostly useless.
Considering the Prusa printer cost me total $800 with some parts for future expansion: the MakerBot was not worth the price.
I would have rather had the donors buy 3 printers than this 1 even if they only had a single extruder.
Plus if there were 3 printers then it would be even easier to increase productivity.
Plus a ruined extruder is a fraction of the cost for a generic RepRap.
Plus very few of the parts on a generic RepRap are single sourced from only a vendor like MakerBot.
Worse I have tried several Chinese printers like the Duplicator 4 and they are cheaper, more reliable (considering none of them sat broken for 1 year) and easier to fabricate replacement parts for out of commonly available materials in an FRC style shop.
Finally, I won't link this because I do not want to endorse the other site content, but the Makerbot replicator was voted one of the worst products on the Internet by a site. Specifically because of the support issues for the product.