[frcguy]

Originally Posted by troy_dietz

My school has a Makerbot Gen 5.

They've started referring to the extruders as "BIC disposable glue guns"

At last count, 5 had been broken beyond repair. They do a lot of printing, but they've only had it for a few months.

So it isn't just us.

I would steer clear of ANYTHING Makerbot. They used to make great machines aimed at hobbyist and makers, but ever since they were bought by Stratasys they're only interested in making as much money as they can selling trash machines. Once you buy Makerbot, you're locked into their proprietary ecosystem. Basic software with limited user customization, extremely expensive parts that commonly break, proprietary file formats, and more. As I said, they're only interested in selling a dumbed down machine with a limited feature set. Don't get me wrong, some of the earlier models such as the Replicator 1 are good, but anything after the Stratasys acquisition stay away from. Our school shop made the mistake of buying a fifth generation Replicator and the 3-D scanner. We've gone through one (soon to be two) extruders, the printer jams at least once every print, etc. And don't get me started about the scanner. It's a complete joke that, according to Makerbot support, "can only scan rounded objects". Same for 3D Systems, steer clear of them too.

Sorry for the rant, I want to make sure nobody makes the same mistake that we did.