What you've learned about your Cube 3D Printer

[AustinH]

Has anyone had any luck using blue painters tape on the glass print bed? I heard suggestions to use that over the provided "glue".

[Phyrxes]

Our CAD students have been using ours more than anybody else, according to them the process is export from your CAD software of choice as a *.stl file, run the cubify software to create the *.cube file, and then place it on the flashdrive or print over wifi.

No issues so far using the included glue and our prints have been done in the shop which is one of the colder rooms in the school or at someones home since the school asked us to not leave it running unattended overnight.

[cbale2000]

Originally Posted by AustinH

Has anyone had any luck using blue painters tape on the glass print bed? I heard suggestions to use that over the provided "glue".

The glue seems to work fine for us, so long as the room temperature isn't too cold, so we haven't had to try the painters tape method.

Originally Posted by mman1506

I've read that they've updated the firmware so it keeps track of how much filament and will stop reading the cartridge chip after it is used up.

In all honesty while it's not in the "spirit of FIRST" we will probably end up selling ours. I already own a 300$ Makibox A6 printer that can do ABS and PLA with the same performance as the cube.

We would rather sell it for 1000$ buy a second Makibox for 300$ and use the 700$ to buy filament at 1/10th of the price.

It's really a shame that 3D systems isn't selling the filament at cost to FIRST teams.

You can downgrade the firmware to avoid the issue.

Doesn't the Makibox have a smaller build space than the cube? I looked at the Makibox myself when I was considering 3D printers, but I always thought it looked too small to do anything useful with, and the slack in the extruder positioning system made me worry about consistency.

Personally, if we were to sell our Cube, I think we would probably go with something like a 3rd Gen Solidoodle printer for the bigger build space.

[Oak1477]

So our team got the cube and one of the first things we printed was that adaptor for cheaper plastic from thingiverse. It is for the gen 1 cube not the gen 2 so it did not fit. We had to make a custom one. Also make sure you have enough of that glue stuff down if not it can peel of the coating on the print bed. Also we had an issue were the bed was too high so we were jamming the extruder. Makes sure the bed never touches the extruder or it will not work.

[Mike Marandola]

I have found that letting the Cubestick dry causes the plastic from sticking to the bed. I have been applying one coat, letting it dry, then applying a second coat and starting the print while it is still wet/sticky.

[JACulpIII]

I have been using ours with some filament I bought with personal money to figure it out. The team has access to a school commercial 3d printer for build stuff.

Here's what I've found so far...

If there's not much overhang PLA will print really nice most times, if it doesn't jam up inside the cartridge.

ABS doesn't print very well if there's alot of surface area as the ABS shrinks as it cools and lifts badly, getting the glue down just right helps some but I tend to have 3 fails for every useable success with the ABS filament I bought.

There doesn't seem to be a difference between solid and strong, has anyone else noticed this?

I was able to print an interesting planetary bearing that printed as one piece but turns correctly, the stars were in alignment as this one printed first try in ABS.

If we had to pay real cash for it I would have suggested we return it, for 300 FIRST Choice points it's ok, at least we can print give-aways and such with it.

James Culp
Programming Mentor
Team 3389
RoboSpectrum

[Chief Hedgehog]

While a decent machine that we traded 300 FC credits for - I would not spend my school budget on one.

It is a great teaching tool - but not when you are trying to show a video.

It sounds like a NES - an NES that is out of control!