Looking at any of the new maker bot printers(5th gen), it seems they all don’t do all 3 materials(pla,abs,flex). Is there a chance of changing the extruder to make one of them do all 3 or are we SOL?
Thanks.
Obviously, I don’t have the hot end in front of me, the best way to verify would be to call Makerbot (they have awesome customer support). I know that my 2X can handle a wide range of materials but this is in part due to the heated build plate. I’m not sure if the 5th gen one has that as an option/feature (since it’s PLA only I’d assume not). It could also be that the hot end doesn’t reach the required temps (PLA melts cooler than ABS/Nylon, no idea on Flex).
In any case, yes you CAN swap out the extruder for one capable of more range. It might be worth looking at other printers at that point as spending $2800 for a printer plus the parts for a new hot end, plus the time… Might be worth looking elsewhere if the 5th Gen doesn’t meet your needs.
Doesn’t the 2x print abs? And how do you like yours?
Makerbot can print in Flex filament, as well as a variet of other filaments, without modification. The recommended filaments for Makerbot are PLA and ABS, but any filaments with a low enough melting point that dosen’t require enviornmental control can be printed with MakerBot. Flex has a recomended extrusion temperature of 230-240 Celsius, which is under the Replicator 2’s recomended max of 250.
Our team is currently using Taulman 618 flexible Nylon filament (250 Celcius) and it prints fine on our MakerBot Replicator 2 even without a heated plate. My recomendation would be to buy a printer from whatever brand you prefer and then experiment with different filaments to see what you can print. There will almost always be filaments you can and cannot print with, but most of the time you can find a filament in your tempreature range that fulfills your required specifications.
the 2x does print ABS. We have one. We bought it this time last year and had little success with it. I finally pulled it apart to find it came assembled wrong from factory. The cheap hex bolts they used to put it together just strip out so I had to order all new screws just to it back together after reassembling it properly.
When we get it running this time my opinion may change. but the fact that it came assembled wrong really irks me, because there is no diagrams or manuals on how to assemble anything correctly. I contacted makerbot via phone and email when we first started having issues with it and they kept telling us it was a bad filament stepper motor. After playing around with it a little more we found that the cable for the stepper motor on the X-axis was bad. The cables are meant to be rigid and the cable for the X-axis moves frequently and eventually shorts itself out. Took me awhile to find an entire thread about people having this problem.
I hate to say these things about makerbot because when i first discovered them I thought it was awesome. Maybe we’re just one very unfortunate case, but I’m personally not happy with it. We did buy this right before Stratasys bought them, so maybe their quality control is better now. 
We are between the Replicator and Replicator2x. Now the Replicator has the assisted leveling and I have heard that the leveling of 3d printers in fairly important, should this be a factor? If not, how hard are they to level??
They are a nightmare to level. It’s one of the things I dread whenever I have to do it.
Sounds like this is your first printer(?)
Don’t worry too much about multiple materials/ extruders. I have had two printers that both can do ABS/PLA. I got some PLA with my new one and haven’t touched it. So don’t expect to go back and forth often. Only used ABS so far.
Yes bed leveling is important and can be hard. Certain printers make it harder than it should be. On my first printer there were 4 bolts for the bed itself, and two threaded rods for the z axis. I spent more time leveling than I did
Since I only use ABS, when I went to get a new one I was focused on bed leveling. I spent 6 hours this last weekend building a MakerGear m2 and am very happy thus far. It has only one z axis motor and three bolts for the bed. Because I built it I could use my micrometer to get it close. If there is an issue as it prints, I can manually adjust the z axis as it prints.
Really cool. Highly recommend it.
This is a bigger question than you’d think so I’ll try to explain as much as I can with my knowledge. Feel free to correct me.
There are so many variables to the print quality, but if you don’t have a level build table there’s a pretty solid chance your print won’t come out very good. If the table isn’t level, you run the risk of slamming your nozzle’s into the table which is very very bad. You also run the risk of crooked layers because one side of the table might be higher than the other. We usually level our printer once or twice a day.
The Replicator 2 has a single extruder, and a pop-out acrylic build table. The acrylic build plates are known to warp over time, making them near-impossible to keep level. Makerbot actually had to start giving people free build plates because some people would notice their build table was warping as much as a 1/4" (I’ve heard of them warping more than that, but you get the point). This problem with the acrylic tables dates back to the very first printers makerbot produced. I’d guess that the leveling assist was added into the Replicator 2 to help compensate for the warping over time to try and get a longer lifespan out of the table. It also pops out, so it might not be fitted perfectly into the printer either. The single extruder keeps things simple though, so you’re not trying to keep two nozzles zero’d.
The Replicator 2 is quite a bit simpler, but you lose the ability to print ABS (which I prefer over PLA for most applications related to FRC), and you only have one extruder (limiting you to one color per print and the inability to use dissoluble filament for supports during printing and things like that), as well as some other minuscule things you won’t miss unless you had them to begin with.
I’m not sure how the leveling assist works with the Replicator. Someone mentioned something of LED’s but I haven’t done any research on this myself. However, they use slightly different leveling systems. On the 2X, there are three turnable knobs that allow you to adjust the stiffness of springs to help keep the table flat. There is a knob on the left side of the table closest to the opening, another one on the right side, and knob on the far side of the table located in the center. Link for somewhat of a visual. Personally, I don’t think this is an optimal way to zero the table but it seems to hold up and I haven’t heard anyone gripe about it too much.
The Replicator 2 uses four knobs like so. Personally, I think this is a lot better than the 2X leveling system, but the tables acrylic so there’s a trade off somewhere in there.
The Replicator 2X has a lot more going on. It has a heated ceramic(?) build plate to allow the ABS to stick better (you’ll still need to print a raft though. it doesn’t help enough unless you have a very large surface area on the first layer of print), it has two extruders that you can use to print different colors and even materials, and it was built to print both PLA and ABS. The issue with this combination of materials is that ABS has to cool down slower than PLA or it will crack/lose strength. PLA has to be cooled off pretty quickly for the print to set optimally. This is why the Replicator 2 has a filament fan, to help set the PLA faster so you can pull it off the table quicker. The Replicator 2 can produce a much higher quality print using PLA than the 2X can with PLA. PLA sticks to the acrylic table better, and its optimized for PLA. The 2X is definitely better for printing ABS than PLA, and the print qualities have very obvious differences.
Really, I would decide what material you prefer to print in. If you’re going to use PLA 90% of the time i’d get the replicator 2. If you’re going to use ABS more than PLA, get the 2X. The rest of the issues will be worked out as you familiarize yourself with the printer. ::rtm::
Someone with more experience using both printers might be able to give you a better idea. 
Just picked up one of these at work. They are awesome and way better than the previous makerbots. The extruder that comes included will only print one material. But the machine is design to have a snap in snap out feature, and while I haven’t tried different materials the extruder does snap in and out easily. So you would just have to get more than one extruder. I think maker-bot only have one for sale currently but more are on the way
I printed some 1cm diameter bevel gears right out of the box. And they were better than the set a made on my replicator2x after hours of tuning.
I would not recommend getting anything but a 5th generation maker-bot at this point. They blow the replicators out of the water in all categories
I am in the process of evaluating multiple all metal hotends for their suitability for multiple materials. I am primarily focusing on PLA, ABS, and Nylon(Taulman 618) but hope to test different flex and other materials.
There are several aspects of the hot end that determine how well it does with certain materials. Two big ones are the materials of the hot end (J-Heads and many others use PEEK for cooling fins and PTFE liners for the filament path). The other is the actual length of melt zone and glass transition zones.
Many all metal hot ends do not have good heat breaks and so do not work with PLA as it swells. Hot Ends with PEEK and PTFE have issues with Nylon because those parts can deform at printing temps.
If you decide to replace the makerBot hot end (which I believe may void your warranty) then I suggest looking at reviews in the RepRap and other forums.