The Future Is 3D

Hello RepRap community,

I am the owner of The Future Is 3D. I wanted to create a place where my customers can post their experiences with my product and my company. I want my future customers to have a place to read about what people are saying about our service and our product.

I want to be a upstanding reputable company that delivers it product (after payment is made) in a timely manner and in good working order.

We do not not take any money until the product is ready to ship. We put you name on a list, and when your printer is done you get to review the videos and pictures of it printing. Then you make payment and the printer ships out next day.

I don't want to see complaints posted here about how long it is taking to receive your printer for the following reasons:

1) You have not paid for the printer yet.
2) You don't have to wait for us. There are other 3D manufactures out there.
3) There is no penalty. You can cancel your order on the day your printer is done no charge to you.
4) We have a 3-4 month waiting period at the moment. We have been swamped with orders.

Also if you have an issue, please e-mail me first. I answer all e-mail ASAP, and take care of issues right away.

Even if you buy a printer for someone else we are there to help.

Do not post questions, or requests for a 3D printer here. E-mail me with your orders and or questions.

You can always reach us at support@thefutureis3d.com

Thanks

Jeff Christiana
thefutureis3d.com

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/05/2011 02:36PM by Adventure.

I think it's great that someone is building a business off of RepRap. The purpose of RepRap is to be able to duplicate itself and that's exactly what you're doing. If I had $1000 to spare, I'd be a customer. Also, I used to live in the same part of Montana so it's great to here the open source movement is out there as well.

Hi all

I purchased one 12 x 12 3D printer from thefutureis3dcom. I drove to their location to pick it up. I've got over 30 years in application development and computer hardware sales and service. The device was assembled very well. It works well and runs smoothly and quietly. Software installation was a breeze, because they went a long way toward packaging the software for novices. Jeff Christiana is friendly, professional and knowledgeable.

I've printed off a few demonstration items and they are excellent. I am excited and encouraged by this success.

I highly recommend thefutureis3d.com as a supplier.

Mike Yearwood
IT Consultant

Got any photos or videos myearwood ?

Hi DeuxVis

Sorry I didn't see your question sooner! I'm attaching a picture of the printer with a Ginger Ale bottle on the build platform for scale. It's a 12x12.

I also have a picture of a scooby doo figurine. Think I had the PLA too hot cause it sagged on the lower jaw and ears. My fault, not the printer's.

Mike

Wow, that is very large. It would probably be the coolest thing in the whole entire world to me if you printed a gigantic version of my star destroyer on that beast.

[www.thingiverse.com]

PFF, why don't you try to stop us, asshat.

Looks great, thanks for the pics

The printer is GREAT and Jeff's support is QUICK and DIRECT!!

Our high school has had a "thefutureis3D" printer for exactly 2 months and check out what the Technology classes have already created! [sites.google.com]

THIS PRINTER is AMAZING!!

G. Krause
Technology Teacher
Collingswood High School
[sites.google.com]

Just received ours in the mail. Went through the setup with Jeff over skype. I LOVE it so much!
This is literally the future (no pun intended)

Some of the other solutions I looked at cost over $100k, even the lower end ones (from Zcorp I think) were tens of thousands of dollars, and the clean up with those types of printers is a mess. You have to have a wash station, and there is a clean up process. With this, you just wait 5 min. for the model to cool, and simply pick it up.

-I was not expecting the level of detail that it can do, just amazing.
-There is NO smell, and runs fairly quiet
-I wish that it was mass produced or was ready to ship right away, but the wait time was worth it.

tl;dr:
-printer=awesome
-packaging=awesome
-Jeff=awesome
-quality=awesome
-price=awesome

Received my TF3D printer a couple of days ago and was extremely impressed with the quality of the product!
I am glad I purchased a ready built RepRap from "thefutureis3d.com" as Jeff's technical expertise is awesome.

Jeff set up a Skype session and ran me through the setup and I printed out my first 3D item with no problem.

Today I printed a few more complicated prints and they looked great. I have a lot more to learn about creating
my own 3D files, but that will be fun.

BHB

I got my printer about 3wks ago, it is a 12x12 Glacier.

The Hardware is a great piece of work. I am very impressed with this unit from that perspective, when I can get it to print, I can really see the promise of this design and the quality and care put into designing and building it.

I am currently still trying to get the unit to print reliably and with any repeatability (the reason I waited so long to post was trying to work this part though with Jeff). I don't have skype, and really have no desire to put this on any of my systems at home (ie, I don't run a system with a webcam). The written documents are very sparse, and do very little to help get you up and running on the system. I haven't found video (youtube, vimeo, etc) of this process either. More on that in a minute.

My problems start with repicatorg/skeinforge and the profiles as placed on the download page. I am currently running this on a 64bit, windows 7 professional, hex core, 8GB RAM machine, so the machine is current and of the type supported by Jeff. I have had a lot of problems getting the slicing to work (there were settings clicked by default that weren't supposed to be, and the profile had an ABS setting set, which both caused a divide by zero problem). Once I got that working, the slicing (ie click generate g-code) only produces a working g-code (ie there are comments and nothing else if you click the gcode tab in replicatorg) some of the time (tends to work better when clicking the go button, but not perfect.

Now, when I do get it going, it tends to lay down a really poor first layer. Little dots, instead of lines. I can feed fine in the manual controls, and if Jeff sends me a gcode, the printer prints it fine. So the problem again appears to be the skeinforge profile. One thing that I would have liked to get, since I have to dive into profiles, etc right off the bat, was a good doc on all of the settings that Jeff used to set up the profile in the first place, however, I have been unable to obtain this.

So, to give the short version, I think I would still recommend this to someone as an excellent printer, as the hardware is phenomenal, and what I have seen of kits, etc, this is the way to get a great piece of hardware. However, I would caution them to take the time the printer is being built/shipped to spend a lot of time reading everything they can on the software and configuring a printer as if you built it. I am currently trying to go through that process now.

I bought a spool of blue PLA from them on Ebay. It prints very well.

1-inch blue PLA cube

PriceCw
i would try slic3r if I were you. The settings are not near as difficult for a newb like me to get your head around. Check out RichRaps blog he walks you through the settings

I was printing pretty reliably after the first print.

You would just pre slice then bring the Gcode into ReplicatorG.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/11/2012 10:20AM by gadman58.

Thanks for the link. I have been playing with slic3r, and have better success than the skeinforge profiles. However I still have issues with it, so a walkthrough of setting it up is appreciated.

Still hope to get a decent skeinforge profile to work in the future, but right now I want to be able to reliably print. It is kind of frustrating to have a nice piece of hardware I know can do good prints sitting there and not being able to get it to go correctly.

--Carl

Bought a spool of orange ABS on eBay. Great stuff.

Thanks for all the nice feedback. I wanted to jump in here, to say that I am sorry that we have not been able to come up with a solution for pricecw.

The version of ReplicatorG that you can download at this link [thefutureis3d.com] Is the same version that I run on my desktop. Windows vista 32bit, and Windows 7 64bit.

ReplicatorG 34 with Skeinforge 47 run very well. I even downloaded the same copy off my web site and have been using it instead of my original. Just to make sure it is 100%.

Here are objects that I printed using his machine, using the same software listed here:
[thefutureis3d.com]

and here

[plus.google.com]

I am baffled why this is happening, and really hope we can find a solution.

On the skype training, You don't need a web cam. I only need to see your desktop. You can share your desktop through skype then I can walk you through every setting.

I have just loaded cam studio on my computer, so I can make training videos on every aspect of the software. From using RepG to modifying Skeinforge. I will be taking requests to what you want to be trained on. I will place this under my HELP tab on the web site.

Your printer experience really should be amazing with the tests we put the machines through before they ship.

I will get started on the training videos this weekend.

Happy printing everyone.

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 04/12/2012 03:05PM by Adventure.

---

Jeff Christiana

Jeff has been very good at trying to get this fixed, and like I said, even with this hiccup, I would buy the printer again.

If you are taking requests, I would like to see a quick vid of first print on a fresh system, unzip the file from your download page, pick a model (gecko, etc), create gcode, and print.

I have been playing with slic3r, and have been able to print, now I am trying to improve the quality and repeatablity and get the settings correct. Ideally, I will be able to use the provided software again, so I can track future improvements.

--Carl

I dowloaded a new version of ReplicatoG 34 in the hope of resolving my problem in downloading stl files. I downloaded the file OK, downloaded a new copy of Python too and proceeded to install both. Both install went as planned.

When I tried to run replicatorG I got this error: "application was configured to use a bundled java runtime environment but the runtime is missing or corupted"

I tried another install and same result.

Any suggestions on what to try?

Bob

PS: am using Vista

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/16/2012 09:41PM by Bob hewson.

Did you download that from my site? Or did you download directly from ReplicatorG site? I also run Vista.. When i build laptops that go out, I use this same download. Most are windows 7, 64bit. With Python 64bit.

---

Jeff Christiana

Sometimes writing it out and asking the question twigs some other avenues to explore.

I finally found the problem in that my Java program was likely at fault so uninstalled it. I retried replicatorG and it accepted everything and operates now.

I still have a problem though with downloading stl files, even after installing new java for Vista.

I must be skirting the file download problem because I am getting a new error message.

Thanks,

Bob

Well I have egg on my face. I finally got the Divide by Zero error. This happend when I generated a raft. I never build rafts, but this time I needed to run a part that needed support/raft. I found out by talking to Robert Fach and he suggested that I remove the 0 value under my speed tab. orbitalFeedRate set the value to .10

This has fix the divide by zero error. I have fixed my profiles on my web site.

---

Jeff Christiana

TF3D NEWS

We at TF3D have moved into our new building. Very exciting. Much more room now for activities!!!

We have hired more staff to try and get our backlog of printers out and spend more time on R&D.

We are almost ready to release our brand new dual print head that will mount on any 3D printer.
Our print head will have interchangeable tips and also Handel 1.75 and 3mm filament.
It will also reach temps of 500c. 300C in less than 3mins.

LCD display will be installed on all new TF3D printers. Total control from the printer.

We have designed a real nice and sturdy spool box for all your different types of plastic. [shop.thefutureis3d.com]

We also now have a real forum that TF3D customers can ask questions. I seem to answer the same questions over and over again, so I made the jump to adding a live forum to the site. [thefutureis3d.com]

We also have three suppliers of PLA and ABS. HUGE shipments coming in all the time to get the price down, and we are passing the savings onto you. Don't pay high plastic prices.

Come check it out. More updates to come.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/15/2012 08:03PM by Adventure.

---

Jeff Christiana

Training videos are now being posted on thefutureis3d.com website.

I am going to try and post a few videos every day about ReplicatorG, Skeinforge, MARLIN firmware, RAMPS, LCD display, SD card, Dual print heads and so on.

My goal is to walk you through every last setting in all the topics above. I want to pass on my knowledge so you can use your TF3D printer to its fullest.

I know not everyone has time for a skype session, so I am going to put my 5+hr training in videos for everyone to watch.

If you want a video of something I missed just post here what you would like to see.

---

Jeff Christiana

Come check out our new 16" x 16" Heated Build Platforms. We will be shipping them on every TF3D printer.

[thefutureis3d.com]

We are very excited about this new HBP, it will give you a true flat surface, with an extremely safe, and very reliable heater for years of use.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/22/2012 07:12AM by Adventure.

---

Jeff Christiana

I bought a kit from Jeff in June 2011 (one year ago at the time of writing this).
I have been very satisfied with the after sale service provided by Jeff.
He really stands behind his products more than any large corporation would do (which basically means real tech support free of charge).
Building a kit is an interesting experience as it makes it easier to do the maintenance afterward.
It can be challenging at times, but as time goes, it all starts to make sense and it's not difficult.

I would buy again from Jeff in the future in a heartbeat.

Thank you.

TF3D announces our new LCD and Keypad!

The future is 3D is proud to announce our new LCD\Keypad add on to our 3D printers. Stop printing from your computer and start printing right from the printer. Generate your gcode using netfabb, slic3r, skeinforge and so on, and copy it to the included 2GB SD card. Select it from the keypad and print.
It is very easy to use and you are no longer stuck with the limitations of ReplicatorG when building large objects.
You get real time status updates from the bright blue LCD readout. We will have videos on how to use it in the HELP area.
In order to use the LCD/Keypad you will need to use our 2.1 MARLIN firmware.
This will be a standard on all TF3D printers.
Contact us today. support@thefutureis3d.com
Click here for pictures and videos.
[plus.google.com]

---

Jeff Christiana

We are very excited at TF3D to release this long awaited extruder with easy to change tips .20mm - 1mm (Dual head coming soon. Very small footprint)

Here are some pictures and videos.

[plus.google.com]

We at TF3D are testing two different hot tips with our new All metal print head. We have so many options now for tip sizes, and changing out your tip is a breeze.



Take a look at our Store and take time to look at the following tab. [thefutureis3d.com]

Here are pictures and videos of the new print head printing. You will see the two different tips we are testing.
[picasaweb.google.com]#





Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/18/2012 04:21PM by Adventure.

---

Jeff Christiana

new updates on the web site.

Photo Gallery
[thefutureis3d.com]

New print head
[thefutureis3d.com]

New Megatronics
[thefutureis3d.com]

New firmware\software updates
[thefutureis3d.com]

Our printers are shipping faster now. Please hang in there if you are still waiting. We are doing R&D every day to get you the best that is available.

Our store is here:
[shop.thefutureis3d.com]

We still collect no money until your printer is ready to ship next day.

We are here to help you. We want you to succeed in 3D printing.

---

Jeff Christiana

We got our 16x16 back in December/January. It has been pretty reliable and Jeff's service has been top notch. We have so far printed over 200 parts and it is still going strong.