New Botmill Glider 3.0 Experience

I have been reading over the forums for the last few weeks while deciding which Reprap machine to buy. It took a while to decide on a vendor and a machine to buy. The machines that i were considering were as follows:

Botmill Glider
lulzbots prussa
repman 3.2

In the end, despite the bad reviews of the company, i decided on the Botmill.

My thought process was that Botmill was a small company that had some growing pains and that the bad reviews were related to Botmill, pre 2d systems buying them. I am happy to say that although it took a few more days then specified, everything came in in tip sop shape and ready to run out of the box. The package came in with the machine molded in foam for protection and a nice package on top of all of the extra parts. These parts included the kepton tape, blue tape,power adapters, wrenches, wire protection and a getting tarted guide.

As i said, the machine, took a few extra days to get in. However, Every time i called, i talked to someone and they were very professional and helped research the delay. I am not saying that everyone will have the same expreience. I am just giving my experience and letting other people decide. I don't want to cause a big debate. I just wanted to relay my experience, because it wan't like what i heard on this board. I hope they continue to improve service and continue to bring 3d prinitng to the mainstream.

Just my 2 cents.,,

Regards,
Michael

Hi Michael,

We are pleased to hear your about your positive experience with us, and we apologize again for delaying shipment for a few days. We are working hard to ensure orders go out in a timely fashion, with the strongest emphasis on the quality of our product.

All machines are tested thoroughly and after a quick verification of opto-flag positioning & allowing the extruder to warm up nicely you should be able to start printing right away. I encourage you to keep in touch with me in the future as I am always here to assist you with any questions, comments or concerns you may have moving forward.

If you would like, I can send over some test files to try out before you delve deeper with printing. Just shoot me an email (address is below in my signature) and i'll get back to you as soon as I can.

We appreciate your positive sentiments and wish you all the best in your future endeavors with the machine.

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Shaan Dholakia
BotMill 3D Printers
[www.BotMill.com]
shaan@botmill.com

I ordered a Mendel Glider from Botmill and I'm very happy with it. Nice looking black plastic and what I think are Gen6 electronics from mendel-parts.com. I didn't get an answer about what firmware is installed but it works well with Repsnapper. I use Skeinforge to generate the G-code because the built in repsnapper g-code generator produces rough looking objects. I will probably update the firmware at some point. It shipped the day after ordering and arrived in Canada by the end of the week. I had to align the the belts on the Y and Z axis and square up the frame. One of the printed washers on the bottom of the Z-axis lead screw broke in half and fell off during the third print so I replaced both of them with metal washers from the hardware store and it has been fine since. The extruder was giving me trouble feeding filament so I replaced the hobbed bolt with one that I found on e-bay that has a much more defined slot and hobbing. The extruder is running great now. I guess the thing to remember is that the Mendel is still very much an experimenters machine so you'll have to be prepared to take it apart and make adjustments once in a while. The people at Botmill are friendly and easy to deal with.

I actually just asked them what firmware is installed and they said 5d and sent me the firmware they use.

Mike

Hi Karl,

Thank you for sharing your positive experience with us, we appreciate your kind words. If there's ever anything I can do for you don't hesitate to contact me.


Would you care to share a photo or two of some prints you've made?

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Shaan Dholakia
BotMill 3D Printers
[www.BotMill.com]
shaan@botmill.com

Just throwing in a "brief" history lesson for potential customers, to get a better understanding on the general view of the community:

http://forums.reprap.org/read.php?1,110802,119864
http://forums.reprap.org/read.php?1,106698,106735

In short; all other stores have better reputation than botmill.

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-Nudel
Blog with RepRap Comic

I agree that there may have been some issues in the past. I read the forums before i made my choice of vendors. It did make me hesitate before I bought from Botmill. However, there are not to many vendors that can ship next day and have the machine that i want. I did not want the Prusa because it had a smaller size bed. I do not like to wait for things, so i wanted a fast turn around time. It is possible for Company's to change. My thought was that Botmill was bought out by a large company and has had time to work out the kinks in their delivery and business practices. In reality it is not the samer company. Botmill itself has moved from Florida to the corporate offices in SC. The company is now integrated with other 3dsystems companies. I realize that they had some growing pains in the past. I think they are changing if people on these forums would give them a chance. I do not work for the company. I can just tell you that i had good experiences. If there are a lot of people that have bad experiences in buying in the future then i would say, stay away. I didn't have that experience.

Again, just my two cents.

Regards,
Mike

Not wanting to get paranoid here Mike, but your return of experience, while being nice to read, is probably of little value for potential Botmill customers as you are a brand new registered user who could just be a 3DS employee in disguise.

In nowadays communication war, those large companies sometimes hire specialists to improve their image in web communities.

So thanks for your report, nice to see positive comments on botmill for once, but not changing my mind about them right now.

In the mean time, have fun with your Glider, post pictures of what you do with it.

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Most of my technical comments should be correct, but is THIS one ?
Anyway, as a rule of thumb, always double check what people write.

DeuxVis Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Not wanting to get paranoid here Mike, but your
> return of experience, while being nice to read, is
> probably of little value for potential Botmill
> customers as you are a brand new registered user
> who could just be a 3DS employee in disguise.
>
> In nowadays communication war, those large
> companies sometimes hire specialists to improve
> their image in web communities.
>
> So thanks for your report, nice to see positive
> comments on botmill for once, but not changing my
> mind about them right now.
>
> In the mean time, have fun with your Glider, post
> pictures of what you do with it.

In general, we do not discuss our dealings with specific customers, especially without consent. However Michael ordered a machine and we delivered one to him. This thread was a pleasant surprise for us and we appreciate Michael's efforts to share his experience on this forum.

Michael, feel free to share with us your experiences with the machine you've purchased from us.

DeuxVis, you obviously have the freedom to make the assertions you want, but frankly speaking, your suggestion that he is an employee of our organization is baseless and without any merit.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions - 803.326.4073

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Shaan Dholakia
BotMill 3D Printers
[www.BotMill.com]
shaan@botmill.com

I am actually working on a DIY website right now and i am planning to outline me experiences with a 3d printer and hopefully teach people how to use it. I am a long time blogger in the Music Tech world. If you search for me on the internet, you will see thousands of hits and know that i am a reputable person. Again, i am not saying that Botmill is going to continue to service people well in the future. I can only give me experience. Although, i would hope that they would continue to service people well and it seems that they will. Only time can tell. I hope to contribute a lot to this community and additionally, i hope to learn a lot. Please don't be agitated by me just because i have a good experience. That's all i am going to say about this subject.

Thanks,

Mike

> DeuxVis, you obviously have the freedom to make
> the assertions you want, but frankly speaking,
> your suggestion that he is an employee of our
> organization is baseless and without any merit.

The skepticism has merit when the ratio of bad to good reviews is what? 50:1?

My experience with the company has been positive and I'm definitely not connected to them in any way other than being a customer. They return emails within a day and are helpful.

[www.kwartzlab.ca]

botmillshaan Wrote:

> DeuxVis, you obviously have the freedom to make
> the assertions you want, but frankly speaking,
> your suggestion that he is an employee of our
> organization is baseless and without any merit.

I am not asserting he is. I'm just mentioning we have no proof he isn't.

My intent was also to explain him how it could be counterproductive to chant your greatness when he's a total new user here who never posted a question before. It sounds too good to seem true, even if it is.

As billyzelsnack said, the old disastrous records BotMill had will take some time to clean up. Hopefully 3DS is actually improving the customer experience.

---

Most of my technical comments should be correct, but is THIS one ?
Anyway, as a rule of thumb, always double check what people write.

Quote

I did not want the Prusa because it had a smaller size bed.

Botmill quote the build area as 8" x 8". That is 203.2mm. The Prusa has a bed that is 214 x 214mm. The bed of the Glider may be bigger, but it is just dead weight it you can't build on it.

---

[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

I was going by print size:

lulzbots: 175mm x 190mm x 100mm (6.8inch x 7.4" x 3.9)
botmill: 8" (W) x 8" (D) x 5.5" (H)

It could be that the listed print area is wrong, but that is all i had to go on.

Mike

I just recently purchased the Axis 3D printer kit from Botmill.com, and I wanted to share the experience with my wonderful adult erector set. When I first read about this unusual printer, I thought "Erector set", but this product is far from a toy. I asked for a sample and received an immediate reply from Gil Mayron, the president. I was so intrigued that I decided to purchase the kit.

I called Gil early on a tuesday morning and ordered the kit with a delivery for Friday. I got my kit on Friday. What more can I ask?

After opening the box, I did not expect that all the parts would be there and the build quality of the plastic pieces was just phenomenal.

Well I am almost finished with my kit and it is no toy, it is an engineering marvel. How does the logistics get done with so many pieces?

I want to thank Gil Mayron and the Botmill.com team for doing what they promised and making this assembly a thing a joy and amusement.

A thing of joy and amusement? I hope that's still the case AFTER it's finished and you've had a chance to try it!

Don't cheer too soon.

Wow lots of <10 posters coming to bat for botmill. Either they turned fantastic overnight and their new happy customers just happened to find this forum, or....

Seems pretty transparent to me. An underhanded. I'll stick with the reputable shops...

I just have to mention another little incident that occurred... I had broken my lower x-carriage when i was taking swapping my hotend out. I was on a call with botmill and i mentioned that i probably had a good enough x-carriage to print out a new one. Without hesitation, they said, "Give me your address and i will send out a new one today". One day later, i had my new x-carriage and my j-head happened to come in at the same time. I spent some time reassembling my x-axis, but did not have enough time to test yet. I continue to be very happy with my purchase from Botmill. I know it's hard to convine people that they have changed, but i am proof of it.

Mike

it's hard to convince people.... when your first six posts ever on the forum all happen to be about how great the vendor that has a really, really, really bad reputation is.

I realize that other people have had bad experiences. It is not my intention to convince people to buy from Botmill. It is only my intention to relay my experience. I find that, on the internet, people tend to post more about bad experiences and not when they have good. That is all. As for me... I am a fairly well known music tech blogger. I have not been on this forum for too long because i just got a 3d printer. However, I plan to contribute a lot. I guess only time can tell what i will do on these forums. I hope to join in on the fun.

Thanks,
Mike

well i certainly hope everything works out great for you and you enjoy your time reprapping, i just can't help but think the timing and coincidence of a couple new members showing up to tell us how great Botmill is about a week after their "reintroduction" on the forum. i suppose you could call me cynical.

I'm for real too. I was being honest about my experience and now I feel like I should have kept my mouth shut. Seems like you guys would only be happy if I had a bad experience with Botmill. I'm very interested in 3D printing and hope to contribute as much as I can. I have built my own CNC router table and milling machine and am enjoying calibrating the mendel, figuring out the software and getting some nice prints. I want to print a Prusa and build the entire machine myself.

Here's my website: www.thinkbotics.com
Here's my blog: [www.kwartzlab.ca]
Books I've written: [www.amazon.com]
Thingiverse: [www.thingiverse.com]

Bot mill not only took a long time they sent me two printers neither which would work> they never responded to my emails or calls until I began to blog about them. They claimed I was breaking the law by blogging and claimed this to the Better Buisness Beauro in answer to my complaint. The second unit was so poorly assembled the x axis would fall off the bars and the nozzle would drop by a quarter inch.. After I filed in court they tried to smooth talk me just like this guy here sounds. They are known for stealing blogs and reprinting them on thier site to make them appear a "good buisness". I would not trust them and personally believe they are having thier employees fake comments to overcome the complaints. Hi Gil

Quote
mchenetz
I was going by print size:

lulzbots: 175mm x 190mm x 100mm (6.8inch x 7.4" x 3.9)
botmill: 8" (W) x 8" (D) x 5.5" (H)

It could be that the listed print area is wrong, but that is all i had to go on.

One was being honest and the other one was being deliberately dishonest or just didn't care to find out what the actual specifications are. Botmill's specs were lifted right out of the Mendel wiki which you can only get if your printer is using the original Mendel extruder without a heated bed. Botmill shows a geared Adrian's geared extruder on the photo which takes away space in the z and x directions not to mention the z space that their heated bed might be taking away.

Now that you have the printer, have you found out how big your print area really is?

I really feel sad about people doubting on new comer's posts, just because of previous bad experience with Botmill. This post is not intended to "protect" Botmill (check my previous posts about my Glider 3, I never said I'm a happy customer for Botmill), but to stand behind mchenetz for his innocence because we've already shared our experience through many e-mails and his printer seems to work better with a new hot end and I'm waiting for his pictures and some useful information to get mine working.

I myself am very busy with my business, family activities so I had to leave my printer for a while (didn't have time to look at it in the last 2 weeks, let alone getting on this forum). As part of this community, should we be more focused on sharing useful information to help other people rather than pointing fingers?

Again, I don't have time to write long post, but can't help letting people know the truth.

Automeasure

www.rxmetrology.ca

I am done responding to this topic. I am not trying to say that in a bad way or to offend anyone. I just don't feel like i can say any more about the subject. I had a good experience. Take it as you will. I am not working for the company. so i have no interest in whether someone buys from them or not. I have moved on to asking questions related to my current need using while the Reprap Mendel. I look forward to discussing issues with the community that i currently have and hopefully contributing new elements back to the community.

Thanks,
Mike

Mike,

I'm sorry if my comment offended you. Just to be clear, my comments were not directed at you but to Botmill. You do have to admit that the critical specification that you based your decision on was wrong. Botmill should really review and correct any errors in their claims.

@brnrd No Worries... I wasn't offended. I am learning that it is pretty hard to make objects that are big because of warp factors anyway.

Mike

mchenetz, same goes for me, I realise I could have hurt your feelings there, which was not the goal at all.

Being just a tiny bit paranoid can help avoiding disappointment, but it can be hard to draw the line.

---

Most of my technical comments should be correct, but is THIS one ?
Anyway, as a rule of thumb, always double check what people write.