3dstuffmaker.com - opinions?

and make sure the spool of pla is positioned well so it does not bend as it enters the machine

whicj is better
the evelotion or the Prusa?

I am gonna get both eventually,.

but the first one i got was the evolution due to the larger print size, 200x 200 x 200
but i find for 99% of the things i make, i do not require the large print bed, I am more fond of printing small objects Very quickly

If you guys get one of these printers,
You should private message me ill send you some files to print off thumbwheels for the print bed, makes it 1000% easier than doing it with a spanner/pliers + screw driver

also extruder parts, You will find when your less experienced, you could over tighten the extruder casuing the bolt to drive into the plastic
its a good idea to print these parts out as they will eventually wear out, maybe 12 months of heavy use... printing stuff constantly..
Maybe not,

You will find, once your extruder is set, correct tension, it should work for most of the filament you have. But they all vary in sizes, 2.8 - 3.3mm
PLA also can come soft, like a rubber feel almost, makes it hard to extrude as the bolt can sometimes just eats away at the PLA
( its always good to load the PLA to just so its in the TUBE, and then let it extrude all the way, jack up the speed, and watch it feed down the tube untill it pops out and then you can plug it into the nozzle, its good to sometimes do this just to make sure the extruder is tensioned and is not stop/starting.

I find the best PLA to print with is the stuff that snaps rather easy, pushes through the tube easily and almost looks see through/transparent
I have some Glow in the dark PLA, its white(cream white), and glows green at night, its rather horrible to work with, its just to soft.
So my advise, buy a mixed pack of PLA and buy the one that works best, or just get the PLA from 3dstuffmaker.com they always sell me awesome quality PLA

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/11/2012 04:58PM by nechaus.

here are some things iv printed,
Pen container for my GF, Lipo box for myself

nechaus Wrote:
-
>
> if you cannot get a consistent flow, check things,
> dont start a print.
>
How about the continuity in the PLA flow - I mean does the PLA extraction from the nozzle start and stop with exact concurrence to the start and stop of the extruder. In my machine there is a lag, PLA flow is slightly timed out starts a little while after the extruder truns and stops little after the extruder stops - Does this happen with you?

I just took out 2 small m3 bolt and nut from the extruder, so the rear ones are only being used, x2 in total and put lock nuts on the ones being used


Tightened the hell out of the extruder bolt, the small m3 bolt goes into the plastic and i just kept on tightening it which looked like it was damaging it, but now its extruding and pulling the PLA to the point where you can Hold the PLA with your hand and the printer will start to tip sideways its that strong


I also increased the trim pot for the extruders current to maximum

Stuff this,

I think im over this printer,

90% of the time im trying to get it to work
at least 50% of my PLA has been wasted on trying to get it to run Reliable.


I have had some good runs with this printer, But so far

- I have had 3 nozzles that just break from normal use
-Most PLA does no extrude, Only very specific types

I am going to sell this printer and buy a resin printer or makerbot printer,


its worse than trying to program a High Power Electric Vehicle sevcon Brushless DC controller.
Once the sevcon is tuned, it works great, once this printer starts working, it just randomly stops working for one reason or another,
Even using the printer by the 3dstuffmaker.com guidelines...


I think im over this printer.
Think iv wasted about 3 kg of PLA on just trying to get it working over the past 3 months.


Really starting to think iv wasted about $2000 and my time on this printer, From the day I got it, it was broken, physically damaged.
Had to buy more parts, more stuff... just been a nightmare i think...






The staff are pretty good very friendly, I just wish they got the products working well consistently, Its a real shame because i like their team, but its just not what i expected when i got this printer, I really wanted a Solid Machine that will print me out basic Brackets

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/15/2012 07:15PM by nechaus.

Geez Nechaus you sound in the wars.
I've got the prusa from them a couple of weeks ago and has been ok so far.
Mine has had the following probs:
1. USB cable supplied was too long - was 2.5m long - got errors in software - is ok with 1.4m long cable.
2. Mine was partial assembled - the brackets on the x axis rods were in the wrong spot - had to adjust.
Thats about all. Lots of set up problems of course but this forum has been my main source to get over that.
Main thing is get to everything nice and level and gap from nozzle to bed right.
Have been getting more confident even adjusting the bed height a quarter of a turn or so during the first layer if it doesn't 'look' even.

Did have some probs getting the PLA thru the extruder. Their help team told me to tighten the small tension screw which I did.
Was not quite sure how hard to pull the little arm down. Then late one night must have pulled it down a bit too hard and the perspex
side of the extruder broke off. It surprisingly kept running. Then yesterday during a good print it went bang and the other perspex
side also broke off. Think the design could be a bit stronger ie. is only 5-10mm wide in this critical area with sharp corner ie. rounded corner would be stronger.
Am waiting to see how much that is going to cost to fix
Roger.

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Prusa 'Explorer' (3dStuffMaker), GEN6, J-head Mk III-B, Bowden Extruder, Marlin 1.0.0 RC2, Repitier-Host V0.84 and Slic3r 0.9.8, PLA. Live at Victoria, Australia.

Hi,

I want to write my review about this printer too.

I bought the prusa mendel diy kit just before Christmas. After some research I found out this the best offer for the price. My negative/positive balance of the review research was good too.

As sent with india post (I can’t accept other shipping than EMS) it arrived with an impressive wax seal on it (imperial/colonial remains I think). All was packed really well, just on a pragmatic but really accurate indian style. Parts where described well and a good manual was in it.
I toke me about 6 hrs. to build the hardware together. Only one part didn’t fit at all, but I was able to dremel it (I told this to Rob and he corrected it: A hole was drilled 3mm wrong on the stop end opto sensor holder).

I had some minor issues with the installation of the software, which was easily corrected by downloading the missing driver from another pronterface distribution (python 2.7.2. was missing). Rob has no idea why this happened, but I haven’t really a stable xp setup, so it’s maybe a problem on my workshop pc.

After messing with the usual FRFM-Errors from my side (I already build a CNC mill and made some wrong assumptions on the end stops) all mechanics and electronics where in place and working.

I contacted the 3dstuffmaker support and they helped me for all this issues, even if some of them where caused of my tendency not to read manuals ( as said I don’t RTFM…).

The first print attempt caused a extruder jam due to my inexperience (again). Even here Rob and his support supported me.
The 2nd print was a success, and I’ really happy with the result. Now the story will continue, but my impression is that this kit is worth its money. On one side you get what you pay, but what you get do the job that is expected it should do. Nothing more and nothing less. It’s not a 2.5k$ 3d printer, but a solid RepRap that include to spend the time needed to understand it.

All in all I can really recommend this supplier. Especially for the good and fast support they have.

Marco Glattfelder
CH-8856 Tuggen
Switzerland

Hmm..So, it seems like most guys are getting nice support from 3dstuffmakers. I guess it's just me they hate then!

Two, or three tickets on their support system, and not a single reply yet!

The machine has given me nothing but headaches. All the vital parts are acting up...extruder(snapped like for so many others), hot-end gives random temperatures, and on and on and on. Even the PLA i bought with the machine was rubbish. Sharp bends in it.....keeps snapping over and over. Not that it matters though. Making a good print is close to impossible when the hot-end goes up and down 20c randomly.

@bergaliv: Try to skype, an direct e-Mail or e-Mail to rob@i-optic.com. I can't figure that there is no reaction. I think they ticketing system is not the best option to get a reaction. Maybe they are not aware about that. Remember that all this RepRap sellers aren't big companies and the customer service process can get stucked somwhere. If you contact them only via one single chanell and get no reply it's maybe just the one who's not monitored.

I appreciate that they are all "small" business. The ticket system at 3dstuffmaker is however the place you get to when using "support" on their site. Would be more than odd if they didn't monitor that one. Small business or not; The support system your website takes you to should absolutely be monitored(and often at that). I'll try another way on monday though.

just do the Contact Person thing to get support and find out what is happening with your ticket.
my perspex Extruder also broke which they replaced (superglued in the mean time) - in the end I have found you only need light pressure on the extruder to work best.
(i find that the little plastic arm lets the pressure off well when doing the first layer and maybe not a lot of plastic is coming out. I then slightly tighten it up on the second layer when we want nice flow again).
my printer works well - only prob is a warped perspex plate which they did not replace - have since made a flat glass plate atop of it.
i think there PLA is good - use white all the time. had some black but i fine it hard (with my old eyes) to see it printing as well.
roger.

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Prusa 'Explorer' (3dStuffMaker), GEN6, J-head Mk III-B, Bowden Extruder, Marlin 1.0.0 RC2, Repitier-Host V0.84 and Slic3r 0.9.8, PLA. Live at Victoria, Australia.

With some apologies for bumping an old thread, I'd like to add my 2 cents worth here.

I purchased a 3dStuffmaker Prusa kit early this year. I was initially lead to believe they were an Australian company as their website indicates they are in Penrith NSW, Australia, just down the road from where I used to work many years ago, so I thought great, I'll get this kit shipped to me in a couple of days.

Nope. India!

Ok, so it's a cheap kit. I knew it was cheap. I wanted a kit that I could build myself, that's half the fun.
But months and almost a full 1kg spool of filament later with only a few useable items to show for it, I'm still building/fixing it.

I'm kinda fun'd out now.

So, these are the glaringly obvious problems I've found with the printer so far:

Extruder/feeder:
The design it's based on is not bad - an Ultimaker Bowden extruder but... Who makes drive gears out of acrylic?
After about 10 hours the first little acrylic drive gear snapped in half.
Fortunately 3dStuffmaker provide spares, but my first real attempt at printing something useful was to print more drive gears. Second acrylic drive gear gave out at about the 25 hour mark.

The hobbed bolt is a knurled fully threaded bolt so you've got this constant sideways pull on the filament which definitely contributes to chewed filament and poor feeding.

I tried making the Ultimaker feeder upgrade as others have sucessfully done but the gap between the (also fragile acrylic) side plates of the extruder in my kit was about .8mm narrower than a proper Ultimaker extruder, so big problems there.

Hot-end:
Copy of a J-Head mk3 that produced some wildly unstable temps.
Not too bad once you rip the thing apart removing the mess of kapton tape that hung low and occasionally dragged on the top printed layers, drill out and throw out the crappy resistor and thermistor, replace them with some decent ones and put the head back together.

Print bed:
Something I've noticed when working with acrylic over the years - it warps and bends easily when it gets hot!
So why would anyone make a print bed, subject to having 180-230 degree molten plastic sitting on it, out of acrylic?
As you'd expect, it gets hot, warps or sags.

The print bed was covered in Kapton. Kapton is not really any good for PLA, and you can't print ABS on this thing because it doesn't have (and won't take) a heated bed. Heck, I couldn't even print decent quality black PLA on it properly, only the brittle white filament I purchased with the printer using blue painters tape instead of kapton.

X-Axis carriage rails:
Not truly parallel which causes the X carriage to bind.
I had to drill out the holes in the end pieces and use shims to get the rails parallel. I also found the drive belt would bind on the sides of the idler bearing because it too was not well aligned. A few washers sorted that one out.

Z-axis optical end stop mount:
Never to be found in the same positon twice!
You can't tighten the bracket too much or the plastic snaps, and vibration from the X & Y carriages and motors makes it move.

Controller:
Last but not least… where to begin…
The standard Gen 6 controller with Marlin code that needs a USB ISP to install a bootloader on it before you can get any good firmware running. 3dStuffmaker will sell you a firmware upgrade kit for AUD$95, but the same thing can be achieved with a $20 USBTiny & a couple of Arduino downloads.

You can't run a heated bed on Gen 6 unless you have the Deluxe version, which means no ABS and limited success with various colours of PLA. The standard Gen 6 can't be upgraded to Deluxe. You throw one board out and buy another.

The motor connectors on the Gen 6 get hot, the connections get a bit flakey so the motors have a tendency to stop working properly when you're well into a big print, especially the dual motor Z-axis.

That's about it.

The frame's ok, provided you don't get it with any bent rods, though I will say my kit was packaged well, so nothing bent or broken, everything marked clearly, nothing missing.

The upgrades I've done to my printer so far -
* Replaced extruder - printed a Wade extruder with Bowden fittings (I still like the tube and less weight on the x carriage)
* Replaced print bed with aircraft grade plywood and a heated bed with glass top,
* Refurbished hot-end with new resistor & thermistor,
* Fixed up problems with out-of-whack carriage rails,
* Replaced Gen 6 controller with RAMPS Controller,
* rewired motors to make the wiring a lot neater.

I'm sure there's more but I've lost track of all the fiddly little things I've done to it over the months.

I've yet to complete the calibrations on the new controller, so as of posting this, the printer still is not complete.

What I'd say to people looking at one of these printers:

If you enjoy an engineering challenge and have lots of time to spend just making it barely able to print something that doesnt look like it belongs in a Salvadore Dali painting, get one, but be prepared to spend a LOT of time and fair ammount extra money to get it working ok.

Otherwise, save up and shop around some more. Get a pre-built, pre-tested printer that you can plug in, switch on and print without months of frustration.

My $600 Prusa kit has now cost me somewhere close to $1000

I've done an in depth review here:

3D Stuff Maker Classic Prusa Review

I've also modded it in another thread here:

The Titan, a Prusa Modification

I purchased a Classic Prusa from 3Dstuffmaker at the end of May. Here has been my experience so far:

* Assembly was very easy and instructions were decent
* The hotend they shipped with the unit was 0.7mm and oozed uncontrollably
* I wanted to tweak the firmware, but 3dstuffmaker would not provide the source code for their modified Marlin to me, an obvious GPL violation
* They ship the Gen6 without a bootloader, and want to charge you $99 to add one. I instead snagged a Pololu AVR programmer off of Amazon for $20 and this worked great.
* I replaced the hotend with a J-Head Mk-V BV from hotends.com and that works great now. Had to fab a custom adapter out of wood since I can't get my printer working yet.
* The electronics they ship are Gen6. This means the motor drivers are soldered onto the board, so when one breaks (my X died after about 2 weeks) you have to replace the entire board. I ordered a new one from Stratasys.
* The extruder is low quality. The acrylic wheels look fragile and there are many reports of them breaking. The extruder tends to chew up filament.
* Support was very unhelpful both times I tried to contact them, and replies took 2-3 days and never actually helped with the problem.

I would recommend avoiding 3dstuffmaker.

Beside the extruder problem that sounds not good at all, I don't uderstand what do you expected? The use of the Gen6 on this model is clearly stated everywhere when you buy this Printer. It's not hidden at all. So what's the sense to complain this? You got what you paid for.
Do you contacted Rob directly? It's maybe one of the diappointing Points there: the the usual Support chanells are slow. E-Mail Rob instead.
Actually I printed 4Kgs PLA with same extruder on this printer.

Hi all,
I bought a machine from here a year or 18 months ago. See my posts above. It had a few problems but I found the support people very willing to help. In the end I think I was having lots of hot end problems and was struggling to get reliable prints. I need even more prints done (run 24/7) and so got a UP Mini - unbelievable machine.
Regards,
Roger.

---

Prusa 'Explorer' (3dStuffMaker), GEN6, J-head Mk III-B, Bowden Extruder, Marlin 1.0.0 RC2, Repitier-Host V0.84 and Slic3r 0.9.8, PLA. Live at Victoria, Australia.

hey Roger,

Bugger that you had so many issue, in the end did you resolve all of the issues ? im in the same boat at you, id ideally like to have my printer running very often,

I think i will have to buy another printer that will run reliable ?

I really like the up, the only thing holding me back is the print bed size...

hi yeah it was fun to learn on but just was failing too often - had to watch it like a hawk. esp first 2 layers.
obviously repraps are a good thing for people who know electronics and all that and would be satisfying to build from scratch but at the moment I just need a printer that will work 99% of the time and that is what the UP does. I am developing a product and am moving into the load testing phase and need to up the number of prototypes I make. was going to buy another reprap but saw the Up at a trade show. didn;t believe the salesman when he said you could just press PRINT and it would go. but it does - amazing.
the small print size doesn't worry me (removes buckling problems) - simpliy glue all the bits together - my protoype is made from 12 big parts (say 8-10hrs each to print) glued together (with ABS sludge) and is 400mm x 220mm x 80 deep. Joints are very strong - I put a large tensile load on the plastic. Could have got the next size printer up (about $1600 instead of $1000 for the UP) with the bit bigger print bed but liked the UP Mini as it is in a closed cupboard - keeping everything warm. Cause the ABS smell so bad (had like the nice smelling PLA) I popped a hole thru the wall of my office and put the printers (have 2 now) in my wood shed. Its pretty cold out there so the closed units is great (still got a moth in there somehow one night - didn't end up in print!!).
And no didn't resolve the issues - was buggerising around with the extrude (cold and hot ends) in the end - haven't touched it since!!
Roger.

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 07/16/2013 10:37PM by rogerw.

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Prusa 'Explorer' (3dStuffMaker), GEN6, J-head Mk III-B, Bowden Extruder, Marlin 1.0.0 RC2, Repitier-Host V0.84 and Slic3r 0.9.8, PLA. Live at Victoria, Australia.

sounds good!,

Well im going to have to make my mind up soon, i am after strength with my prints, being so abs and a prints that can print layers properly will do that.

I think i might rebuild my printer as well as getting another one,


Are you still using the 3dstuffmaker printer after getting the up ?
Is the Up faster than the 3dstuffmaker one ?

what do you think would be better the UP printer, or the MBOT CUBE printer, they offer a dual extruder model ?

I have the 3dstuffmaker prusa kit and i have to say i am not impressed. The more i use it the less i like it. As other people have mentioned the quality is very low. here is a list of things that i have an opinion on so far.
- The extruder is useless, it chews filament at least once every print. luckily it squeaks all the way through the print so i can hear when it gets stuck. If i loosen the clamp to quieten the extruder it doesn't grip at all. The white filament grip wears down so quickly that the tension must be adjusted after a few hours printing.
- After less than 45 days use (i still haven't left feedback in Ebay) the Z motors have started to grind now and then. Instead of lifting the bed they just grind for a second or so then they are fine. They have asked for a video as evidence but getting a video is almost impossible when i dont know when it will crash.
- The same goes for the X, Y motors. I have had several occasions where the motors just skipped a turn and the whole build shifts 10 mill in one direction and continues to print. I have checked the belts and they are not too tight or too loose. I think the motors are very low power as they are 2 thirds of the size of a set of motors I bought from Ebay to build my next project printer.
- The build platform is the shape of a banana, it's not flat. I had to buy an IKEA mirror to print on. The levelling system is useless with the cheap nuts and bolts they use. It seems that every time i start a job the bed is a different height.

All in all I have gone from over the moon when I received it to being very unhappy the last few weeks. I have built a replacement extruder which has helped with the first point i raised but at the point where i am at now it just really annoys me to use the machine. I am in the process of building a mendelmax if I ever get a working set of parts as currently only 50% of the parts are useable. Hopefully the new extruder which i am using now will resolve that issue. Of course now i need to flash the firmware so i need a bootloader which i will be buying from Ebay. I also ordered a phoenix 3d printer from Kickstarter which might be a nice machine and then this stuffmaker can be thrown out and the board recycled into something else.

All in all i would say avoid unless you want to spend forever trying to get a nice machine. Buy something else from the RepRap community or locally if you can. then at least you can take the parts back if they are crap.
regards
Mike
P.S. On a good note, it got me addicted to 3d printing so that's a plus.

Sods law! Today, after writing the above review my printer broke down 5 hours into building my Opendive VR glasses. I am very annoyed to say the least. The thermistor seems to have lost a wire and the temperature cannot be read. This triggered a printer shutdown and the printer is effectively dead until I can repair it. I will try customer support to see what they say but it's annoying. All this on top of what i already mentioned above does not make me a happy maker!
Avoid 3Dstuffmaker.

Hey guys,


You can get there printers to work everytime without fail, mine has been for some time now, iv printed atleast 5kg of pla, 1 kg of abs and about 3 of Nyon since i Upgraded it.

Costs to upgrade, not as much as a new printer, after reading your post, i can really relate.


100% the best thing i did was change the hotend to a budaschnozzle, You will need to either print a new carraige, or increase the high of the z axis opto end stop so it can fit.


Once you change the hotend, you wont see eaten filament, you will get consistent flow, your prints will start 9 times out of 10





Overall I would strongly recommend trying a new hotend first, something like the budaschnozzle, it will save you money in getting a new printer, if it still fails for some other reason, you can use that hotend on another printer, id seriously consider just building your printer.





My printer is running at about 60mm's to 150mm's

Hotend upgrade
Extruder changed, one with a bearing to apply pressure
X carriage, one to accommodate the budaschnozzle and a fan.
Build platform changed to glass- UHU glue works a treat for PLA or nylon

currently building another heated build platform with peliter pads, bang bang switch to heat or to cool

Another thing to add, i read yours skip steps, Try feel all the motors, they should not get to hot to touch, maybe turn the current down, or up if they are skipping,

The Z axis i only realised the current was to low when not being able to lift at a speed of 200 or higher in pronterface( make crazy lound sounds), Turn the z axis potentiometer about 1/8 and it fix the problem.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/24/2013 07:01PM by nechaus.

So far-ok have had my prusa classic kit about 2 weeks.
Build went easy as, initial play with the printer OK. Print a cude/cuboid. Very average with the .7mm head.

I need to mod the firmware due to not extruding correct amount, out by 10mm. But also struck the "We will send you the hex file".
There is some weird behaivour going on with the electronics, either PCB or some other problem possibly a faulty opt sensor.

Can start it up and printer will be fine, or start it up and after a couple of minutes, after temp rises, it starts jittering and then zooming the print head around not stopping for the z opt sensor.

Definately not power supply related, as I have two $300+ bench power supplies (used for fast charinging my lipo for my model planes and other projects) and now tested with two other power supplies (chinese 12v 5amp and a laptop powersupply).

I am guessing there is something funky with the board itself (gen6) going on. Eg Check temperature and the USB disconnects/reconnects but can still use the home and other buttons to move the axes around until it completely disconnects and then hangs the software.

Usual other inital things to do alignment, bed levelling, scrap the included software for later versions.
Filament chewing out. This is due to the wildly varying temperatures (as the usb connects/disconnects the temperature is not maintained.)

Supplied PLA is nasty, nasty, hard feral but good for inital first run calibration and "see it" prints type stuff.
The PLA is hard/brittle, lacking in plasticiser. I know it is a cheap-ish kit but was expecting decent quality PLA.
Temperature almost bang on 217 degrees for supplied PLA. at 220 it goes all over the place, any lower and it comes out chunky.

Give me the inital configuration of the printer and I will sort the rest out. I would have a steady base to work from.
It is provided as a Build It Yourself kit, they should provide all the details to at least allow for an initial working printer.
Print the configuration.h out and stick it in the box.

did you check the connections on the gen 6 board? make sure the opto end stops are in the correct position, there are markings on the pcs to id which port is which, been a handfull of times where the connections come loose and just need to be reseated...


did you flash the config file yet? im assuming your running the redsnapper than... best to flash and get onto pronterface, much nicer software, prints will look better once you get latest version of slicer

Thanks for the advice guys, their support gave the same info re the stepper grinding issue so i turned up the power and at the moment i haven't noticed any more grinding. I can't really build though until i get the thermistor issue sorted out so my observations are based on moving the Z up and down a few times. They have said they will replace the hotend for me which seems like good support. I was worried that i would have to ship the faulty part back to India which would cost more than buying a new hotend.
I think i will invest in a budaschnozzle in the smaller .3 or .4 hole size to see if that cleans up my printing. I need to finish my open dive VR goggles.
I just wish they would upgrade their stuff a bit and just add 20 Euro to their prices. It would be worth the extra 20 bucks and it would probably help their ratings a lot.

Thanks again guys
Mike

It seems like good support, I think their support is fantastic for what is in their scope of support.

But honestly, buy a new hot end !!!!

unless they have changed since i got them, they were like jhead clones or something, I never had consistent prints with them, I use to get the grind issue alot, The moment that would happen, i would try and hand feed the plastic through the hotend, It was so hard for me the metal rods would bend trying to force it in.
Sometimes the hotend would work okay, but overall for 12 months it was not reliable and did not seem to be able to extrude long amounts of pla with out jamming for some sort of reason.
Since changing to the budaschnozzle its been working every single time, no time wasting, no wasting huge amounts of pla trying to tinker to get it work work .

I have made contact with 3dstuffmaker recently and they are sending me firmware for 300c temps, i have my printer setup so it will handle it, i just need to get some polycarbonate to test, nylon works okay at 260, but i want to crank it up to 280c.. See if i can get less delamination issues.
So far my printers working sweet after all the headachs, mostly from not knowing what i was doing like 12+ months ago,

Next upgrade ill do is prob just change all the threaded rods, make a new frame and build a heated chamber