Anyone Have BotMill Feedback?

Good luck MrJohn! BTW, if you want to maximize your build height, I suggest mounting the electronics either on the side near the motors or the bottom. Leave the front or back clear to make room for the extruder.

Thanks for the tip, I'll definitely try that.

Also, I've been doing some searches on botmill and got their address.(20283 State Road 7 Ste 400 Boca Raton, FL 33498) Then I searched that address and found dozens of other businesses in the same suite. I called a law office in the same suite and spoke to the secretary. She does know who they are there and she does see people come in and man that office every day. So that's a relief to me. That it's not a dummy address and they have an actual place to work out of, just in case I have to do a charge back through my bank. I'm looking forward to getting my Axis kit and I hope all the problems others have had with them are in the past.

Their track record so far is that you'll get something. But it might not be what you ordered, something may be missing or assembly may be poor. I think their product offerings are good but they need to improve their response to customers.

I've been contacting Fred at botmill about my order. Last week I was told it would ship with the next batch and ship this week. On Monday I sent another e-mail checking my order and Tuesday morning got a response that my motors where delaying my order because they were coming from "the far east" and Chinese New Year delayed botmill from receiving them.

I told them that I was fine with whatever they had ready, and they could ship the motors later at my expense. I got a quick response, he said they would ship what they have ready today and the motors later and they would pay for the shipping of the late motors.

I checked my order on their site and it had a tracking option, when clicked led to a dead webpage. But when I hovered over the link I could see my tracking number. Googled the tracking number and it works! I'll be getting the package next Tuesday.

Overall I think it's good customer support. Though, they could be more transparent in the whole process. I'd rather not have to ask, and they just send me updates if something holds the order.

I'll keep everyone posted. Check out my www.Kickstarter.com project in the link below!

---

-John, San Diego, CA

www.youtube.com/user/GeoDroidJohn

MrJohnEcker on Twitter, Gmail

This should be interesting..........


I havn't sold Botmill a kit since January...I wonder what they are sending you

CdnReprap Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This should be interesting..........
>
>
> I havn't sold Botmill a kit since January...I
> wonder what they are sending you


Are you botmill's supplier? I know someone else that got the same kit Tuesday and they said it had everything promised. The parts were a little rough and needed finishing but they were all there.

---

-John, San Diego, CA

www.youtube.com/user/GeoDroidJohn

MrJohnEcker on Twitter, Gmail

I guess I was the supplier....LOL

Differences:
1-Delivery time......I stock what I make & sell so I can ship same day, or next business day.
2-Plastic parts....., I supply commercial RP plastic parts made on a professional prototype machines.
3-True Precision ground smooth rods....not drill rod or plain smooth rod
4- I answer emails every day, and we answer the phone

Electronics
I supply RAMPS (16 microstep) with arduino mega and they supply Medel parts gen6 (8 microstep)
I supply High precision(0.9o) high torque motors and they supply (1.8o)

I'm sure there is other differences.

Would you agree there must be some potential buyers looking at pics on their site, old posts, old blogs mentioning commercial parts,.....also they describe the plastic parts in the kit "Sturdy and precise. Will not break or warp. No drilling or sanding required"

it doesn't sound like your friend got what he was promised based on your statement. "The parts were a little rough and needed finishing but they were all there."

CdnReprap Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I guess I was the supplier....LOL

Do you have a website? If you're a better supplier I'd like to do business with you.

>
> Differences:
> 1-Delivery time......I stock what I make & sell so
> I can ship same day, or next business day.
> 2-Plastic parts....., I supply commercial RP
> plastic parts made on a professional prototype
> machines.
> 3-True Precision ground smooth rods....not drill
> rod or plain smooth rod
> 4- I answer emails every day, and we answer the
> phone
>
> Electronics
> I supply RAMPS (16 microstep) with arduino mega
> and they supply Medel parts gen6 (8 microstep)
> I supply High precision(0.9o) high torque motors
> and they supply (1.8o)
>
> I'm sure there is other differences.
>
> Would you agree there must be some potential
> buyers looking at pics on their site, old posts,
> old blogs mentioning commercial parts,.....also
> they describe the plastic parts in the kit "Sturdy
> and precise. Will not break or warp. No drilling
> or sanding required"

True.
>
> it doesn't sound like your friend got what he was
> promised based on your statement. "The parts were
> a little rough and needed finishing but they were
> all there."

---

-John, San Diego, CA

www.youtube.com/user/GeoDroidJohn

MrJohnEcker on Twitter, Gmail

We are working on the website, I always have stock of most colors and 48hrs worst case on special orders.

currently I list kits on ebay when I have time to list them.

I can be contacted through PM or email.

brnrd Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> @Adrian: I had a similar experience. I ordered the
> assembled mendel kit with electronics last
> November and I didn't get it until a month later
> even though their website claimed 10-14 days.
>
>
...
> I should say that the parts were very good and I
> would recommend the unassembled kit. I did get a
> warped bed which Botmill didn't replace. Since I
> am now using a heated bed and the aluminum bed is
> just sitting unused in a drawer, I haven't pushed
> the issue. They did mail me the missing thermistor
> but they couldn't identify what it is so I'm not
> 100% sure if I'm using the right table.

I am happy to report that CdnReprap who was the supplier to Botmill of the kit that I bought offered to replace the warped bed free of charge. I now have a flat bed that I can use to build a heated bed for ABS in case the Prusa PCB heat bed has any problems at the higher temperature.

Apparently, he's no longer the supplier for the Botmill Mendel kits. So, I am withdrawing my recommendation for the current Botmill unassembled kits. Instead, I recommend the kits from CdnReprap which includes printed parts from a commercial printer. I am no longer ordering from Botmill unless I start hearing good reviews about their service.

BTW, Botmill never identified the thermistor that they sent me. I ended up calibrating it against a thermocouple and generating a table by fitting points between 150 and 260C.

I got my kit yesterday.

First the good stuff.

1. Well packaged and organized.
2. Almost everything was included that was promised on the site.
3. Extra tools included.

The not so good stuff.

1. Most of the plastic parts are warped, glassily, not drilled correctly/ at all, whole faces of parts missing. Mismatched, grey and black.
2. The 1 lb of PLA filament was not included.
3. Stepper motors were not filled down flat on one side. ( I don't own a file, wasn't included with the tools)

I've only gotten the frame, z axis brackets, some of the x axis pieces, and half the bed completed. The bed is where I noticed the worst pieces. The larger slanted bearing pieces where totally unusable.

So, any problems with the motors and other electronics are still on the horizon if they are there.

I've sent emails to Fred, Gill and the support email asking for new plastic and filament. I hope they respond quickly.

I'll keep you updated.

Wait, bot mill is now reprap printed?

---

repraplogphase.blogspot.com

I don't think so. The parts I got looked reprap'ed on the outside but smooth and white on the inside. Commercial 3D printed I think. I'm posting videos on youtube right now.

I think I just watched your youtube video. Those plastic parts don't look like they were printed on a commercial printer. They look really bad. Commercial printers have higher resolution than reprap printers and the parts won't look that bad.

Commercial parts are the same color inside and out.

I have made contact with Gil and he has already shipped a complete set of new parts, that's like a $200 value. I also asked him for clearer instruction on how to build the extruder and hot end and he offered to build it for me, take pictures with descriptions and ship the extruder as one piece with the plastic parts. Now that's customer service.

Gil told me there are no more issues with the stupid Chinese new year thing and all orders will be filled quickly. I am really pulling for them since I've sunk over a grand into their company. I hope they continue to make good on their products.

I have been documenting my build on my youtube channel. (http://www.youtube.com/user/GeoDroidJohn) So you can see for yourself.

---

-John, San Diego, CA

www.youtube.com/user/GeoDroidJohn

MrJohnEcker on Twitter, Gmail

Hi John,
Congratulations on the kickstarter project, I can't tell you how informative your videos have been and I can't wait to see new postings! I looked closely at your parts on the video and tell me if you agree:

You are a patient guy, those parts looked pretty bad, I think I know how they were trying to make them: Printing the shell for the parts (faster to print) and filling them with a polyurethane resin to create a solid. That's why there are smooth & rough faces on the parts and also explains why the holes are misaligned: when pouring the resin they must have had a pole sticking out of the part in order to make holes - problem is the poles (or whatever they used) seemed to tip during the casting process.

These guys better get their act together...

Just wanted to give my feedback.
I just got my BotMill Kit and will be posting pictures this weekend (the man has me working nonstop so I have no time).
I just got my kit and it looks awesome!
Gil sent me an email about two days ago explaining that they had a problem with a previous manufacturer of plastic parts and have recently switched to a new manufacturer.
They even separated each plastic piece by assembly in it's own plastic pouch. This will make things easy.
If anyone wants to know about my kit send me a PM.

I'm glad you've had a good experience with them. It's very frustrating getting a "full kit, everything you need to print" kit that costs over $1000 and a week and a half later I am no better of than the day I opened the first box. I have a mocked up sells mendel that can't print because so many things are missing, broken, warped, or not drilled correctly.

Mark Shulzt Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Just wanted to give my feedback.
> I just got my BotMill Kit and will be posting
> pictures this weekend (the man has me working
> nonstop so I have no time).
> I just got my kit and it looks awesome!
> Gil sent me an email about two days ago explaining
> that they had a problem with a previous
> manufacturer of plastic parts and have recently
> switched to a new manufacturer.
> They even separated each plastic piece by assembly
> in it's own plastic pouch. This will make things
> easy.
> If anyone wants to know about my kit send me a PM.

Hi everyone. I received my kit from BotMill few days ago. All is well. Just like Mark, my kit also arrived with the pieces separated by assembly, which is a nice touch. The plastic pieces that were sent with my kit are SPOT ON, if not perfect. Here are some photos I took of the carriage assembly and idler bracket for the x axis. note that i've left the belt clamp for the x axis off until i put the actual belt on. I can't wait to get this thing up and running. i'll post an update as soon as i make some more progress!!

Hey supreme 84, thanks for posting the pics! Do the parts look completely rep-rapped or does it seem that they are manufacturing it through some other process? I ask because John had a lot of holes that were not straight through the part...

Thanks and can't wait to see more pics.

On another note, I finally got a tracking number on the glider assembled mendel. I will fully document the experience as soon as it comes.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/08/2011 02:50PM by Adrian.

Hi Adrian,

I am not sure what method they are using, but i am working through the assemblies and have encountered no problems with any of the pieces. If John was having issues he should email BotMill because they will replace his plastic parts. Whatever past issues they had with the parts seems to be resolved, as these pieces are perfect. When I get a chance to continue with the build i'll take more pics and post them up.

Supreme84's plastic parts look similar to the ones that John got. Anyway, they don't look good to me.

I've attached a screen capture of a charge-back form to force a refund from botmill.com I will send this through if I don't get a shipping tracking number by tomorrow evening. The box that arrives better contain a full set of working parts or I will submit the charge-back. I will send an e-mail to botmill before I do so giving them one last chance and informing them of my intent to do a charge-back. Then I will send the original box back with all the parts and tools they sent me with tracking a delivery confirmation.

I have been patient up to this point but its been 3 days since Gil last responded to me stating that Fred might be backed up sending out tracking numbers and he will get to it soon. Three full business days later and no tracking codes or e-mails explaining why.

The text box in the image has this message-

"The merchant promised to send a new set of parts to replace a defective set and 8 days later I have not received any notifications that the parts are shipped. Also, the first box was missing several items, like plastic filament (which was provided in a shipment that was supposed to include the parts), adequate tools, fire cement, lock-tight, and miscellaneous nuts and bots. I have contacted fred@botmill.com and gil@botmill.com and they have stopped responding to my e-mails."

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/09/2011 03:05PM by MrJohn.

I ordered some filament from Botmill and their Customer Service is the WORST I have ever seen. I wouldn't recommend ANYONE buy from them. I ordered. ~$500 worth of filament (decent size order I thought?) After 3 weeks of hearing nothing from them, I sent an email asking about the status of the order. Nothing. I sent a second email. Nothing. Finally in my 3rd email, I blasted them telling them their Customer Service is horrible. That at least caused a response out of them. A few weeks later, PART of my order shipped. They never told me it was short, what the status of the remainder of the order was, or that they couldn't get it. I was on vacation when it arrived, so it was probably another 2 weeks before I opened it, only to realize I received half of my order. Realize, they charged me for the whole order about 2 months ago by that time. I sent 2 more emails and finally received response from Fred informing me "oh yeah, I guess you ARE missing some of your order." "It's on backorder, would you like the balance refunded to you or wait." Mistakenly, I told him I would wait, if it wasn't going to be too long. I asked him to give me rough estimate of how long it would be. That was a couple of weeks ago, and again, I've heard nothing.

Run away from this shady outfit as fast as you can!!

I have finally received a tracking number from BotMill. Should be delivered late next week. Weight 17 lbs. I also ordered 5 lbs of PLA. Hope that is a believable weight. SHould also include tools according to what was offered when I placed my order on Jan 23rd.

The axis kit I got weighed 23 lbs.

Epatel Hey maybe they sent you a huxley!

BTW my axis and the supposed 15 lb of pla weighs in at 31 according to the UPS tracking info.

Well, here is a screenshot of the FedEx info. I can add that I have very little room for discrepancies from my original order. A Glider + 5 lbs Natural PLA. The Glider was supposed to have many extras included as a heated bed, tools etc. I have sent them one email asking what's up with that weight difference. No response yet. I have already payed $370 just for the shipping cost so I really hope they are not trying earn a few bucks by throwing out parts of my original order.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/10/2011 06:31PM by epatel.

epatel Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>SHould also include
> tools according to what was offered when I placed
> my order on Jan 23rd.

The tools are a joke, they are cheap. The allen keys are in SAE not metric. The pliers, needle nose and dikes bend easily under any load. If you thought the kit includes EVERYTHING needed, you are going to be disappointed.