Anyone Have BotMill Feedback?
Posted by wesjanik
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Re: Anyone Have BotMill Feedback? January 01, 2012 08:17PM |
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Re: Anyone Have BotMill Feedback? January 01, 2012 09:11PM |
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Re: Anyone Have BotMill Feedback? January 02, 2012 07:50PM |
I also just got a BotMill 2.1 at the end of Nov. Agree that the lack of instructions has been frustrating. They haven't answered any of my questions yet, but luckily I have been able to figure most things out on my own through all the wikis and forums, such as this.
Larry - the thermistor looks like it is supposed to go on the T0 pins. Mine didn't register in the RepSnapper software, so I'm trying to iron that out. I have requested a new PTFE part from BotMill, as it melted when there was no feedback from the thermistor to stop the heater. Oops!
If you got the same as I did late Nov, it is the Arduino Mega 2560 with the Ramps 1.4.
I also have requested the heated bed that I didn't get yet. I figured things would be slow over the holidays. Hopefully things will get straightened out this week. I will let you all know! I also wish I would have read this before I ordered.
At least I know I can move in Y and Z well. X isn't quite there yet. I'm not sure why it stops moving after about 20mm. But the endstops work now!
Suzanne
Larry - the thermistor looks like it is supposed to go on the T0 pins. Mine didn't register in the RepSnapper software, so I'm trying to iron that out. I have requested a new PTFE part from BotMill, as it melted when there was no feedback from the thermistor to stop the heater. Oops!
If you got the same as I did late Nov, it is the Arduino Mega 2560 with the Ramps 1.4.
I also have requested the heated bed that I didn't get yet. I figured things would be slow over the holidays. Hopefully things will get straightened out this week. I will let you all know! I also wish I would have read this before I ordered.
At least I know I can move in Y and Z well. X isn't quite there yet. I'm not sure why it stops moving after about 20mm. But the endstops work now!
Suzanne
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Re: Anyone Have BotMill Feedback? January 02, 2012 09:44PM |
Registered: 12 years ago Posts: 1 |
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Re: Anyone Have BotMill Feedback? January 03, 2012 07:03PM |
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Re: Anyone Have BotMill Feedback? January 18, 2012 02:25PM |
I seem to have fared better than many of you, but here is my experience. As you can see, things seem to have improved over the last year, but there is still room for improvement.
I ordered a fully assembled Glider 3D on December 28 2011, together with 2 extra rolls of feedstock. The website indicates that shipping would be "next day". Indeed, the Glider shipped December 29, and so (separately) did one of the rolls of feedstock. Another roll was delayed a few days (no big deal). The UPS tracking number shown in my order was just for the first feedstock, so while I was all excited when the UPS man arrived a few days later, there was no machine there, just the feedstock. The machine was on its way, but I had no way to track it. It took a couple of emails through to the company for me to get the message across that I would like a tracking number for the machine itself, but they did send one to me, and the machine arrived a couple days after the feedstock. Overall, I am happy with the ordering and shipping experience.
The machine appeared to survive the shipping well, but many nuts had vibrated loose. Once again, no big deal, but my suggestion would be for them to torque the nuts a little more, and perhaps also to use a drop of blue loctite. If I were able to communicate with them about technical issues, I would make this suggestion, but as you will read below, the company has been unresponsive to any of my technical questions.
The instructions that came with the Glider 3D are adequate to get printing, but not quite adequate for a successful print, at least not for me. For example, a roll of thin kapton tape was included, but no instruction about how (or where) to apply it. In the end, after some reading, I realized I needed to wrap up my hot end in order for the tip to remain hot enough to extrude ABS (although PLA was fine). My suggestion would be for them to get one of their machines in front of a newbie and watch him/her go through the motions of getting it up and running. Any issues that come up with that should be included in the instructions so that people's first impressions are positive rather than frustrating. Still, once I had wrapped my hot end, I was able to extrude properly. While the experience was needlessly frustrating, after a couple of days of mucking about, I was able to get extrusion to happen properly.
The heated bed that came with my unit only heats up to about 52 celsius -- not hot enough for ABS to stick. No kapton tape (other than the very narrow roll for the hot-end wrapping) was included, and it seems ABS doesn't stick well to aluminum, so my printing was largely unsuccessful as a result of the print not sticking to the bed. In the end, I experimented with a variety of other bed materials, and ordered a wide roll of kapton tape, which helped a lot. While waiting for the kapton, I printed on 600 grit wet-n-dry sandpaper, which worked "ok". The biggest problem was that the bed only reached 52 C. It has 4 one Ohm resisters in series, driven by a 12 volt power supply (that came with the system). Set up like this, about 3 amps x 12 volts are being used as heat, or about 36 watts. I believe I need to double the energy input (or perhaps more) in order to achieve temperatures suitable for ABS (85 - 130 or thereabouts). I have ordered an adjustable 0 - 30 volt 5A power supply on eBay, and that should let me experiment with energy input. I have also ordered some additional resistors from digikey, for the same reason. I am not sure why the botmill.com bed is so anemic. Why would they send out a bed that doesn't work for ABS, and that is marginal for PLA? Perhaps another approach to this would be to insulate the underneath of the bed, halving the radiant surface area. No such insulation was included, so half the heat input is being radiated off the bottom of the unit. Either way, the heated bed is not adequate as supplied, but is fixable with relatively little effort.
I was pleased with the quality of the Glider's motors, electronics, and parts. The unit came with Kysan 1124090 steppers, and the Kobbels Engineering Gen6 electronics, all of which worked fine. There is an issue with the Gen6 electronics, in that a ripple in the power supply causes the steppers to whine. While it didn't bother me too much, my wife objected to the noise. Some Internet reading showed up that the addition of a 1 nanofarad capacitor across R12 helped significantly with the ripple, and therefore the noise. I have ordered some from Digikey (not available at the local Radio Shack), and we'll see how it works. I constructed a 2.4 nanofarad capacitor by soldering two 4.8 nf caps in series, and attached it (I used those ones simply because that's what I had laying around, not because they are the right ones, which they are not). The noise dropped in half, so I'm hopeful that the 1nf will do the trick. I noticed that the temperature readings varied a lot, and apparently this is due to the ripple too, so should improve with the 1nf cap. While this small Gen6 issue is not really a botmill.com issue, it will affect every user, and should be addressed (hopefully by Kobbels!).
Another problem with the Gen6 electronics is that it cannot measure or control the bed without resorting to cobbling together connections through the RS485 port. Presumably this will be addressed in a future rev of the board, but it is not yet fixed on the rev I received.
My only ongoing gripe with botmill.com is that they find themselves unable to respond to customer technical questions, at least they've been unable to respond to any of mine for almost a week. I have asked about pricing for buying additional hot-end tips, but have not received a price from Gil. I have asked a series of questions about the hot end, firmware, and so on, and have received no correspondence from the technical support person. Gil forwarded my questions to someone named Shaan last week, indicating that Shaan would answer, but nothing.
The best part about my interactions with the company has been that they timely shipped me a working Glider 3D (Mendel) printer, at a price I considered reasonable. The worst part has been the non-existent after sales support. The other issues about loose nuts, missing tracking numbers, and so on -- these are minor and easily fixable. But if a company won't talk to its own customers, I'm not sure this is a good sign. I hope to be able to report that service improves over the next while, but at the moment, if you order from botmill.com, you should consider that you are "on your own" once the machine arrives. At least, that's how it feels to me. If there had been a true problem with my machine (i.e.: bad electronics, part broken in shipping, and so on), I have no confidence that the company would have been willing to communicate with me on the matter.
Things I would like to talk to the company about, but have been unable to do so (because they don't respond, even though Gil acknowledges that my questions have been asked):
- What firmware is installed on the Gen6 electronics? It does not respond to "M115;" (which should return the firmware capability string). I have downloaded the firmware from the board into my computer, but it contains no strings that identify its origins or version.
- 2 hot-end tips were supposed to be included with the product -- one for 3mm and one for 1.75mm feedstock. Only one tip was included. I'm using it with 3mm feedstock (since that's what came with the machine), but where's the other one.
- I would like to buy some more hot end tips to experiment with hole diameter. How much do they cost?
- What should I be doing to get the bed to warm up to a suitable temperature for ABS?
I would presume these are reasonable questions for someone who has just bought a fully assembled machine. I am optimistic by nature, so remain hopeful that the company will improve its responsiveness. But at the moment, the company's technical support is the weak link in an otherwise pretty good chain.
Let's hope they take every one of the comments on this thread to heart, because I think it would take only a small change in company culture for botmill.com to be a great supplier. But without those changes, the market is left open for a more customer-oriented company to take the business instead.
Dan Freedman
I ordered a fully assembled Glider 3D on December 28 2011, together with 2 extra rolls of feedstock. The website indicates that shipping would be "next day". Indeed, the Glider shipped December 29, and so (separately) did one of the rolls of feedstock. Another roll was delayed a few days (no big deal). The UPS tracking number shown in my order was just for the first feedstock, so while I was all excited when the UPS man arrived a few days later, there was no machine there, just the feedstock. The machine was on its way, but I had no way to track it. It took a couple of emails through to the company for me to get the message across that I would like a tracking number for the machine itself, but they did send one to me, and the machine arrived a couple days after the feedstock. Overall, I am happy with the ordering and shipping experience.
The machine appeared to survive the shipping well, but many nuts had vibrated loose. Once again, no big deal, but my suggestion would be for them to torque the nuts a little more, and perhaps also to use a drop of blue loctite. If I were able to communicate with them about technical issues, I would make this suggestion, but as you will read below, the company has been unresponsive to any of my technical questions.
The instructions that came with the Glider 3D are adequate to get printing, but not quite adequate for a successful print, at least not for me. For example, a roll of thin kapton tape was included, but no instruction about how (or where) to apply it. In the end, after some reading, I realized I needed to wrap up my hot end in order for the tip to remain hot enough to extrude ABS (although PLA was fine). My suggestion would be for them to get one of their machines in front of a newbie and watch him/her go through the motions of getting it up and running. Any issues that come up with that should be included in the instructions so that people's first impressions are positive rather than frustrating. Still, once I had wrapped my hot end, I was able to extrude properly. While the experience was needlessly frustrating, after a couple of days of mucking about, I was able to get extrusion to happen properly.
The heated bed that came with my unit only heats up to about 52 celsius -- not hot enough for ABS to stick. No kapton tape (other than the very narrow roll for the hot-end wrapping) was included, and it seems ABS doesn't stick well to aluminum, so my printing was largely unsuccessful as a result of the print not sticking to the bed. In the end, I experimented with a variety of other bed materials, and ordered a wide roll of kapton tape, which helped a lot. While waiting for the kapton, I printed on 600 grit wet-n-dry sandpaper, which worked "ok". The biggest problem was that the bed only reached 52 C. It has 4 one Ohm resisters in series, driven by a 12 volt power supply (that came with the system). Set up like this, about 3 amps x 12 volts are being used as heat, or about 36 watts. I believe I need to double the energy input (or perhaps more) in order to achieve temperatures suitable for ABS (85 - 130 or thereabouts). I have ordered an adjustable 0 - 30 volt 5A power supply on eBay, and that should let me experiment with energy input. I have also ordered some additional resistors from digikey, for the same reason. I am not sure why the botmill.com bed is so anemic. Why would they send out a bed that doesn't work for ABS, and that is marginal for PLA? Perhaps another approach to this would be to insulate the underneath of the bed, halving the radiant surface area. No such insulation was included, so half the heat input is being radiated off the bottom of the unit. Either way, the heated bed is not adequate as supplied, but is fixable with relatively little effort.
I was pleased with the quality of the Glider's motors, electronics, and parts. The unit came with Kysan 1124090 steppers, and the Kobbels Engineering Gen6 electronics, all of which worked fine. There is an issue with the Gen6 electronics, in that a ripple in the power supply causes the steppers to whine. While it didn't bother me too much, my wife objected to the noise. Some Internet reading showed up that the addition of a 1 nanofarad capacitor across R12 helped significantly with the ripple, and therefore the noise. I have ordered some from Digikey (not available at the local Radio Shack), and we'll see how it works. I constructed a 2.4 nanofarad capacitor by soldering two 4.8 nf caps in series, and attached it (I used those ones simply because that's what I had laying around, not because they are the right ones, which they are not). The noise dropped in half, so I'm hopeful that the 1nf will do the trick. I noticed that the temperature readings varied a lot, and apparently this is due to the ripple too, so should improve with the 1nf cap. While this small Gen6 issue is not really a botmill.com issue, it will affect every user, and should be addressed (hopefully by Kobbels!).
Another problem with the Gen6 electronics is that it cannot measure or control the bed without resorting to cobbling together connections through the RS485 port. Presumably this will be addressed in a future rev of the board, but it is not yet fixed on the rev I received.
My only ongoing gripe with botmill.com is that they find themselves unable to respond to customer technical questions, at least they've been unable to respond to any of mine for almost a week. I have asked about pricing for buying additional hot-end tips, but have not received a price from Gil. I have asked a series of questions about the hot end, firmware, and so on, and have received no correspondence from the technical support person. Gil forwarded my questions to someone named Shaan last week, indicating that Shaan would answer, but nothing.
The best part about my interactions with the company has been that they timely shipped me a working Glider 3D (Mendel) printer, at a price I considered reasonable. The worst part has been the non-existent after sales support. The other issues about loose nuts, missing tracking numbers, and so on -- these are minor and easily fixable. But if a company won't talk to its own customers, I'm not sure this is a good sign. I hope to be able to report that service improves over the next while, but at the moment, if you order from botmill.com, you should consider that you are "on your own" once the machine arrives. At least, that's how it feels to me. If there had been a true problem with my machine (i.e.: bad electronics, part broken in shipping, and so on), I have no confidence that the company would have been willing to communicate with me on the matter.
Things I would like to talk to the company about, but have been unable to do so (because they don't respond, even though Gil acknowledges that my questions have been asked):
- What firmware is installed on the Gen6 electronics? It does not respond to "M115;" (which should return the firmware capability string). I have downloaded the firmware from the board into my computer, but it contains no strings that identify its origins or version.
- 2 hot-end tips were supposed to be included with the product -- one for 3mm and one for 1.75mm feedstock. Only one tip was included. I'm using it with 3mm feedstock (since that's what came with the machine), but where's the other one.
- I would like to buy some more hot end tips to experiment with hole diameter. How much do they cost?
- What should I be doing to get the bed to warm up to a suitable temperature for ABS?
I would presume these are reasonable questions for someone who has just bought a fully assembled machine. I am optimistic by nature, so remain hopeful that the company will improve its responsiveness. But at the moment, the company's technical support is the weak link in an otherwise pretty good chain.
Let's hope they take every one of the comments on this thread to heart, because I think it would take only a small change in company culture for botmill.com to be a great supplier. But without those changes, the market is left open for a more customer-oriented company to take the business instead.
Dan Freedman
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Re: Anyone Have BotMill Feedback? January 18, 2012 09:35PM |
...and I received email from Shaan within a few hours of me putting up my recent post.
His comments:
- He thinks I have the FiveD firmware.
- He apologizes for them being out of stock of the tips for the 1.75mm tip, but promises to send me one once they come in.
- He doesn't know their current vendor for the tips, but suggests perhaps I can find some by searching on line for "gen6 hot end".
- He doesn't seem concerned that my bed doesn't get hotter than 52 Celsius, but let me know they have been tested up to 22v, although the power supply that comes with the unit is 12v. Of all the answers, this one perplexed me the most. Why send out a heated bed that doesn't heat up enough?
- No mention by Gil or Shaan of the price of the new tips.
The impression I am left with is that botmill.com is busy with something -- too busy to look after botmill.com customers. This seems to be a common problem among rewrap vendors, but not a universal one. I am glad I bought my first machine from them -- it arrived safely and quickly, and I was able to correct its problems without too much difficulty. But I would say that closer attention to detail and customer service is needed in order for this to be a "real" business.
Dan
His comments:
- He thinks I have the FiveD firmware.
- He apologizes for them being out of stock of the tips for the 1.75mm tip, but promises to send me one once they come in.
- He doesn't know their current vendor for the tips, but suggests perhaps I can find some by searching on line for "gen6 hot end".
- He doesn't seem concerned that my bed doesn't get hotter than 52 Celsius, but let me know they have been tested up to 22v, although the power supply that comes with the unit is 12v. Of all the answers, this one perplexed me the most. Why send out a heated bed that doesn't heat up enough?
- No mention by Gil or Shaan of the price of the new tips.
The impression I am left with is that botmill.com is busy with something -- too busy to look after botmill.com customers. This seems to be a common problem among rewrap vendors, but not a universal one. I am glad I bought my first machine from them -- it arrived safely and quickly, and I was able to correct its problems without too much difficulty. But I would say that closer attention to detail and customer service is needed in order for this to be a "real" business.
Dan
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Re: Anyone Have BotMill Feedback? January 19, 2012 06:48AM |
Registered: 12 years ago Posts: 57 |
Yup, i tried buying some filament with the in bulk as there was a discount on the filament, but when i'd paid for it they put my order on hold and changed the deal so there was no discount and said i'd need to pay more....
Suffice to say im glad i never ordered a printer from them after reading the constant horror stories from people all over the place.
Eventually got my money back but i was getting very worried that i would have lost my hard-earned cash!
I'll NEVER buy from them......
Suffice to say im glad i never ordered a printer from them after reading the constant horror stories from people all over the place.
Eventually got my money back but i was getting very worried that i would have lost my hard-earned cash!
I'll NEVER buy from them......
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3Duser
Re: Anyone Have BotMill Feedback? January 19, 2012 07:58AM |
I think the OTHER thing they are focused on is this POS..
[www.treehugger.com]
They should spend time on fixing Botmills crap instead of designing something that is already available in the reprap world.
it sure looks like the [pp3dp.com] 3D printer.
Wow they even toss in a three month subscription to download objects to print. After that you pay $4.00 for each one you download.
They must have never seen thingiverse that is FREE..... Thanks but no thanks.
I bet the plastic "Cartridge" isn't cheap either.
I think the large companies should stay out of the low end 3D printer market. Give the guy that doesn't have Billions of dollars a chance to succeed.
Just my 2 cents.
[www.treehugger.com]
They should spend time on fixing Botmills crap instead of designing something that is already available in the reprap world.
it sure looks like the [pp3dp.com] 3D printer.
Wow they even toss in a three month subscription to download objects to print. After that you pay $4.00 for each one you download.
They must have never seen thingiverse that is FREE..... Thanks but no thanks.
I bet the plastic "Cartridge" isn't cheap either.
I think the large companies should stay out of the low end 3D printer market. Give the guy that doesn't have Billions of dollars a chance to succeed.
Just my 2 cents.
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Re: Anyone Have BotMill Feedback? January 24, 2012 05:49PM |
Registered: 13 years ago Posts: 55 |
I ordered a single PTFE extruder part and a 1.75mm tip from them in July-August 2011, I received the order 5 1/2 half months later!!! That was after tens of emails and when they finally shipped the parts, they forgot one of the items. They are absolutely horrible to deal with and lack the most basic customer service. For 5 months, every time I emailed them or left voice mails, Gil would send a form response saying "Great news, your parts are shipping out tomorrow". I still have all the emails.
I will never order from them again and I would make sure tell tell everyone to never consider their Cubify printer. The cartridge $$$ is ridiculous and they will not answer simple questions like whether the printer is open to any software and what type of SW they are using.
I will never order from them again and I would make sure tell tell everyone to never consider their Cubify printer. The cartridge $$$ is ridiculous and they will not answer simple questions like whether the printer is open to any software and what type of SW they are using.
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Re: Anyone Have BotMill Feedback? January 24, 2012 10:24PM |
Registered: 12 years ago Posts: 57 |
--- DO NOT EVER BUY FROM BOT-MILL ---
5 and a half MONTHS LATER !!! FFS... so sorry to hear that sxt173
This is a company which uses the "Ugh - I'll do that Tomorrow " saying...
Read-on peeps, don't EVER buy from BOT-MILL.
Its a shame because 3D-Systems have taken over, its still called Botmill, all with the same staff, but STILL all my emails are kept being IGNORED and i have totally had-it with this 'Mickey-Mouse' company..
IT's a Sham, Scam & Cheat to get hold of your money - but they will give "ONE" customer every-year decent service just so they have at least ONE person to show up in these forums to say some good stuff about Bot-mill.... So yeah, we'll get ONE/TWO a year from them but what about all the HUNDREDS OF FCUK-UPS BOTMILL HASN'T OR DONT PLAN TO FIX YET ???? HHHmmm ????? Welll ?????? ASSH*OLS....
Bot-mill is Bogus, Deceitful, LAZY, Bone-idle, LIARS & Con-men/women with a pretty looking website to trap people who think great looking websites are legit....
This is an example of a well-put-together website that will trick you into buying then you'll be waiting months for your stuff to arrive with wrong parts included, parts missing wrong instructions, no customer support, wrong parts shipped to you again for the third time, the list goes on so bad, ETC ETC ETC.
WHY BOTHER WITH THESE ASS-CLOWNS - Just do a bit more research to people and/or businesses selling repraps. even ask nophead (hope it was ok to you your name here bud!) for his printed parts on ebay, ive only been here on the reprap forums for a short time but so far nophead's parts are awesome and very well priced! Along with others, but ask the sensai's & Guru's anywhere here in the main reprap forum for help before you buy !!!!
--- DO NOT EVER BUY FROM BOT-MILL ---
5 and a half MONTHS LATER !!! FFS... so sorry to hear that sxt173
This is a company which uses the "Ugh - I'll do that Tomorrow " saying...
Read-on peeps, don't EVER buy from BOT-MILL.
Its a shame because 3D-Systems have taken over, its still called Botmill, all with the same staff, but STILL all my emails are kept being IGNORED and i have totally had-it with this 'Mickey-Mouse' company..
IT's a Sham, Scam & Cheat to get hold of your money - but they will give "ONE" customer every-year decent service just so they have at least ONE person to show up in these forums to say some good stuff about Bot-mill.... So yeah, we'll get ONE/TWO a year from them but what about all the HUNDREDS OF FCUK-UPS BOTMILL HASN'T OR DONT PLAN TO FIX YET ???? HHHmmm ????? Welll ?????? ASSH*OLS....
Bot-mill is Bogus, Deceitful, LAZY, Bone-idle, LIARS & Con-men/women with a pretty looking website to trap people who think great looking websites are legit....
This is an example of a well-put-together website that will trick you into buying then you'll be waiting months for your stuff to arrive with wrong parts included, parts missing wrong instructions, no customer support, wrong parts shipped to you again for the third time, the list goes on so bad, ETC ETC ETC.
WHY BOTHER WITH THESE ASS-CLOWNS - Just do a bit more research to people and/or businesses selling repraps. even ask nophead (hope it was ok to you your name here bud!) for his printed parts on ebay, ive only been here on the reprap forums for a short time but so far nophead's parts are awesome and very well priced! Along with others, but ask the sensai's & Guru's anywhere here in the main reprap forum for help before you buy !!!!
--- DO NOT EVER BUY FROM BOT-MILL ---
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Re: Anyone Have BotMill Feedback? January 26, 2012 09:58PM |
Registered: 12 years ago Posts: 10 |
Dan:
Can you post your settings in Repsnapper if you've already got a relatively good print? Right now I still have trouble getting nozzle to reach target temperature 230 deg. so no filament coming out of the nozzle yet. But Botmill seems to be quick in response this time so once that's fixed I'll need to know how to set up those parameters properly in Repsnapper to create good prints.
Thanks a lot.
Can you post your settings in Repsnapper if you've already got a relatively good print? Right now I still have trouble getting nozzle to reach target temperature 230 deg. so no filament coming out of the nozzle yet. But Botmill seems to be quick in response this time so once that's fixed I'll need to know how to set up those parameters properly in Repsnapper to create good prints.
Thanks a lot.
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Re: Anyone Have BotMill Feedback? January 26, 2012 10:07PM |
Registered: 14 years ago Posts: 52 |
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Re: Anyone Have BotMill Feedback? January 29, 2012 02:37AM |
 Re: Anyone Have BotMill Feedback? September 16, 2012 11:19PM |
I'm posting this to review BotMill as of 9/12.
Ordered on August 27th. Received the package September 5th. Took quite some time for shipping but I'm not complaining about shipping here. The problem is the package came with no assemble instruction. I sent e-mail to them asking for it but no reply. Fine! I just did my own research and managed to find the instruction somewhere on the website. Another thing is the printer that they sent me looks very different from the picture that they have on the website. There's no fancy pattern on the plastic and colored heated bed as they have in their displayed pictures and the plastic parts are black instead of yellow. Thats' the first time I felt I was being cheated (what you see is not what you get!). I don't mind to pay extra bucks if the real product looks that great but this doesn't seem to be the case. Anyway, that's not the worst part. As soon as I started to work on X-axis, I discovered that the upper part of carriage was missing. I dug further to see if there's any other parts missing and found 2 more parts were missing. I sent another e-mail to customer services requesting for missing parts and haven't received any response til today. I also did submit the case to their ticket system but that went nowhere. I did call their support number 803-326-4073 and guess what? The number is not valid! I even called 3D System for 4-5 times and they just forwarded my call to a guy who never picks up my call. I left the voice mail and nobody returned my call whatsoever. This is really frustrating. I wonder if they have a return policy but how could I make this happen since there's nobody there cares to pick up the phone or reads e-mail? My last option is to call Bank of America to dispute the credit transaction. I won't buy stuffs with BotMill anymore including 3D System. I thought 3D System was a great company but now I have serious doubt that they're doing things properly. Some of their helpdesks don't even know the existent of BotMill but I believe once they know they'll just forward your call to nowhere and ignores the rest since they think they don't share responsibility with BotMill. I'm sorry I did not see this blog before I bought the product. I conform that the statements made by people below are true. For anyone who's thinking about buying 3D printer from BotMill, I suggest you look somewhere else.
Nat
Ordered on August 27th. Received the package September 5th. Took quite some time for shipping but I'm not complaining about shipping here. The problem is the package came with no assemble instruction. I sent e-mail to them asking for it but no reply. Fine! I just did my own research and managed to find the instruction somewhere on the website. Another thing is the printer that they sent me looks very different from the picture that they have on the website. There's no fancy pattern on the plastic and colored heated bed as they have in their displayed pictures and the plastic parts are black instead of yellow. Thats' the first time I felt I was being cheated (what you see is not what you get!). I don't mind to pay extra bucks if the real product looks that great but this doesn't seem to be the case. Anyway, that's not the worst part. As soon as I started to work on X-axis, I discovered that the upper part of carriage was missing. I dug further to see if there's any other parts missing and found 2 more parts were missing. I sent another e-mail to customer services requesting for missing parts and haven't received any response til today. I also did submit the case to their ticket system but that went nowhere. I did call their support number 803-326-4073 and guess what? The number is not valid! I even called 3D System for 4-5 times and they just forwarded my call to a guy who never picks up my call. I left the voice mail and nobody returned my call whatsoever. This is really frustrating. I wonder if they have a return policy but how could I make this happen since there's nobody there cares to pick up the phone or reads e-mail? My last option is to call Bank of America to dispute the credit transaction. I won't buy stuffs with BotMill anymore including 3D System. I thought 3D System was a great company but now I have serious doubt that they're doing things properly. Some of their helpdesks don't even know the existent of BotMill but I believe once they know they'll just forward your call to nowhere and ignores the rest since they think they don't share responsibility with BotMill. I'm sorry I did not see this blog before I bought the product. I conform that the statements made by people below are true. For anyone who's thinking about buying 3D printer from BotMill, I suggest you look somewhere else.
Nat
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Re: Re: Anyone Have BotMill Feedback? September 17, 2012 12:39AM |
Admin Registered: 11 years ago Posts: 1,063 |
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Re: Re: Anyone Have BotMill Feedback? September 19, 2012 01:11PM |
Registered: 13 years ago Posts: 99 |
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Re: Anyone Have BotMill Feedback? January 21, 2013 01:52PM |
BotMill Wrote:
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> We typically use repsnapper just to send the gcode
> to the printer. To convert the STL to GCODE we use
> skeinforge.
Can you make a this a bundle which will work together, with the templates for the skeinforge and repsnapper?
Either send a template I can use, or tell me what to put as a value on each setting.
To the other users, Gil M and the others from Botmill has started in 3D systems. Maybe make a push torwards them? (Gil M is now a business developer there according to linkedin... )
-------------------------------------------------------
> We typically use repsnapper just to send the gcode
> to the printer. To convert the STL to GCODE we use
> skeinforge.
Can you make a this a bundle which will work together, with the templates for the skeinforge and repsnapper?
Either send a template I can use, or tell me what to put as a value on each setting.
To the other users, Gil M and the others from Botmill has started in 3D systems. Maybe make a push torwards them? (Gil M is now a business developer there according to linkedin... )
Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.