Looking for feedback on the Kossel 2020

I just joined this form to continue my research on purchasing the Kossel printer from Folgertech. The design appears to be very diverse by changing out rod length and recalibrating. However it appears Folgertech may not be able to handle the demand based on one of the threads. Is there anyone who can comment on this model and vendor with good support?

This will be my first 3D build and I have beginners experience with electronics

Thanks in advance for the help!

Mark

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/04/2015 12:16AM by MarkIngle.

I'm happy with mine, they delivered it about a month ago in three weeks, and on the few issues I had (missing screws, and a failed bearing) they responded within a day, and parts were sent immediately. There are a few things that you may want to upgrade (add a hot end fan duct and perhaps a layer fan) put it does pretty well as shipped, and made nice prints of those parts. For the price, it seems pretty hard to beat, especially with support in the US.

- Tim

I ordered a prusa from folgertech and they delivered a Kossel 2020. It is my first 3D printer ever.
There is a 10 day packaging time and I received an email with UPS code on the eleventh day and it was delivered within 3-4 days. The instructions start off pretty good with descriptions and photos but by the time you get to the wiring part the details and photo references get very sparse. There is however a guy who made a build along on youtube, just search Kossel 2020 build to find it, I couldn't have gotten through the build without those videos. They sent me too many 10mm screws and not enough 8mm screws but I just picked those up at a hardware store.
Although this is my first printer so I really don't have any point of reference to compare it to, I like the printer and the print quality is coming out quite nice without much calibration needed.
I have read others saying delta printers are a bit more difficult to build than some other styles of printers but if I can do it I think anyone else should be able to do it as well.

All in all I had a good experience and would deal with Folgertech again.

Quote
pencilpusher
I ordered a prusa from folgertech and they delivered a Kossel 2020. It is my first 3D printer ever.
There is a 10 day packaging time and I received an email with UPS code on the eleventh day and it was delivered within 3-4 days. The instructions start off pretty good with descriptions and photos but by the time you get to the wiring part the details and photo references get very sparse. There is however a guy who made a build along on youtube, just search Kossel 2020 build to find it, I couldn't have gotten through the build without those videos. They sent me too many 10mm screws and not enough 8mm screws but I just picked those up at a hardware store.
Although this is my first printer so I really don't have any point of reference to compare it to, I like the printer and the print quality is coming out quite nice without much calibration needed.
I have read others saying delta printers are a bit more difficult to build than some other styles of printers but if I can do it I think anyone else should be able to do it as well.

All in all I had a good experience and would deal with Folgertech again.

Thanks for the info! Do you mind if I reachout to you as I work through my build? It will be my first time too. I will place an order as soon as I speak with a sales rep over the phone. I plan to do that tomorrow. I watched the video last night. Great info!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/03/2015 09:14PM by MarkIngle.

I have had great experience with my kit. Be ready for upgrades, at the time I bought mine it was the cheapest kit on the market and unfortunately some of the parts are indicative of that (my ramps was smashed but worked after I fixed all the pins, my printed parts were not very good, my rails were rough but smoothed with a few hours of cleaning .

So far I have replaced the stock extruder with a ez-struder and recommend you plan a new extruder soon after purchase as mine wore out after about 2.5kg of filament gone through it. I did not have to make any changes to firmware for this, just swap the parts.
I have also upgraded to magnetic rod ends made by Haydn Huntley. This was the best bang for buck on my printer, motion is much much smoother, less noise, and larger print diameter (on the sides I could print about 3cm outside the footprint of the printer if I had a bed that big). This brought my radius to a usable 220mm but height is now only about 180mm (I don't print anything that tall so it works for me).
I changed bed to a 250mm borosilicate glass bed with the aluminum mounted under it, works great for PLA, have not tried ABS with this setup yet.

Their shipping delays were pretty bad when I ordered mine (but I knew this, and expected it), it took a month to get the kit, but the main thread for this printer seems to show this has been improved lately, and the last report I saw they are back to appropriate delivery times.

about delta's being more difficult to build. I think they can be from a initial design and build perspective but when provided with a kit of parts that is known to make a good printer this difficulty is mitigated fairly well (and combined with the assembly video on youtube, the instructions provided by folger, and even the firmware and slicer ini's are provided from folger). Add in the lessons learned from those contributing to the main thread, and it should be a smooth build.

I have not been able to get anyone to call me back from Folgertech. Does anyone know if they are still operating? It appears that there store is above a pizza resturant when using Google Earth....

I don't know about calling them. I just ordered online through their website, had a brief correspondence via email about shipping which they answered by the next day when I checked my email.
And ya sure if you get stuck on something feel free to contact me.

And I'll offer to help as well, also having just built one of these. Frankly, I thought the build doc was pretty good, but not without the potential for an occasional head scratcher . . . follow it to the letter, and you will be at a decent starting point with a functional printer.

- Tim

Great! thanks guys! That really helps....I'll post here when it is ordered

what do you use to clean the rails jculver? One of my rails is a little rough

While I was building I was not happy with the feel, so I used wd40 and worked the carriages back and forth to work it in, this freed up lots of gunk from the manufacturer no doubt. After working them until they were smooth enough the carriage slides when tilted 30 degrees, lubed them with 5w30 motor oil (because it is what i had laying around at the time) and finished the build. I have since switched to a gun oil wipes [www.amazon.com] I prefer the wipes because the oil is less runny (no mess), and the wipes are durable enough to be reused many times before disposal. When starting a print, home printer, while @ home wipe the rails top to bottoom a few times, stuff the rag back in the jar, and hit start print.

After a about a dozen prints my rails were butter smooth, the motor oil was decent, but the gun oil wipes are perfect. I had the carriages off recently and while I did not modify them as others have (see: [forums.reprap.org]), I did notice mine were each short a bearing but I was happy enough with them before dis-assembly I didn't feel the need to change it. Others have reported good results using 3/32" bearings to fill the open spot (see prior posts in same thread).

thanks, I'll give that a try.

Placed my order today for the Kossel 2020 with Folgertech. Fingers crossed! Hope it does not take long to ship

Any delay would likely be due to any backlog and/or part shortages . . . I have ordered parts and filament from Folger, and they have never failed to pack and ship within a day.

- Tim

Thanks Tim! You are correct! I sent an email to Dan and he responded with a 2-3 day turn around on shipping. I am pleased with my decision to go with Folger Tech!

I received my printer yesterday but the aluminum corner pieces did not ship. I will be working on the rods and hopefully the pieces will ship soon.

Corners should be close! Mine shipped Thursday, and are due to deliver today!

- Tim

I made it to running auto level and my nozzle is hitting on side of the print bed. Any ideas what might be causing this? Or is there any troubleshooting suggestions to determine root cause? Thanks in advance for the help! I have Kossel printer form Folger tech