Return policy on replicator 2? Mine is a paperweight.

Forum Administrative - NOT PROJECT OR "HELP"

Moderators: adafruit_support_bill, adafruit

Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.
Locked
bleudeciel16
 
Posts: 12
Joined: Sun Jul 01, 2012 2:10 pm

Return policy on replicator 2? Mine is a paperweight.

Post by bleudeciel16 »

I LOVE adafruit. Makerbot on the other hand, I'm not loving so much.

I bought the replicator 2 from you a couple weeks ago. It's actually my second 3d printer, so I'm not new to 3d printing. (prosumer who has the ability to troubleshoot and work on the things)

Right out of the box: Heater error #4! Then a few seconds later, Heater error #5!

I was told to update firmware from 7.2 to 7.3. Done. Error went away for a little bit, but came right back. (not to mention half my prints turned into a rat's nest of wasted filament)

I got Y axis drift each layer when attempting prints at makerware's "HIGH" setting on an object THEY designed. (using THEIR software)

Switched to using replicatorG instead, and got slightly better luck, but nothing under 0.2 layer height. (which is half as good as the 0.1 they advertise it can do)

They said Y drift is probably loose belts or pulleys, so I tightened all of them. (they were already so taut they sounded like a guitar string when plucked) I also check each grub screw--they're all very tight.

That did no good.

They said it's a bad cable then, so they mailed me a new thermocouple to fix the temperature errors, and also a new XYZ stepper wiring harness.

I followed their instructions to a T and got one successful print and was pretty exciting to finally utilize my new $2300 toy.

Next print? Won't even heat up. Heater error #4. This time, instead of the temperatures jumping all over the place, it just says "N/A" on the screen. If I try "Load Filament", the extruder doesn't heat up and the temperature doesn't move. (I'm guessing they don't allow the resistor that heats the extruder to turn on if the thermocouple readings are out of their "safe" range, so the heating part of the picture is probably just fine)

Pretty upset. This is not to mention that their stock filament loader is junk. It jams up every other print, especially if I use the default speed. If I slow the print down to 40mm/s, it prints ok with a lot less chance of jamming. I adjusted the plunger to a better setting than stock, which works better than out of the box, but it's still jamming up. I originally thought that was from my bad thermocouple making the hot end go cold and causing the loader to try to force filament into a non-melting temperature hot end. Turns out, three users made an upgraded loader and put the files on thingiverse. Makerbot even "modified" one of them, and sell a hardware kit to go along with it for $8 that has two screws, a bearing, and a spring. If their stock plunger setup is so bad, it baffles me as to why they'd continue to leave a faulty item in their "professional" 3d printer. I went ahead and paid the stupid $8 and printed (very slowly, after several tries) the upgrade. That fixed the filament loading issues, but still had heater issues. (which hosed a lot of prints mid-print due to fluxuating temperatures causing the layers to screw up and evenually air print and birds nest)

Their support is slow and the more I"m reading online, it appears that a very very large number of people are experiencing very similar issues to me and have had to go a few months back and forth with their very slow support to get their printer back up. I've nearly used up the free roll of filament they include trying to get this thing to work correctly.

I'm going to give their support one last shot, but if this keeps dragging on, and they're unwilling to replace my lemon (by making me spend tons of my free time disassembling this thing over and over), what's the return policy for a 3d printer? I'm starting to feel burned. I've done everything they've said, and it's still not working, and after reading the 3d printing google groups, the subreddit for 3d printing, and even makerbot's own support forums, it appears there are TONS of people going through this same headache for months of downtime. I wish I lived in NYC to where I could hop in my car and have them fix it for me.

Sorry if I come off as bitter. I'm just disappointed that they're ok with selling a half baked product for $2200. I only call it half baked because polls I saw on forums showed over 75% of the people had to upgrade their filament drive just to print reliably.

adafruit
 
Posts: 12151
Joined: Thu Apr 06, 2006 4:21 pm

Re: Return policy on replicator 2? Mine is a paperweight.

Post by adafruit »

sorry to hear that! we've had only great experiences with the makerbots and makerbot has said they have not had many/any support inquires for the ones that are out there so far that were resold via adafruit (adafruit edition). they have a great support and warranty services, if there's a replacement/repair issue please continue to go through makerbot directly. if you are not getting the help you need please cc [email protected] and we'll do our best to assist you.

bleudeciel16
 
Posts: 12
Joined: Sun Jul 01, 2012 2:10 pm

Re: Return policy on replicator 2? Mine is a paperweight.

Post by bleudeciel16 »

adafruit wrote:sorry to hear that! we've had only great experiences with the makerbots and makerbot has said they have not had many/any support inquires for the ones that are out there so far that were resold via adafruit (adafruit edition). they have a great support and warranty services, if there's a replacement/repair issue please continue to go through makerbot directly. if you are not getting the help you need please cc [email protected] and we'll do our best to assist you.
I went to the ticket I had open with them and they marked it as "solved" so it's closed now. I can't believe they'd mark a ticket "solved" without verifying with the customer first that the replacement parts actually fixed their problem. But anyways, I opened a new ticket and we'll see what happens. If this second round of replacement stuff they send to me doesn't work, do you think they'd be willing to exchange my lemon for a new one?

I really need to stop reading the forums. Seeing other peoples experience with makerbot support for these things is really depressing me. Go read the comments on the "spring-loaded drive block upgrade" parts on thingiverse if you want to see the hoards of people having issues with this printer out of the box. I have two friends with replicator 2's who've both had both heater issues and filament loading issues (those were solved after they did the spring-loaded upgrade). They didn't buy theirs from adafruit though, but regardless, that's 0 for 3.

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:53125
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:42250

adafruit
 
Posts: 12151
Joined: Thu Apr 06, 2006 4:21 pm

Re: Return policy on replicator 2? Mine is a paperweight.

Post by adafruit »

bleudeciel16 wrote:I went to the ticket I had open with them and they marked it as "solved" so it's closed now. I can't believe they'd mark a ticket "solved" without verifying with the customer first that the replacement parts actually fixed their problem. But anyways, I opened a new ticket and we'll see what happens. If this second round of replacement stuff they send to me doesn't work, do you think they'd be willing to exchange my lemon for a new one?
if they do not, let us know and we we will try to make that happen, part of us selling these is because the service and support should be the best out there, just like ours. thanks for hanging in there and giving them a chance to resolve this.

thanks,
adafruit support

bleudeciel16
 
Posts: 12
Joined: Sun Jul 01, 2012 2:10 pm

Re: Return policy on replicator 2? Mine is a paperweight.

Post by bleudeciel16 »

HAH! I have a great story for you.

I happened to have an adafruit thermocouple in my parts drawer. I yanked the makerbot one out of the little hollow bolt that screws into the hot end, and then mixed up some arctic alumina thermal adhesive, then shoved the adafruit thermocouple's end into the hollow bolt. I let the adhesive thermal paste dry, then heat shrinked it to ensure it stays put and is protected. I installed the bolt into the hot end, connected the other end to the control board, fired it up, and it worked!!! I used my fluke IR heat gun to verify the reading in the machine matches the actual hot end temperature. It sure does!

The adafruit cable is a hair shorter, by about 4 inches, but it works. The cable is much better quality too. It's a softer wire with less shape memory than the makerbot one. (which I believe could be the cause of their issues--it doesn't bend as easily like the softer adafruit thermocouple cable, so it's more prone to damage when the extruder is moving around during a print)

I'm still leaving the ticket open with makerbot though so they mail me another thermocouple to restock my parts drawer with since I used one that I bought out of pocket, but we'll see if an adafruit part ends up being the end of my headaches! (I'm very confident that it will--adafruit FTW!)

adafruit
 
Posts: 12151
Joined: Thu Apr 06, 2006 4:21 pm

Re: Return policy on replicator 2? Mine is a paperweight.

Post by adafruit »

wow, that is good - ok, please let us know how this all works out - can you take some photos and post them here? that's a handy fix and it uses our gear, perhaps we will suggest it to makerbot?

bleudeciel16
 
Posts: 12
Joined: Sun Jul 01, 2012 2:10 pm

Re: Return policy on replicator 2? Mine is a paperweight.

Post by bleudeciel16 »

absolutely!

sorry about the picture quality. looking back, I should've used my DSLR. i took these with my phone. slightly blurry but they're good enough to get the point across.

I used pliers to pull the makerbot thermocouple out of the hollow bolt
Image

i mixed up some arctic alumina thermal adhesive (epoxy) and filled the hollow portion of the bolt and pushed the adafruit thermocouple into it. i let it dry for 10-15 minutes
Image

I put on some heat shrink tubing to help it stay in place, and to give it some protection
Image

proof that it's reading temps correctly (verified with my IR heat gun)
Image

picture of it printing immediately after reassembling everything
Image

feel free to download the pics and use any of this for whatever you need. I'm just glad to finally be printing! :)

bleudeciel16
 
Posts: 12
Joined: Sun Jul 01, 2012 2:10 pm

Re: Return policy on replicator 2? Mine is a paperweight.

Post by bleudeciel16 »

started a 5 hr 30 min build before going to bed last night. woke up to a perfectly printed part! fired up another print that's still going strong right now. looks like a good fix that will probably end up being more reliable than the original part. woot!

Locked
Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.

Return to “Administrative (closed)”