[hackerspaces] reliable 3d printer recommendations?

[Pete Prodoehl]

At Milwaukee Makerspace we had the same debate, and ended up choosing a 
MakerBot Replicator. (This was back when MakerBot was an open source 
hardware company and very supportive of the hackerspace community. Would 
we buy a Replicator 2 today? I don't know...)

Anyway, we also wanted a "standard" machine that had some sort of name 
recognition so we could tell new members "we have a MakerBot" and have 
it be a possibly recognizable name in 3D printing.

If you don't care as much about open source, the Replicator 2 does look 
nice, but I'll also throw in the MakerGear M2. One of our members has a 
Mosaic (M1) and it's a nice machine, but the M2 looks that much more 
awesome, and Rick from MakerGear is a solid guy...


Pete


On 9/25/12 9:01 PM, Russell Hubbard wrote:
>
> I'll second that, my mosaic has been running since April without any 
> major issues. I do recommend adding fans to the ramps and x motor to 
> speed up prints. Also add x/y endstops. Even without mods, though, its 
> been bulletproof.
>
> Signature:
> My fingerprints are on Mars.
>
> On Sep 25, 2012 9:47 PM, "Russ Ryba" <russryba at gmail.com 
> <mailto:russryba at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     I would recommend the MakerGear M2 printer.  I bought my reprap
>     and the M1/Mosaic from them.  MakerGear is a guy out of Ohio.  He
>     deviates from the standard reprap design by using precision parts
>     in a lot of places.  Compared to the Prusa that I had to tweak and
>     calibrate constantly the Mosaic went together in a few hours by my
>     kids and worked pretty much out of the box.  The new M2 has a
>     bigger print area than the Makerbot Replicator - 8x10x8 instead of
>     11x6x6.  It's also all metal frame, very quiet operation.  They
>     have good support through IRC or email.  Linear rail, acme lead
>     screw, steel frame... it's a sweet machine you don't have to mess
>     with.
>
>     See http://www.makergear.com/
>
>     On Tue, Sep 25, 2012 at 7:00 PM, Tim Saylor <tim.saylor at gmail.com
>     <mailto:tim.saylor at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>         Hi all,
>
>         After a year or so of fiddling with repraps, Pumping Station:
>         One is looking into buying a hobbyist 3d printer that will
>         more or less "just work" as a tool to be used by people with
>         minimal training on how to run a 3d printer.  I'm looking for
>         a similar experience to a laser cutter: someone explains how
>         to make a file and how to send it to the machine, you do that,
>         maybe run a test to make sure it's what you expect, and then
>         you have a thing.  In your experience, which printer is
>         closest to this experience in the $2k-3k range?
>
>         So far we've talked about the Ultimaker with NetFabb software
>         and the Replicator 1 or 2*.  Anyone have any experience they'd
>         like to share that would help with our decision?
>
>         Thanks!
>         Tim
>
>         * The politics of open source are a discussion we are having,
>         but it's a separate one from which tool is best for the job.
>          Since we already have an active discussion about that
>         question, I'd appreciate keeping this one on the pros and cons
>         of each printer as a day to day tool.
>
>         -- 
>         @tsaylor
>         http://www.timsaylor.com/
>
>
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