Mbot Mb3d101 Grid Ii+ 3d Printer, 250220190mm Build Volume, Single Head 3rd Generation

This my review of the Mbot cube 3D PrinterPros: Shipping was as promised, the Printer was packaged very robust, the package had a manual with nice company logo. The Printer was black anodized and had hanging LED lights and drive belt. The Housing is very robust. The power plug was very good.Cons: The Printer arrived with a broken rail holder which was promised to be self repairable with parts the company would have sent to me. The Printer was returned and refunded in a monthly fashion. The manual was 80% not in English.Thanks to Amazon my experience stayed in good faith.

I was a 3D printing newbie before I got this printer, and have learned quite a bit in the last 6 months of using it. I have a lot to say about it, but I will try to post just the main points here.Thoughts:-- When it works, the prints are *awesome*. Its accuracy is very good, and I now have it working with all major filaments (as much as it can, without a heated print bed).--I have used both the SD card reader, and direct USB. They both work without issue, though you'll have to format the SD card as FAT16, which I was only able to figure out in Linux (but I didn't try too hard in Windows).-- Solid construction, shipping & packaging was good. One of the Y-axis bars popped out of place while trying to remove the packing foam blocks, but I was able to pop it back into place with my hand easily (scary at first, but it snapped back into place because it's intended to be removable).-- Customer support isn't as bad as I expected. I have used the MBot zendesk ticket system multiple times. I usually get a response within 24 hours--Have successfully printed with ABS, PLA*, Nylon & Wood (see below concerning PLA snafu).--Have done 0.1mm layer height without issue.--It only comes with a Chinese power cable, and defaults to 220V. However, it turns out it works with any regular computer/monitor power cable, and there's a switch on the underside to switch it to 110V (for US power outlets).However, this has not all been pleasant:-- I bought a ton of PLA because the Cube 2 doesn't have a heated print bed, meaning that you can only print small objects with ABS (it warps heavily on a cold surface). Since they advertised PLA, I figured this was no problem. Turns out it doesn't work. When I contacted customer support they told me to just use ABS. I told them that's silly since it doesn't have a heated print bed and I already bought $200 worth of PLA. They said "We have a printer head that *fixes the PLA problem*, we will send it to you if you send back the current print head". So basically they knew the printer head doens't work PLA, and even have the correct ones in stock, but they don't use it and still advertise PLA support. Classic!-- They asked me to pay for shipping, but sent the replacement/upgrade for free after I returned the original. They supplied a wiring diagram, which actually turned out to be pretty simple to install. It took about 5 minutes to connect the wires in the right place and put all the screws back into place. Now it prints PLA perfectly -- I have had zero PLA issues since then.-- The spools holders that it comes with are terrible. I had to modify some of the spools to fit, and even then there was strange angles and friction involved. I ended up designing my own printable spool holder and posted it to the thingiverse so everyone can use it ([...]) . It takes a few hours to print, but I haven't had another spool problem since then.-- I recently had an issue with the temperature sensor failing. Also some strange behavior in the X-axis motors. When I contacted customer support, they again sent me replacement parts from China, for free. They don't send you instructions by default, but supply them quickly if you ask (maybe they prepare the instructions in response to my requests). Again, it was pretty easy to do the replacements, and now my printer is up to 100% functional again.--Like the Rep2, this printer uses X3G format if using SD card. This is native if you use the Makerbot Makerware software. Also, RepG does it too. But if you want to use any other slicing software for sending prints to the printer, you'll need intermediate software to convert it to X3G for you. I simply use Makerware, which is rather short on configuration options, but I haven't required much. I think as I get deeper into 3D printing, I'll switch to a slicing program that's got more options.*Final thoughts:*I have spent about 2 months of my 6 months without a working printer. But the 4 months it's been functional has been awesome. The prints are precise, and have enjoyed printing with nylon and wood. The PLA issue was their fault, but in general you will run into problems like this with any printer. I would argue that 3D printing *in general* is not ready for the short-attention-span consumer. It's going to remain a hobbyist niche for a while. But it's a fun hobby, especially when you learn a 3D CAD program and design your own stuff to print.I think I would recommend this printer *if* you can contact the company and make sure they send you one with the upgraded print head. Otherwise, you'll be stuck using ABS and can't print big objects. Don't forget to level your print bed!P.S. -- I discovered a trick for 3D printing, that works with any filament, though I posted it in the comments section of the Nylon filament being sold on Amazon since nylon can be really tough to print ( Taulman 618 Natural Filament Printer  Anyone who does 3D printing should read that an consider trying it: I've never had a sticking problem since then! Just look for the review titled "Finally made it stick!" (it's also written by me)

DO NOT BUY THIS WORTHLESS PIECE OF JUNK!!!I bought one of these over a year ago and haven't had a single successful print. The design of this machine was OBVIOUSLY reverse engineered by a wannabe engineer. I am a real Mechanical Engineer and the design flaws on this machine are mind boggling. I won't go into too much detail, but I'll point out the things I noticed after buying this that had me frustrated and irate :- It is missing limit switches, so this dumb little machine will keep trying to move past it's boundary coordinates. If this happens enough times,a the clamp that fastens the belt drive will break. Guess what, it happened to me! Yay! I am finding it impossible to disassemble the machine to try to repair it. The enclosure is also what keeps EVERYTHING in place. So if I could even take it apart, I'd have to COMPLETELY take it apart. So here I am trying to perform surgery, straining my fingers (and my sanity) trying to fix this POS. Also, because there is a missing Z-axis limit switch, the build platform plowed right into the extruder, burning a hole into it.- The software has you level a four-corner adjustable build plate WITH ONLY ONE POINT on the platform. This is just DUMB...Those are just a couple main things that scream horribly designed machine.Now, the "customer service" !!! You are buying straight out of China, so you are on your own. I found out the hard way and I will never buy anything from China that costs more than $100. The guy that you will email barely speaks or understands English. He wasn't helpful at all and didn't care about the issues I'm having.The Mbot came out with the Grid "upgrade". It is not an upgrade, it was parts for making your useless printer a little less useless. I argued with customer service that that they shouldn't have there customers pay another $150 for repair parts for a broken printer that they just paid $1600 for. His response was that he would give me a 10% discount, only if I buy five repair kits ($150 each)... Five repair kits for my one printer... Could he possible be that stupid?!?!? I think he was just hoping I was stupid.I've given up on this $1600 printer. I plan on scrapping it and designing my own printer. If you like flushing money down the toilet, then buy this printer!

Dont Print in 3d and its dont working