Filament-extrusion 3D printing is not yet at the point of being a plug-and-play consumer appliance experience. Whatever the type of printer, you will need to tweak it and maintain it to get the best out of it - and in order to do that, building it yourself is an invaluable experience. You will have a far better understanding of how the printer works by having assembled it yourself.
That said, I do think you need to stop being frightened of it, and just use it. Experiment. Try stuff out. There's not much you can really break, and if you do, there's only a few parts that are tricky to get ahold of, and might slow you down.
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LePaul 321
Aaron,
Place yourself into the shoes of a new user/customer/builder
The threads are loaded with people having problems with pulleys, belts, clogged print heads and the like.
We came to the forums to ask questions along the way because we were trying to AVOID those issues others were having...and many are still having. I find it completely ironic that you chastise us for asking for assistance at areas for concern in a forum titled "Questions & Answers (Help Each Other)"
After spending $2400 USD on a wood-based kit (Ulticontroller, Second Extruder, base kit), yes, I will continue to ask questions as I try to avoid roadblocks and other expensive issues.
Many times during the build I wished I had gone pre-assembled. Two of my peers bought Solidoodle 3s for a lot less money pre-assembled and were printing moments after unpacking. I'm still convinced this Ultimaker is a superior product And to me and my co worker, the community support was the selling point.
But now you say to new customers like me.....stop asking..."No offense"?
We used the Wiki and there were some areas that were great (inventory list of what is required), relevant pictures and so on. But there are many areas that we had to rely on the comments in the bottom since the Wiki did not entirely reflect the latest version of the kit. In hindsight, after having built this, I see some areas of confusion are language based, which I would like to offer to help clean up and clarify.
I come from the IT world, have built an aircraft kit, two aluminum R2-D2s and the vast array of electronics, servos, motor controllers, LED lights, PCB construction and so on. I'm used to well laid out details for assembly and other processes. And I'm used to metal. Wood...I'm afraid to break and wait weeks for a replacement from the Netherlands.
Anyways...I'm not offended by your post. But I will tell you that I think the daunting assembly process is what keeps many potential customers away. The assembling version for $700 more...I wanted to but based on the competition, simply too much. So...we took a chance on building :cool:
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