Hello from South Dakota

[muttstang 8]

Way out in fly-over country here. I'm initiating a return of our Z18 and planning to purchase an Ultimaker 2 after that goes through. The Z18 has been nothing but trouble. I have gone through 5 extruders, the first 3 jammed and the last 2 didn't even get a chance to jam as they threw out an error 57 "temperature sag" before even starting to print.

I've had an UP! for about 3 years now and had better quality and faster prints with that little thing then with the Z18.

Hopefully MB makes good at least and refunds our money but the 10% restocking fee kind of hurts for something that never worked right in the first place.

 

[ultiarjan 1,223]

sound like a smart plan to me ..... welcome !

 

[muttstang 8]

I ordered the UM2 today and MB is sending a packing kit for the Z18

I did figure out that the thermocouple on my UP! was bad so I ordered a new one of those. I should be up to 2 printers soon

I have a novel idea for a new feeder that I'm planning to put together using 3 straight knurling tools.

 

[ultiarjan 1,223]

Im curious what you come up with.... let us know...

[muttstang 8]

Here's another project I've been working on...

First time hooked up to the computer.

 

 

 

[muttstang 8]

Some more wiring in place. wire ties are loose and wires are not in tight yet as I still have to run my limit switches. I haven't quite figured out the brackets for that yet

 

 

[muttstang 8]

I might skip the 3 knurling wheels. That requires some pretty complex gearing and I'd rather keep it simple. I'm going to try just a gear reduction to get more power out of the motor and use a larger knurling tool as the drive wheel.

Though the flex shaft idea has me interested. I might have to pick up a nice flex shaft from mcmaster and do some of my own testing

 

[muttstang 8]

Welp, MB approved the return of the Z18, though they are looking to charge the 10% restock fee on a printer that never worked right in the first place.

The company is going to fight that a bit.

Either the engineers at makerbot weren't admitting to the problems they were having, or else the exec's there ignored the engineers' advice and went to market with a defective product.

 

[muttstang 8]

CNC router update:

 

Made my first cuts today A big ruler to measure the boys as they grow up. Got the machine running pretty slow at the moment. I really want some multi start screws on the X axis now!! I get a bit of whipping with it as it sits if I crank the speed up too much.

 

 

 

Kept it simple for the first thing made.

 

 

[muttstang 8]

and a surprise coming back from lunch to find the UM2 sitting behind my chair...

 

[ultiarjan 1,223]

enjoy !!

 

[muttstang 8]

Printed a pair of idler pulleys out for the cnc router to replace the wobbly ones that were causing my x-axis screws to whip around badly. It definitely helped! I'll probably print some ABS pulleys out later as the garage may get a bit warm come next summer for the PLA to survive.