Product Review: Maker Farm i3 Prusa 8"

[laserlotus]

Regarding, "I wonder sometimes if the problems people have assembling their machines is more due to inexperience with assembling kits of any sort, and a bit of a lack of mechanical skills" I would say that the problems are more easily mitigated by calibrating the laser cutter once in a while rather than expecting customers to have experience putting together kits and an aptitude for the "mechanics" thereof. I understand some people are really into the kit aspect and actually -like- assembling kits, but I think most people who want a 3d printer are more enthusastic about the printing than about the assembly, and I definitely fall in that category. This is not to say that I didn't do my best to assemble it correctly; after paying for the kit I naturally intended to make as good a printer out of my kit as possible and this meant following the official instructions as closely as I could. It's true that I didn't avail myself of the after sales support; I could've e-mailed their team (i.e., Colin) and said "look these parts really don't fit together can you send me another set". I chose not to, because, each time I ran into difficulty it seemed that forcing the parts together was a much faster way to get printing.

My advice to prospective buyers in this price range is still to go with a classic reprap rather than a -cheap- framed kit. Of course, people willing to pay more have a lot more options including higher-quality framed kits or fully assembled printers. The problem is nobody can enter the market and say "look, I sell a kit similar to makerfarm for $200 more and what that buys you is the parts actually fit together since I calibrate my laser cutter every day". Always the cheaper kit produced with lower cost will slurp up the whole market simply because 99% of folks will risk it for a $200 saving. Sending out replacement parts to the few people who request them is cheaper than calibrating the laser every day. So I don't blame the folks at makerfarm, I blame the mad rush we call capitalism ;-)

[RobH2]

That makes a lot of sense. I guess I got one on a day after a calibration. Mine fit so well that it was hard to imagine someone having issues. I have read a few posts about how graciously Colin sends new parts out. He really does back it up but if what you are saying is correct, he could save a lot of redundant mailings with more frequent calibrations. Thanks for that observation.