Need help choosing a 3D printer

[Feign]

You have a very good point Rob. I've seen the pitfalls of Mods taking sides in subjective debates before (oh man can it get ugly) and I know to stay clear of that kind of behavior.

I'll take a bit more care to tone down my opinions in the future (though that won't be terribly easy for me).

[RobH2]

I'll take a bit more care to tone down my opinions in the future (though that won't be terribly easy for me).

I hear ya, you should see all of the holes I've bitten in my tongue. There was one recently where equality of the sexes came up and a user said we should not treat women and men the same. I fired off about 5 paragraphs from my soapbox and then had to delete it all because I knew it was more professional to just "walk away" from it. I almost got way, way too far off topic...lol....

So, I feel your pain my friend...

[crowbar]

Well, someone needs to step and warn people of the train wrecks above. They come here looking for info and they have the marketing team incognito waiting for them or already here. Theres not enough active users here to counter.

Some Craftbot threads below. I have nothing against them, they're just the flavor of the month.

http://3dprintboard.com/showthread.p...light=craftbot

http://3dprintboard.com/showthread.p...light=craftbot

http://3dprintboard.com/showthread.p...light=craftbot

[RobH2]

Crowbar, you are doing a fine job of throwing up flares. Carry on, I won't stand in your way. As a user you are free to express anything you wish as long as you stay professional, as you have. It's just not wise for we moderators to appear to take sides and tout one developer while criticizing another. That would harm the credibility of this forum. We aren't paid, we are just like you. But we have to have a different demeanor. We are here to nurture, help and steer and not be too opinionated. I'm sure you can understand.

[Trhuster]

Well, someone needs to step and warn people of the train wrecks above. They come here looking for info and they have the marketing team incognito waiting for them or already here. Theres not enough active users here to counter.

Some Craftbot threads below. I have nothing against them, they're just the flavor of the month.

Not all kickstarters fail, Zortrax made it and doing pretty good.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...top-3d-printer

[KDog]

I don't have any problem with members and moderators warning people about the pitfalls of kickstarter. I have several years experience in 3d printing and would wholeheartedly steer new folks away from kickstarter campaigns. They are a huge unknown. I went with a well known name in 3d printing on kickstarter and we are 8 months late and communication has been slow as well. We are probably going to get a great printer out of it in the end but my patience is wearing thing. You are also taking a chance whether there will be a growing community at the end of it all either. My advice? Stick with a well known reprap style printer like those from MakerFarm or Printrbot. Make a kit, if possible, as you will learn about all the different components used and how they work together. Take a look at forum activity for the printers you are interested in to make sure that there will be community folks, that have your printer, you can get help from when you need it.

[3DPBuser]

Building these seems similar to building RC heli's. You are going to crash them, so there is no point in buying one pre-made.

[Geoff]

Building these seems similar to building RC heli's. You are going to crash them, so there is no point in buying one pre-made.

Sorry, would disagree on that one. I am pretty handy (and have built Heli's for over 20 yrs...) and thought I might just for once save myself the hassle of building something and buy something that just works. The cheap dual extruder machines like the one i purchaed, while preassembled are just a simple box with a few screws, replacing or changing anything is easy, and alot less finnicky than rebalancing a T-Rex shaft assembly For buying a home built one that does a comparable job to say mine, I would need to spend about $650 - $700, but unassembled about 4 to 500 and then spend a crap load of time building it and setting it up. Instead, I had it out of the box and working relatively quickly (albeit it needed a tension cable holder super glued in place because it was broken in transit) but that's the point, even green and new to the printer I could fix it with some super glue... they are not rocket science and flashing an arduino board is faster and easier than flashing a kk2.0 flight controller.

As far as kickstarters go, I avoid them like the plague.

[JRDM]

Today's "mayonnaise" story linked to this thread.

To help any others, I'll point out that it should have linked to here:

http://3dprintboard.com/showthread.p...nnaise-Printer

[bshadown]

Just as long as you don't expect your Craftbot to ship this year, I'm sur eyou'll be okay... If you actually need your printer before December, get something "off the shelf" rather than via crowdfunding.

yes i know it will take longer to arrive, it supose it should arrive on september this year 2014, but yet i cant afford a $1000 bucks for a know printer at the moment, and because i want it for comercial use (our wedding logos, personalized items for weddings, etc, etc.) i cant take the chance of getting a printer that needs a lot of work and tweeking, yes i know it would be a heck of fun/learning to get a kit and assemble it, but again my cash and time are way too low at the moment, anyway i see your point of kickstarter/indiegogo campains having no backup at all, afterall anyone can start a campaing and advertice they will send you to live happyly in mars in a mont or so (sarcastic), yet i have no other choice at the moment so lets hope the best. i will post my advances/emo rages once i get my printer. cheers