CubePro Warning - Do not buy!

[emh203]

I am posting this on every webforum I can as a warning to others.


The CubePro is absolute Junk! We bought one for our office. All of the reviews online were good and the examples at MakerFaire NYC 2014 look good.


Bottom Line... This printer is simply non-functional


1.) The dual print head looks attractive as you can do support. Unfortunately the software to drive the machine is severely crippled. You have little to no control on how support is created. The problem is that it will always fill a solid volume with a cross hatch. The problem comes in that when it starts to lay down a continuous surface on top of the support, everything gets mangled. The engineer running the machine has had experience in developing models for many other 3d printers that have come out very nice. He felt if there was simply a way to tell the software to not use cross hatch support (just do a solid fill), it would be reasonable (that is what we get when we pay for another local service on a pricier machine). We tried many iterations to get a model right. Nothing, worked. Everything was warped or mangled in some way.


2.) Jams.... we have not gotten any model (other than a trivial test piece that takes 20 minutes) to complete without a Jam in the extruder. Once it stops, there is no way for the machine to restart without ditching the model.


We had about 60 man hours into the test/debug as well as multiple calls into 3d systems. The admitted #1 is done on purpose to reduce quality and #2 is "stuff happens". This printer is simply unusable.


We have been fighting to return the unit as they claim a "no return policy"...


Along the way we ordered 2 extra cartridges. Both were not recognized by the unit. The engineer working on it kept calling and didn't get a good one until #10!!! Along the way they even sent the wrong model cartridge.


The only success we have had is when you tell the unit to use straight lines to be used from support. The other patterns (diamonds, squares) never work. The machine always fails about 20% in. Using straight lines often causes the model to warp an break away from the base as alternating layers are not done at a 90 degree offset.




I plan on doing a video review and try to post everywhere I can. This machine and 3D systems is a waste. I WILL be at Maker Faire this Fall and WILL do as much negative advertising as possible.

[Mjolinor]

We heard you the first time, don't really need it copying in threads that are a year old.