# Specific 3D Printers, Scanners, & Hardware > RepRap Format Printer Forum > MakerFarm Forum >  Product Review: Maker Farm i3 Prusa 8"

## old man emu

The i3 Prusa 3D Printer by Maker Farm is supplied as a 99% complete kit. The purchaser only has to provide an 8 x 8 sheet of glass to cover the heated print bed, and a 12V DC power supply capable of providing more than 16 Amps.

*Purchase and delivery*:
I purchased my unit over the internet and requested delivery by UP PS Global Priority. The unit was shipped on the day I ordered it, and arrived in Australia 10 days from having been accepted by the Post Office. This 10 day period between making a purchase from the US and having it arrive is quite normal.

*Packaging:*
The unit was sensibly packaged in one cardboard box. It came through the delivery undamaged. Delicate parts such as the electronics and extruder head came in hard plastic lidded boxes and were wrapped in padding before being placed in the box. All the nuts, bolts and screws were in once plastic bag. The steppers were in a padded bag.

The only negatives about the packaging were that the laser cut sheets of ply containing the frame parts could have been packaged between supporting sheets of cardboard. During transit pieces dislodged from the sheets, and on unpacking, these items looked like a half finished jig-saw puzzle left over from last Christmas holidays.

It would have been good to get a list of contents to check that everything which was supposed to be in the box, was in the box. (Everything was there)

*Component Quality*.
The components supplied were of a very high standard. A lot were commercially available items ( electronics, steppers, linear bearings, extruder etc) I was pleasantly surprised to see the quality of the hardware supplied. Having been involved in aviation hardware, I could tell that the nuts, bolts and screws supplied were not el cheapo Chinese rubbish. I'd say they were high standard, made in the US of A products. 

*Assembly:*
The frame parts are laser cut from birch plywood. As a result the wood has burn marks on one side. This does not distract from the integrity of the components, but unless they are given a coat of paint, the aesthetics of the finished machine are reduced. I bought a cheap can of spray paint and painted everything (except the cut edges) before I started assembly.

The Maker Farm says that you can assemble the machine in 3 hours. You can - if you are "He who made us all'. I suggest that you take your time and double check all assemblies.

You need to download the Build Instructions in pdf format from the Maker Farm site. However, all these instructions can help with is collecting all the components for each sub-assembly. I suggest that you get some small plastic bags to hold the sub-assembly components before they are required. That way you will know that you have everything that you need.

The rest of the build instructions can be found on YouTube. You can find them here: http://www.youtube.com/user/elderfarrer
There are a couple of things to watch out for. Be careful that you are watching the video for your machine. The 6" differs from the 8" in some areas - especially the length of the toothed drive belts. Also, the videos are shot from the point of view of a person sitting in front of the demonstrator, so what has to be in your left hand is in his right hand and _vice versa._ Be prepared to watch each video several times before committing to a build action.

While the laser cutting of the plywood was very accurate in plan view, it seems that the laser cutter had been knocked a few degrees off vertical, so that the cuts through the ply were off line. Once noticed, it only took a few swipes with a flat file to obtain a good fit. This matter was brought to the attention of the manufacturer who has since began to monitor the angle of the cutter. Otherwise, the machine fell together.

There may have been a change in materials supplied at one stage because the plywood pieces that hold the Y-axis bed linear bearings had too large a space cut out. This resulted in the rods rubbing on the Printer bed and jamming. A quick email to Maker Farm had a new set of pieces in the mail to me the same day.

*After-Sales Service.*
Any questions I had regarding assembly problems were sent by email and answered almost immediately (bearing in mind time zone differences). Parts replacement was efficient.
*
Calibration and Software.*
The electronics come already flashed. The only thing I had to get done was to download the Arduino drivers and install them in my controller computer. Since my son is an IT Systems Engineer, this took a lot of begging before it was done - a little like the plumber's wife and the leaky faucet. However this task was easily accomplished (eventually) and things moved when the power was turned on.

*Other Reviews.
*A person named Zennmaster has posted a three part review of the Maker Farm printer on YouTube. Here is the link to Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkPcoWVvpNw

Old Man Emu

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## RobH2

This past fall I too built a Makerfarm Prusa i3 8" after doing a lot of research. The price was great and I read good reviews. I agree with most of the above only the packaging was sufficient in my case. Nothing dislodged during shipping. I had a few friction issues too, small, and fixable with a dremmel. 

The printer, now a few months old, is making absolutely beautiful prints. I could not be happier with the results. I don't have to continually adjust the physical printer parameters so it seems solid and nothing is drifting. I only check my Z-Home every few weeks or if I see an issue. It just stays true. 

The best part of the the printer is Colin. He must never sleep. If I email at 2AM (EST) he'll frequently answer. He is the most helpful support person I've ever seen and I can't say enough how much that helps when you are getting started. 

The only problem I had, and this has nothing to do with the printer, was wire management. There were wires everywhere. I tamed them with twist ties by making neat bundles and tying them all together in neat ropes. I bet I have 100 twist ties keeping it all neat. 

WireTaming.jpg

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## MeoWorks

Colin is the best isn't he? I'm beginning to think he printed himself a robot replacement or something LOL.

I must've overlooked this thread, but I have to agree with everything OME and Rob said about the MakerFarm experience, just superb.

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## DrLuigi

It is a good printer, But i find 1 negative point,
That is that its made from Plywood and it has alot of vibiration/not stabile, Due that it makes quiet some noise!

After that it is a very nice printer,
It came from US to Belgium within a reasonable time, But 1 piece (ply wood) did break, Colin did send a replacement right away, (Even tho i fixed it myself before, But i asked to send it anyhow for if it comes lose again)

After that Colin is indeed a very responsive friendly person, if you have trouble with a Gcode he will ask you to send it to him and he will take his time to print it himself.

Again, its a nice printer, i only wish they had a box version (Like Ultimaker) or a more metal/stable.

Just due i realy think this has so much vibiration and isnt very sturdy.

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## RobH2

This is my first printer and I've never handled a metal one but I don't think I've had any issues with vibration or harmonics. What is it you think that makes noise in the wood? The loudest components are the stepper motors. Wood absorbs noise better that metal so I don't believe your noise is coming from the wood. I just measured mine printing a part and it's 67 dB (it ranged from 62dB to 69dB) which is about the volume of an average conversation. It was printing octagonal infill which is the noisiest part. That's pretty quiet. 

As with all things, extra components raise price. I'm sure Makerfarm could design and sell a chamber but that would drive up the price. What the Makerfarm i3 is good for is  to get into 3D printing with a smaller budget yet deliver a high quality machine without frills. Then if you find you'd like or need a printer that has more features, you can buy another one. Many guys into 3D printing have several printers. And after all, we are all using the same hot ends, Arduino (I know RAMPS and Marlin aren't the only ones but you know what I mean) and stepper motors. All the different designs are really only frames. The rest of the hardware we all pretty much use is the same all over. 

What I didn't want to do was spend $2000 to find out I didn't like 3D printing. So for less than $1000 I feel I got a fantastic product on which I can learn. I've modified mine a bit and I feel like it's a great investment. I don't even treat it like a starter printer. I think I'll buy another brand one day but for now I have nothing bad to say about it. I have a few friends with more expensive printers and I can print nicer looking prints than they do. 

I'm not a spokesman for Makerfarm just so you know. But, since this is the Makerfarm Forum, we should probably not talk too much about what we "wished" it had or what we "wished it was make of" because it is what it is. If we didn't have Makerfarm i3's we be reading a different forum. 

What we should talk about here is how we can make them as good as they can be. We should talk about mods or retrofits or upgrades. It's just like if you own a Ferrari. You really don't complain about it because you are proud of it. What you talk about is how you treat it, how you interact with it and how you make it better.

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## old man emu

I haven't had any noise problem. My printer sits on a sheetmetal-topped table. The loudest noise comes from the operation of the steppers. Perhaps Dr. Luigi should go over all the nuts and bolts to tighten them as he has been doing a lot of printing and I found that some nuts worked themselves off. Also check that the printer is sitting evenly on its base.

I am looking to make some modifications to the machine. I am going to fit the auto-leveling package. I have fitted a relay switch for the heater bed as I was having trouble getting it over 100C. I have also added insulation in the form of cork sheeting under the bed and aluminium foil between the bed and glass plate. I made a small shelf and moved the controller board to the top rear of the frame so I could access the pins more easily. I was trying to fit another relay for the extruder heater, but crossed a wire and burnt out a connection on my Arduino board, so I'mm waiting for a replacement sourced locally.

One of the greatest assets of the MakerFarm printer is the access one has to the manufacturer. I don't know if you would get the same high degree of after sales service from any of the other commercial printer manufacturers. Colin has always replied to my emails quickly and doesn't seem to take offence at dumb questions. I don't know who Zennmaster is, but it is well worthwhile following his videos on Youtube.

The MakerFarm might well be labeled an entry-level machine, but it does produce prints of equal quality to other printers, and its design and construction is simple enough to provide the background necessary to build ones own design.

Old Man Emu

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## RobH2

One thing I did was to take an old inner tube and cut  a 2"x5" strip and fold that in half so that I now have a 2"x2.5" folded piece. That size measurement isn't really critical as I just eyeballed them and just measured one so I could talk about it here. What they become are feet. They keep the printer from sliding around and dampen vibration even more. There are 6 of them under each main support position. It's simple and works very nicely.

Another mod I made was really easy because the frame is wood instead of metal. I've had a lot of issues getting the cooling fans I have to turn on and off at the right time. That's the fault of different slicers, not the frame. I drilled two holes in the frame and mounted two toggle switches that control the front and rear cooling fans I have for when I use PLA. That way I can override a fan that's blowing when I want it off. It also keeps the fans from blowing when using ABS should I find that the gcode has turned them on. I know I could just issue a kill code but it's really easy to just flip a switch. If the frames had been metal it would have been much more difficulty to drill the 1/2" holes I needed without putting a lot of force on the frame and possibly torquing everything out of shape. 

So far I've pushed 4kg of filament through the printer and nothing has loosened up. Everything has stayed tight. Maybe I put enough initial torque on the frame when I built it. I did have one part break and I'm glad that I had printed new extruder parts from the very beginning. The pressure flap that pushes against the hobbed bolt cracked and my filament was not extruding. I simply swapped it out, printed a new backup and was on my way. I've had no other issues with the frame itself. All of my issues have been calibration related and that has little to do with the frame as long as things don't drift out of alignment on the frame. 

i3-Toggle.jpg

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## DrLuigi

Some noise examples:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rygax4tl35...raak%20001.m4a
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7tsnqyzkth...raak%20002.m4a

The second one is at the end is aprox 50-60mm/s

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## RobH2

DrLuigi, I'm not trying to be argumentative with you here. Just enjoying talking about it. Thanks for the noise samples. 

I can confirm that mine sounds exactly like that however it appears to come from the motors in my case. I don't think the wood is amplifying the noise in any way with my printer. It seems that yours might be different. 

This is my only printer. My feeling is that they are just a bit noisy. Even as the noise may be present, I don't think it affects the quality of the output unless there is a lot of vibration. High speeds can cause that. I don't print over 40mm/sec because I need cleaner prints. And, even though it takes a long time, most of my prints are at 20mm/sec, the perimeters anyway. At this stage of the game for me, a 3D printer is not a production device. It's a prototyping device. Once I have the part worked out, I'd plan to use injection molding or some other production process to mass-produce. 

I can't speak from experience but I'd expect that some of the other models of metal printers that have housings are noisy with the doors open or housings off. Just a guess. I don't know how old you are but if you remember the first dot-matrix paper printers, they were so loud that a whole industry was created to build Plexiglas shells to cover them. And it did not help that much. Those things were incredibly loud. Maybe 3D printers will have the same development curve and the stepper motors will get quieter and quieter. I still can't believe how inexpensive they are, mine anyway. Maybe there are some super-quiet stepper motors out there but I've never researched that. 

I will acknowledge that the printers make noise, but I just don't see how the design of the i3 in wood increases the noise levels. I do suspect that excessie print speeds will cause a lot of instability and vibration. Each machine will have different tolerances for that. It could be true that a metal frame will allow for higher print speeds and lower harmonic distortion but again, I've never used one, so someone else would have to discuss that. 

For now, the Makerfarm i3 8" is a fantastic device for me to use to prototype. It's making some beautiful parts and it's quiet enough for me. It sits in my office and prints along while I work and it doesn't bother me. The cost was right. And because I built it, I learned a ton about RepRap design. That's something I would not have gotten from a prebuilt machine. 

I can't say enough good things about it. One day I might outgrow it but if someone wants economy and quality in one package, it's a great option to explore.

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## MeoWorks

DrLuigi,

It might just be the sensitivity of the recording but I can definitely recommend adjusting the pots again to get the stepper motor noise down. My Prusa sits on a sheet of neoprene I cut from an old laptop sleeve and it doesn't make a sound aside from some nice robotic motor noises from the steppers. Then again, I do print very slowly, 20mm/s on all fronts and have adjusted settings in my firmware that deal with jerk speed, so my steppers don't work as hard and vibration is minimal. My thinking is, why print fast and have it look ok when you can print slow and have it look fantastic!  :Smile:

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## DrLuigi

> DrLuigi,
> 
> It might just be the sensitivity of the recording but I can definitely recommend adjusting the pots again to get the stepper motor noise down. My Prusa sits on a sheet of neoprene I cut from an old laptop sleeve and it doesn't make a sound aside from some nice robotic motor noises from the steppers. Then again, I do print very slowly, 20mm/s on all fronts and have adjusted settings in my firmware that deal with jerk speed, so my steppers don't work as hard and vibration is minimal. My thinking is, why print fast and have it look ok when you can print slow and have it look fantastic!


Well i already thought to get my multimeter up and check its voltage, But i just cant seem to find a decent picture that tells me where i have to measure it with,

And what Voltage it should have.

So far i have let it standard and didnt mess with the pot, so that could help me with the noise.

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## MeoWorks

I sorta just play it by ear. I'll dial everything down and test print something at the speed I want and adjust each pot manually till the motor moves freely. I'll give it a final tiny turn and call it a day. My printer sounded a lot like yours in the beginning too, like mechanical drums beating lol, now it's just a gentle, rhythmic hum.

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## RobH2

Good point MeoWorks about the stepper pots. I found that my motors were running very hot right out of the box. I adjusted them back about 1/8th of a turn and now they run at about 140F instead of 180F. I think they are quieter too since that adjustment.

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## RobH2

You probably know this but just do "tiny" adjustments with the pots. Don't make big turns or you can really mess them up. They don't bottom out and if you go past a specific point it's hard to get them back to where you started. That's a caution I read.

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## DrLuigi

Well nobody seems to have a idea how to measure it then eh? with a Multimeter?
I just wanna be sure as if you dail it down to much it will miss steps, If to much it will run way to hot and might break.

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## RobH2

This might help. It's what I used. I'm sorry I but I didn't use a multimeter. I just made a tiny adjustment and my motors ran fine and ran cooler. You could probably go by temperature but probably not very scientific. During a print measure with a laser thermometer. Then turn the pot a tiny bit, say 1/16 to 1/8 turn. Measure the temp again. If it's around 160 then your are done. That's a good temp. Mine were running around 180 to 190F.  Now they run between 1505 and 160F and are plenty strong and precise. 

http://bootsindustries.com/portfolio...s-adjustments/

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## DrLuigi

Edit: Heard it has to be 0.39v,

Most of my steppers were 0.4 - 0.38.
Only one, the one that missed most steps aka the Y axis, It was 0.378, Changed it now back to 0.389, 
Seems to be better to be honest, the sound is a little diffrent i think, it may be just me.

With that ive also found how to measure it,
If the chip is facing down, the left second last pin and the POT screw.

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## RobH2

That's great info. Maybe I'll do a check of mine just so I know.

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## MeoWorks

Nice discovery. I have a thought though, theoretically if the motors are working harder (due to print speed) with the combination of the tight belts, extruder gears, z axis weight etc, wouldn't they require a higher voltage than specified?

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## DrLuigi

> Nice discovery. I have a thought though, theoretically if the motors are working harder (due to print speed) with the combination of the tight belts, extruder gears, z axis weight etc, wouldn't they require a higher voltage than specified?


Doubt it,
The voltage your giving it, is the recommendation from the factory, Aka its what it needs to work properly,
When its more then * torque as power goes it will just not work, and you would need a stronger stepper motor.

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## ralphzoontjens

The Pursa i3 seems like a great printer to me, all in all. I'm looking to buy either that one or an Ultimaker Original. Maybe a Solidoodle 3G but I've heard it has a few issues. The noise samples from Mr. Luigi are pretty loud! But I trust this can be reduced a lot. It would be a problem for me since I would want to run the printer overnight and not wake up myself or the neighbors (it seems that they sleep in the room next to my office, and the walls are thin). Could the printer get very silent if you set the speed to very slow, but still fast enough to, say, print 10cm3 an hour?

Also a requirement for my printer is that I should be able to print ABS, PLA, and Nylon (or another more flexible filament) - and this printer seems to not be able to do this with the available nozzles. Or could the nozzle for 1.75 mm filament handle these 3 materials?

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## RobH2

It does get a little quieter when you slow it down but mine makes a different noise when it's slow. It's not unpleasant but it's just a different frequency noise. But I bet it's only about 25% quieter at the most. I'll try to measure that sometime soon and report back. 

As far as what you can print, that's all in the nozzles as you know. As long as you can hitch the nozzle to the X Axis bed and set it up in RAMPS/Marlin you can use it. I want to print nylon too but from what I've read about it, it's not the physical printers that make it difficult, it's just difficult. Sticking it down is a problem because it's a self lubricating kind of plastic. You don't have to cool it like PLA though, at least from the few articles I've read. There aren't many suppliers for filament yet either they said. However, I'm watching it as I'm sure I'll be retrofitting my i3 to experiment with nylon later this year. I'm too curious. Maybe we can start a "sticky" here that's about Nylon. 

When you are talking about availability of nozzles, if you are referring to Makerfarm not having them then that doesn't mean there aren't other nozzles available. I just think Makerfarm sells what they like and what they know about. There are plenty of other places to get parts and add-ons that will work great with the Prusa i3.

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## old man emu

> Edit: Heard it has to be 0.39v, With that ive also found how to measure it, If the chip is facing down, the left second last pin and the POT screw.


DrLuigi,
Can you explain what you mean by "chip", and where is it?

Old Man Emu

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## DrLuigi

> DrLuigi,
> Can you explain what you mean by "chip", and where is it?
> 
> Old Man Emu


I mean the chip that has the heatsink on it, The one that processes everything i guess.

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## MeoWorks

Ah, the stepper driver.

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## laserlotus

Well I have bought and assembled a makerfarm kit, and I have one  positive thing to say about it and a few negative things to say about  it. The positive thing is that it seems that once you get the printer  assembled it actually does print pretty well. Mine is good enough for my  purposes; I don't have a baseline to compare my prints to. I'm printing  PLA on bare glass with excellent adhesion (in fact, I'm now trying to  tweak it to make adhesion to be just a tad -lower- since it's pretty  hard to detach the prints after printing). Also, I've done relatively  little calibration so there may be still be ways to improve my prints,  even though I probably won't bother to. Now for the negatives. The kit  was hell to put together, and it took me 3 long -days-, not 3 hours.  This hell was caused by a number of factors that buyers should be aware  of. Firstly, the laser cut wood parts were cut to poor tolerances making  the pieces hard to fit together, certainly much harder than as shown in  the videos. In -most- cases it was impossible to exert enough pressure  by hand, I had to resort to using sandpaper (to shrink the parts) and  clamps (to "up" the force level). A few times I had to resort to using a  Dremel with a sanding disk attached (or whatever it's called I'm not a  tool person). Most of the time the friction was so high in the assembled  part that it seemed like a waste of time to add the supplied nuts and  bolts that are -supposed- to hold it together. While this may sound good  for rigidity, I think it has a higher chance of fracturing the wood  under unavoidable temperature/humidity variations. This would negate the  cost advantages; i.e., the only reason we would consider buying such  cheap kits in the first place ;-). Secondly, it's rarely clear from the  build instructions exactly what type of bolts are being used at each  step. Sometimes after trying very very hard to figure it out and being  sure that I must have bolt they mean, I would find that it's too long or  too short for the construction step in question. Eventually I just used  whatever looked right and then eventually I ran out of appropriate  bolts so I had to buy extra nuts and bolts from my local hardware store  to supplement the kit. Thirdly, the clearance between the bed and the  lower part of the front frame is, like, theoretically zero in the design  once you take the bolt head into account. Significant sanding of this  zone was required to ensure that there would be no friction. If you  don't notice this and take steps to correct it, I can imagine that this  could lead to occasional missed motor steps, especially during "rapid"  moves where the steppers have less torque. I was forced to notice it  because the bolts I bought to supplement the kit had larger heads and  didn't clear the frame without a substantial "push", but in a few places  I had the supplied bolts in and they were making light contact with the  frame also. Fourth, the printed parts (extruder) seemed to have poor  print quality (you'd expect a shop that sells 3d printers to be able to  make quality prints, no?) and I had to Dremel a lot of the gears to fix  extrusion stalls. It's pretty hard to Dremel the herringbone gears; in  fact, I gouged into the "other" side of the tooth a number of times  (oops, but then I'm not a dentist ;-). Fortunately, I got it running  stable in the end. So, the bottom line is, from my perspective, if I had  to do it all over again, I would seriously consider self-sourcing a  classic reprap instead (i.e., printed plastic with rods as structural  elements). It should -in theory- save time to buy a kit and not worry  about sourcing, and this is why I considered kits only, not  self-sourcing. But, in my case, it turned out that the kit took so long  to put together that I could've self-sourced parts for five different  printer designs in the same timeframe. Of course, it's probably a  toss-up in terms of choosing a printed parts supplier as well, but if  you don't like one guy's printed parts you can buy another set  elsewhere. The philosophy of the classic reprap is that it should be  modular and I now see the reason for it. I will probably buy a back-up  extruder from somewhere if I'm not able to print one myself (I haven't  got ooze under control yet). In any case, -my- next build will be a  classic reprap if this thing breaks down or if I need more 3d printing  capacity. Also, why the heck doesn't anyone sell a "plain old reprap"  kit, why do all the kits have to have fancy acrylic/aluminum/wood  frames? It is a mystery ...

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## JohnA136

While we love the Prusa Reprap i3 design, we only build them with the aluminum frames from Joe Prusa. The rigidity, fine tolerances and portability this affords makes the few extra bucks well worth it! My machines are so quiet I have to mute the TV to hear them running in the next room. Adjusting the voltage on the stepper drivers makes all the difference in sound control.

Here are a couple of pictures of our next twelve kits being staged.

photo (45).jpg photo (44).jpg photo (46).jpg

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## RobH2

> Well I have bought and assembled a makerfarm kit, and I have one   positive thing to say about it and a few negative things to say about   it.


Sorry to hear that you had a bad experience with building the Makerfarm printer. I'll first say that I do not know anyone at Makerfarm or have any connection to them.

Colin at Makerfarm has probably the best customer support that I've ever seen, anywhere, for any product. I'll frequently send an email at 1AM because I'm catching up from the day, and I'll get a response. I think that if he'd know you were having some issues, he'd have done something about it. My Makerfarm was easy to assemble, needed no force, sandpaper or workarounds. I did use a couple of bolts in the wrong place and had to make do with some bolts I had on my workbench but it assembled very nicely in about 4 hours. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that you were the unfortunate recipient of a bad cut job. With any manufacturing process there is a quality range. Most parts come out identical, some come out perfect and there are always a few that for some odd reason, come out poorly. Maybe the sheet of wood got shifted a millimeter in the middle of the laser cut making all the tolerances tight. Who knows. But I think your case is atypical from what I've read from other users. I know that doesn't make you feel any better. 

But, now that the pain of assembly is over, you can expect really good prints from the machine. It all comes down to calibration and learning to use the slicers properly. There is a huge learning curve to get from passable prints to great prints. It will take some time and you'll waste a lot of plastic. But at $37 for 2lbs of filament, you'll waste less filament than what you would have paid to buy a $1500 prebuilt printer. Just like any printer a level bed is critical. I don't have any noise issues and it makes little more noise than my Epson printer. I assembled by giving a good amount of torque to all the parts and I've had nothing come loose in 6-months. Again, I'm not a salesman for Makerfarm but I do think that it's a fantastic bargain for the price. The old adage is "you get what you pay for" and we should probably never expect that if we buy the cheapest product our there, that's it's going to be the best. That does not apply to my printer though. I bought it to save money as I didn't want to get into the 3d printer world, spend $2000 and then realize it wasn't for me. I figured I'd start out with the Makerfarm, get my feet wet, and then go buy another printer. The opposite happened. I'm so happy with my printer that I'm not planning to buy another printer any time soon. 

I'm posting a few prints here to show you what I get from it. I hope it will ease your mind because I think in the end you'll like the printer. It's a shame that the build was so frustrating for you but someone in the world has to be the least happy customer in the batch and I think you got the bad apple kit this month. 

In this "technological world" product pride has always been pervasive. The PC VS Mac arguments still rage and shockingly, still get more heated than a rousing discussion of politics or religion. We have to be careful when someone is bragging about their new toy and tearing down the one we have because it's not always comparing apples to apples. There is no doubt that a $2500 printer is going to outshine an $800 one many levels. But the one thing about 3d printers is, once the bed is level, the parts are tight and the tolerances are calibrated, we are all extruding with similar parts. Basically we are squeezing the same filament, through the same hot ends, driven by the same motherboard, onto glass. Forget about all the superstructure that gets that hot plastic onto the glass. It all comes down to that singular task; squeeze melted plastic onto glass and stack it up. The slicers that we ALL use don't care (in practical terms) what machine they are driving, it works the same way for all of us. 

So I think, no, I hope that you soon find you made a good purchase. I really like mine. I have printed some great stuff. I bought mine to create a specific product so I don't have toys, legos, critters or vases to show you but below are a few of the items I've printed plus a few microscope (I use a microscope frequently and use it to inspect my plastic extrusion) shots. I think I'm getting really clean prints down to a layer height of 0.16mm. 

 If you still run into problems, come back here or any of the online forums and someone will help you. I've found the online participation and assistance in 3d printing to be phenomenal. There are a lot of very talent people here that love to show their knowledge by helping out. Keep at it, be meticulous and don't give up. It took me about 3 weeks to get to a sweet spot and fully understand calibration and slicing. But from then on I've had great results and little stress.

PrintedParts_01.jpg

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## beerdart

I agree with Rob. Our Makefarm is fantastic once you get the it dialed  in. As the old saying goes garbage in garbage out.

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## RobH2

beerdart, what is that thing? The text printed very cleanly. I'm getting clean prints too but the best I get are using Kisslicer. What are you slicing with?

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## MeoWorks

I'm having a ton of success using Cura at the moment, even at 0.2mm and 50mm/s, I'm getting little to no print lines with PLA. Sadly, Cura has replaced Slic3r for me.

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## RobH2

You know, I like Cura too. I was using Slic3r in Pronterface and kept coming back to the slicers that let me see my part in 3d. I just didn't like only seeing the top outline in Slic3r. I bounce between Cura and Kisslicer. The problem with Kisslicer is you have to print from a media card. It does not directly connect to the printer. I like the manual overrides in Pronterface the best. I'd love to see a mashup of Pronterface, Cura and Kisslicer. That might just be the perfect slicer. I see that Adobe and Autodesk (duh) are getting into the slicing world. They'll both probably come out with one that requires a yearly maintenance fee of $500 to use it though...lol....

I haven't tried any 50mm/s prints yet. Maybe I will now that I know you are getting decent results. I've see posts of people who print at 90 and 100mm/s (not with our Prusa's). I don't think our machines will do that. I do believe that there are some limitations to our rigs but not in regards to quality of the print. I'm thrilled with the print quality I get. I'll now see if I can print faster since you seem to be doing it ok.

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## old man emu

Laserlotus said: "The positive thing is that it seems that once you get the printer assembled it actually does print pretty well."

Despite the difficulties you had assembling your machine, at the end of the process the above comment says it all. The MakerFarm Prusa does print pretty well. 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 had only ever taken a close look at 3D printers on Youtube before I decided to buy the MakerFarm. My decision was based on a positive review I watched. I did have a couple of advantages in that I had previously built a desktop CNC machine, so I knew a lot about motion control and stepper motors. Also I was a nuts and bolts salesman, so I was easily able to judge which bolts I needed for each job.

I suppose, too, that I made the decision that I was going to take my time assembling the kit, AND I was going to read and understand the build instructions. I printed the build instructions from the pdf I got from the MakerFarm site. I also downloaded all the videos that Colin from MakerFarm had uploaded to Youtube, and had them on my workshop computer. I watched each videoed step several times before, during and after working on each machine module. I ran into some problems with laser cut parts and foul-ups from not reading instructions correctly, but the after sales service was terrific. A couple of parts that were not good fits were replaced, and Colin was quick to reply to my emails.

No, I didn't get my machine built in three or four hours. I did a bit at a time, so it probably was about a week on the calendar from go to whoa before I made my first trial prints.  I'm still tinkering with my machine. At the moment it is laid up while I wait for two new stepper drivers to replace ones I broke or fritzed.

Once I get my  machine back to printing, I'll start learning how to optimise the printing process. As RobH2 says, what we are trying to achieve is to squeeze molten plastic onto a glass plate in a regular, controlled way so as to create an object. That's all any filament extrusion type printed can be asked to do, and the MakerFarm printer, once assembled, is up there with the best of them.

Getting into 3D printing via the kit assembly route is more about the journey than the destination.

Old Man Emu

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## beerdart

Rob I use Crua 70mm/s speed .2 layer 3mm ABS filament homemade .4mm hot-end modeled with sketch-up.. The object posted is a throttle lever for a 260HP watercraft. My first attempt with Kiss crashed the bed plate and have not been able to see the problem with the settings ill give it a fresh install and retry.. I really like Cura over Slic3r..

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## RobH2

I do agree with OME. I am so glad that I "built" my first printer because now I feel I know "everything" about it. If you buy your first one, then the machine seems sort of magical. You turn it on, send an .stl to it and it begins to make the part. You might just stare and say "wow, that's so cool, I wonder how it does that." Well, if you build it, you'll still say "wow" but you won't wonder how. You'll know, and if something breaks, you'll know exactly how to fix it. OME is waiting for new motors and he'll throw those in so quickly that you will still be eating your sandwich. If you buy a built machine and something breaks, then you might be dumbfounded for a bit trying figure out what it was, how to get it out and how to find a new one. 

A guy suggested that I "not" buy a kit for my first 3d printer and I'm sooo glad I did not listen to him. It really is the journey and if you get into 3d printing like I did, you'll know this is not a temporary infatuation. You'll really enjoy the build and the knowledge you gain from it. Heck, I've only built one and now I was actually thinking of designing my own from the ground up. That's how much I learned from building my Makerfarm.

So get out your simple tools (because that's all it takes), order a kit and get prepared for a great ride...

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## RobH2

Cool looking part. Good to know what it is. 

I can't wait to do some faster printing. Don't know why I haven't, just thought that I shouldn't go over 40mm/s. Not even sure where I got that. But, 70mm sounds exciting to experiment with. Yea, Cura rocks for me right now. 

I did play quite a bit with Skeinforge. Man is it confusing to begin with. It took a lot of reading. I get good prints from it but nothing so far that Cura or Kisslicer can't do. One day I may find I need those very fine controls and Skeinforge will rescue me. But for now, it's just too much to deal with.

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## beerdart

Also agree with OME and Rob. Our Makerfarm i3 8" was my sons X-mas gift that he(14) built with some suggestions from the old man. IMO its a great learning experience that I will always have now we are both turning out very useful parts we still butt heads on the best settings and such but we are both learning and sharing quality time swapping ideas and designs.. Would not trade it for the world.

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## RobH2

How exciting it would be to be 14 right now and being exposed to these kinds of technologies. What a world we live in. When I was 14 the hottest new item was the HP worlds first electronic, handheld calculator with 'memory' priced at $795. Atari introduced Pong and cassette tapes began to show up to replace 8-track tapes. Oh, and it was 7 more years until the first portable phone, the size of a jambox, came out. It took a few more years before we could put them in our pockets. 

I don't know how we survived back in the stone age during the 70's. 

Oh to be 14 again and have a 3d printer...

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## beerdart

True but now they can print "Big Wheels"   LOL.

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## beerdart

As we built the kit I felt the need to make it as ridged as possible so we mounted it to a solid base 3/4" Melamine base with 90* brackets and then  shimmed the legs till we got the plywood bed within .002" I think that made a big improvement in quality and shake elimination.

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## RobH2

Yea, but we have to wait for the Prusa i3 30" before we can print the wheels...

I like you base idea. I cut squares of rubber from an inner tube, folded them and placed them in 6 spots under mine. It made it quieter, reduced vibration and keeps from sliding when I move the bed around. Maybe I'll do a base then put rubber feet under that. The rubber is a great noise dampener and shock/vibration absorber.

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## MeoWorks

After 31 hours of continuous printing with numerous 90 degree corners and 10% infills, my stylized NYC skyscraper base for a custom Marvel superhero sculpt is finished. Printer basically sits on a 1/4 thick neoprene sleeve and doesn't miss a beat! 

0.1mm height.

NYC Base.jpg

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## RobH2

Meow is right....puuurfect... I'm assuming you had no supports because the overhang was only around 20 degrees or something? Really clean. That's a Makerfarm printing at .10mm. Is that correct? Thirty-one hours, yikes... What was your perimeter speed? Had to be 15 or so to be so clean.

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## MeoWorks

You're correct, Rob, no supports needed on this guy. I was tempted to print at 0.05mm but decided it was a bit of a waste haha. I usually save 0.05mm for hi res character sculpts. But yes, 0.1mm at 30mm/s, I was being overly cautious due to the corners but it should be able to handle 50mm/s without problems.

Took a short video earlier, sorry for the dogs barking...

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v...type=2&theater

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## RobH2

You know, I believe what I read too much and don't experiment as much as I should. I read somewhere that the minimum layer for our printer was .16 and I've never gone thinner. I'm so glad that you've opened my eyes. I need to push the limits more. I mean, for the most part what's the worst that will happen, I'll waste some plastic? I'm going to do a super nice print of something at .1mm. Glad to hear that you've even gone thinner. I'm assuming at that thinness your E-Steps need to be really, really close.

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## MeoWorks

Yeah, I'd like to say it easy, but it took weeks to calibrate this thing to this point! Such a pain, but so worth it  :Smile: 

Go for 0.1mm, this printer can do that height EASY!

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## 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 ;-)

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## 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.

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## DrLuigi

To go back at the noise problem ive told earlier,

I noticed due the vibirations it had on lower speeds it could be just the glass/heated bed vibirating to much as it has alot of unsupported sides,
I did a heavier item on it when printing, it reduced the noise quiet alot,
So i guessed if downwards force reduces the vibiration with getting it more stabile, Upwards should do the trick as good,

I did some spongye material under the middle of the heated bed, aprox 1x1 inch, and it did reduce the noise quiet a bit,

I guess if you did this in a + pattern (2 horizontal, 2 vertical, one in the middle) it could reduce it quiet a bit.

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