Complete Newbie....

So, I am a complete newbie to 3D printers. Sort of.... I worked with SLA parts for over 10 years. But, obviously we're talking about apples and oranges.
I'm a mechanical engineer (semi-retired) who likes to invent things. So I decided to purchase a 3D printer (actually 2 of them). I researched for over a month,
and every time I thought I found one I could trust... I found negative comments about them. This went on and on. Not sure how I decided on Makerbot,
but that's what I ended up with. I bought a mini and a desktop (both 5th generation). I finally hooked up the mini yesterday. Results: Good and bad. The first
thing I found is definitely read ALL of the instructions before trying to print. I hooked it up in 5 minutes... but, got nothing but errors related to the extruder,
then at least an hours worth of filament jams. Ok... so I didn't read all the instructions. Once I did I got it running. I created the "unleash your creativity" sample with no issues at all.
Actually looks great. Tried two other samples and they looked great until they were just over 1/2 done. The extruder stopped printing even though it was going through the motions.
No errors... i just happened to notice the extruder was about 1/2" above the part and still acting like it was printing. I just read that I should try changing the extruder temp to 230c.
Ok....

First impressions are everything. I'm a little nervous to hook up my Desktop. I think for the $ these things cost... they should have tested them so much that us (the customer), shouldn't
have to deal with having to solve problems at this rate. I believe the potential for these machines is endless. But, I just don't think they are completed reliable yet. In the case of the printer
not printing 100 layers but still trying shouldn't happen. They easily could have have a sensor that would spot the issue and automatically heat up the extruder (and temporarily stop the print),
until it was warm enough to continue printing. Or at least stop the print and show you an error message that would allow you to heat up the extruder or whatever else they suggest... and then continue printing.

I'm sure I'll go through more growing pains... and keeping my fingers crossed that I will get both running well. I see universities with 50 of these things all running fine. So my guess is they have
a book full of lessons learned... and the best support contract on the planet. They probably have a Makerbot Engineer on staff. lol

To Makerbot, or not to Makerbot. That is the question. I think I made the right choice... I'll keep my own book of lessons learned and read this forum as often as I can. I plan on using allot of ABS... so I'm sure I'll be on here often :rolleyes:

Oh... and that camera. What a waste of resources on Makerbot's part. It's totally useless in my opinion. On the mini I get to see the bottom of the build plate. Yeah!!!!