Hello, This is my review of the MakerFarm i3v 10" with the 3mm nozzle .4 hexagon nozzle, RUMBA with the graphical display. I also purchased ABS filament from MakerFarm.
I bought this after using a MakerFarm 8" for a few weeks borrowed from a co-worker. I mostly printed at .2 height and the prints came out nice. With that being said I wanted to make some adjustments (autobed level, layer tweaks, replace parts with printed parts, etc..), but since it wasn't mine, I wasn't going to put that effort in. So, I bought my own. I also saw a nice video on youtube with a 10inch. I thought the price was right so I bought it.
It ended up costing a little more since I wanted my wires wrapped a certain way, the powersupply, plus electrical connectors, cork, glass, tools, etc... I really enjoyed building the machine, it was a great father son project that took about a week (a couple hours every night and then 1 Saturday. I did modify the Z endstop right away, using some aluminum, I moved it out so it's now easier to get to. The instruction were on target, not perfect, but flashing the firmware worked and setting up the hotend (these were my biggest fears for failure), but they all worked.
Notes: I use Cura and make it spit out a little more filament at the beginning of the prints, so that the first layer will be primed. The default did not extrude enough. The filament from Makerfarm is not the best, a lot of popping and different consistency in the same filament. IC3 from amazon seems to be pretty good, the little bit that I've used.
The Good:
1. Easy to change modify and tinker with: I was so happy I got it all to work on almost my first try. I did have to contact Colin. While leveling Z, it wouldn't raise high enough to do the second slower leveling. This was easy to solve by raising value in the firmware to raise up to 3mm so the switch would disengage. Don't use cheap glass, it will be uneven and mess with your prints. Jut consider this also with your cost.
So now for the BAD things:
1. Wobble/ Banding issues: I was pretty happy with the first few prints, there was a lot of wobble, but for my first prints I thought they were OK. I knew there would be some tinkering involved. But the more I tinkered the more I realized I could remove the wobble and that the prints were not as nice as my co-workers 8". I've a lot of banding issues.
So to fix or not fix my banding issues. I've spent a lot of time on this. I think I've read every post, but my banding still exists. However, I've made progress, I bought a second printer (that's right, a second printer, an Ultimaker 2) and thats when I made progress. My Ultimaker 2 belts are beyond tight, so I tightened my belts on my Makerfarm as well, and some of my banding has disappeared. There's still work to be done, but hours here and there are starting to add up and I've become tired. Since I really like 3d printing, the less time I tinker with this, the less I enjoy it, so for right now it sits in my garage powered off.
2. Constant bed leveling: Also the constant level check after each print is very tiresome (hopefully resolved by autobed leveling soon). There several places that need to be checked, the bed (4 screws), the X v-slot bars against the bed, the X carriage against the X v-slot. All the v-slots against themselves so that their spacing is even. There's also wheels that become loose or misaligned. I'm not sure but the bearings on the bars seemed a lot easier to deal with. This is where you will spend most of your time.
3. Loose screws: I wish they would have told me to use thread lock from the beginning, but I have pretty much taken everything a part and thread locked everything. I remember going out to my garage and find my hot end screws laying on the bed.
Where does this leave me and my review? If you enjoy constantly fix/tinkering with the possibility of it never working as you've imagined it, go for it. Maybe start with an 8" to get your feet wet. Also make sure you understand that there are other costs needed to be added to the initial cost of the printer to get it up and fully running (Glass, powersupply, tools).
Makerfarm has a huge community, so I thought I was pretty safe, but there's little help when only a few people have a particular problem (search for makerfarm wobble or banding, there are a lot of posts, but some never get fixed). It's possible that I just got a bad machine, but it seems like there's a common bad machine with a wobble/banding, while the others work.
