Mark One users??

Hi all,
New to this forum, not to the additive world. I've just gotten a Mark One and am wondering what experiences people are having with the machine, software, and so on. So far, my few prints have looked pretty good, and the machine seems nice. The software is fairly limited from what I can tell so far and I think they're making a substantial mistake by requiring an internet connection to use it, but I've really only had a few days to play with it.

Does anyone know of any independent reviews of this? There is very little info out there, and what's out there is all glowing praise.

D

your the first person i ever heard of to own one. they seemed more of a myth lol

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Originally Posted by jimc

your the first person i ever heard of to own one. they seemed more of a myth lol

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Yeah, I'm not sure if everyone is being quiet or what. This printer sits in kind of a strange spot between the consumer and professional printers. It might be a no mans land, but they seem to have sold a pile of these things. It'd be nice to develop some kind of user community.

Hi,
I am a new owner/user of the Mark One 3D Printer, one of those rare guys.
It is pretty cool in fact. However as I start using it have issues adjusting the right printing settings. Will post on that soon.

I've got one. Been doing some test prints with it with varying success. I have printed in Kevlar, but haven't gotten the carbon fiber yet. I was a little disappointed at how limited the options are with the Kevlar/fiber: you can choose either a concentric reinforcing ring, with an adjustable number of fibers, or an isotropic fill, where you can choose the angle of the fibers in each layer, allowing you to print adjacent layers at angles to each other for increased strength. Carbon fiber appears to be limited to the concentric option.

You can choose which layers to put fiber in, but you cannot choose specific areas of the layer. This means if you have a piece with a large cross section, but you only need to reinforce a specific part of it, you have to waste a lot of fiber reinforcing the entire cross section.

The fiber seems to extremely limited by geometry. You need at least about a square inch of area to be able to fit any isotropic fiber in the print. It will not be able to lay fiber in any areas of the layer that are much smaller. Concentric fill is even more picky. So far this has been the most frustrating limitation. If you print a plastic part with tabs that snap into another part, the printer will probably not be able to reinforce the tabs, which are the parts that most need reinforcement. You can't make small pins, rods, etc. out of fiber. Basically anything that isn't a relatively wide, flat sheet will not be able to make use of fiber. If anyone has found a solution to this, I would love to hear it.

Same problem I have with the reinforcing layers. Flat parts work well but I tried a couple of relativelly simple 3D parts and it didn't work. I assuming this is a software limitation and should be improved by the company in the near future. Looking to it...

I think it is either a hardware limitation or a limitation of the material itself, that is, either the head has to extrude some minimum amount of fiber to work properly, or the fiber itself won't bond or form or something if it is extruded in too small of segments.

Some strange issues have happened to me though. For example, I was trying to print a relatively large piece with small protruding tab that I wanted to reinforce. By orienting it just right and setting the isotropic angles just right, I was able to fit a little bit of fiber in the tab. I didn't want to print the entire piece, because the estimated print time was like three days, and it contained a large volume of expensive fiber. So I went into Autodesk and cut off about 75% of the part, leaving the section containing the tab. But with this part, I couldn't get the software to fit any fiber in the tab at any angle, no matter how I oriented it. My alterations did not affect the geometry of the tab area at all. The software seems to just be very finicky and inconsistent.

I have the same issue. Tried to print more complex parts and was not able to add fiber layers, quite dissapointing. Still a nice printer but at this point very very limited in pinting options and adding fiber layers. It works well for simple planar geometries only.

Glad to hear from some other users! I have noticed the software limitations too, and control of the fiber layout has been frustrating to say the least. Hope it gets better with subsequent software!!

It is the second time my Mark One printer sudenly stops with a 'Pinter Disabled' error message on the screen. It is frustating that the printer stops at 75% after half day pinting. Hope this will be solved by the technical support guys.

I'm new to 3D printing but was intrigued enough by the carbon fiber capability (not chopped CF) when I saw it at SME's RAPID show last month that I ordered one. Amazingly (to what I was told up front), it will be here tomorrow.

In noting that there are only two (2) current threads on the Mark One, seems I'm getting in on the ground floor. Which means I'm expecting to feel much like a beta tester very soon. Ouch!

In reading this particular thread, I'm surprised that folks are commenting here - rather than on Eiger. Having not yet received my machine, I've been pushing on the sales side to provide info on MF's support for new users. Everything comes back to Eiger. So...are you folks up on Eiger? If not, why? If yes, what's there in the way of docs and tutorials?

I'm particularly interested in instruction on CF layup procedures and embedding components. I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around how the printer deals with shapes that get larger as you go up in Z - think of a small sphere. How does the nozzle get "under" the shape once the shape is placed, especially an embedded shape that is substantially taller than the gap between the last full layer and required height of the nozzle?

Guess I'll start finding out come tomorrow and this weekend. Brave new world...

The Mark One requires a minimum solid area of 1 square inch to place fiber. The area has to be continous (in most cases holes are not allowed to place fiber). Note as well the fiber is a continous strand for each layer (no fiber cuttings are allowed at one layer). This is limiting for many more complex geometries. Also there is a minimum width required to place at least one fiber ring, from my estimation it requires at least a 3mm thick wall. You have to take all that in consideration for designing your part.

I still belive it is a great innovative product that will be improved in the close future by the research team. I have to say they have been very responsive to my support requests. My problems were solved in around 24 to 48 hs.

Good luck!

Why the one square inch rule? Is there some hard limit on either the material or the extrusion mechanism that makes it impossible or problematic to lay fiber in smaller areas?

Now I'm finding that any part with more than a few cubic centimeters of fiber refuses to print at all. It takes fifteen minutes or more to generate the print job, then gives a vague error message. I'm beginning to question what exactly, if anything, this machine can do.

We just ordered one. I had a sample part printed with CF. The part has .275 tabs that are .312 long and it filled them pretty well. I think the trick was to make sure the ends were rounded so the CF can make the corner. Even had a .175 hole that was .125 off of the edge of the part and CF made it around the hole. Part is 5" long with a large pocket and cutaway. came out .02 flat all the way across. The combination of tough Nylon and CF is very promising. Cant wait to try out the Kevlar and Fiberglass which should turn tighter corners. Had some .05 cross holes one with a .01 intersecting hole. the .05 holes came out ok but the .01 hole was a too small. I will try that again because it was only .075 off of the edge and I believe it didnt have enough room.

Dimensionally the part came out really good with very little clean up and it is STIFF. held about .002 in all directions. The .175 through hole had a little Nylon that dripped inside but not bad.

Used 28cm3 of Nylon and 2.81 of CF.

I sent the local reseller a file they got on Friday morning and had a part in may hand Friday afternoon.

Hey All,Apologies for being late to this thread... I can certainly help answer some of these questions.

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Originally Posted by The Doof Kitty

Why the one square inch rule? Is there some hard limit on either the material or the extrusion mechanism that makes it impossible or problematic to lay fiber in smaller areas?

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Originally Posted by juannadie

The Mark One requires a minimum solid area of 1 square inch to place fiber. The area has to be continous (in most cases holes are not allowed to place fiber). Note as well the fiber is a continous strand for each layer (no fiber cuttings are allowed at one layer).

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There isn't exactly a 1 square inch rule, but there is a minimum fiber length per layer that basically equals 1 sq inch if doing something like a disc or rectangle (with no holes). The min fiber length per layer is actually about 612mm, which is the distance from the fiber cutting assembly and the printhead (since we effectively use a bowden system). Smaller parts can be tricky, but we are actively working on ways to mitigate the constraints and optimize printing. As I'm sure you've noticed, our software team is constantly updating Eiger with new features and optimizations. We hope to have more info soon.

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Originally Posted by juannadie

This is limiting for many more complex geometries. Also there is a minimum width required to place at least one fiber ring, from my estimation it requires at least a 3mm thick wall. You have to take all that in consideration for designing your part.

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The minimum wall thickness can vary, and sometimes be optimized by the FFF nylon settings (check out the support articles next time you have a minute). Basically the wall thickness is defined by the walls (shells) and fiber. Each nylon wall is equal to .4mm, and the fiber is about 1mm when printed., so you can effectively print ~2mm wall thickness (.4mm + 1mm + .4mm) so long as you meet the min. fiber requirement of ~612mm. We have 2 walls as the default (for better overall printing/quality), which is why you correctly pointed out the default ~3mm thickness ((2x.4mm) + 1mm + (2x .4mm)).

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Originally Posted by I_CON

We just ordered one. I had a sample part printed with CF. The part has .275 tabs that are .312 long and it filled them pretty well. I think the trick was to make sure the ends were rounded so the CF can make the corner.

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This can be correct in some cases. Carbon is super stiff and brittle, so it can't always make certain bends. If you have parts that require hard corners, Kevlar or Fiberglass works very well.

If the part is designed for these constraints, you can actually print rings of fiber around holes to reinforce – which is actually much better than drilling through and terminating the fibers like you would with traditional composites.




Big thanks to you all for contributing to this community, and please keep the feedback coming. Feel free to PM me or file a support request for specific feedback, so we can get it on our roadmap.


Thank you,
Jeff

Same problem I have with the reinforcing layers. Flat parts work well but I tried a couple of relativelly simple 3D parts and it didn't work.

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