Quote Originally Posted by cobalt View Post
I have owned both the Makerbot Replicator 2 and the Ultimaker 2. I purchased one of the early MB Rep2's and sold it after 2 months of frustration. It did not have the upgraded parts that MB provided later after I sold it.
I did my homework after the first purchase disappointment with the MB. The conclusion I came to was that the Ultimaker 2 was the one to get. I purchased it from MakerShed and saved on the shipping costs that Ultimaker charges. The new UM2 was very nicely finished. It seemed more refined than the MB2. I carefully set it up and to my happy surprise I started printing successfully right from the start. Then after a few days the problems started happening. Clog after clog after clog. I searched the web for answers but found few as I had one of the first machines in the US. At first Ultimaker was responsive and tried to solve my problems. After many hours of searching for the problem, I FINALLY discovered what was causing all my grief. I contacted Ultimaker many times to let them know of the problem with the filament feeder design but thats when they totally stopped communicating with me. The knurled sleeve that attaches to the filament stepper motor kept slipping. It is held on to the round shaft of the stepper motor with a tiny tiny set screw (poor design IMHO). Once this tiny set screw loosens the filament can no longer be fed properly. OK you would think it's an easy fix...just tighten the tiny set screw. MUCH EASIER said than done!!!!! Access to the tiny set screw is totally blocked unless the stepper motor is removed. This requires dismantling parts of the printer. This takes about 2 hours to do. Then the problem is that the set screw is so tiny it's not possible to get it real tight so it will, as it did on my printer, come loose again. After fixing this 4 times I finally gave up on the Ultimaker 2 and returned it to MakerShed. I wish the factory would have admitted the design weakness and come up with a solution because the quality of prints it is capable of making is outstanding. Hopefully Ultimaker has corrected this design flaw...if they have then it is a fantastic printer but if they have not then I would look at other brands.
FYI...MakerShed was absolutely great to deal with. I would give them an A+++ for outstanding customer service.
Yikes, thanks for the info. I'm somewhat leaning towards the Ultimaker 2 now because of Jay's post in the Zortrax forum (see below). Apparently, they have no intention of supporting g-code, or other software options... from what I understand, and anyone please correct me if I'm wrong, you're stuck with their Z-Suite slicer. There's also the fact that they'll not be offering the ability to print without a raft, and some other obstacles here and there with their proprietary tech. These are definitely deal breakers, especially being locked into the Z-Suite software. Otherwise, everything about it sounds great! It's just so damn disappointing... it seems like the perfect printer to date, then they completely screw it up with all of the tight restrictions. What a shame.

Quote Originally Posted by jimc View Post
zortrax has their own pla in the works but you dont have to use their filament either. it will print anything....pet, nylon, abs, pla just like any other machine. the hot end is all metal so i believe is good for 300+ deg. one of their selling points is that its quiet but ive never heard it in person. that printer puts out about the cleanest prints i have seen from an fdm machine. dell just purchased 5000 of them for their employees.

while im sure makerbot is a fine machine i have always felt there is nothing special about them and they are waaayy over priced compared to everything else. there is just nothing there to justify the price they ask for them. i just dont get it. you get a nice pretty package for the money and the rest is all big name marketing. no offense to rob. i will be curious to hear your review.
Good to know about the filament, but from what I've been reading in their forums since we'd be locked into using the Z-Suite software, would we not be restricted in the options available for the other filaments? For example, printing in PLA is best on glass without a raft correct? But apparently, you cannot swap out the bed, because you'd be unable to calibrate in the z-axis. They also mention that they will not be offering the option to print without a raft.

I guess now my gripe is with being locked into their proprietary software.

I'm leaning more and more towards the Ultimaker 2, but they have issues as well. I hate the fact that it uses 3mm filament, and am now worried about whether or not they fixed the issue with the filament feeder that Cobalt had experienced. The lead time is awful too. 10 weeks.

Quote Originally Posted by jayceekeys View Post
Well since I read about the Zortrax I have done masses of reading up about it and I have to say, I am likely not going to order a 5th Gen from MBI.

I contacted them on their forum and uploaded a few STLs of items that I was having problems printing with my RepRapPro Mendel, asking whether the Zortrax would likely be able to print them reliably.

What happened next is what is impressing me the most - one of the Zortrax employees posted that they had taken my files and were going to print them all (one is really big too), so that I could see photos of how they turn out, so I could see what difference their machine would make to my printing. I am waiting for the demo pics, but have to say I am MEGA impressed as it will really give me an idea of what the machine is like with MY prints.

That really shows incredible customer service - something it seems that some people have doubted previously. I'm sure others may have their own opinions, but for me they have been spot on.

At the moment the M200 only does ABS, but the availability of other material profiles is imminent. Plus, it not like that's a handicap - even the MB 5th Gen can only do one material type on launch and but there is no plan whatsoever of them changing this in the future. ABS is probably more useful anyway to me.

So for me the plan is wait and see how my files print and then if everything is good it will be a Zortrax order later this evening!

Thanks for the advise and tips guys.

Cheers,

J

ps if anyone wants to read the answers to the extensive questions I posed to them earlier then here's the link:

http://zortrax.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=351
Jay, I read your post on the Zortrax forum earlier today. I've been going through that forum myself, trying to do as much research as possible. Good to hear that they're going to be receiving a large shipment around the 15th. I'm pretty bummed however about being tied into that Z-Suite software, otherwise, yes, their customer service seems pretty good. The prints look fantastic, it's becoming a tough decision between the UM2 and the Zortrax. I think I've abandoned the 5th Gen Replicator... just don't think it'll be on par with these two.