Why did I buy this Makerbot ?????

[Rubberratt]

Hello All !

I'm new to this forum, but have been 3-D printing for many years now with my Up! Mini

I recently bought a Makerbot Replicator Gen 5 from ebay, because we have one here at work and it's been printing like a champ, so I thought ... what the heck the prices are coming down and I got a decent deal. Included a SmartExtruder+ with less than 20 hours on it

Anyway... printer shows up, setup is no problem, reset to factory, flashed the firmware, tried to print from one of the 4 internally stored models.

String-City. The one at work... does this with no problem. Was printing with brand new MakerBot Brand PLA. NOTHING that would normally stop/reduce the stringy printing... made any difference. I really tried to tweak every possible setting, and no luck BUT WAIT... it gets better.

Now... here comes the fun:

Called MakerBot Support and explained the issue:
Answer: You need a new FFC $58

Installed the FFC - No Change - Called MakerBot Support
Answer: you need a new printer Carriage $256

Installed new carriage - No Change - Called MakerBot Support
Answer: you need a new MotherBoard $500+ . (PS - now I am at more than double what I paid for the printer to begin with)

Installed new MotherBoard - No Change - Called MakerBot Support
Answer: you should get your money back from the guy you bought the printer it from, because we are out of ideas.

OMFG - returned everything I bought to Makerbot, and am back to where I started off. EBAY-er would not accept return, and pointed out I should have read the ad more carefully. I DID - it said printer works with no problems at all, but no returns (why return it if it works ?????). PayPal = no help

Can anyone help me figure this out? I realize now that the build quality on these 5th gen MakerBots is less than poor with no consistency. I brought home the Smart Extruder from work... same darn issue.

Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated, and since I'm a noob to the forum, take it easy on me LOL . If this is already discussed somewhere, a gentle push in the right direction would be appreciated. I'm and EE for a startup storage company, so I know my way around hardware.

HELP