educate me on the error of my ways!

[insta]

thank you all for your courteous and informative responses, I was rushed and having a hard time finding the information on the MakerGear main site. I will indeed revise my report to reflect the truth of the matter. on that note do any of you have any other advantages or disadvantages you would have included in the analysis of the M2 or the other printers?

The only thing I would consider a "downside" of the M2 is that they have their own hotend instead of piggybacking on the "third party" hotends like the Hexagon/E3D/etc. This means you can't use the cheap Chinese parts flooding the market like the 12/$5 nozzles or $0.40 heater cartridges. Upside: the parts they do use are reasonably priced comparable to legitimate 3rd party bits ($8/nozzle for the E3D, $10/nozzle for the V4). I wouldn't consider the option of using cheap Chinese clone parts as a viable option for a place requiring a logistical writeup, so it's somewhat of a moot point anyway.

I would suggest you print some fan ducts if you plan to use PLA, the stock fan location makes cooling the back of the parts problematic. You should use PETG or HIPS though, they're better



edit: the V4 is better than the Hexagon or E3D so it's a further moot point

[Jules]

thank you all for your courteous and informative responses, I was rushed and having a hard time finding the information on the MakerGear main site. I will indeed revise my report to reflect the truth of the matter. on that note do any of you have any other advantages or disadvantages you would have included in the analysis of the M2 or the other printers?

When I went through and researched my purchase a few months ago (just as you are doing now), I had the short list narrowed down to the Taz and the M2. (I was seriously considering the Taz for the size it could print.) But what it finally boiled down to for me was the ratings and user stories on Amazon and elsewhere - i had never seen a product that was so universally loved, barring a single cranky entry or two, which i would expect to see anywhere. So I did a little further research, started reading the posts on the forum, and realized that what they had here with MakerGear was a company that was totally committed to putting out a quality product. Yes, sometimes things were delivered that didn't work correctly, or things got jostled loose during shipping, but MakerGear always made it right, and as quickly as humanly possible. (And with much better patience than i would have been able to show.)

They had the lock on support. Period. And when you stop to think about it, any printer will do what you want it to during the good times. When something goes wrong, that's when you separate the men from the boys. For beginners, it's definitely what you want, so i chose the M2. (i was a complete novice to 3D printing.) Never regretted that for an instant.

Couple of other things you might want to consider - the size on these things.....I'm guessing the Taz has a bigger footprint - do you have the space for it? Two compact machines let two people work side by side as opposed to 1 person on a larger machine.

The larger machine is great and all, but the length of time necessary to knock out a huge print is days, not hours. That was another factor in my decision. I decided i didn't really need one that big for most of what i wanted to do with it, so it was a bit of a waste to go with the larger volume model.

Once you have the settings dialed in correctly, the M2 will crank out one good print after another. Consistency is excellent, and it holds it's level extremely well for months at a time. (Be sure to check the level consistency on whichever machine you decide to get - it would not be any fun to have to spend most of your time adjusting for bed level problems, especially in a classroom setting, where things are going to get out of whack sooner rather than later.)

The MakerGear group is always testing new products/techniques. Since I got my machine earlier this year, i have made several minor modifications, and two major modifications to it - it now has the improved V4 nozzle (for higher temps) and the dual extruder setup. That's just what has happened this year, and they are working on other things that I'm not sure we're supposed to talk about yet. But they did not leave behind the people who bought early, they made their improvements and upgrades available to early adopters, instead of leaving customers stuck with an obsolete machine as things changed throughout the industry.

So that means that as improvements become available, you will be able to upgrade any machines that you have already purchased, without having to buy a bunch of new ones, and keep up with the times. Critical in a learning environment.

The other thing that they do, which takes discipline, is to not release something to the public until it has been thoroughly tested. It keeps the wailing and gnashing of teeth to a minimum, and cuts way down on frustration. Even if it costs them a few sales. It's just smart business practice.

And a final point in favor of the M2, it's assembled in the US and the parts are available from MakerGear. They have all of the parts in stock, even if they are not listed on the site - you can get them with an email to Support. (It's great to not have to wait for a shipment from China while your machine is down.)

I'm sure that any printer has it's pluses and minuses, and most of them have perfectly happy users once they figure out how they work. Those are just a few of the reasons i like this one.

[Matt_Sharkey]

Jules pretty much nailed it. And concerning the warranty, Even though MakerGear offers 6 months, for a lot of problems, an email goes a long way. MG wants their machines to be up and running, and will help you keep it that way should something happen. As long as you are keeping things (relatively) stock, they have your back.

Also the recommendation of buying both printers is spot on. these printers hold value pretty well, so if your department could write off a $400 loss for the sake of research, do it.

[Vandal968]

The 100% satisfaction rate on both 3DHubs and Amazon is unprecedented and is what convinced me to take the leap. Now that I've had it for several months, I continue to be 100% satisfied with the MakerGear. It is far and away the best 3D printer that I've ever used and I've got a lot of experience with 3D printers: every Makerbot from Cupcake to Gen5, Mendel, Fortus 250, Rostock Max, Ultimaker, Affinia, etc. MakerGear can't be beat.

HTH.

cheers,
c

[Tim]

Re: insta's comments, though, I would not necessarily say that the MakerGear v4 hot-end is particularly better than, say, the E3Dv6 (which is the only 3rd party hot-end I have experience with); they are similar designs and have similar performance, although I favor the MakerGear nozzle with its slightly wider flat area around the nozzle opening. But the M2 is such an open and accessible machine that it is pretty easy to print a new extruder mount for a 3rd party hot-end if you really want one. I briefly had an E3Dv6 on my M2, when I had an early version v3 (the one with the ceramic glob for a heater) and MakerGear had not yet come out with the v4. But then MakerGear announced a beta test of the v4 dual extruder, and my E3Dv6 has been in a box ever since. It's still a great hot-end.

[SouthSideofdaSky]

+1 what Jules said. I'll just add the following: I spent several days thoroughly researching different 3D printers last summer before deciding what one to buy. My main draws to the M2 were the metal frame, the almost universally positive reviews, and the quality and availability of support (including both the actual MakerGear support and the support from other M2 users in this forum). A year and a half later this printer has been everything I expected and then some.

[Pekish79]

I will add only one thing about dimensions
at first i was thinking it was a big limitation to have smaller volume
but i learned (printing parts) that you rarely want to print something that last longer then 12-18 hours
a normal piece of 12 hours is 1/4 or 1/5 of the volume

i am sure there will be a couple of time where u could make a longer thinner piece taking advantage of the extra space and still being under 12 hours but this will happen very rarely
and u will never want to do a 36-40 hour print filling the all volume that goes bad after 25-26 hours


once you have an area of at least 20x20x20 is more then enough to do more or less everything more then that is just for show

[Matt_Sharkey]

to expand on Pekish's post. the build volume is only limited when you want something so wide (and presumably flat) that it doesn't fit on the build plate. and likewise, something so tall (and presumably narrow) that it doesn't fit in the build height.

If you are printing things that take up most of the 8x10x8 volume, I assure you, you are doing it wrong. If you feel that a print may take more than 24 hours (Hell, more than 8 Hours) think of a way to split it up and assemble it later. there is nothing worse than being 10 hours in on a print and then it fails because of too much curling or some other tedious nuisance.

If I were to be candid, the build volume of the M2 is ambitious for what it produces. They could get away with much smaller and satisfy the same market (Insta need not reply, we know )

[ednisley]

think of a way to split it up and assemble it later

Absolutely!

The other use for that large platform is to hold all of the parts of an assembly that you can't print in one lump:
http://softsolder.com/2015/07/02/victor ... t-fixture/



I started with a Thing-O-Matic's 100x120x110 mm build volume and will never go back:
http://softsolder.com/2011/05/02/what-w ... rbie-pack/

[insta]

To be fair, the market won't either...