One Year with a MakerGear M2

[Mount PrintMore]

I've had my M2 for about a year now and have run it for a few hundred hours. I've made a lot of parts and I've had a variety of interesting things happen. I thought I'd summarize my experiences for the good of the group (and anyone who stumbles onto this forum that is thinking about buying an M2).

My machine was received in May 2013 and I've been using the Creator software with it the whole time. I believe Creator was in the 1.1 or so stage when I started.

Out of the box, my M2 ran flawlessly. I ran off the files on the SD card including the glider with the super thin wings with no real issues. As I fiddled with the bed leveling more, I noted at one point that it seemed as if one of the leveling screws didn't have enough range of motion in it. I ended up shimming the springs with a washer and have run that way for this entire time. Recently, I went back to that leveling adjustment as I was investigating some print quality issues and I was able to remove it. My process for setting the bed level was to tighten all of the screws all the way down, then back them off to level the bed. Something about this didn't quite work right. If I loosened all of the screws a full turn first, I was able to level the bed. This was a recent revelation, and I still don't understand it.

So, I ran the supplied PLA for a few parts and got good with getting it to stick via the Hairspray on Glass Method. I use the Suave Max Hold in the pink can and it works marvelously. I very rarely felt the need to clean the glass. I would scrape it off with a razor between runs and just apply fresh with each print.

I quickly moved over to ABS plastic and the adventures with warpage. The first large project I wanted to do was to print a military style trailer for my 1/10th scale rock crawler. I've since posted pictures of that project here:

http://www.rccrawler.com/forum/scale-ac ... ailer.html

I've sold several copies of this kit. I've tried printing that bed a variety of ways, with the quickest iteration taking about 14 hours and the longest taking over 22 hours.

In general, I print all of my ABS on Kapton Tape. I found some guidance to scuff the tape with sandpaper prior to printing (or applying ABS Juice) and I have found that to be the trick to getting rock solid adhesion. Only do it once, when the tape is new. I've used both 320 and 400 grit sandpaper with good effect. I have scavenged a handful of small glass food jars that I fill 1/3 full of acetone and dissolve ABS in. I use a piece of folded up paper towel to dab it onto the Kapton tape while the bed is heating. The other thing i have found is that it is important to do your bed leveling and z-stop adjustment with the build plate at temperature (100 C or whatever you are going to run). I have determined that the glass plate on my machine has a horseshoe shape to it, the center is high and the edges are low. This makes leveling and z-stop setting a bit of a compromise, but once I realized that was what I had it became easier to set it up.

I primarily buy my ABS from Octave. They have everything that I want in stock all the time and the shipping is quick. I did buy a few rolls from MakerGeeks, but I had a variety of issues with them.

Issues with ABS filament -
In the first batch of ABS I ordered from Octave, one of the rolls would not extrude. I turned the temps up, I switched back to a different roll and confirmed operation, nothing I did would get the stuff to extrude. I contacted their support, they sent me a new roll no questions asked and told me they had a quality problem with a batch where the plastic shrink wrap that had been used appeared to chemically react with the filament and cause problems. The replacement roll they sent me was packaged differently and those spools are long since gone.

I ordered a couple of colors from MakerGeeks because they had free shipping. I ordered a roll of black and a roll of red. The black filament would not adhere to my build plate no matter what I did. I spent several nights fighting with it, but it wouldn't stick. Then I noticed something odd. The plastic I put in a jar to make ABS juice never really dissolved. After a week, it still looked like a piece of filament. I contacted MakerGeeks, and they were good sports. They sent me a new roll and requested the old roll back to investigate. The replacement roll they sent me was Silver (we agreed upon the switch). This roll adhered much better than the black, but not as as good as their own red or any of the Octave filaments I had tried. It also seemed to warp less, which was a good thing. It mostly dissolved in acetone, but not as completely as other filaments. I managed to get most of that roll through my printer, but I did lose a few parts due to adhesion.

The roll of red filament from MakerGeeks prints and sticks beautifully. I've printed a few of Emmetts gear creations from Thingiverse and they came out great.

I've gone through several rolls of Octave Black, White, Neutral, and Grey and they all behave predictably.

The reason I wanted to lay all of this out is that your experience with any printer is going to be heavily influenced by the way the filament performs. I had many nights of frustration with that roll of Neutral filament from Octave and the roll of black filament from MakerGeeks, but then I've blown through entire rolls of other material without touching a single thing on the machine.

I've had some things break on my machine. When I had my first filament jam, I managed to break the filament drive housing when I attempted to disassemble the PEEK barrel from it. At the time, I didn't know the files were available to print replacement parts, so I hadn't done so. I keep one around as a spare all the time now. To clear my jam, I ended up using a butane torch to burn the nozzle clean. My process was to use a soldering iron to heat the M6 threaded barrel enough to pull most of the plastic out. Then I use the two M6 nuts to remove the nozzle from the barrel. Then I used a butane torch to burn it out.

I had a print fail catastrophically and force plastic up through the heating element and all over the extruder. In the process of trying to take that apart, I destroyed the ceramic heater. I ordered the kit to build a replacement heater. If I had it to do over again, I would have paid the extra $10 for one that was premade. I got through it, but it took a lot of time and my results were not cosmetically pleasing. Again though, that ugly heater is currently running on my machine.

I had a bizarre issue involving a collision with one of the build plate binder clips that I thought I should share. I had a collision happen with the binder clips (it wasn't the first time). I didn't think too much of it even though it managed to knock the extruder out of rotational position. I pushed it back into position, tightened everything up and set about printing. My print quality went out the window! Everything looked terrible. I had all kinds of gaps in the walls of my parts like I had coasting turned on and cranked way up. I kept changing settings and running off parts and they were all junk. Finally, while my machine was heating up, I noticed the ooze bead coming out of the nozzle looked really fat. I shut the machine down, pulled everything apart and realized the tip of my nozzle was gone and I was printing with a 1mm or larger nozzle opening! The only think I can guess happened is the edge of the binder clip managed to cut off the tip of the nozzle.

Shortly after this collision, I also discovered 3 large cracks that had formed in the extruder motor mount. I repaired them with acetone and printed a new one with 90% infill. I've since swapped this out and the machine is running with this new part as we speak.

Overall, I've been quite happy with the printer, and when I've had issues or questions the support from MakerGear has been excellent. I also got good support from MakerGeeks and Octave. I follow 3ders.org and of course the MAKE publishing empire and I don't see anything in the latest crop of machines that makes me think I should have waited. The only feature I'm seeing in some of the newer machines that would be nice are the automated bed leveling and z-stop setting features.

[Tshulthise]

I love that trailer you designed and printed. You should post that in the "Printed Object Showcase" forum! Nice work.

[jimc]

yeah that trailer is awesome. nice work with that. i also have tried makergeeks abs. i really did not like it as well. i didnt have a ton of problems with it other than the stuff doesnt layer bond. octave is relabeled reprapper chinese filament. while i do like the stuff and it prints well, it is a bit damp and its just inconsistent. you'll get 4 good rolls then you'll get 2 that have issues. i myself have had a couple rolls about 6 mos ago that had the shrinkwrap problem. quality is just all over the place. makergear has reduced the price on their pla so if you use that i would suggest you just buy from them. its great stuff. for abs i have had very good results with the stuff from www.pushplastic.com. you are buying right from the manufacturer and its premium made in the usa stuff. it really blows away the octave/reprapper stuff.

[markb]

What a great job on the trailer.
What software did you use to design it in?

[RH3D]

Thanks for posting this! I will be buying a 3D printer this month and the MakerGear M2 is top of my list. I really appreciated your comments regarding the bed leveling, extruder and filament. Considering the quality of the rest of the M2 I have been a bit surprised that it uses printed parts for the extruder but it sounds like its been okay. Question were you printing your spare parts from ABS or PLA?

[insta]

Thanks for posting this! I will be buying a 3D printer this month and the MakerGear M2 is top of my list. I really appreciated your comments regarding the bed leveling, extruder and filament. Considering the quality of the rest of the M2 I have been a bit surprised that it uses printed parts for the extruder but it sounds like its been okay. Question were you printing your spare parts from ABS or PLA?

Always print replacement parts with ABS or stronger (nylon, polycarb). PLA is great for presentation models, mockups, and low-temperature bushings ... but at anything approaching warm it turns into playdoh. I had the heat of my pocket deform a PLA money clip, and while I'd like to think so, I don't have particularly hot pants

[Tim]

Ditto; I was showing off a PLA print at the breakfast table and put a coffee-mug shaped dent in it. Only took a few seconds of inattention.

[Katwitch]

Does anyone have the link to the printable replacement parts mentioned here? I'd love to have that before I need it.

[Jules]

Does anyone have the link to the printable replacement parts mentioned here? I'd love to have that before I need it.

Yup! They list all the parts on their website wiki:

http://makergear.wikidot.com/m2-components

[insta]

damn that's some hella thread necro, you two