After a few years of pining for a 3D printer I finally bought one and received it late last week. I have used 3D printers in the past, I built a reprap and have a makerbot replicator at work. I chose the MakerGear M2 for a number of different reasons, this community being one of them and from my limited work with CNC and my experience building a reprap the M2 had the engineering "robustness" that I was looking for. I love to tinker but with work and the family I don't have time to tinker.. I just want to print!
I am using an Autodesk Maya to Simplify3D tool chain which has its proportion/scale challenges but as I use Maya in my professional life it just make sense for me.
My experience so far as a Noob to Maker Gear M2.
1. My printer arrived in good time along with my selection of many filament colors. I ordered a spare extruder, the kit for international orders. In my experience its sometimes just not worth messing with the extruder and it is awesome to be able to just swap it out if you run into trouble, hopefully it will be awhile before I need it.
2. The printer did not print at all out of the box I suspect due to shipping, I did not have to touch the Z axis stop bolt but I did have to level the bed. It took me a few hours to get used to leveling the bed and I did used the "wizard" in simplify 3D but I managed to get it working well. I can see how leveling is key to quality and there are some great methods to help tweak your bed leveling. The construction is solid I am confident after a I have been printing for a few days that I won't have to touch it for a while.
3. The first thing I printed was a ruler to validate my 3D to real life measurements. Autodesk Maya's concept of a Centimeter is completely wrong but Simplify 3D is bang on as was the ruler model I pulled from thingaverse, so its all good.
4. I live in a small town home with my family, I don't have a garage or a lot of space and there is no power in my crawl space... so after spending 2 days cleaning up my computer desk I was finally able to print... My wife was not happy with how loud the printer was, that main fan will likely be my first of very limited mod attempts but I will bring that discussion to another thread.
Currently I am printing Nerf Scopes for the Neighborhood kids before I move on to more practical models like a screen door handle and coat hooks
. Thanks
/ryan
