Can anyone, who actually owns one, comment on the quality of the Solidoodle 2nd or 3rd Generation printers, customer service and print quality? I know of someone looking and this looks like a decent printer @ the price point it’s sold at.
I ordered my Solidoodle 2nd gen (Pro model that includes the heated bed) a week ago and it arrived last night - so 6 days from order to delivery including the weekend. I saw a review on youtube that said the 3rd gen was not worth the cost over the second gen, as it was principally a larger print volume and not much else, which is why I went for the 2nd gen.
It seemed to work ok out of the box, though it took me a while to get used to the repetier software that runs it. I had all kinds of trouble getting the first prints to work as they all pulled up from the bed during the print, not matter how high I set the bed temperature. I tried some other tweaks in the print settings but gave up as it was too confusing for a noob like me.
Tonight I tried and failed a few more times and was about to try formulating some “ABS + acetone” juice, but tried some glue stick as others had mentioned, and it did manage to do the job in holding the part onto the base. But the prints are a little bit skewed, which means belts, pulleys, etc. need to be tweaked. Also the X-motor is super hot which I read on their site means the trim pots need to be adjusted. So yes, it worked with some minor frustrations, and it needs a couple more hours of tweaking to get it running smoothly and precisely.
It is a relatively cheap printer, but it looks like something I can figure out even with my limited expertise, given the resources available online. Overall I’d give it 3 stars out of 5. If it improves in the useability with some easy tweaks I may go up to a 4. No direct contact with the staff yet, so I can’t say how reactive and attentive they are.
Hope this helps!
Thanks! Sounds like the same level of “issues” I had with my ToM a couple years ago (almost the exact same issues - well except the no assembly required)…
I use Kaption tape on an Aluminum build plate over the HBP to get my prints to stick…and a level bed is absolutely key. I’ll pass this information onto my friend who is considering one of these.