Question for those with access to high end “professional” 3d printers. Do they sometimes have problems with starting the print? I have my printers calibrated very well now and in general if I can get the first 10 layers to print OK then everything will work great for the rest of the print.
Do the high end printers ever have false starts that require you to sit and watch things for a while? If not how do they perform so well? I’m thinking Objet and other $20K + FDM printers.
Thanks all.
I know my university’s Zprinter sometimes has issues distributing the powder evenly - sometimes even mid-print. That’s not a FDM printer, though.
Interesting. I thought for the money the machines were somehow ultra reliable compared to the hobby class.
One more anecdote on how RepRap >> Zprinter:
One day, the Zprinter broke - it was some small plastic part that acts as a collecting tray for waste ink. To replace it, they would have had to order the grossly overpriced part, wait for it to arrive and then have a technician install it, but instead of throwing more money at Zcorp, they had me print them a replacement part on the RepRap Sells Mendel that’s sitting right next to the Zprinter. Two hours, one and a half revisions and 50g of filament later, they had a fully working Zprinter again 
I’d like to know that too. I typically wait for a few layers, I don’t have confidence in unattended starts. For me smaller, finer deposits are problematic. Same for support material.