When buying a new Geeetch (or other) 3D Printer

[TMeeks]

At YouthQuest Foundation, we have built 4 Geeetech i3 style 3D printers so far. In addition, we have optimized other brands of the same style printer.

FIRST

One of the most important things to remember when purchasing your first 3D printer is that ALL printers, at some point, get shipped and what happens to them during shipping is out of control of the shipper. It doesn't matter if you pay $200 or $5000, shipping can take a toll on your new printer.

This means that it's wise to first evaluate the parts of your printer BEFORE beginning the construction. Of the four printers we have built so far, at least one needed to have the bottom assembly realigned. It was as simple as loosening the bolts and letting the bottom frame settle on a flat surface. But, had we not checked first, it would have causes problems. In fact, in this particular box, both the top and bottom were misaligned. Having worked with 3 other printers we know that is not the norm for Geeetech, so it HAD to be a shipping issue.

SECOND

In all 3D printers, some parts are more prone to failure than others. Fortunately, most of the more vulnerable parts are very inexpensive. We suggest buying extra bed and nozzle Thermistors. Again, this is NOT a Geeetech problem. Our $1000 i3 style printer, from another manufacturer, blew out the hotend thermistor almost immediately. It's cheap insurance to have them onhand.

THIRD

Include the 3DTouch probe. It is an amazing value and makes it infinitely easier to produce good printers by better level and gap management. We did find on all of our Geeetech printers, so far, that we had to flip the mount to have the proper clearance. And, be sure to mount the 3DTouch absolutely perpendicular to the print plate. Early next week, we will upload an STL that helps you do so.

FOURTH

Take the time to level and gap before trying your first print. Otherwise, you have a near 1000% chance of disappointment. Again, because we have had to develop tools for our teachers, we will make these tools available to everyone as they are tested and cleared. All the tools will be uploaded to Dropbox for permanent availability.

We've used a dozen or so different brands, models and types of 3D printers. We would not stick with Geeetech if they did not deliver good value to our programs. We don't get any of them free. So, we, like you, want to make sure that we cover ourselves by always having backup parts on hand of the things that experience shows, from using a variety of 3D printers, can fail so that we minimize any downtime in our educational mission.

Our theme with our at-risk students is that "Failures are Not Final" and that is true of the equipment we use. We know we will have failures... that is the nature of 3D printers. In fact, we were just donated a Projet 3150HDMax printer that cost originally 100,000. Yet, we need to evaluate the printer before deciding to keep it because the yearly maintenance cost will be $15,000! So, apparently, 3D Systems feels it is going to take a lot of maintenance to keep it running. The bottom line is that we need to be sure that a "Free" printer will be a good value by bringing in the income to pay for that maintenance.

[jamewilon22]

Really amazed to see such amazing innovations as 3D Printer.