My original review below was a cautionary tale for anyone buying the M3D. I received a new one about a month ago. Taking the cover off the print head and looking around, it has been redesigned in may ways. I have had much better luck with this unit, consistent prints and the failed prints with this printer were the result of me working with the variables, such as temperature, etc. not a product problem. For the money, I would now say this is a very good first 3D printer now.
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I was a kickstarter backer for this item. It did not work out of the box. I got birds nests on everything. I gave it a little time as they were filling kickstarter orders and, all early kickstarter delivers, regardless of product, are really beta items, no matter how you slice it.
The support was helpful in the beginning. They were aware that the early units shipped with substandard parts, and they sent me a new extruder, and a new fan. I would get one good print and think it was fixed. I never got more than one good print in a row, and never got anything to print successfully that was more than 3/4" tall. I went through a lot of filament with only about 5-6, certainly less than 10, prints to show for it.
M3D finally threw up their hands about a month ago and advised I submit an RMA. the RMA took 3 weeks for a response. The response was that they were not going to stand by the product, but that I can buy a refurb for discount from the price of a new printer. I took this option, only because I have filament and extra nozzles that I bought because they were clogging on every print at the end. However, I paid for the replacement unit on 2/22/2016, and got a notice that the order shipped complete. Tracking the order only shows a label created, this is on 2/27/2016. I HAVE NO IDEA IF OR WHEN THE REPLACEMENT THAT I PAID FOR, THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN COVERED UNDER WARRANTY, WILL EVER SHIP.
The concept is great. It is easier to use and more consumer friendly than any other printer I have seen. However, I would not at this time advise purchasing this product. Mainly due to the fact that M3D did not support this product in a manner that it ever functioned properly. I view my kickstarter pledge (as I view all my kickstarter pledges) as an investment in the technology. Not as a purchase of a product. This is the only reason to buy the M3D at this time.
3 Likes
it is far for being a consumer product. they need to get the right people with kickass skill to overhaul their software. I was about ready to shelf my kickstarter M3D but a user Donovan6000 came up with M3Dfio software that put the official M3d software to shame. I’ve been using this 3rd party software for a few weeks and had not look back to the official software since.
even with M3Dfio, there’s still a ton of work to figure out by trial and error hot to get perfect circle and how to manually adjust nozzle height in all 5 spots.
doable but cumbersome.
+1 @ StephenC
Check out M3DFIO by user Donovan6000. Works great and is nearly constantly updated. Runs on windows, osx, linux, octoprint/octopi.
https://github.com/donovan6000/M3D-Fio
http://plugins.octoprint.org/plugins/m3dfio
I’ve had a lot of success with my Kickstarter edition. Very few failed prints. I agree the software is not great and have also recently installed python to use octoprint and M3Dfio. There is a google plus group that some m3d owners are members of and this might be a good way to help resolve your problems, using the m3d community.
Dremmen
February 29, 2016, 7:43am
5
I already built a DIY 3d printer before pledging the micro. Therefore, the recalibration of the nozzle to the bed was no problem for me. And enabling the raft at the micro I enjoyed the print results. But, one time I designed a part with very slim walls and bottom and I got the same bird nest results, no matter how I recalibrated it. I guess, the M3D printer software slicer rounds down the wall/layer thickness and then skips the layer if it calculates less than 1 layer thickness. Thus, the following layers won’t stick anymore and the bird nest is born. It took me several hours to figure this out. Increasing the wall thickness of the printed object in design (!) did workaround this problem of the M3D software.
I hope, this could help you some time.
I had a few failed prints with mine to start with but each software update has brought reliability improvements. I like how the stock software has basic and expert mode but its far from ideal, I basically just leave it on one setting now and change quality / fill to suit. I don’t really see why the basic side needs to know what colour, just what material. It definitely feels rushed, like they had a load of good ideas but not the time or skills to implement it so its ended up a bit messy with none of it finished properly.
I’m just trying the OctoPrint for the first time, so far there are bits I like and bits I don’t, it’d be nice to see how long a print is expected to take before you press go and its not the most intuitive software being that you have to go through a load of steps but we’ll have to see how it goes. To be honest my main bug with it right now is that the light on the front is flickering like its about to blow a bulb.
In some ways I couldn’t agree more, but overall I’d have to disagree with you. The M3D is certainly still a beta product, and yes I agree that it is far from being ready for consumers, but I think that overall they got most things right.
Like you, I bought one off Kickstarter shortly after they launched (I was February tier if that means anything to you). But, unlike you, after 10 minutes of it doing it’s auto-calibration I was ready to print. And the prints were fine. Certainly not a works of art, but they were fine for me as a beginner. And, as PodgeOneThousan said, it has been slightly better with every software update.
While I can’t call it an amazing printer (I sold mine and upgraded after six months), I think that they have done a good job and are well on the way to having an excellent product, even if they are not there yet. But for a grand total of $350, I can’t really complain.
Following on from this, I’ve gone back to the standard software and noticed there’s been a few updates, the basic side of it is now far more user friendly. For what I do with it, it works well, maybe not the best but then it was around a third of the price of anything else on the market at the time. I probably wouldn’t buy one again as I know its limitations but I would suggest it be added to a short list for a new user.
Hardware wise, I only really use mine for about 5 hours every 2 weeks and hardly ever change the filament so its not getting a particularly hard life, I imagine someone using it much more frequently may well find its limitations much sooner than me.
As a follow up: The unit I got via kickstarter had known bad parts. They sent me replacements along the way, but really just strung me out until the warranty was up and then said, “You are on your own.” Note that it never worked, even poorly, in the first place. I have a degree in chemistry, work as a chemist and make a lot of the equipment I need for my work. So I qualify as a Maker. If I can’t get this to go, then I feel confident that I had a bad unit, especially given the feedback in this post. The problem is much more with company than the product. The concept is great, I really put a lot of time into trying to get this to work, and still want it to. However, with a company that is still seriously teething not providing a level of service on a bad unit to get it working, you need to cross this one off your list until they are able to support it properly. I think they will get there, they just are not there now.
Each 3d printer has different problem zones. No printer is “perfect”. The M3D still runs better (less problems) than my Prusa i2 3d printer. Without spending time for locating and circumvent the issues you are never satisfied with any printer. If the vendor would honestly mention their gathered issues and possible solutions it COULD be a good entry 3d printer. Here are my findings about the M3D: Positive: * still very cheap * auto bed calibration * sticky bed surface (using raft or wave bonding setting) * good extruder head and nozzle (using pla filament only) * long time prints can be left alone * cute design Negative: * internal filament spool feeder not reliable * diameter of filament spools to small (feeder issues) * few bugs in (slicer) software * slow bugfix iterations for software * no easy alternative software replacement * best print result not with highest quality setting (medium is best compromise) * only one part can be printed at a print run * no heated bed for reliable ABS filament prints Although the cons are much more, I appreciate having backed the Micro M3D. Because, I follow some simple rules: * printing only PLA filament * using only external filament spool on a turn table and with greater diameter (min. 750g spools) * analysing and fixing foreign designs with Meshmixer before I print it (* designing my own parts with OpenSCAD) Of course, the M3D is beta and it took much more time than they thought. But, in my opinion they did a good job for their first product. Build your own 3d printer at that price point and you will value the M3D from another point of view.
1 Like
I feel terrible because I heard a bunch of good about these and a friend that isn’t really into 3d printing that just wanted one to make little toys and fun bought one and he hates the machine. He has really had nothing but problems. It’s a shame.
I got my Warranty replacement after some waiting. It was to be a refurb, but it looked new to me. Had a different extruder mechanism than my original Kickstarter model. I updated the software and firmware and printed the 0.4mm calibration without issue. I then went to print a quick test print that was small, 3 x 5 x 2 cm model. The raft printed fine and the first few mm, but then stopped extruding. I tried removing the filament and replacing it, but it would not feed. Tried 2 other colors and nothing would load. Removed the ink, cleaned the nozzle per their directions, and still nothing. Empty, I tried heating it to 275 via manual GCode. It was never able to hold the temp. it would reach 275 and then drop down and go back up. Plus, the fan made a load grinding noise that would subside when I would tap the center of the fan. Just like a cooling fan on a CPU or power supply that is about to fail. Serious QC problems. It is worth noting that they failed to stand by the original printer, and made me pay for a refurb. I only did so because I had a pretty good investment in their filaments. Still a beta company.
3DVS
June 6, 2016, 1:41pm
13
@StephenC How often do you have to manually adjust the nozzle height ?
With the standard M3D software I run a bed calibration each 1-2 days or so.
