Gonna be a fun weekend!
Congrats! I'm sure you'll have fun with it. When it's all together, let us know if it "just works" like they claim
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I love the marketing around these things. Two of my printers "just worked"... until they didn't anymore. Finally fixed the Zortrax after being dead for two years with little clue as to what went south. Turns out that the thing ate one of it's own wires deep inside of a protective sleeve where it couldn't be seen, after only around 150 hours. But credit where credit is due, once I fixed the wire it's still making PERFECT parts. The other (a little UP! unit), while not inexpensive and a small build volume, was always a trooper. There's thousands of hours on it and many, many parts made. Still works, but the heating element wires broke (can't re-attach with regular solder...it melts) and the nozzle/extruder tube is hopelessly plugged. Nothing time and money won't fix, but I don't need it right now.
The other two, well, I don't like to think about them too much. Let's just say you made a wise decision by purchasing a printer with a decent record of support and a vibrant community. Clone printers from unknown Chinese companies should be avoided like the COOF. I have a 50lb "red star" monster with a crazy build quality that I don't think I ever got a good print out of. By time I finally reached out to the company to try to get it's brain upgraded enough to be usable, they had already moved on to different design without making any improvements to the firmware to make it usable. It's a nice foundation for DIY and should be pretty amazing with enough tinkering, but for what it cost it should have done as well as the Zortrax. I'll be attempting a brain transplant on that one soon, so wish me luck (I'll need it ).
Another clone (if you can really call it that...I'll lay money that even Crealitys are crapped out of the same Chinese factory) was a Labists. Looked nice, easy to set up, but terrible problems. Would often die in the middle of a print by either backing the filament all the way out for no reason or sitting in the middle of it's own giant glob of melted filth, while stuttering like it was having a seizure. The extruder never seemed to get hot enough so it was constantly grinding filament, etc. Upgraded the firmware, but still the same issues and no fix in sight from the company. Finally re-built the hot-end with a cheap aftermarket for a different printer (even bought spares) and at least that part was finally doing it's job, but still had the random spazz-out. But one day I made the mistake of trying to clear melted plastic from around the heater and saw some sparks and lost the display. Not one of the half-dozen fuses on the mainboard blew, but the processor fried and was heating the regulator up way high. Waiting now on a mainboard from an Anet (which is a virtually identical printer with an absolutely identical mainboard...outside of the firmware) to attempt a transplant/personality change. I never considered that the touchscreen might have it's own firmware which may not be compatible. Guess I'll find out when it gets here.
But in the meantime, I just got in a Creality Ender 3 V2 yesterday, which is waiting for me to put it together. The bed sensor should arrive today. This one gives me hope, due to the huge community, aftermarket support and decent company reputation. Somehow, I get the feeling that it will soon be dashed, but that's just experience talking.
I have enough printers for a nice little farm, but at the moment it's more like a 3D printing slum. My new year's resolution is to whip these things into submission, even it it kills me (it well may).
Thanks for letting me vent. I feel better now