What is the lifetime of a makerbot

[rdot]

What is the expected lifetime do you think of a typical makerbot,
particularly the ToM? Afterall, it is not exactly cheap either. Ive
only used my ToM for about a week or two and already I can hear some
pretty unpleasant sounding squeaks even though I have lubricated the
rods pretty well already.

Have you ever had to change out wore out bearings, rods etc?

How many years of life of relatively continuous usage?

[Karl Gustav Rutz]

Use your makerbot product to make improved parts for your makerbot product. This will occupy your first half a year of operation. We call this "fun." It's a self feeding hobby. If you want something more, spend 100X as much.

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[Mike Payson]

That is a surprisingly hard to answer question. Most of the components
on the Makerbot have a fairly long life expectancy You will not use it
as is, you will gradulaly upgrade and tweak it. You will buy new and
improved parts, and some parts may occasionally break and need
replacement. But unlike most consumer items, the Makerbot is not a
dead end. One of the most common uses for a makerbot is to use it to
print a new RepRap 3d printer. And then you can use your new RepRap to
print yet another printer, in a very real sense the Makerbot's life
expectancy is infinite, every time it starts to wear out or starts to
become obsolete just print up a new one.

In terms of "continuous usage", these are not precision machines...
Things will break and fail, but most parts are fairly easily sourced
if you cannot print your own replacement part. They will test your
patience at times. Don't get one if you want a machine that you plug
in and it just works. These machines are a hobby in themselves. But
with care and the occasioanl replacement part or upgrade, there is
really no reason the basic machine will not last you for many years.
The technology is changing so fast that I suspect it is safe to say
you will want to replace it with something newer and better long
before it actually wears out.

[Luis E. Rodriguez]

Welcome to the world of open source. What I love about Makerbot is they do the best damn job they can in R&D and then let us improve upon it. If it's printing fine, enjoy the squeaks or print some of the X axis upgrades people are coming up with, read Ed Nisely's blog. I'm waiting for the lowerider, ToM edition myself! CALLING AARON DOUBLE OUT!

 

I have to say this printer's life is soley dependent on you. Did you re-calibrate the stepper drivers to the new values, up to date on firmware? Tried the latest Rep G 25 or Rob's Volumetric Rep G 24? Clean that idler wheel? Tighten all those bolts? Use thread locker? It's endless but I have learned from a friend that when it's printing....JUST PRINT! I have some annoying rattles, loose screw somewhere but its printing damn good right now so I don't need to monkey with it.

 

The bleeding edge can hurt!

 

I'd rather figure this out before <INSERT LARGE CORPORATION HERE> releases some $200 plastic/glass one! Scary but the first time Hot Wheels sells one that prints cars or som other toy company  mass produces it like an easy bake oven, the contest is over ot just got more exciting!

 

Sorry for the rant, distracted at work today. NEXT THREAD!

Luis E. Rodriguez

Are you a Maker?

[Aaron Double]

I hear you Luis,

There are a couple challenges to doing a lowrider for T-O-M.

1. I don't have one to tinker with and measure to get the data to do it.

2. The cupcake one took weeks, like 5 hours a day for weeks. I went through over 5lb of plastic printing lowrider variations (I don't want to get into how much plastic I went through on the Z-rider). I just don't have the time to do it right now.

Aaron

[Luis E. Rodriguez]

I know, I was just kidding. I'm going to print one out for me cupcake! I know your busy!

 

I think it's someone else's turn!

Luis E. Rodriguez

Are you a Maker?

[Aaron Double]

I'll happily hand over the current solidworks file:-)

Aaron

[Whosawhatsis]

Among the many projects I'm juggling is an X/Y lower-rider (I think I
can go 10mm lower). It's in OpenSCAD and simplified, so it should be
easier to adapt to the ToM (though I too don't have one to take
measurements and experiment).

[Oren Beck]

The basic concept of "Lifetime" is a semantic fail for most non-
monolithic machines. Not so for their components. Even as an assembly,
ratings of X metric for TBO only works comparing identical
applications. MTBF is equally void for Hacker/Hobby gear that's not
intended to compete in that metric either. Face it, it's going to be a
while till Fabbers match that Netware server that had been drywalled
and forgotten- for at least 4 years- zero downtime! But- we're getting
closer. There's more than one person on list who IIRC has left a shop
of CNC stuff running fully lights out as routine operation.

If you're planning doing unattended runs of a 'bot- consider a "Smoke
Operated Relay" and similar safety precautions.

As when, not if some component does reach it's end time, there's a
risk of Something going Wrong. Hopefully-it will be Zero Drama.. but
if it's not a clean shutdown? That's when you will discover if your
planning was "Good Enough" as a fire can terminate both 'bot and your
family or more! We have *NOT* had any bad press incidents so far and I
devoutly want to keep it so- ok? MBI makes a good system, but it's up
to us operators to keep it safe!

I have worked on things with heaters and safety switches for them over
most of my life. Which has shown me every sort of malfunction that you
CAN'T believe could come up eventually will. Lord Murphy is what he
is. Things like one shot thermal fuses backing up manually resettable
or self-resetting thermals only work if they're not replaced with
paper clips.. The reason I mention that is- one lifetime of heaters
issue in these 'bots may be the lack of overheat protections. WE
casually handwave away how many times we overheat them while testing
etc, and each time we do so- it's a cycle of overstress. How many
overheats equals how many hours of normal operation? Do consider we're
overheating the whole system outwards and also stressing the PSU, FET,
Wiring etc too. That's a "Lifetime" affecting concept if we evaluate
it as such.

The closer- Each component in that 'bot is dependent on you for
keeping it aligned to spec, fed with clean power, lubricated or air
cooled as needed and yes, replaced at the component level as each part
becomes no longer "good enough" for it's duties.

[Adam]

I have one of the first ToM's (#3104) running since just before
christmas 2010 and it has never been working better than today. Of
course, I've done a lot of upgrades and tweaking along the way.

The parts of a ToM that are going to wear out aren't the bearings and
rods, it's going to be things like the hot end heater, maybe the
electronics, the moving wires, the motors if you over heat them and
the Y-axis idler support.

Adjusting your motor driver current limits correctly (
http://wiki.makerbot.com/thingomatic-doc:calibration ) and working
your way through the upgrade list ( http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6443
) will go a long way towards keeping your bot happily printing for a
long, long time.

[Mark Cohen]

I think I've printed several thousand things and hundreds of hours. Nothing has worn out. Occasionally  a wire breaks  or a switch. The sounds you hear are probably the bearings not aligned yet or the belt is too tight. I live with these issues as they do not seem to cause any real problems.

Sent from my iPhone

[rdot]

Another thing I noticed recently is the z axis rods are definately
getting some wear going (or some will say getting worn in), because
metal particles are clearly visible in the oiled rod (for example if
you wipe the rods or if the excess oil is collected at the bottom of
the rod ready to drip etc).

[Mike Payson]

If you are seeing metal particles, they should be from the bronze
bushings, not from the rods. The bushings are made of a softer
material by design so they wear out instead of the rod. It is true
that you will need to replace them eventually, but they will last for
many hundreds (thousands?) of prints and they are cheap (about $1.50
each from SDP-SI.com).

[Brian Stott]

Normal bushing seat in period event. Wipe, oil and be sure they are aligned for smooth operation.