Are you happy with your MakerGear hot-end?

[Rick Pollack]

People have been buying knock-off MakerGear parts - parts advertised as being the similar to MakerGear parts - and having problems for a long time. It has been a headache for me as it has resulted in increased incident support time and confusion in the MarketPlace. I've asked on multiple occasions for this to stop, but it hasn't.

Some people experience these problems and post on forums that there is a problem with the design rather than considering it was a problem with the specific parts they used. We invest a lot of time to develop these parts and a lot of capital to have them manufactured. So, I'm asking for some help here, if you like our hot-ends and other products and you'd like for us to continue using standards (like M6), then how about showing some support...

Here is a recent example.

Thanks.

[Jordan Miller]

ummm... i don't understand. he never said or implied it was makergear parts that were failing...

in general i think you have the best mindshare and most devoted user base among technically literate people. That can only help things. Maybe post in the IRC when you see another example?

Whiners and complainers are always around... not much you can do i suspect.

jordan

[Rick Pollack]

"if you use a two part nozzle like the big head nozzle"

Big head is not a generic term to me. 7/16" nozzle is generic.

[Bill Culverhouse]

Wow good eye. I read through there too and didn't see that.

 

It's interesting that they call it that. The big head wasn't the first two part nozzle.

Just the best. :-)

 

-b

[tmo]

i absolutely love everything that i have bought from you. i had one
heatcore fail after about 5 months of continuous use and probably 10
lbs of plastic through it. i have to admit i probably put it together
wrong, it was my first one and i think i pulled off too much
insulation.

i just chipped off the ceramic, replaced the nichrome (it came with an
extra piece) slapped on more ceramic and it was back in action,
probably run 5 more lbs through it. i have also run some really
crappy plastic through the nozzle and it takes it like a champ.

if anyone is on the fence about buying anything from you i have to say
that i have been extremely happy with everything and it has in general
exceeded my expectations. if i ever had any questions or concerns the
questions have been answered immediately. the plastic that i have
been using lately is pretty dirty and i have to clean out the top of
the extruder every few hours (chunks of dust). i have never had a
makergear .35 nozzle ever clog or stop on me and i really treat the
stuff pretty badly and run it hours and hours every day.

if people are talking badly about your product, they either dont have
it, trying to sell competing products, never tried it or really failed
when putting it together.

On Feb 22, 10:45 am, Rick Pollack <r...@makergear.com> wrote:
> "if you use a two part nozzle like the big head nozzle"
>
> Big head is not a generic term to me. 7/16" nozzle is generic.
>

[M L]

Heck, I love the big head nozzle. I've bought 2 now from Makergear
(ABS, and a separate for PLA). Both have worked fantastically, and I
am quite happy with it. I particularly think everyone should move to
using 0.35 nozzles with PLA - it is working like a charm for me.

-Matt

[DJU]

I've been caught up a little bit in the confusion about hot ends and
where they come from. At one point, I thought the source on the forums
was actually maybe a Makergear nozzle before Rick had actually gone in
to full blown business. Also I've read that these nozzles were
previously commissioned by Makergear from the guy on the forums, which
initially added to my confusion on who was supporting these parts,
even though Rick totally helped me out and by doing so has earned my
loyalty as a resource.

My problems were related to jams and clogs, and despite having been
through a few replacements that have eventually brought me to a fully
Makergear'd hot end, I found that most of my issue was user error in
not temping out my PLA properly. I found that the material I was using
had been found to be best used at 200-210C. Since I was running at
190, the common issue of backflow and cold zones was my real enemy.

My insight here is that, while it wasn't the parts, the emulation of
different sources took me quite a bit longer to find who really could
support me in the learning process. I wouldn't appreciate someone
cloning my hard work and not being available to support people's
learning curve from their separate product. But a positive thing is
that Rick has been willing to shoulder that work, and it should be
guaranteed that the karma comes back.

Regards,
David

[Mark Cohen]

I have bought at least 7 hot ends from you. Only one Hybrid failed, but so
did the one I bought from Brian Reifsnyder. This was probably do to my own
mistakes with PLA as I really use only ABS. No complaints. Without your hot
ends I would not be printing. I am just waiting for some connection wire and
I will be using your Stepper this weekend.

[Joel Chia]

I purchased a superpack with an assembled heatcore and haven't had any problems.

I only had issues with 1 heatcore, but that was assembled by me. The fully assembled one worked like a charm.

The nozzle works great. Ploughs though small blobs at high speeds without any issue.

I'm not sure if it's the nozzle or the heatcore, my nozzle temps are stable @ +- 1 degree off target vs my stock makerbot's at +- 3 degrees.

All in all, Rick's hot end + brutstruder is much more reliable than MBI's mk4 extruder.

Cheers,
-Joel

[Dave Casey]

I am extremely happy with the parts and service I've received from makergear. In terms of quality, service, and support, they simply can't be beat. Makergear prices are more than reasonable, and it is difficult for me to imagine why anyone, after investing hundreds of dollars in a printer, would scrimp and buy a crappy knockoff instead of buying the real deal from makergear.

[ddurant]

> Are you happy with your MakerGear hot-end?

Yes!!

> Here is a recent example <http://forums.reprap.org/read.php?1,74443>.
>
> Thanks.

[Karl Gustav Rutz]

My only complaint is that that your stuff is so popular that the parts I want are always sold out, and that the job of actually selling and supporting your stuff leaves you less time for R&D :D

Remember that customers who like your products talk with their wallets. Weigh that against any negative vibe you might get from message boards.

Also, if Big Heads specifically are getting a lot of hate because of knock-off versions, maybe buy a punch with "MG" or something and stamp the logo into the side of the nozzle or etch it in with a laser.

Last thought: have you considered farming out some of your support to users? A lot of your documentation is missing or needs updating, and there are plenty of experienced folks who would write up assembly instruction for a crack at free prototypes.

[Cid Vilas]

I'll write up documentation and do videos for prototype components. :)

[Rick Pollack]

Thank you for the feedback.

I should have been more clear...what I was asking for was support in the forums. People don't do their homework and they post damaging stuff in popular forums. While the guy in this post was not directly referring to our products, he used the name of our products and that requires me to do damage control. It is not only irritating, it is time-consuming. Moreover, the reason he used our name is that the person selling the parts used our part name and company name in their ad. Trademarks -> legal fees -> increased costs...I've tried to avoid that but...

...with every iteration, volume goes up and costs goes up. In order for me to continue make these investments, I need help countering this type of stuff...

Rick

[Jordan Miller]

ok time to trademark it then. "big head" *is* a generic term unfortunately...

jordan

[Andrew Plumb]

On the other hand, "BigHead Extruder" is likely trademark-able. <insert IANAL disclaimer her>

Andrew.

--

Makerbot Number Nine... #9... 0x09... 0o11... 0b1001... 
http://clothbot.com/wiki/MakerBotNumberNine

[Jordan Miller]

Hi Rick,

I don't know, i can't see your business slowing down anytime soon. on the contrary i think it is only going to improve. It is a total waste of time to do damage control IMHO. Especially when there are other things that will get you more customers.

Better to do things like make the website more user friendly (e.g. why radio buttons instead of checkboxes on the order pages? I ALWAYS WANT MORE THAN ONE THING FROM YOUR SITE!!!!).

if you're still not sure, just look at makerbot. They get slammed to all hell everywhere you look, in forums on mailing lists, in IRC, but they are still making an absolute killing and dramatically growing the market for everyone.

it's a good time to be in the 3d printing world!

jordan

[neoteric]

I added my 2 cents to that forum. Stand up for Rick!

Its an interesting read. Rick tries to help, finds out the part is
not his, then gets beat up on for pointing that out. Wow.

[Paul Huckabee]

Stay classy internets :\

[Mark Cohen]

Hi,

It may be a little difficult to see as it flipped over but thats my
MakerGear Stepper Extruder on the right, bottom, in front of my
printed Makerbot and the print head on the Bot is a MakerGear nozzle.

http://blog.makerbot.com/2011/02/24/we-heart-makerbot-operators-mark-c/#more-7413

Regards,
Mark

> > not his, then gets beat up on for pointing that out.  Wow.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -