Originally shared by Whosa whatsis
The 5th Gen Makerbots were actually printing for the first time at Maker Faire. They were not printing well. There was visible skipping, and the surfaces were extremely porous. The four printers they had at the booth were two Replicator Minis (one of which was broken), one 5th Gen Replicator, and a Rep 2 (also not running). The Z18 was nowhere to be seen.
Nobody working the booth was active enough in the community to recognize me, and the representative I talked to (who seemed to be the one in charge) couldn’t answer any of my questions, saying that the machines were really new, and that they don’t know much about them (one wonders what their jobs actually entail…), and I had to define “racking” for him, but I did talk him into letting me feel the motion of broken Mini (which had a belt detached). The motion felt pretty smooth, and I wasn’t able to detect any racking by trying (with one hand) to twist the X axis in the mini (though I suspect the much longer one in the full-size Replicator would give different results). I did notice in my visual inspection of the working Mini that the X axis was not parallel to the front edge of the machine, indicating that the X and Y axes probably weren’t quite perpendicular.
What may cause the surface to have porosity?
It’s usually under-extrusion. Could be caused by extruder problems or slicing issues.
Wow, that print is pretty embarrassing.
I had the same problem with my makerbot… ended up returning it. I am going to pre order a Cel Robox, their printer looks really good.
They probably wanted to save a couple K by not sending someone who knows the product thoroughly along with the marketing folks and ended up with the equipment looking bad. Common corporate event/trade show mistake it seems. Well, that’s my guess anyway. 
Nice quick write up. Thank you
I’m not very knowledgeable here, but very impressed with your knowledge nonetheless. I’d like to see the sintering models get cheaper, so everyone could print a defensive firearm on the cheap, with no unconstitutional numbering, etc. That might actually reduce rape, assault, etc.
It is not pretty good but what do you expect from a $2,899 machine?
You mean it’s not supposed to look like that?
… They are going for a “vintage” 3D printed look…
Where was their tech at for the show?
The fellow I talked to was only a temp working the show. I did not want to spend much of my precious time there, so I just mentioned that it was nice that they are at least printing and not static displays.
Why would you even bother sending a temp to something like that? What’s their purpose, just to guard the machines to make sure nobody takes them? To look pretty? The people working a booth need to be knowledgeable enough to answer questions.
I would be embarrassed. Bre didn’t have to be there, but somebody competent
