This is a story about dipping a toe into the new technology. Unfortunately, it resulted in\u00a0just sore toes.<\/p>\n
While exploring 3D printers at the 2015 CES, I came across Polar3D. Made in the U.S. (they claim)\u00a0and having a very novel method of moving the platform on the X&Z axis instead of the head\u00a0jerking to and fro. The extruder still worked on the Y axis (up and down). It has a full metal body,\u00a0which is really rare at the price point of $800 ($600 for students).<\/p>\n
However, turn it over and the magic disappears. The entire precision mechanism for the X&Z axis\u00a0is out of plastic. You don’t have to be an engineering genius to figure out what will happen after a bit of use.<\/p>\n
Now the fun begins … Paid for in full, no product for over a month with absolutely no contact\u00a0about when I could expect it. (this was a harbinger of things to come I realize now). Only after\u00a0countless calls\/emails and apologies did it finally show. Setup wasn’t really all that hard and I had\u00a0a test guitar pick in just a few minutes. What differentiates this unit from the mainstream units\u00a0is the ability to control it via the Polar3D website. That decision was disastrous.\u00a0The web site is so riddled with problems that I’d have to devote an entire page to it’s woes.\u00a0More calls to Polar, problems persist … soon it begins leaking molten plastic around the extruder.\u00a0They say tighten it. But more than a fraction of an inch breaks the wires to the heating elements.\u00a0They apologize & say a “few” units got out without being tightened.\u00a0The screaming of the moving metal pieces is really irritating me now.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 I grab white lithium grease.\u00a0They say a “few” units got out without being lubed.\u00a0Now, the leaking is out of control … a call to Polar & I’m told they’ll get a new unit to me ASAP.\u00a0Two weeks later, I call and find they forgot to send it as it was sitting “behind a door”. More\u00a0apologies. New unit arrives … screaming metal moving pieces again. I lube the wear prone\u00a0plastic gears too. The drive screw for the Y axis (and this is not a joke) was connected by a\u00a0plastic tube reministic of a “Home Depot” plumbing part to the stepper motor. Every day the\u00a0printer had some issue. While this is still a relatively new technology, I was dumbfounded\u00a0at the basic mistakes made at almost every turn by Polar3D. I’d call them and explain what\u00a0new problem I found and they would claim it must be “user error” as no one else was having\u00a0these issues.\u00a0 I can only assume they don’t read their own support comments. Literally every issue\u00a0I was having seemed to plague others. Eventually after another firmware update, the printer decided\u00a0that it would only print from the extreme edge of the platform.<\/p>\n
Wouldn’t be a problem except the head is now ramming into the platform and refuses to print in the center,\u00a0no matter what is done. A call to Polar and they say a “few” of the units have this issue.\u00a0At this point I’ve had as much “fun” with the Polar3D experience as I could and ask for a refund.\u00a0They agree … if I pay for the return. A poster child for lousy customer service. I burn rubber for\u00a0the UPS store.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 I have no clue why I thought they would be different when it came to the refund.\u00a0Sure enough, over two weeks later and no refund … another phone call. Polar3D is the gift that\u00a0just keeps giving.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is a story about dipping a toe into the new technology. Unfortunately, it resulted in\u00a0just sore toes. While exploring 3D printers at the 2015 CES, I came across Polar3D. Made in the U.S. (they claim)\u00a0and having a very novel method of moving the platform on the X&Z axis instead of the head\u00a0jerking to and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1141"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1391,"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1141\/revisions\/1391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}