I can’t post a review on the actual Tripodmaker 3dHubs page so I will post it here, in hopes of helping some else avoid the nightmare we have gone through with this company.
Late 2016 we started looking for a new 3d printer to replace the Makerbot 2X we currently had, it had held up for a few years but now we were looking to invest in a higher quality printer, and after weeks of research, we decided upon the Tripodmaker. It sold itself as a high quality printer with a mid-range price tag. The large print size and low layer thickness felt like a great match for us, as we need to print strong quality parts to go into our optics prototypes and final units. We purchased the Tripodmaker Black edition and received it December 23rd, an early Christmas present we thought, boy were we ever wrong.
The unit came in with some issues, the build plate was scratched because the nozzle was not packaged properly and bounced around in shipment, also there was a rubber spacer missing. These were minor issues which we were just fine with overlooking because they didn’t affect the overall performance of the printer, there were bigger issues at hand though. During calibration, the arms would jerk around sporadically, giving us incorrect z-calibration, which in turn would cause the nozzle to scratch the build plate during calibration. Also the machine sounded like a kettle during operation, which we also attributed to the motor issue. After a few weeks of troubleshooting and ruling out potential factors, we find out the motor current of the stepper drive was improperly tuned at their production facility. We follow the instructions provided by Pieter-Jan Vandendriessche, the Tripodmaker CEO, to open the unit up and fix it ourselves.
Afterwards it seems the noise and arm issues are resolved, but we notice the nozzle scrapes off material that has already printed. We speculate that it still is related to the improper z calibration we were dealing with before, but Pieter-Jan seems certain it is due to under-extrusion. More and more troubleshooting and adjusting of everything, none of that works and he suggests reprogramming the EEPROM. That still hasn’t worked and this is where he starts ignoring emails. He then suggests more and more troubleshooting, which none of it works.
At this point we have had the printer for a full month, it has not worked since the day we got it, and we would like to return it for a refund or at least a replacement. He refuses to give up a replacement unit or a refund, but suggests we do a Skype call to troubleshoot and fix the printer together. He instructs me to do a few things in Repetier, send it to him, and he sends me back some GCode to feed into the unit. 30 minutes later, the issue with the jerky arm was fixed. None of this I could have done by myself, without whatever program he used to generate the GCode. Over a month of troubleshooting, and all he had to do was do it right the first time.
By now our spirits are down because of all the time wasted on this machine, but things are looking up it seems. The jerky arm issue has been fixed and calibration can be completed properly, it should be smooth sailing ahead or so we thought, little did we know of the impending hurricane heading our way.
The prints are printing now, the walls are printing fine for the most part, but the infill is horrible. The infill doesn’t print as walls like you would expect it to, but prints as tiny little pillars. Considering these parts need to be strong, and some of them to be placed into final units, this does not work for us. We have tried using various different software: Cura, Slic3r, Simplify3d, and even the Tripodmaker’s proprietary “Prisma” software, which has since been discontinued. Tried all sorts of different values, changing the print speed, nozzle heat, layer height, and just about everything else, but still the infill was unsatisfactory. The closest we would get to printing a successful part was with a very low infill %, which again does not work for us as these are going into final products. Like always, we do more troubleshooting and none of his suggestions seem to work.
Now it has been 2 weeks since we asked to send back the unit; we have now printed 25hours on this machine and have Zero completed parts. We re-emphasize how we want to send it back and we get shrugged off yet again, more suggestions on how to fix the unit. Eventually we get another skype call, and after 30 minutes he still has no clue what the issue could be, he caves and lets us send back a few of the parts. Over 2 weeks later he finally looks at the parts and can’t find anything wrong, sends the parts back.
A few weeks later he sends us a file to print in which the print speed has been cut down to a fraction of what his own Prisma software will allow you to print. Yes, so slow his own software won’t let you print that slow. It prints better. At this point he starts blaming us, telling us that we are too picky and that wanting speed and quality is unrealistic. We insist on sending the unit back but he says if we do and he finds nothing wrong with it, he will only give us 50% of the unit price as this is not a warranty case. It has not printed properly since December 23rd, and now it is March 20th and it is not a warranty case. We send the unit back April 19th, it cost us 400$ to send it back.
May 15th comes around and I email him, I get an autoreply saying he’s out of town till June 1st. June 7th comes around and I email him again, still no reply. June 15th, I email him yet again asking if he has looked over the unit we sent back nearly 2 months beforehand, no reply. June 22nd, I create an alternate email and inquire about the Tripodmaker, less than 12 hours later, I have a reply.
At this point I passed the responsibility of getting a refund from him to our Operations manager. He did manage to get a hold of him a few times, but eventually his emails started getting ignored just as mine did. He claimed his business was having financial difficulty which does not surprise me, that’s what you get for selling poor quality equipment; this is still no excuse for ignoring the emails. We gave him flexible options in getting our refund back; we even suggested he could refund us in separate payments if that worked better for him, eventually we gave up on that and just told him to ship our unit back, which he also did not. We paid over 3000$ for this unit, an extra 400$ to ship it back, over 100 troubleshooting hours, and he has kept the unit and refused to give us a refund or our printer back. Now he sells refurbished ones. To this day, he is still ignoring our emails.
I very strongly suggest not purchasing a Tripodmaker. The only thing worse than the printer was dealing with the thief of an owner: “Pieter-Jan Vandendriessche”. Unless you want to give this guy your money and get nothing in return, I suggest avoiding it at all cost.
