Anyone using Makerbot 3D printers? They are not answering calls.

[LAGrunthaner]

My school district purchased 20 Makerbot 3D printers 5 years ago and I have 4 in my room never having a problem with support or parts. Now I need some simple parts and no one answers the phone, returns email or support web pages. I'm grateful I have 3 working machines but this is very bad business practices. I'm on week 4 and many many emails, phone messages and forum posts.

Is anyone else having the same problem? I've talked to several of my engineering students in the same situation and I find it very disturbing.

If it is a matter of ships with parts sitting off the San Diego coast I get it, but please add that to the voice answering service message.
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[YDBD]

The only contact I had was
[email protected]
but that was also two years ago.

Other option would be to check ebay for parts.

Interesting, Robo did the same thing about a year ago.
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[LAGrunthaner]

Thanks YDBD, I received a reply from a parts vendor and he has what I need but I'm going to followup with that email: [email protected] as I'm ordering 4 more of the newer style with dissolvable filament for next year and getting concerned they are ignoring clients.

[YDBD]

What software are you using for the students for designing 3d objects?

I'm at middle school, so most are too high end for them.

We used to use Tinkercad, but DoDEA has now blocked access to the website.

I've tried:
Inventor
Fusion
Blockscad
Vectary
Sketchup
Wings3d
Blender

Still not the right level...
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'56 pan Dune Buggy since '69
don't live in the past...but when I did:
'67 bug
'64 baja
'60 dune buggy
'73 Personenkraftwagen Type 182 "Thing"

[LAGrunthaner]

YDBD, we use Fusion360 and I've used TinkerCAD for Arduino electronics which is great fun for testing out electronic designs. Why did DoDEA block the site? I just logged in without a problem. What are the problems you are having logging into TinkerCad?

BTW I put in a trouble ticket at Makerbot and finally got a call. Absolutely nuts that they have phone trouble or maybe something else. I'm still waiting to buy my parst and I'll let you know the results.

As for software for slicing the stl files I'm happy with both the older version and the newer version of Makerbot slicing software.

What is your school budget and where are you located?

[YDBD]

I'm located at Grafenwoehr Germany.

DoDEA blocked it as it has something to do with the terms of service, but we've been using Autodesk products since '98, which the rest are still accessible.

I actually got a message that logs my name and the site as blacklisted. Way to go department of defense....

Tried fusion360, not as impressed with it as Tinkercad, most of my high schoolers were able to use Inventor but after a few weeks of training. I"m trying to find something that I can use with students in about 2-3 class periods in various classes-science, creative thinking, are my main ones in middle school.

uh, yeah, DoD, budget varies, but can be tens of thousands depending on year. I spent quite a few thousand last year, but alot was accessing remote learning sites-pear deck, wevideo, tynker etc...
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'56 pan Dune Buggy since '69
don't live in the past...but when I did:
'67 bug
'64 baja
'60 dune buggy
'73 Personenkraftwagen Type 182 "Thing"