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Serious quality issue at SHAPEWAYS, FED & FUD plastics


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Here's some pics of KA-Models 1/48 F-15 open exhaust nozzles. They are taken with my cheap phone and I do not have any kind of studio so I apologize ahead of time for the poor quality (and the cat hair). This is unpainted, of course, straight out of the box. Clicking on the pic will take you to my Flickr account where you can view full size versions of the pics.

 

20181213_123300_001

 

20181213_123325_005_01

 

20181213_124631

 

20181213_124651

 

 

Edited by Mstor
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Hi Mstor,

 

Thank you very much for kindly providing photos of your KA nozzle parts. Sorry couldn't check the thread earlier. 

 

Couple more point: it's ironic that during the still unresolved crystallization crisis, I proposed to SW to use another of the Visijet plastics from 3DSystems instead of the current one they use. A suggestion based on the information I got from another local 3D printing service which was using the same machine as well as several of the different plastics for it, and they told me one of the other 3DS plastics for the 3500HD Max is more stable than the translucent one both they & SW used. If not a complete cure for the problem at least it would offer a partial solution. And added bonus: the physical properties of that material are higher. But they never replied to my suggestion and never offered that material to replace FED/FUD, which is a pity. It's as if they didn't care one way or another, good or bad.

 

There's a website where ex-employees post reviews called Glassdoor. Several EX-SW employees there said roughly the same thing : management didn't have it together. The founding CEO left about a year ago while a lot of the unresolved issues were ongoing. He was replaced for a while by one of the investors. Now the new CEO they hired have a background in teaching.. Following the latest big price hikes & new algorithm controversy that made so many store owners say they will leave, SW have now also replaced the chief products manager by a new guy who promptly locked the price increase thread and basically said all investors are in agreement to increase prices and SW's investors are 'so great'. Check page 29 for details. Once again they couldnt care less about the majority of scale models store owners. He basically wants to use a 'small number of those who want to stay' as guinea pigs for more SW softwares/features experiments (if they sign for this) which could supposedly help offset the price increases, but for the majority of store owners, nada. My biggest regret is the enormous amount of time SW made me and thousands others waste. One example: Do you know how long it normally took to upload a heavy file ? 20 minutes. That's the official number. Now they say they've upgraded their system (after 10 years) and it should take about 20 seconds. But after the new algorithm which is pricing most scale models out of the market, even that one improvement comes too late.

 

So you're right, the market will make that company go down if they can't adapt. It's kind of like what happened with Photobucket.

 

 

 

Edited by Stratospheremodels
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I am taking Strato's critique very seriously.  My last print job out of Shapeways was most disappointing.

 

Would someone be willing to recommend a preferred vendor?  I looked at iMaterialise, but the design specifications do not support parts the Shapeways had previously been able to print in Frosted Ultra Detail with satisfactory results (i.e. minimum wall thickness of 1 to 3mm compared to 0.3mm supported and 0.6mm unsupported).

 

Recommendations would be much appreciated.

 

Thanks,

Bruce

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Hi Bruce,

 

I cannot recommend a service provider specifically and I understand what you mean, SW is the only one (now that Click2Detail is gone) that offer MJM materials from 3DSystems printed at 16 microns plus have stores, but there are many other (usually prototyping) shops that have the same 3DS machine and might print at 16 microns. 

 

There is an alternative however, any UV resin desktop 3D printer that can do 16 to 5 microns resolution in the Z axis and about 50 to 20 something microns in the X,Y axis should be able to do the job just fine for small details. If you look at the specs of the highest resolution desktop machines out there (DLP or SLA) you will find what you need. Then you just need to find someone who already own one of these to print your parts for you.

 

Back to service providers, I know Kraftwurx if I'm not mistaken offers printing on at least 1 or 2 machines at very high resolution (but very very pricey). Look for their Nano resin materials. I think they use a high end SLA machine.

 

Stephane.

Edited by Stratospheremodels
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Just now, pookie said:

Strato, do you still have that X31 kit you started? I never saw pictures wiht the landing gear.

I am looking for one of those whole or parts.

 

Hi,

 

The X-31 model on my website did have the landing gear, but the photos angle hide it (on at least one photo you can see one of the wheels on which the model is standing, which were attached to the gear):

 

http://www.picturetrail.com/stratospheremodels

 

But I no longer have cast metal landing gears at this point, I'm still finalizing a 3D CAD version of them which was to be 3D printed and cast in metal but the price hikes at SW for cast metals plus I believe a change of their policy about sprued parts or other requirements related to casting which I haven't tested yet might not make this possible with them. I will investigate this with a different provider.

 

Stephane

Stratosphere Models

Edited by Stratospheremodels
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59 minutes ago, Stratospheremodels said:

Hi Bruce,

 

I cannot recommend a service provider specifically and I understand what you mean, SW is the only one (now that Click2Detail is gone) that offer MJM materials from 3DSystems printed at 16 microns plus have stores, but there are many other (usually prototyping) shops that have the same 3DS machine and might print at 16 microns. 

 

There is an alternative however, any UV resin desktop 3D printer that can do 16 to 5 microns resolution in the Z axis and about 50 to 20 something microns in the X,Y axis should be able to do the job just fine for small details. If you look at the specs of the highest resolution desktop machines out there (DLP or SLA) you will find what you need. Then you just need to find someone who already own one of these to print your parts for you.

 

Back to service providers, I know Kraftwurx if I'm not mistaken offers printing on at least 1 or 2 machines at very high resolution (but very very pricey). Look for their Nano resin materials. I think they use a high end SLA machine.

 

Stephane.

Thanks much.  I shall keep searching.

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17 hours ago, Stratospheremodels said:

 

Hi,

 

The X-31 model on my website did have the landing gear, but the photos angle hide it (on at least one photo you can see one of the wheels on which the model is standing, which were attached to the gear):

 

http://www.picturetrail.com/stratospheremodels

 

But I no longer have cast metal landing gears at this point, I'm still finalizing a 3D CAD version of them which was to be 3D printed and cast in metal but the price hikes at SW for cast metals plus I believe a change of their policy about sprued parts or other requirements related to casting which I haven't tested yet might not make this possible with them. I will investigate this with a different provider.

 

Stephane

Stratosphere Models

I am interested in the kit w/o the landing gear, I can't message you, the system won't let me for some reason.

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