Thanksgiving is Not the Only Time to be Thankful

If you asked me to describe my current attitude in one word right this minute it would be "Thankful".

I consider myself among the most blessed Cube owners in the world because I am privileged to know some of the people behind the Cube series of 3D printers.  For that I am thankful.

And, I am also privileged to hear from many of you.  This is a most resourceful and creative community.  You know about Eric Albert and Chris Crowley.  And, you will soon hear about Ken Sipes when I publish an email that he wrote that set me off on a new quest of discovery about how our printers deal with thin walls, etc.  I love being around people with brilliant, perceptive and creative minds.  And, that is exactly what this blog has done for me.  For that I am thankful.

I love 3D printing because it turns intangible ideas into tangible objects.  3D printing is a solution waiting for an active, inquiring mind to envision.  My 3D printers sit there ready and waiting to jump into action when my brain comes up with an idea.  For that I am thankful.

The Cube 3 is an engineering marvel and, in my opinion, is HUGE leap forward for consumer 3D printing.  Feature after feature, the designers thought about us at every step in the design process.  But, more importantly, they have taken our feedback and continued to improve the firmware and hardware as time goes on.  For that I am thankful.

Clogging was the elephant in the room with the delivery of the Cube 3.  Fortunately, the idea that it was a filament quality issue rather than a fundamental design issue seems to have been validated by my success using the new filament!  For that I am thankful.

The Cubify support staff has been under immense pressure and, based on most of the emails that I've received from users, they have been on top of things to the best of their ability.  While 3D Systems communications to users could, admittedly, be improved,  The support team has performed very, very well under the recent circumstances.  For that I am thankful.

Note:  While some have suggested it was a waste of time replacing clogged cartridges with cartridges containing the original filament, that was all that was available at the time.  And, until run, there was no way to know if a cartridge would fail.  Interestingly, some users have had NO issues with their original cartridges.  Remember, my original Black cartridge worked perfectly.

The Cubify Team didn't panic.  They just kept on moving forward to address the early issues.  For that I am thankful.

Finally, It has been my privilege to see the Cube manufacturing team in action.  Each year we take our YouthQuest 3D ThinkLink cadets to the factory in Virginia so that they can see the very printers they are using in class being made.  This brings me into contact with the people that actually make our Cube 3D printers.  And, to a person, I KNOW that they are committed to seeing that the printer you get has been well built and tested.  Of course there is probably not 100% perfection.  But, I can tell you that they try VERY hard to achieve that goal.  And, that extends to the fantastic people in charge of getting everything out the door and onto trucks bringing our printers and supplies to us.  I love these people!!!!  And, for them, I am VERY Thankful!!!