CubePro Added to Our Blog Coverage

Last week, at the YouthQuest Foundation, we took delivery on 3 new CubePro printers. 

Our 2 Trios and 1 Duo arrived just in the nick of time on the opening day of our Youth ChalleNGe cadet 3DThinkLink Immersion class for 2014-2.

The six cadet graduates selected for the Immersion Class immediately slammed the new printers  with work the entire week.  So, the timing could not have been better.

While it means great things for YouthQuest Foundation's work with the at-risk young people, it also means that we won't be flying blind when it comes to covering the CubePro series of printers.

We have already gone through the processes of making sure the print beds are perfectly level, making sure the print jets are perfectly level and, through no fault of the printer, removed a print jet and successfully cleared it of a clog and replaced it.  (Not securing the print table properly is NOT a good thing.)

The CubePro comes with ABS cartridges.  And, with the proper application of the new glue along with the controlled environment temperature system, warping was minimal.  The cadets were too anxious to get their pieces printed to allow the glue to dry properly in all cases.  So, we'll have to have a little more experience with the printers to claim that warping can be completely controlled by the proper application of the glue.

One of the things that I do need to point out is that it would be much more convenient for users if all the available maintenance documents were readily available online and easy to find.  While support was good about sending out documentation that enabled us to solve our clog problem, not knowing if such a document existed when it first happened was a bit unnerving.

CubePro Client Software

The CubePro software handles color selection a lot differently than does the Cube 3 software. The CubePro seems to require a separate STL be created for each color group.  It knows to place the groups in their true positions.  At first, it was unclear that the software required the user to turn color selection off before proceeding to BUILD.  We'll cover the software with a video soon.

Having more than one CubePro, with different cartridge color configurations meant that we needed to be sure to change the Settings > Printer Configuration for each build depending on which printer it was going to use.  It would be nice to be able to simply name the different printers and select each printer in the main menu.  I'm too old to remember which colors are loaded in which order in this or that printer.   :)

The good news is that we were able to simply set NONE for the #1 print jet that clogged and treat the three color Trio as if it were simply a two color Duo.   The maximum possible print size was reduced a bit; but, that was not an issue for us in this class.

We were VERY thankful for the timely arrival of the printers.  Both the staff AND the cadets were VERY happy campers!