Cubify Cube

At the time that I bought the Duo I did not have much of an understanding in how 3D printing worked.  I come from a background in extruded plastics and figured the concept of extruding plastic into ever connected rings was fascinating.  The Cubex printer was very expensive and it comes with a number of filament cartridges which as far as I can figure only contain about 500 grams of filament.  There is a length chip that stores how much filament you use and when it thinks your out it locks the printer. The cartridges are about $100 US and as a result are a secondary income stream for 3D systems.  Currently, I have had to roll back the firmware to allow the cartridges to run out and by some strange programming this firmware allows you to continue to run even with empty cartridges.  I then just buy Bulk Kilogram spools that last for numbers of parts and can be exchanged without having to bother about buying a new over priced cartridge.   I have also modified the printer housing to cut down on drafts and am no longer using the factory software as it promoted part warpage while printing. 

Since buying this printer the support company has discontinued offering new parts for it and I expect that I will no longer be able to get parts.  But there are some aftermarket parts and suppliers which could serve as additional modification to this printer.  One modification i would like to get is a heated print bed so I did not need to buy the glue 3D systems markets as a means of sticking the printing part to the plastic bed 

Not all that happy with this printer, is essentially a money pit.

About 1 month after I bought the cube, 3d Systems announced they were no longer going to make consumer printers and pulled the Cube off the market. As a result the price dropped from $1,000 to less than half that. As to the printer itself, it was billed as a plug and play system. The  cartridge system was an enclosed system with no user access and each cartridge had its own nozzle. The settings were minimal and it had 2 resolutions. 70 microns and 200 microns. Unfortunately the cartridge system was a complete failure as designed. There was a consent filament breakage problem and the nozzle jammed on a regular bases. That totally went counter to  the ease of use thatt the printer was designed for. Customer service directed me to a link that showed you how to open the cartridge and reroute the broken and plugged filament. That is all that is offered.  Getting into the cartridge and doing this repair was not very easy.( don't forget it wasn't designed for you to need to get inside it) Just because you fixed it once didn't mean you were done. I have more than one cartridge that has required multiple fixes. I feel that 3d Systems got out of the consumer business when they realized how bad this printer actually worked. MakerBot had problems with their system, but they stayed the course and fixed it. 3d systems took the fly by night route and left all of us Cube owners high and dry. By the way cartridge prices did not go down as the printer did. Retailers took the GOUGE route and raised prices. Prices on colors that were in short supply went through the roof.  If this printer did not have the massive cartridge problem, it would have been a very nice simple to use printer indeed. You may notice that I have refereed to the Cube in the past tense. While it is still available at a very attractive price, the cartridges are not. I have a hard time giving a premium price for something I will have to repair multiple times. I see this system fading into the sunset very quickly. When I use what filament I have left and get tired of fixing cartridges, I am done. I will not buy a printer from 3d systems ever again.