Description: This listing is for a Project R3D Talos 1800 IDEX large format 3d printer. I purchased it from Hartsmart Products out of Des Moines, Iowa. It is NOT in working condition. TLDR: This printer has had a rough first 6 months to it’s life, but could be an opportunity to get a massive IDEX 3d printer for a very low price. I received it in March. The printer was never designed with duplicate and mirror printing capabilities after I was told by Hartsmart it was. Machine components began failing immediately due to lack of testing. After a few weeks of dealing with it, I asked Hartsmart Products for a refund. Hartsmart blamed me for the failures and claims they are only a reseller so they would not provide a refund. After filing a Paypal dispute Paypal told me to send the machine back and I’d receive the refund. I did so, then Paypal reneged on that decision. The machine was damaged in shipping and now I have it back and it’s available for sale. You cannot buy this machine brand new from Hartsmart Products or Project R3D.I am willing to deliver this printer anywhere in the continental US so you don’t have to worry about shipping! Full story: I purchased this printer from Hartsmart Products out of Des Moines, Iowa. Project R3D is based out of Demotte, Indiana. I will note that you cannot currently buy one of these machines from Hartsmart or Project R3D so if you’re in the market for a very large 3d printer on a relatively small budget this machine may be a place to start. I’m going to use this opportunity to tell my experience with Hartsmart Products and Project R3D.Before ordering, I asked Hartsmart specifically if it could do duplicate and mirror printing, to which I was told “absolutely it is capable of duplicate and mirror printing”. This turned out to be false, as Project R3D told me after I had asked for a refund on the printer “The printer was never set up to be able to do it”. I ordered the machine online in January of this year, paid in full at time of order. The website stated and I asked to confirm lead time when I should expect it and I was told 2-4 weeks. 6 weeks later I was finally able to go get the machine. When I went to pick it up, I should have rejected it right away. It had clearly not been tested despite Project R3D telling me it had been. Nozzles were brand new, BuildTak was brand new. No signs of filament scrap or dust anywhere. There WERE however aluminum chips EVERYWHERE. Also, none of the enclosure panels had been deburred. The yellow filament tube tensioner looked extremely shoddy so I asked Joe of Project R3D to demonstrate the printer functioning for me and he could not. Somehow there was no 3d printer filament available at his facility to demo the machine. A 3d printer manufacturer did not have filament available to run a basic test! I also asked to see the test prints he had supposedly done in the days leading up to me picking up the machine and he told me he discarded them all. When I went to go look in the dumpster he told me the previous day was garbage pickup day. How convenient. Once I got it home the real issues started from the very first print. Below is a list of those issues: 1. The yellow filament tensioner pulled excess tube into the printer enclosure which then got tangled in the cable chain. I had to design and make parts on my other printer just to resolve that issue. 2. The x-axis belt clamp failed on day 2 so the x-axis print head would not move despite the motor attempting to drive it. This had to be fixed by folding the belt back on itself and zip-tying it together. This was acceptable short term. I was told by Project R3D that they expected new parts the following week. 4 weeks later when I filed a Paypal dispute I still had not seen new parts. 3. All of the plastic circuit board covers failed in the first week. These covers contained things like homing switches, filament runout sensors and filament tube stops, so they were important components. They were made from PLA so as soon as I bumped up the bed temp high enough for PETG, the electrical covers warped badly, making them unusable. Project R3D did replace them with higher quality parts, but not until after I discovered the issue. This should have been found in basic product testing. 4. X-axis motor failure. I was seeing layer shifting on about 80% of my prints with this machine. Joe from Project R3D instructed me to bump up the motor current by 50% to resolve this issue. About a week later, the X-axis motor failed. 5. Bed sagging. The 3-piece aluminum bed sags in the middle, about 3-4mm. This is too much for the bed leveling system to compensate for, thus I could not get a level bed. 6. Z-axis motors skipping steps. During the bed leveling procedure, the z-axis motors would skip steps, likely due to binding created by the aluminum bed thermally expanding. This motor skipping rendered results from bed leveling useless. 7. Lack of bed height stops. At the start of my last attempted print with this machine the bed was driven off the linear rails in the z-axis. There were no mechanical stops, nor are the rails long enough to prevent this from happening. At this time Hartsmart told me this was a “low cost, large format 3d printer” and that I had “incorrect expectations” about the machine. He said this machine did not come with the “sensors and sophistication required to prevent such a failure” like his $45000 HSP-I machine comes with. Both Hartsmart and Project R3D blame me for stepping away from the printer for 20 seconds to take a phone call. I believe this is nonsense as preventing such a failure is easy with mechanical stops or linear rails that are longer than the lead screws. After the bed failure I asked for a refund on the machine. Hartsmart refused a refund but instead offered to send Joe from Project R3D to fix the issues with the machine. I rejected this offer since Joe built the machine poorly in the first place and even lied throughout the process to get beyond the return window. At this point I filed a Paypal dispute. Paypal told me to ship the item back with tracking to the address provided by Hartsmart. I did so, but the unit was damaged in shipping so Paypal rejected my claim. Now I have a damaged 3d printer that didn’t work well from brand new. It will need a lot of help to be a good 3d printer.In addition to the above failed components, some of which have been addressed, some have not, the machine also sustained damage in shipping. The bed fell off the yokes and a few 3d printed parts broke and some enclosure hardware vibrated loose and may be missing. The z-axis linear bearings will all need to be replaced and one of the z-axis lead screw nuts will need to be replaced. I am willing to deliver this printer anywhere in the continental US so you don’t have to worry about shipping!
Price: 11000 USD
Location: Glenbeulah, Wisconsin
End Time: 2024-09-06T17:27:31.000Z
Shipping Cost: 100 USD
Product Images
Item Specifics
All returns accepted: ReturnsNotAccepted
Features: IDEX
Interface: Ethernet
Maximum Print Size: 600x1800x600mm
Model: Talos 1800
3D Technology: FDM
Brand: Project R3D