[Dan] has his own Stratasys Dimension SST 768 3D printer. It’s a professional grade machine which does an amazing job. But when it comes time to replace the cartridge he has to pay the piper to the tune of $260. He can buy ABS filament for about $50 per kilogram, so.

3D Printer Resources Here are some help guides to help you troubleshoot any issues you are experiencing with your Stratasys 3D printer. If you purchased your machine from Amtek Company and require additional technical support, please call 1-800-926-8359. To the existing Stratasys software: Catalyst, Insight and Control Center. FDM (within GrabCAD Print), Insight & Control Center, Catalyst EX.

Respooling the cartridge must be quite easy because he doesn’t describe the process at all. But the physical act of refilling it doesn’t mean you can keep using it. The cartridge and the printer both store usage information that prevents this type of DIY refill; there’s an EEPROM in the cartridge and a log file on the printer’s hard drive. [Dan] pulled the hard drive out and used a Live CD to make an image. He loaded the image in a virtual machine, made some changes to enable SSH and zap the log file at each boot, then loaded the image back onto the printer’s drive. A script that he wrote is able to backup and rewrite the EEPROM chip, which basically rolls back the ‘odometer’ on how much filament has been used. [] • • • • Posted in Tagged,,,,, Post navigation.

Keep in mind that the print heads heat up to a certain temp and the heaters only put out so much heat. If the material does not melt properly there are a lot of things that can go wrong. As an individual who works with and on these machines on a daily basis If you are putting aftermarket material in your machine I will be able to tell when something goes wrong. Just a heads up the service contracts on the Dimension machines are about $3500 per/yr if you run non-Stratasys materials it will void the contract and the parts add up quickly. My $50 Brother printer seems perfectly content with ridiculously-cheap generic cartridges from random Ebay vendors. The printer itself even comes with some verbiage that says, mostly, “Please use Brother ink.

It’s just better. But if you use someone else’s ink, it won’t void the warranty. Unless the ink itself somehow breaks your machine, and then you’re hosed.” Which really is about the most sensible way to go about it. In terms of nefariousness amongst consumer printer makers, Brother is about last on the list.

(It does complain loudly when it begins to run low on ink, but that’s more because you Really, Really don’t want to ever run it dry: There’s a lot of plumbing in there that wants to always be full of ink, and never full of air, and the print head needs fresh ink available at all times to avoid becoming clogged with dried ink.). I’m reminded of the contract my old company used to have with Xerox.

We paid cost-per-click but they supplied all the consumables and support, even when we thrashed the machine by printing nonstop for days. Now, on the other hand, IIRC law is such that a company CANNOT void your warranty for using 3rd party refills. I think it was IBM that caused that law, they sold punch card machines at a loss but charged a premium for the cards.

Someone came up with 3rd party cards for cheap and IBM wasn’t happy about it. Fortunately IBM lost. Every time I see this sales aproach it kinda sickens me. They assume all people will look at is the upfront price tag and ignore the fact that you are getting stiffed on the back end (refills, manditory service, etc) Lately the one that I have seen do this is the airlines. I just took a flight on one of Alegiant’s falling apart fleet of old planes. It cost $180 for the ticket, then I got suprised with another $150 for luggage.

I expected to pay a bit for the extra piece, but I felt like I was mugged. Hopefully people start seeing the dishonesty in this aproach and stop buying from companies that do this. Good job on this hack BTW. Spread the word on how it is done and hopefully the company learns a bit of a lesson. If the problem is that the printer registered the used chip by its serial number, then the chips I have are diferent serial from the ones you have, would it be possible change the chip used on my printer to a new reffilled cartdrige and put it in another stratasys printer?