jcamper
December 20, 2016, 2:53pm
1
Has anyone bought one of the new Airwolf AXIOM 20?
If so what is your thoughts?
I do not own the Axiom 20, however I have owned several other Airwolf printers and currently have an HDR. A colleague of mine used the Axiom 20 on a project and overall his experience with it was satisfactory throughout a 5 week project. It wasn’t the best layer precision quality we’ve seen in a printer in that price range and for 10k you’d expect a lot better quality on printed components. I wasn’t pleased that Axiom 20 used plexiglass on the enclosed chamber instead of tempered glass, similar to the Makerbot z18 (priced at $7k, single extrusion, no heated bed, only PLA capable, in no way a comparison). The LCD was pretty much useless but that is typical on most consumer level 3d printers…which brings me to the next point: It sits on a fine line between consumer and prosumer/commercial level printers. It’s priced extremely high for “what it is ” and I’ve heard from several 3d printer manufacturers that they were shocked at the price of the Axiom 20, however I have yet to see those same people come to the table with a printer of their own with the same build size and capability while being priced aggressively.
I know from owning 3 dual extrusion FDM printers for 4 years now, that we/I rarely ever use the dual extrusion capability. However your purpose may differ. I also know that at one point my engineers were largely focused on build size/volume…but in reality, most components we designed and the ones that (already) exist in the 3d printing universe are mostly on the small-to-medium scale in object model size. PLA/ABS/PETG after all …do cost money , larger prints obviously cost more money
There are simple things that you could request from Airwolf prior to purchasing that could further help your decision though. I’d ask them to print you a Marvin keychain, a Bridge test (Test your 3D printer! v3 by ctrlV - Thingiverse ) at finest/highest settings, and a circular object requiring numerous retractions like this (Mac OSX paper bin by lukasbieri - Thingiverse ) with Ninjaflex, or another similar flexible material… with the stock nozzle it comes with. This is a completely fair request, specifically for anyone looking to spend $10k on a 3d printer. If they are not willing to do that, they don’t deserve your business. I haven’t had a single company yet refuse my pre-purchase print requests.
Hope this helps
1 Like
I would suggest this printer for 3.5K:
https://www.raise3d.com/collections/3d-printer/products/raise3d-n2-plus-pre-order-fdm-3d-printer?variant=18505713473
Much stable print bed, good electronics.
Ask a test prints from them as Starkindustries adviced.
Tamas
I have worked with Air wolf at a Job of mine and I just have to say I hate them with a burning passion.
1 Like
jcamper
December 27, 2016, 4:14am
5
What makes you say that? What kind of stuff do you print? Is there one you would recommend?
Sorry I know that was broad it’s just when I hear the name air wolf I have a reaction to the name. For starters it’s 3mm which does not give great detail would rather use 1.75mm it is a Bowden tube which you should watch out for in any 3D printer and is a pain to calibrate with leveling the bed and the Z-axis adjustments. It also has bad bed adhesion. I recremond Power Spec Pro 3D printer (same as flash forge) The new pursia printers (pursia research) lulzbot printers and finialy the new Makerbots. I do print viruses in large scale so I am pretty demanding on what my printer does.
Jacob
