User ratings are interesting but they really don’t offer an objective comparison between printers. They just offer a popularity rating, since most people “love what they got”.
The Make Magazine shootout is the most objective comparison I’ve seen but even that doesn’t represent real world experiences very well.
The following summarizes my experiences with 8 different printers… What are your comparative experiences with different printers that you have used yourself??
I’ve owned the following printers:
CubeX Duo - This printer was complete garbage. Stay away from anything CubeX! They charge a fortune for filament and my experience with their printer was terrible. They’ve probably done a lot to turn many away from consumer 3D printing.
TAZ1 - I didn’t like it. I had a high print failure rate and its cheaply built with parts printed on other TAZ machines plus some aluminum extrusion tubing.
MakerGear M2 - I really liked this machine. It had a high print success rate and is very well built. I still experienced quite a few print failures and supports were often very hard to remove unless I got the settings just right. Settings for one print didn’t usually work just right for a different print. Pretty much all the FDM printers I’ve used, other than the Zortrax M200, are like this. I spent more time focusing on setting the printer to get my prints the way I wanted them than on designing/developing the part.
Form1+ - I loved it at first. Then the $65 trays started failing after about a half liter of resin and I realized it costs 5x as much to use as a FDM machine (counting trays, around $250/kg vs $40/kg for FDM) with a much higher print fail rate. It also doesn’t print very accurately. I.E. if you try to print a roller wheel it will wobble and not be perfectly round or if you try to print a flat plate it won’t be flat. It does print organic shapes very smooth except where supports touch. Anywhere a support touches leaves a sizeable bump. My Form1+ sits idle next to my Zortrax most of the time. I only use the Form1+ when I need a clear part, or for microfluidics manifolds. The enclosed laser section and heated vat of the Form2 should help prevent many failures but they still haven’t gotten past the PDMS tray system which is pretty unreliable and expensive. I’ll be interested to see how the Form2 performs over time.
Zortrax M200 - Press go and your part will print without failure almost every time. No more fiddling with print settings or praying that you won’t have a pile of string in the morning. There are only a few user adjustable print settings but that’s all it needs. This is what I had hoped 3D printing would be when I started… I really love this printer. It has freed me up to focus on my designs and not on print settings. We’ve printed 70+ hour prints with no issues. I wouldn’t even consider doing that with any other printer I’ve used because the chances of a print failure would be 50-100% with most of them. I’ve just completed two runs of prints that take 56 hours and everything came out perfect. Its the only printer I’ve used that allows me to go to sleep knowing I will have what I wanted when I wake up the next morning, almost every time. I was very surprised to see that prints set to the 90 micron layer height turn out nearly as smooth as Form1+ prints. Material selection is limited to ABS, HIPS and a Polycarbonate like material (Z-glass) but I find that ABS is the best choice for 90+% of the parts I make.
M3D - It works but its a toy. It doesn’t provide very good accuracy or finish compared to the Zortrax. Some parts are functional and for the price I think its a good machine if you don’t mind relatively high print fail rates and mediocre accuracy.
We have an Ultimaker2 Extended at work. It only gets used when our two Zortrax machines are tied up or if we need to print something in PLA. It’s a nice printer but its not nearly as consistent, reliable, or as easy to use as the Zortrax. Sometimes prints look very good. Sometimes they don’t. There’s still black magic involved that most of us prefer to not have to deal with.
We also have a Artiflex2 at work. We bought it because we needed the all metal hot end to print some high temp materials for a NASA project. So far it has been very comparable to the Ultimaker2 but its frame is not as well constructed. However, it doesn’t seem that the cheaper construction has affected the print quality. It’s done a pretty good job so far.
You can check out my hub here…https://www.3dhubs.com/louisville/hubs/3d-innovation 16. Let me know what you think. Most of the prints shown there are from the Zortrax. A couple are from the Form1+.
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Oct '15last reply
Jul '16- 19
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