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Hi everyone, I’m the new guy :slight_smile:

I’m currently looking for a new 3d printer in the 1000 to 1500 euro/dollar range.

My eye fell on the flashforge creator pro. and also the solidoodle workbench because of the huge build volume. any thoughts on these printers?

Also any suggestions within the price range would be very much appreciated! :slight_smile:

Thanks and best regards!

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For really big build volume you might want to take a look at the Creatr by leapfrog (lpfrg.com) or the Lulzbot TAZ. To reduce the cost you’d have to go for an older TAZ and/or the not assembled version called KITTAZ. The Lulzbot mini is still decent in it’s build volume and has many useful features that make life easier (auto bed leveling). Lastly the BigBox by e3d could be the thing for you. E3d is a very well known brand for high quality hotends and extruders, they now released their first printer in different versions on kickstarter. Cheers, Marius Breuer

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Thanks for the reply! :slight_smile:

I just got rid of my creatr :smiley: … had some problems with installation and communication on my desktop … never got decent support… the second time I made a ticket for this problem the support person actually told me to find a fix myself and let him know :stuck_out_tongue: so I’m pretty much done with leapfrog. I figured out the problem was a fake FTDI chip… or at least one that got bricked by that driver thing that FTDI did a while back.

I haven’t found the Bigbox yet … I’ll look that one up.

At the moment though I’m leaning heavily towards the flashforge though. Because of the closed build chamber. my room is a bit drafty somtimes… :stuck_out_tongue: I’ll be moving soon though.

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I recently went through this same hunt. I looked at everything from the Lulzbot, to the Ultimaker, 3D systmes cube pro, a few different delta printers, the airwolf, leapfrog, you name it, and I had done some research on the printer. After weeks of research I fell upon the Taz. Purchased myself a brand new Taz 5, got it unboxed, setup, calibrated, and printed out their calibration print no problem. I ran a couple small prints and it all went fine. Then I tried to start filling the build area, and problems began. The more the head has to travel the more likely it is to cause a jam in the filament, and I was having it stop extruding no matter what I did to get the tension right on the filament. From there things only got worse. I ended up buying some of their filament thinking that maybe it was the filament I had causing the clogs, well it wasn’t. Then shortly after that the printer decided to jam the z axis on one side, and I wasn’t comfortable disassembling it far enough to fix it. So I shipped it back to amazon and had a replacement shipped to me. Well after setup and some calibration I got the problem in no time where the z axis would move up a short distance off the plate and then jam. This one didn’t get so stuck I couldn’t un-stick it though. So I decided to try and figure out what was going on. After hours of looking and checking, and some back and forth with them, I checked the set screws on the claps that hold the z-axis stepper motors to the z-axis screws, and all eight of them were loose. Well boy did I feel dumb, so I tighten them down and re-calibrate, set everything up, get it all dialed in and start running a print. It worked, but wasn’t perfect so I tweaked my settings and started a new print, and about 1.5" off the plate the z axis stopped again. I went back to the set screws which I had tightened down as much as was possible, and they had wiggled loose in just one print. This is a common problem, and the fix is actually to print out small replacement clips that use regular hex bolts and hex nuts to really clamp it down and not come loose, but that wasn’t the problem to me. I had spent all this money on this printer, and it needed upgrade parts out of the box just so it would function properly. Now if I had bought that printer a year and a half ago or more, it would have been great, I could have spent the time taking it apart and figuring out the bugs, and getting it to be a champ. However right now I work a huge number of hours, and need a prototyping system that just works. Something I don’t have to spend 20-40 hours to get dialed in. So I boxed my taz back up, and ordered a flash forge creator pro from amazon. I’ve had an original flash forge for around two years now, and printed thousands of hours on it. The thing is, the Taz is one of the best options out there for a large build volume printer, but they all have some major problems, and unless you are willing to spend 20+ hours debugging the design and making the printer work properly, I wouldn’t advise going that route. You want something that just works and will print what you want it to out of the box, get the flash forge. You may not be able to print full scale prototypes, but you can at least get the prints out easily and efficiently.

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I just wrote a long reply to the original post, but just wanted to say it again, the creator pro is the best printer I have ever delt with, and I have had a Lulzbot Taz 5, worked with a Stratasys U-Print and Mojo, a Makerbot Replicator 2x(which didn’t work), a Form Labs Form 1+(Don’t ever buy anything from them, unless you want really high resolution parts about the size of golf balls, the printer can’t handle anything larger.), as well as the afinia, and finally both the flash forge creator and creator pro. Of all of those printers, the only one that really delivered on the quality, and reliability I wanted was the flash forge.

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Hey,

Been running my Creator Pro for 4 months or so and It’s going really nicely. It’s well-built and reliable. Really good value for money. It’s got its niggles but then, I think all printers will. Run it with Simplify3D and you should be very happy.

Cheers,

AndyL

Pot8oSh3D

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leapfrog changed their electronics (at least for the Creatr HS). I have the same problem currently and the support has send me all electronics for free, to update my printer. I never had any issue with the leapfrog supports (and I created A LOT of tickets, because I modify my printer quite a bit). The support was allways friendly and helpful and replaced any defect / worn out part for free.

Definitely check the support forum and search for the latest software versions, they often update the software without properly announcing, that updates are avialable.

Kind regards,

Marius Breuer

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The big box does look nice … but it will take a long time before they start shipping to backers. Also they will probably have their own problems. There is not a single review yet. so there is no information on how reliable the printer will be.

The creator pro seems to have a good track record.

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Hi Sven,

I have a Dreamer an M200 and a Creator Pro and I have to say that for the price range the best choice is the creator, you can slice with makerbot and costumize the printing profile and you’ll hardly get wrong prints!!!

The other thing is that their support respond promptly to issues/queries and they honour the warranty without question!!!

The one and only thing I suggest is stick to PLA, prints come out way better! And you’ll need a spare small fan, USB preferably to cool off the print while printing.

good luck.

g

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Hi Sven,

we use the Creator Pro for our online 3D Printing service. Must say that it’s a very nice and reliable machine and well worth its money! We did some minor improvements like print on glass and heat the chamber. This is primarily because we only print in ABS, which works well.

We also sell the printers by the way, including the improvements if needed…

regards Barry

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We have been using a creator pro for the past month or so. It’s a great printer, with the only limitation really being the build volume, but nothing that a little slicing and super glue can’t remedy.

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Hi

i have a flashforge creator pro and have for about 8 months. It is a good machine once you have tuned it in. Takes a while. And needs some mods. Pla or ABS? Mainly. I would advice buying simplify 3D with it as its one of the only programs that can create the x3g files. And maker bot software isn’t the best for quality

we now have a Ultimaker 2 And that’s a better machine but it’s over twice the price. Hope this helps

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Hi,

The flashforge is a good printer. If you need huge build volume you also can look at Wanhao Duplicator 5S Mini. Only 1 extruder but very good price/Quality and good print results. A separate heated bed can be installed to print ABS.

An alternative for Flashforge is Wanhao Duplicator 4S.

Regards,

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Thanks everyone for all the replies!

looks like there is a lot of support for the flashforge. I’ve been looking around for a while and keep coming back to that one as well. so in this case I think we have a clear winner! :slight_smile:

If there had been reviews and the printer would already be available, the big box would probably have been my choice.But I will not wait around for months before I can get printing again. That and I can always get that one later :stuck_out_tongue:

Anyways… thanks for the input!

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I would not recomend the solidoodle since it is open the abs filiment willl warp horribly, i have the third gen one from them, that and the rods that the print head moves on have a tendency to move themselves makeing shapes come out poor.

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Have you looked at the rigidbot big? for $1000 USD you get a 16"x12"X10" build volume! I have the rigidbot original and love it! Makes my buddies Creator Pro look like a toy. I get great results at 80MM/S plus with the bowden configuration I have.

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flashforge creater pro is create

have you looked at the printrbot plus

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I’m currently looking at the craftbot plus. I got confirmation from the manufacturer that they fixed the issue with the wiring from their forums. It has got a nice balance in features right between the flashforge creator pro/ dreamer and the solidoodle. And because it is made in the EU no extra duties :slight_smile:

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I really like our Flashforge Creator Pro so far (have had it a month or so). Pretty reliable, low fail rate, and good customer support when you do have problems. One extruder clogged last week (my fault, hit pause to deal with a problem and left it paused over lunch, so the extended amount of time heated but not printing caused a clog), but I was able to find a few youtube videos on how to take it apart and unclog it. Also emailed customer service and they got back to me the next day with videos showing how to remove the clog (though I’d already fixed it by then). We started with a Leapfrog Creatr Dual Extruder, which was a much prettier machine, had a larger build space, and seemed to create higher quality prints when it worked. However, it worked only about 25% of the time, which was too frustrating. Clogging was a major problem, the filament feeder was unreliable, and customer support was a bit slow.

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ha so the leapfrog support wasn’t slow only with me :stuck_out_tongue: hahaha … my experience with their support was terrible. which is why I returned the printer.