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I can’t comment on the Robo3d but I have owned a Makergear M2 for 2 years now, leveling is easy and it stays level, I very rarely have to make adjustments. I have printed large orders taking up to 5 days only stopping to swap out prints and it just keeps going! You can’t find a better built machine than the M2. The new model with the V4 hotend can print much higher temps, check out the makergear forum and you will see people printing in nylon and petg. Good luck on your decision, I am sure you will be happy with either one!
Wow, those are great quality prints! Thanks for the comment/insight. (Can you link me to the source for the plane?)
do you have the most recent rev. E?
I have a http://hlcs.it/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Prusa\_i3.1280.jpg like Prusa, I consider this Prusa fun to build, but not fit for production. It’s like a Ural motorcycle: lots of maintenance, very sensitive, error prone. I had more than 10 issues in one year, including fierce sparks from the electronics, wire failure and lots of plate adhesion issues due to the sloppy, loose mechanic design. I didn’t even print a full kilogram on it.
The R2 is solid. Fit for production, but it has some weak spots. Mine had some QA issue out-of-the-box. Over a year: Heated plate design had to be modified due to a melted PCB connector (under dimensioned for the current it needs to provide) the cooling fan failed, the on-off switch had a quality issue and is stuck. Everything is easy to overcome or repair, but it seems a bit “Chinese” in quality, QA and design. Wiring is medium. There are some flex-points hotspots that result in defective wiring over time. There is stress on wires when printing large legal hight objects. Basic rigid mechanics is definitely it strongest point. Results are fine. Big objects do well. Glass plate is great. Dynamic multipoint calibration. Dynamic hight compensation to level out inequalities. Almost a print-and-go printer. Great value, if you are prepared to do some maintenance yourself. I printed more than 15 kilograms on the Robo.
Mk2 is a different ballgame. Superior mechanics. Rock solid. Great wiring. Flawless in all aspects. Great prints. No calibration needed after its initial setup. Its flat and stays level. Print and go. 24/7 capable. Has its pricetag, but worth every penny. I don’t have it that long, but I am confident that I can print 50+ kilograms without any printer related issues. (Not including common initial parameter settings, plate adhesion, warp and object design trial-and-error stuff.)
I have an r1 (not +) and I’ll say it runs like a champ. Bed leveling has been an ongoing struggle for me because there is no manual adjustment and the autoleveler hasnt been precise enough to prevent warping on abs. But other than that all stock parts and ive been printing for over a year. Paid for itself several times over
I also have a Robo3d. Mine is the original Kickstarter version. The original suffered from a few defects that have been corrected in the newer version. The biggest was the Y axis slide. The old slide would sometimes bind up and cause the Y axis to slip ruining the part. The new one uses linear ball bearings. I broke the build platform due to a tangled spool of filament and took the opportunity to upgrade to the new bearings and also increased the Y axis travel significantly to about 400mm. Also added wire chains to better control wire routing. One nice thing is that with the active forum and low cost I was not concerned about making these enhancements and several others. The linear bearings made a big difference in reliability. The Z axis on mine also has a few imperfections because I have not upgraded to the new Z axis screws. The X axis on mine was a little wobbly until I added the Z axis rod stabilizers which is one upgrade you should do If you go with the Robo3D. You will not notice it with short parts but it causes issues with taller ones if you push the print speed up. Over all I like the Robo3D machine and believe the latest model will compare well with all others for cost vs performance. You can find better machines but you will pay for it.
Thanks, but $$$.
Not to drag this further off topic but there is also wanhao duplicator 6. Along with the Robo R1, I have a ultimaker 2+ at work. The ultimaker performs much better than my R1 and I think the wanhao is supposed to be a knock off of the ultimaker.
its ~$1000 for the wanhao vs. ~$800 for the r1+. Just thought I’d throw that out there as I am planning to sell my R1 shortly and get the wanhao.
*edit*
Also here is makers muse on his most recent Q&A talking about Robo 3d R1+ and Wanhao.
Thanks for the info & video. I’ll take a look.