replicator 5. Before the smart extruder +. But many many issues. The extruder is not mounted to the XY axis well. The bed probe system is just a bad idea. The bed leveling system is bad (I am talking the screw knobs). The Z axis is janky. And that swappable extruder… I don’t even speak of that thing. No heated bed. No way to add a heated bed. No way to modify anything I had a gripe with.
LulzBot
22
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3 Likes
Here’s my opinion as an owner of 11 different 3D Printers (2 RoStock’s, 5 CTC’s, 1 MakerBot+'s, 3 Prusa i3’s).
#1 - In my personal opinion, MakerBot is vastly overpriced for what they deliver. We’ve experienced non-stop jamming on the Smart Extruder+ and it costs a fortune ($100+) for replacements, compared to $9 for a new heating block and nozzle on any other machine. If the nozzle is clogged you cannot disassemble the extruder. Also there is a limited ability to upgrade the new MakerBot series compared to previous models. The original MakerBot was (and still is) a great machine, but I don’t personally care for the new series of printers or the direction of the company.
#2 - Lulzbot and others are good machines. I don’t have much experience or have a preference on these but I’ve always heard good things - as long as you’re ready to do a little learning.
#3 - Personally, I still love buying CTC Bizer’s (clones of the original MakerBot) for $350.00 on eBay. The machines run great, and if you’re willing to invest the time into printing a few upgraded parts and doing some small mods, you’ll have a machine that rivals the print quality of Ultimakers along with Dual Extruders, a Heated Bed, etc. I use these as my workhorses.
#4 - The Prusa i3 MK2’s are awesome - we bought one and love it. High print quality and it is the most popular 3D Printer it the world.
I also have a ctc, but The QIDI tech I bought is an all metal version of the ctc already enclosed and upgraded (if you will), all metal gears, heated build ect… around six hundred after shipping. Also I have heard great things about the Prusa I3, but I do not own one… My little QIDI is a reliable little work horse :), and after running a ptfe tube through the drive block I print everything but pc on this machine.
mievans
25
Hi
If it helps we’ve been working on 3d hubs for some time and we would swear by the Taz 5/6 models, they are a great workhorse printer which achive everything you need for most 3d print applications and more.
With Taz you can tweak it, dual extruders, flexi extruders, flexi and solid extruder (dual head) and now also the MOARstruder head (basically big, fast jobs = 24 hours prints at reasonably resolution in 5 hours!).
We have over a few years of pretty much constant printing had to do little/no maintenance on the printers, and they have a better material library and bigger build bed than I’ve managed to find anywhere else for the same all round capability of the machine.
The Taz will run 4-5 day prints on it’s own with no worries and will do really good quality prints and more importantly it’ll do all this out of the box and consistantly.
If you want any more info happy to help out.
Regards
Mi.
Makerbot has put out some shoddy products in the last couple of years. The Lulzbot Taz 6 uses a 0.5 mm nozzle I believe. You loose some fine detail in printing with that nozzle but you can change it. I would recommend the Makergear M2. I have 2 of them and they have been relatively bulletproof. The quality of the print is amazing. The printer uses a 0.35 mm nozzle. I would opt for the stainless steel nozzles as they are far easier to keep clean and keep from clogging. On one of my printers I am using a 0.5 mm nozzle. Other than having to increase the printer temperature it prints fine with this nozzle. The support from Makergear has been first rate. I receive a response to questions or issues promptly.
