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Hey, I’m planning on buying a Printrbot Simple Maker’s (1405) Kit in a few months, and upgrading it with 3D printed parts. I just wanted to hear anyone’s thoughts on printrbot, how they’ve liked theirs, what they’d reccomend upgrading, etc. Thanks!

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If you have the extra money, I would considering saving a bit more and go for the Metal Simple Kit. The construction is way more rigid and if you are planning to build and print more its in my opinion a bit more stable and consisted. The wooden construction of the Printrbot are a bit flimsy.

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I have a printrbot. I started with a 1401 and then upgraded it with the offical kit to 1405. After getting it built and set up properly it’s not a bad little machine. I would suggest putting a vibration dampening mat under it and cooling the extruder drive with a fan and/or a heat sink. Otherwise you may have the same issue as many have had with the drive getting hot and then jamming up the hot end. As far as upgrades. The print volume is the only thing I wish it had out of the box, but it’s very, very easy to upgrade that, so it’s a non issue as long as you have the parts.

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I love the printrbot, mine actually outperforms many printers I have access to at school. I have not upgraded yet, but XY build plate is my biggest limitation.

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I bought the Simple maker kit (not sure of the number, but just before the metal extruder and they switched to belts).

As you know the Simple is a 100mm x 100mm x 100mm print volume. Using upgrades available on Thingsverse I upgraded my simple that was using strings to a full 330mm (X) x 160mm (Y) x 100mm (Z) aluminium bed with induction probe for auto-level and off course switched from strings to belts.

The Simple Maker is an awesome machine to thinker with and really understand the mechanics of a 3D printer. There are a large set of upgrades available on Thingsverse and Youmagine.

For me I would buy an other Maker instead of the Metal. The Metal is a great machine, but for me a bit to hard to customize and enhance.

As for support the Printrbot forums are great, but Google+ 3D Printing community is even better I think. Brook (owner of Printrbot) hangs on this community and often chips in in conversation.

Here is what an upgraded Printrbot Simple Maker looks like: https://plus.google.com/102031000429034354623/posts/jk1zrgjFGcd

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I agree with kengiang. Go for the Makerbot Simple Metal Kit. I’ve got one (my 3rd 3D printer) and it’s a lovely little machine. The kit should take around 3 hours to put together and another 3 hours to get it calibrated. You’ll print a fan shroud as part of the calibration process and then you can go on to print a handle, spool holder, feet etc to satisfy your urge to upgrade :-). If you need more convincing have a look at Thomas Sanladerer’s review of the Simple Metal Kit on YouTube (he also has a link to his maker’s kit review).

The added bonus for someone just getting started is that you get auto-levelling which is pretty cool. I’ve added the aluminium handle and an LCD interface. It’s a very solid machine and I’ve carried it around in a backpack to shows and just plugged in and started printing. I would definitely recommend you go for the Simple Metal and save yourself a lot of pain in the long run.

Cheers,

Marc

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Hey Logan,

I recently purchased a simple metal printrbot and I love it. There are so many possible upgrades and it really gives a special 3D printing experience. It’s sort of the whole “3D printing experience package”. At least that’s what I think.

Happy printing!

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Hey Logan,

I have two Printrbot Simple Metals. I bought the first one as a kit and loved it so much that I bought a second one and upgraded them both with heated beds. I can’t speak on the Simple Maker’s Kit, but the Simple Metal Kit is really outstanding.

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I have had the 1401 for over a year now and love it. There is a small group of around 20+ people in my community and all have the 1401 or 1405. I have no problems with mine at all. The only adjustments I had/have had to make was turning down the potentiometer for the extruder motor so it wouldn’t overheat & plug up the nozzle, and adjusting the bed leveling or tightening a screw here and there . The calibration on mine was spot on after it was put together. I haven’t made any adjustments to it since. I wish it had a larger x/y print area but I have seen some good modifications within our group to upgrade that. The guys that manage our group also have a couple of MakerBots and they prefer the Printrbots over them for reliability and print quality.

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Wow, thanks for the info! At my school I use the Makerbot Rep 2 way more than the Ultimaker 2 because it’s more reliable, so if the Printrbot is even better, that will rock!

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I just jumped on a deal and now there is a Printrbot Simple Maker’s (1405) Kit on its way to me. I have a REP1 and plan on printing as much as I can for it. Good tips here so far… Anyone install a E3D hot end in theirs? I would like to keep my hot ends similar to the MK7/8 on my MB so some parts can be compatible.

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Thanks Marc,

In addition; the heated bed upgrade makes the printer so much better as well. For 99$ or even less if you build your own heated bed upgrade the prints are even better. I recently upgraded my machine after 9 months and it adds much more stability especially when you are experimenting with special filaments. My prints are on par with much more expensive machines such as the Ultimaker 2 and the Replicator 2 machines for a fraction of the price.

If you are just starting out with 3D printing and want to do it without too much hickups, the PrintrBot is the way to go. Do you want to tinker a bit and learn much more ? Go buy the wooden maker kit and upgrade over the course of time. If you’d start with a solid base (pun intended), go for the metal kit for a fraction more of the price.

In relation to upgrades: check the PrintrBot talk forum and the topics between the simple metal and the maker kit. Depending of the type of user you are you decided pretty quickly which one is the best fit for you. There are plenty of users that have made both for the metal or maker Printrbot simple upgrades for both the x & y and z print dimensions. Even laser cutting addons and dual extrusion mounts :slight_smile:

To keep it concise:

You can’t go wrong with either of them. PrintrBot has proven themselves over the years and its a great way to get into printing. Looking at all these reply’s its all fine, whatever choice you make in the end.

Good luck and have fun,

Ken

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Got a metal kit (1403). It was great fun to put together, with the added benefit of a very good understanding of the machine. I had a great experience with ordering parts from printrbot, too. They have very good walk-throughs and tutorials both in video and static format. It has a large and active community.

The quality from the metal is astounding. The printer is also pretty upgradeable- new hot-ends, heated beds, etc.

IMO- I highly recommend Printrbot to get into printing.

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I have the 1405 and i am extremely impressed with the quality for the price. If the 1405 is made correctly it can be pretty sturdy however the extra money is worth it for the metal. I have upgraded mine to a heated bed and added a much needed filament guide and a led holder. These are of my own design and can be found at my thingiverse page along with my other creations at Thingiverse - Digital Designs for Physical Objects The assembly is very easy and only takes around 6 or so hours. However calibration takes much longer. The z probe needs to be calibrated along with the extrusion multiplier. And you will also need to modify your printers firmware and change the autoleveling mode to grid. After i had made all of these changes i have prints that rival my schools Dimension BST printer by Stratasys or the ultimakers. although as with any 3d printer calibration is an ongoing thing. I am planning on making more mods in the future and sharing them and i would definently reccomend the printrbot simple model 1405.

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Hey I did a write up of my printrbot’s upgrades on my website penguintech.info I’ve done a lot of mods to the original so it should be helpful if that’s what your looking to do.

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Hey,

I have a Metal Plus. Thing is robust and troubleshooting support is outstanding. The quality was great after barely an hour of setup.

Overall, I’m super satisfied.

Also, you’ll benefit of whatever PB develops as it will be made available as an upgrade.

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I’ve currently been using a Printrbot Simple Metal for the last year or so but I did have a 1405 for 6 months prior. Like the our fellow makers have commented below, these are some of the pound for pound best 3D machines you can get. The 1405 is great but for a extra $200, the metal is that much more solid.

For the last two years, MAKE does on an in depth annual review ($10) of 3D printers. Printrbot has ranked in the top of its class each year. Special Issue: Ultimate Guide to 3D Printing 2014 | Make:

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Thanks for the info! Unfortuneatly, I’m guessing I’ll have to stick with the Simple 1405, since I’m a highschool sophomore and $350 is plenty for me…I’ve found some great Simple Upgrades on thingiverse, so I think I’ll do those after I buy it and get the whole thing up and running for a while. Actually I won’t have the $$$ for either until May, and then theres my birthday, so maybe I’ll rack in enough for a simple metal :). I’ll have to see how many upgrades there are, as I really would like 8x8+…

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It is a very nice machine and you will like it very much. Not perfect, you have to adjust parameters but once you set it up it will make great prints.

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I will echo the sentiment here. I have the 1403 (with heated bed; assembled from kit), we’ve been printing daily for 3 months and are quite happy with the printer. It did take a decent amount of time to properly calibrate - I chalk that partially up to self-assembly and coming up to speed on 3D printing in general.

We’ve also upgraded the printer, driven mainly to be able to get consistent ABS prints, which is far more difficult than with PLA. Specifically, we use Kapton tape with ABS juice for adhesion. We insulated the heated bed with metal tape and a cork cover to get the bed temperature to rise faster and hold its temperature, and we built a heated (terrarium heat lamp) plexiglass enclosure to increase the ambient temperature (as warping was ruining our prints).

So, if you are a tinkerer by nature (as it sounds like you are), I believe you will love this printer. I will also echo that you should buy the Simple Metal if you can, if only because a 4x4x4 build volume just doesn’t take you that far. We’ve been assembling multi-part models lately, and have run into situations where we have had to split model parts in two in order to fit on our bed (good excuse to learn more about 3D modeling programs :)). I guess it depends on what you’re looking to print.