21

That is intriguing… No I’ve never heard of it but now I may have a bit of printer envy… Which is not good for the wallet…

22

I dont find ANY video reviews or reviews in general online at all, so thats concerning. However they JUST finished their kickstarter backer orders, so its now available.

I reached out to the owner to ask a few questions. Ill let you know what he says.

Sounds like some folks may have a few issues, according to their forums/ Wonder how many are in the field.

23

Ehh, that’s what I was worried about… I’ve been burned by a bunch of kick starter projects for printers and printer acc… And the fact there is no press or anything worries me more…

24

I upgraded to the TAZ 5 from a Printrbot Simple Metal. There are pro’s and con’s to both.

PB’s compact direct drive extruder is really clean and nice. Both are built really well, PB uses hardened rods and metal linear bearings. Autoprobe is very nice.

The TAZ 5 uses a 24VDC, which allows the bed and hotend to heat up much faster… 240C hotend in 2-3 minutes, 100C+ bed in 4-5 minutes. The design is classic, and fairly open sourced so upgrades can be made for a larger print area or creating a best of breed machine. Little to no loss of print volume with a dual extruder. PEI bed is really nice for printing ABS, almost no warping and basic things like brim and heat can remedy. LCD is nice for overriding print controls. The frame and connectors seem well thought out and industrial / factory grade.

Both have moving beds which can be challenging since neither have an enclosure.

If I could meld the two I’d want::

- TAZ 5 as the foundation (PEI bed, frame)

- PB compact direct drive extruder and Bowden… saves weight on the toolhead

- PB autoprobe

- Upgrade TAZ with hardened rods and metal linear bearing

- Build an enclosure

25

I appreciate this feedback as I recently purchased a TAZ 5 and I am doing some strong double takes after seeing the $999 price point of the Printrbot.

26

I ended up getting a Makerfarm Prusa I3v 12" so i have a 12 x 12 x 12 build platform and all in for about $700.

I added auto bed leveling to it (and it works great). Im still working (havent had much time to play lately) on getting it all dialed in, but once thats done, its a really nice machine for the price.

I still love the idea of the Taz, just 3x the cost