I see a lot of discussion of the mini, and some love for the Plus 2 but I haven’t seen much here about the Up Box. It’s at the top of my list due to the built-in HEPA filter, but the lack of reviews and discussion worries me. What is working well on yours? What is causing you trouble?
For example I’ve seen people say the mini (also enclosed) doesn’t handle PLA well without opening and cooling it actively - if the same issue is true on the Box, that would be a kind of deal breaker for me since it at least partially negates the HEPA filtering.
Only 6 hubs (myself included) reviewed it this year. It finished top with 9.2 but obviously not enough reviews to be considered for the list.
It is an amazing printer. I’ve has a few and I still have an Up Mini and a CEL Robox but the UP BOX is in a different league. I think next year, when more printers are out there, it could be the outright winner on 3D Hubs.
I should add that mine runs all day long with hardly any maintenance.
Steelmans, thanks so much for all the feedback. I may just put in my order. By the way, did you source yours domestically or directly from up3d / pp3dp or …? The domestic price for me is more than 50% over the price e.g. in the US.
I was on about PLA, just make sure you use the PLA setting and you should not have any problems, also your tip about keeping the doors shut is the best advice.
that’s just what I was going to reply, you beat me to it.I have not used either myself as I am more than happy with the way it works at the mo. might try the hack tho.
I got mine from a UK shop but it came from the UK distributor. I believe upgrades have been made so I would get it direct from UP if possible. That way you know you are getting the latest machine.
I’m a little late to the game here but I had just purchased the Afinia H800/UP BOX when Yakiimo posted this question. I wanted to get a few months use out of the printer to give a more experienced opinion. There still aren’t many reviews out there so I’ve put together a review of the printer after a few months of professional use. For anyone interested in this printer take a look :
Very helpful review. My experience mirrored yours almost exactly. Especially about the auto nozzle height problem - it puts the nozzle too low and causes a clog for me every time i have tried it. It’s too bad that it makes the feature pretty much useless for me. I hope they will fix it in an update. Alternatively, I may try putting some layers of tape on top of the auto nozzle height mechanism to induce an additional offset.
I did have one very different experience from yours - I can’t print with the “no raft” option. I tried it and the software or the firmware seems to treat the bottom layers as raft material even when “no raft” is selected. So the bottom several layers come out with the sieve effect. Support told me “please do NOT select this function to print”. Have you successfully printed without a raft?
– update up3d support claims that my nozzle is too high and that actually the No Raft option is viable. Not sure if I will try it with all the clogs I’ve had.
Not sure if you’ve ever seen this but PEI works REALLY well as a print surface. It becomes ultra sticky when the bed is heated and once cooled the printed parts pop right off.
Thanks for the advice! I recently got a 0.4mm drill bit so I guess I can experiment with dropping the nozzle. I have seen everyone talking about PEI so I may try that out - what would you do? Remove all the screws from the aluminum block, attach glass and then the PEI? That sounds appealing because for the life of me I can’t get zeros across the board with the Up Box platform.
