Qidi Tech 1 - Replicator 1 clone

[KludgeGuru]

Well, no word from them yet but it has only been less than 8 hours.

I am all that impressed because I have found a ton of drop shippers now because the one complaint from buyers on eBay, and AliExpress, etc... was the horrible wait times so a lot of the really small stuff I have purchased trying to get my printer to work was shipped from within the USA. China realized the US sellers were taking back their customers thanks to the faster shipping, and arrival, times. So, they have set up various US drop shippers now.

If they actually are shipping from China and it arrives that fast then I am impressed.

The DHL tracking showed it came from China.

[Shinobi]

i will go with the 2015 flashforge creator pro. the "old" model is on sale through technology outlet uk and they have an extra 10% promo right now. plus i can buy from them without Vat, so it will be cheaper than a QIDI printer.

They also have a 3mm glass plate + clips + 3d printspray and i think a glass plate will be a nice upgrade, right?

[DarkAlchemist]

The DHL tracking showed it came from China.

I am impressed and DHL is super fast but they no longer do local service around here they just hand it over to USPS.

i will go with the 2015 flashforge creator pro. the "old" model is on sale through technology outlet uk and they have an extra 10% promo right now. plus i can buy from them without Vat, so it will be cheaper than a QIDI printer.

They also have a 3mm glass plate + clips + 3d printspray and i think a glass plate will be a nice upgrade, right?

I am going to McMaster my boro glass and use some Gino pads (actually I am going to cover the entire plate with it and the glass on top of it) but when I look at the conversion rate the price is only 10 dollars less so with fluctuations I figure it is exactly the same price of $999.

Oh, I am also going to remove the Z switch and replace it with my hall effect I made for my printer because the repeatability was through the roof and absolutely no wear and tear on it.

[jfkansas]

You are far better off just using 5 squares of the gino pads instead of fully covering. Fully covered the gino pad will end up tearing if you try to remove the glass. Its a vacuum thing, with some airspace between the squares the glass will come off easier.

I am impressed and DHL is super fast but they no longer do local service around here they just hand it over to USPS.


I am going to McMaster my boro glass and use some Gino pads (actually I am going to cover the entire plate with it and the glass on top of it) but when I look at the conversion rate the price is only 10 dollars less so with fluctuations I figure it is exactly the same price of $999.

Oh, I am also going to remove the Z switch and replace it with my hall effect I made for my printer because the repeatability was through the roof and absolutely no wear and tear on it.

[DarkAlchemist]

You are far better off just using 5 squares of the gino pads instead of fully covering. Fully covered the gino pad will end up tearing if you try to remove the glass. Its a vacuum thing, with some airspace between the squares the glass will come off easier.

Well, true but a small amount of air is a wonderful insulator and glass is an insulator too. True, it is only 0.5mm of insulation but I know from my printer that wherever there was not a gino pad was cold to the touch and where the pads were I could burn a blister on my finger.

[KludgeGuru]

Oh, I am also going to remove the Z switch and replace it with my hall effect I made for my printer because the repeatability was through the roof and absolutely no wear and tear on it.

That has been the fun part of this printer, you can customize it however the heck you want to suite your needs.

Dang, I just thought it would be really cool if somebody would make a 3D model of the entire machine, it would make all the customization easier... if only I had more time.

[DarkAlchemist]

That has been the fun part of this printer, you can customize it however the heck you want to suite your needs.

Dang, I just thought it would be really cool if somebody would make a 3D model of the entire machine, it would make all the customization easier... if only I had more time.

Yep, the only reason I stuck it out for 2 years of heck on my i3.

Grab cad I have been a member of for a couple of years for that very reason. I did do my i3 myself in cad (lost it all in a hdd crash though but easy enough to get back/remake) but this printer is not open source so dang hard to get any dwg/dxf on it to help with doing the cad work. First thing on my own mods will be the switch and it will need a printed part but I can't start on it until I get the printer and whip out my digital calipers.

[jfkansas]

Well, true but a small amount of air is a wonderful insulator and glass is an insulator too. True, it is only 0.5mm of insulation but I know from my printer that wherever there was not a gino pad was cold to the touch and where the pads were I could burn a blister on my finger.

The advice comes from a very well known 3d printing guru. I've never used pads at all, just lay the glass on the bare aluminum and it works great. I do have a sheet of gino, but just haven't seen the need to use it. Glass eventually will get hot even if it doesn't have padding under it. I remember a year or ago they even did a IR heat map. Where the gino pads were it was definitely a little hotter but over time the heat saturated the glass and it ended up pretty evenly heated.

[DarkAlchemist]

The advice comes from a very well known 3d printing guru. I've never used pads at all, just lay the glass on the bare aluminum and it works great. I do have a sheet of gino, but just haven't seen the need to use it. Glass eventually will get hot even if it doesn't have padding under it. I remember a year or ago they even did a IR heat map. Where the gino pads were it was definitely a little hotter but over time the heat saturated the glass and it ended up pretty evenly heated.

It would take a lot of time but this glass would be smaller over the 20cmX20cm the i3 uses so possibly. I used the gino pads to try and level out the taco shell but it didn't work for that though they did do something wonderful and that was to ability to throw the bulldog clips in the garbage can.

[jfkansas]

lol, at taco. Good thing is the 1/4" aluminum seems to be pretty temp stable as far as warping.