help me decide: rep2 or 2x?

[wpilgrim]

Rep 2 user here. Prepare for an impending wall of text… sorry if its TMI

TL;DR version? You need a Resin printer, but if not, although I love my rep 2, both the rep 2 and 2x are great machines, are close in quality and key things are going to come down to your own personal preferences in regards to your use in application. I think they are a wash one is close to on par with the other and therefore having a rep 2 and having tweaked it to perfection I would likely buy another rep 2 if I was faced with that decision.

My immediate first impression on a recommendation is to throw you out of the FDM style printer market and have you start looking at A DLP or SLA style printer, aka a resin printer.

I’ll get to your points below but before I do I’ll just back up my plug for the resin printers.

RESIN PRINTER
You sound like you are wanting some very fine details out of your prints, in particular when you mention the lines and the facial features. What you are seeing on those small cars and transformer bodies with the ultimaker is about as good as you will ever get your Makerbot to perform (if that). With an FDM style printer there is a limit to the detail that can be achieved and these printers are right at that limit. Printing at layer heights of 1 micron with a finely tuned machine will churn out some great parts but some details just aren’t going to pop like a molded part, plus you will ALWAYS see layer lines that must be sanded down. I know Makerbot advertises inadvertently that “someone here has their printer tuned to hit .4 microns and it’s amazing” while that may be true, I have read and been told that line so many times that it almost seems fictional to me at this point and it quite certainly isn’t very feasible with the machines they have provided.

With a resin style printer the lines are much smoother if visible and the details are incredible. You do lose some strength properties and the resin is more expensive than filament, but for details it just cannot be matched by a FDM printer (I have studied, followed, ordered samples and am about to purchase a resin printer) Some ones to check out are, Kudo3d’s Titan 1, FSL’s Pegasus touch, certainly Form labs Form 1+, with a couple other new ones See me CNC droplit, and a promising up and comer the LittleRP.

Anyway now onto the 2 vs 2X

DETAIL
I won’t talk much about detail other than both printers can hit relatively the same level of detail, but each have intricacies and quirks that must be learned and adjusted for. ABS tends to warp and want to have layer separation more so than PLA and thus requires heated enclosure and heated bed whereas PLA requires a fan to cool the filament. While you may see some difference in detail back and forth for the most part I think it’s going to be a wash if you get either one running nicely.
IT's A WASH

DUAL EXTRUSION
At first I thought this would be awesome, and certainly from time to time it would have come in handy, however I think it would have been a pricey “upgrade” that I would have rarely used. The dissolvable supports sound awesome however, but like you I couldn’t really find anyone that uses it for that purpose and one thing that does come to mind, is FDM style parts are porous and I have on occasion dunked parts or left them in water for various reasons. Getting all the water out of those parts is probably never going to happen, even if it’s a miniscule amount and I wouldn't want that to happen on some of my parts, and quite frankly for some of my projects it would be more than unacceptable. (however your parts look to be single wall thicknesses so that may not be an issue for your purposes). I have also heard that leveling, or in particular getting the nozzles at the perfectly same height after maintenance can be a beast (and having close to 1000 hours on my machine I can tell you, that you will be performing maintenance on it). It comes down to one thing for me, if the dissolvable support works well then 2X would win it, if not then dual extrusion isn’t worth the hassle.

MATERIAL PROPERTIES
ABS VS PLA. Both are pretty nice materials. PLA is incredibly strong for extruded plastic and I have been quite happy with the results. PLA doesn’t have as much “give” as ABS as in if you had two parts side by side, PLA would tend to deform or bend a bit more than ABS would, and with extreme force PLA should tend to snap first. When I first bought my rep 2 I thought this was going to be a major downside for me, however I haven’t been the least bit disappointed in any of the applications I have made part for all in PLA. I work as a Mechanical engineer and have made parts for fun and for function I have even tapped holes and screwed into the PLA perfectly well. I don’t think you will be disappointed with PLA. However like you ABS has the acetone vapor going for it and finishing of these parts is certainly an issue (see first paragraph plugging sla) which the vapor would help in, but I think you might find that again with the details you are looking for the vapor might blow some of those details out. (maybe) Sanding both materials is easy and both accept paints fairly well (hand painting, use acrylic, if spray painting, using a layer of FUSION spray makes for a good first layer to adhere additional paint on.) PERSONAL PREFERENCE COMES IN HERE Just depends what you hold important

A couple more points to make a long post even longer…

You commented on how you wish you could do something about altering supports, SIMPLIFY3D allows you to control A LOT when it comes to slicing, printing and supports. Its secondary software that may be of interest to you.

Do note that the REP 2 is discontinued and I am certainly feeling the drop in support from Makerbot, so acquiring a rep 2 may be difficult and you may have to purchase a used one that may or may not have issues with it. Rep 2X is still going strong so you can still buy one from Makerbot and still feasibly should get support (although I think we all know Makerbot support is shite.) So there is that. You may even consider purchasing a MB clone, Save some dough and get all the features of the MB 2 or 2X. I am a member of Makerbot Users Google group, and one of the main users that has extensive knowledge in MB printers fully backs the Wanhao Duplicator 4. Major supporter and he has some great information on that group about why you should purchase one of those printers over an overpriced MB. (remember that I have a rep 2 not a duplicator but I possibly would have purchased one if I had known beforehand)

And one last thing, If you get either a 2 or a 2x or a duplicator for that matter, there are multiple upgrades that you can do to the printer to fine tune it, I have compiled a list that is on another site that I can share with you if you are interested.

Best of luck.