I'm strongly considering the purchase of a Flashforge 3d printer. I'm wondering if all you people that own one are generally happy with your purchase. Does it works better or the same as a Replicator 2?
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I'm strongly considering the purchase of a Flashforge 3d printer. I'm wondering if all you people that own one are generally happy with your purchase. Does it works better or the same as a Replicator 2?
I have only owned a Flashforge, so I can't personally say if it's better than a Replicator 2, but for half the price (and the fact it prints ABS ) I went with the flashforge.
Check out my thingiverse gallery, everything in it was printed on a flashforge, and thats about 10% of the things ive printed, it's a sturdy workhorse, well over 1000 hours on my machine.
http://www.thingiverse.com/Geoffro/made
it's hard to say if I'm actually happy with it, I mean I love it and I seem to not go through alot of problems other people do with other machines and my prints seem to turn out better and i'm not doing anything special.
Geoff what Z resolution are you normally printing at?
The Flashforge was a clone of a Replicator 1. IMHO, a better machine than the Replicator 2. Better extruder for printing ABS and PLA once it has a few mods. The Flashforge already has the upgraded extruder.
Got my FF Creator X a few days ago..I like it! Still experimenting..made lots of silly toys & a few nice otherwise unobtainable tools.
It arrived with a spade lug connector completely off the power entry module {DOA} ..fixed/tightened all the 120V connectors..some were loose.
Actually going to re-route the rear power switch to the front with a lighted blue {matching fashion?} power switch, as there is also no manual emergency stop switch & it'd be nice to shut it off quickly without reaching in behind.
Also ordered an SD card extension (Deal Extreme SKU: 218278 ) to re-route the SD card elsewhere/easy access, as the SD card slot located on the inside of the machine is a real PITA to remove {bad engineering on that one}.
TD
That's a good idea actually, there has been quite a few times I needed an emergency cut off - I giant red button would have been ideal - especially when your filament has been jammed on the reel and you never heard it... then when it tightens up so tight it's a total seize up, and you really don't want that :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Teledog
Wow I was unaware of this. Then $1199 for the original Flashforge is a good deal. How about the Creator X. Is that worth the $100 extra?Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnA136
Got the X on eBay for $1,100 US (sniped), free shipping & was here in less than a week from China
Was valued at $100 (oops,.. must have missed a 0:o) ..therefore not much duty/tax on arrival :p
Well probably missed a 1 as it was 1100? :PQuote:
Originally Posted by Teledog
Tbh Chinese like to make the value pretty low, i also had some products from dealextreme and other shops and they all did it lower than it actualy was,
sometimes 30 dollars for example, they made it 2 dollars and as gift, But ye the nice Belguim customs still give me a fee of 10 euros because they don't seem to believe the Chinese? :P
Anyhow, great deal teledog ^^
I would only hope that they would make a bigger build volume (flashforge-Wanhao)
I've been keeping my eye on this one guys, for the price it looks excellent, around AU$2000 after conversion rates, for the quality of materials and build volume this may be my next purchase.
http://www.mankati.com/fullscale-xt.html
Today's tweaks;
The Z-axis lead screw was wobbling at the top (slightly bent lead screw) & there was a definite gap in the upper mount, probably not terribly important, but it bothered me, so I machined a tiny nylon bushing.
No wobble now,.. but still have to beat the slight bend out of the lead screw sometime.
Also, the heater bed wires sometimes fell behind the bed when it was fully down, getting pinched in the process.
Put an ultra weak spring on them to keep them forward/under the bed. (stretched the spring out even more after the pic) Could probably just as easily used a rubber band.
Attachment 1169Attachment 1170
PS: - Removing "STUCK-ON" ABS from Kapton?..drizzle a little IPA around the edges while warm, pops right off! (Works for old hot melt glue also..doesn't dissolve it, just breaks the bond)
- Kimwipes work for cleaning hot nozzles (Kleenex SUX!..been there, done that!.. gooey/lint mess!) they also work well for lint-free bed cleaning with IPA
Do you find ABS sticks that hard when it cools down? I've never needed anything to get something off my heatbead, when it cools to around 80c i just knock them off, always have.Quote:
Originally Posted by Teledog
Knocking them off works well with small prints, but I've found with larger (non-raft) prints, it kinda pulls /bubbles/trashes the Kapton.
Tried nylon pot scrapers..sometimes work..great for rafts , but "once in a while" they rip/lift the Kapton on raftless prints.
A quick blast of IPA from a needle tip squeeze bottle (1-2 second wait, perhaps another blast) @~80C or lower {BTW, wait ~20 seconds for old hot-melt glue, it really works well for breaking the bond}
Then push (knock) them off..I hate having to whack them off too hard (AKA: means another leveling/new Kapton)
Still haven't found the perfect solution....
You are definitely running your heatbead too hot for the plastic you are using then, if youa re trashing or bubbling the kapton , without doubt 1005 I can say your HB is too hot.Quote:
Originally Posted by Teledog
I learned that on my Lego printing experiment. You want to print Lego raftless (and big things, Im not talking lego blocks, Im talking entire lego cars on one plate) and I did find that when it was too hot I was killing my kapton tape, then after a week with my printer I figured out that the hotbed setting needs to be set for each filament - and 1 or 2 degrees can make a MASSIVE difference. Generally I have found that unless I am dying to print fast and don't want to wait for the next preheat then sure, i'll knock them off - but you do it quick as in 'SMACK!!!" none of this pulling like a sissy lol, you won't de-level your platform if you do it fast enough.
Or just wait till it cools down - a correctly heated bed for the right plastic won't stick, i'll give you 100 kilograms of plastic guarantee on that one (well maybe not 100.. im probably on my 60th roll - my machine is printing non stop every day except for when i go to bed, I never run it overnight. Just me, Im paranoid.
Thanks Geoff!
Lowering the temp definitely works! :-)
Making a ton of parts for the InMoov..(BTW, just tested some servos, they LOCK with a loss of/no power..unlike a stepper motor..Aiiieeiii!) ;-)
ie: be careful using a 3 wire servo for your sex toys! ;-) {or perhaps great for a security system??} ;-P
Td
Quote:
Originally Posted by Geoff
argh the the Inmoov, that's like my bucket list project.. it's a tonne of plastic.Quote:
Originally Posted by Teledog
I am about oh.. %20 percent through mine? I am doing it at 0.64% scale, I don't think I can do a full size one, so I made the decision to do a small half size human one. so far the hand is working ok, the pins for the fingers need to be replaced with something better but still, it's impressive.
I have ordered a tonne of really powerful metal gear super fast servos from hobbyking for it, they are not meant for robotics (as in they are not shaped for it) but it's an easy adjustment for inmoov sections. The biggest challenge is the big joints that I forsee, the shoulders (when I eventually get to them.. not even at head stage yet) will be tricky, small motors are fine for the fingers and hands but the shoulders will need to be high torque and you want them super fast, and those are not cheap :(
Geoff,
The Mankati guys are an Ultimaker ripoff, they have issues with delivery and service. I heard bad things about them. Pity, because the printer looks impressive (though haven't seen it IRL).
Personally I'd rather get the original Ultimaker with dual heads. They're are a reliable Dutch company, keep the printer opensource, and they're the guys behind Cura. So the money gets spent in a good way, supporting the community and an awesome printer :)
Ultimakers have different head construction than Flashforges, and they are blazingly fast, easily over 200mm/s, and layer height printing below 0.07mm. There was a thread for such HQ prints on the Ultimaker's Google Groups. Much more expensive though.
Now, Flashforge.
When you add head fans to the dual-head Creator this machine is a killer. I own a flashforge, and have a lot of experience with repraps, and some with proprietary printers, top range stuff. I printed shittons of stuff on the Flashforge, with shittons of materials. It's not perfect (oscillation interfering with print quality, loud) but I wouldn't change it for any other in the price range.
ATM I fried the head power section apparently and looking for solution, but Flashforge is a real workhorse and I love that printer.
Price/quality ratio is out of the roof imvho.
The Mantaki failed with the filament feeder, they should have put it closer to the head, even midway would have been sufficient but you try and feed flex filament gripping from the back of the machine, feeding up into a loop down into the extruder... naaah sorry, from what i've read it's a major flaw. It looks like a nice machine but they are very dishonest in their advertising. They will print something, clean it, acetone it, put it on the build plate and take a photo and say it was printed like that, I caught them out 4 times. I was THIS close to buying one.Quote:
Originally Posted by basfud
If I buy a new big fancy machine for $2500, I expect all those issues ironed out. I have heard great things about the Ultimakers and some of the prints from those I have to admit are some of the best I have ever seen come from one of these machines.
Considering flashforges are so cheap now, like you can pick them up cheaper than flashforge sell them for themselves in some cases, it's a pretty safe bet for an entry level machine.
love the printer. Whenever a print works it works perfectly.
Hate the makerbot software. Just zero layer control and oh, so many other things it won't do.
My problems are simply getting things to stick to anything without a raft. Not sure if it's me or the software.
for the vast majority of prints - rafts are just not suitable as removing prints from them can be nigh on impossible.
What annoys me is the raft prints nice and slow with slightly extra extrusion. But the makwerware software doesn't give me any options to set the same settings for my first layers without raft.
It's extremely annoying.
I know the printer will print at 15cms - I accidentally set it on that for a large cone (the only things I've succesfully printed and removed from a raft). But in order to get anything to stick to anything without a raft, I have to use really really slow print settings and cross my fingers.
So yep - thoroughly recommend the printer (got a creator x dual head) but just a shame they ripped off makerbot and not ultimaker. As cura is the software I really want to use.
I'll get there :-)
Here's what the machine can do when you get lucky. 0.2mm z resolution, 40mms speed.
Attachment 2013
An almost perfect heartbox.
Attachment 2014
This is how it came out of the printer. No stringing, perfect bridging. Just a slight curl at the point of the heart. I had to cut about 3 mm to release the central hinge. But otherwise about as good as you could hope for.
Attachment 2015
I haven't managed to get anything to stick to kapton since.
That said I haven't really had much time to sit down and seriously tune the beast. But just knowing if I can get the first couple layers to stick to the print bed, I can print anything - no matter how complex - is a real comfort. Great printer, lousy software. But I'm working on that :-)
The kapton is just a low level setting, I have the nozzle practically scraping the plate when I do raftless, but that example heart box?? man I struggled to print that and get my printer right, but its a good calibration test thats for sure!Quote:
Originally Posted by curious aardvark
As for makerware, you can adjust the settings for the raft etc with a profile editor
http://nothinglabs.blogspot.com.au/2...e-profile.html
I hear you with cura, pisses me off, looks nice, works great but can't talk to my machine.
yeah I've looked breifly at proftweak. Will probably do the job.
Just been busy since I've had the machine. Keep hoping for a dead period. You know, like the 3 months before I got the machine :-)
But that heart box - I believe the second thing I ever printed - just says: get your end right and I'll print anything at all :-)
I had a gyro thing heading for a perfect print as well - but head got blocked halfway through lol
So yeah, printer is a great bit of kit. heavy duty motors and bars. Love the control panel and screen and I print 90% from sd card.
I've made 3 glass printbeds - so I'll calibrate a bit finer and try blue tape, kapton on glass and abs glue and mess with proftweak and hopefully hit on a solution that works for me most - if not all - of the time.
But none of my issues are the printers fault.
Oh yeah goeff - did you say I need m3 wingnuts ? So far only been able to go down as low as m4 in the hardware shops I've looked in.
Blisters on forefinger and thumb from adjusting hot. hopefully the glass plates will let me calibrate cold.
When i get wingnuts I'll probably print big plastic knobs to fit over them just to make things really easy and less painful to calibrate hot :-)
Not sure mate, what did I say the wingnuts were for lol?Quote:
Originally Posted by curious aardvark
adjusting the bed on calibration.
It's in your first couple of posts in the stickied thread.
I've got some m4's I might try.
Just can't find anyone stocking m3's, weird.
I never print with rafts and no issues with model unsticking, but then again, I never use pure Kapton :)Quote:
Originally Posted by curious aardvark
I use either office glue like UHU Stick or dissolved PVA. For ABS (which I slowly abandon in favor of taulmann nylon) I use ABS juice and re-calibrate the bed on 110degC temperature (cause it warps more at those temps).
The only problems I get is the models sticking to the bed too well :) But you can use lighter butane refills to get them off (temperature shock) or pry them off with a snap-off knife (that works brilliant most of the time). You also get a perfect glossy surface on the bed side of the print.
It's funny, I printed raftless for 8 hours yesterday after fixing my flashforge with some band aids, on 1 layer of kapton (single sided) and no glue or spray.Quote:
Originally Posted by basfud
All I ever need to do is mess with printing temps and it solves the issue. All my filament is different, its always down to settings for me and the only exception I find is the wood.
keep trying without raft. Just won't stick.
And getting araft off a model after a long print can be nigh on impossible - just fuses soild.
I haven't tried at really low speeds yet, but can't see any other way of printing raftless than with layer control. And I just haven't got it.
Or printing the entire part at 10mms - and I really don't want to spend all day waiting for a small lidless box to print, that I could knock out in 20 minutes with a raft.
So geoff - if the filament doesn't stick, do you put the temp up or down ? And how does that effect the rest of the print, particularly on things that need really fine tolearances ?
Although if you've never got the heart box to work - I guess that maybe answers the question.
I recently purchased a flashforge creator, and let me tell youit came as a pile of crap. Loose screws, parts all over the place. It even had broken pieces. advertised as new!
I returned the creator and got a new creator. Worked great for 4 days, then started poping and creaking. Sounded like sand in a ball bearing. UNACCEPTABLE. Sent this one back too since flashforge tech support said to "deal with it"
I got the Creator PRO. This one came very nicely built, everything looked great until I looked closer after it was printing. Nozzles were too close on the right extruder causing it to knock off what was already starting to print. The pulleys are severely wobbling and they said that's not an issue. ANYONE with a BRAIN knows that they are an issue. The pulley is off circular so anytime it moves to the oval area it moves the extruder a little more sometimes 1mm even 2mm more than it should. you can even see in the video clips that the X axis binds when moving it and it jerks the extruders.
I called tech support on this one, he stated he would call china and let me know a decision in 2 weeks. I called back after a few days to just see what was going on, while I was on the phone with the guy he sent me an email, stating that china engineers stated its not an issue, that they think the Z axis is. But they wont fix it. He said that its not going to cause any quality concerns. Stated that if I didn't like it I shouldn't have bought their printer. What kind of crap thing is that to say?
My advice is to steer clear of flashforge. 3 out of 3 printers came bad and defective, 1 of the 3 worked for a few days then bearings went out and started creaking and popping. The PRO came with nylon pulleys that are warped/bent/wobbling and it throws off prints.
I am returning mine and buying either a ROBO3d, or I may just spend the extra and get a brand that they will stand behind, lulzbot taz.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Geoff
I love Flashforge printer. It has the best extruder in printing ABS and PLA and it is a really great printer to experiment with when you're still starting on 3d Printing. I used Flashforge as my startup printer when I was still a beginner in 3d Printing.
Wow! I must have been lucky, because my creator pro has worked flawlessly for whats' got to be approaching 100+ prints. A few buddies of mine who also bought a FF have had similar "luck,"we should go to vegas!Quote:
Originally Posted by agilliam
So far I am happy with FlashForge. It's the first printer I used when I started to venture 3d printing and it became my buddy ever since. So I think this printer have some sentimental value to me and I am satisfied with its features and capabilities as well.
In the past year, I have owned Makerbot (entry model), Weistek 150 and Flashforge Dreamer. By far, Dreamer is the best of the three.
well my creator x has been chugging away for over a year now.
Not a single issue that wasn't my fault :-)
Had the Creator X for a while now..no major issues.. seems the more one works it, the more reliable/accurate it is...
We are sorry to hear about the experience you have with our printers. Please do let us know what else we can do for you to make your experience a better one.
Quote:
Originally Posted by agilliam
Hello Geoff,
Did you ever buy this printer? I checked out the Fullscale XT plus ($1899 - link below) and it looks good. I have a FF Dreamer and want to purchase another 3d printer. Wondering if I should buy the FF Pro or perhaps take the risk and buy this one.
Thanks for your thoughts.
Fullscale XT plus
http://store.mankati.com/collections...lus-3d-printer
Modman :-)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Geoff