Best larger printer in 2k-4k range?

[printing724]

Yes, there are quite a few choices out there. We have three printers. Started with a DDD Cubex Duo, ran it for about 18 months. Went looking for a replacement. Like you, we wanted a 12x12xSomething build envelope. Our use case is primarily making PLA parts that we use on our manufacturing machinery. We design in Solidworks, there are two engineers in our little department. Time is money. We narrowed it down to the Lulzbot TAZ 4 and Fusion3 F306.

We bought the Lulzbot ($2,000) in January because we were put off by the F306's price ($4,000). We struggled getting the TAZ 4 dialed in to our applications. Bought the F306 as well. Eventually got the TAZ 4 dialed in while waiting for the F306 to ship. The TAZ 4 is in full production. When the F306 arrived (mid March), the first part out was usable. There have been no print failures that weren't due to errors on our part (forget to refresh the glue on the bed, empty the filament spool mid-print, etc.).

If we run the two printers side by side with similar slicer settings, the F306 is a little faster than the TAZ 4, yields a somewhat higher quality print especially when it comes to overhangs, and there are some parts we can print on the F306 that the TAZ 4 can't (due to the F306's better overhang and supports performance). Both printers work within their limitations. We know what the TAZ can or can't do now. We're still exploring the limits of the F306.


Overall, both are good machines for the money. From our experience, the one you choose will depend on your quality requirements and where you are in the trade-off between tinkering with something that costs less or paying more for something that works better out of the box.

Looking at the price difference, I can say that (in our case) the difference was more than made up for by the amount of time I spent tinkering on the TAZ 4 until it began producing usable parts for us. YMMV, of course.

P.S. The Cubex was educational but DDD's support for it was horrible. In the beginning, I struggled to get parts. No one answered the phone, returned calls, e-mails, etc. I only got support after I contacted the investor relations department (I do own stock in DDD, don't ask me why). But it never got much better. We ordered parts October 2014 that didn't arrive until late December. Not rocket science stuff, either. Hot end nozzles, replacement filament tube, things like that. The only way I would let a DDD printer into our plant now would be if they put it in here for free on at least six month's trial.