Qidi Tech 1 - Replicator 1 clone

[Syd_Khaos]

Report your findings when you are done as I would love to know if the right obeys and the left doesn't though that would be beyond weird if it does.

Double for me...as I use left as my primary extruder...right typically don't even have tube or nozzle in it.

[DarkAlchemist]

The ONLY material I have tried so far that greatly affected nozzle wear-n-tear is sandstone filament. And was able to print for about 1hr 2min before catastrophic failure of the nozzle. This was starting with a fresh nozzle.

I tell you from experience (printed 2 full spools and about 200grams left on 3rd spool) that MakerGeeks glow in the dark ABS is no more abrasive than normal ABS. Its just a liquid chemical that makes it glow....one that is stable enough to be mixed with ABS mind you. Not sure if this fella on YT is printing garbage filament, or not running cleaners or what...but MG glow in the dark is very safe on brass nozzles.

For me SS is a waste of cash. The only time I use specialty filament that would require it is when I can find small bits of it for sale and wanna mess around. Like I said, the one SS nozzle I purchased only lasted 100hrs or so past what I put on the brass ones....was running just ABS, and about 6 hrs of PLA (really don't like the stuff) through the SS. And it was double the price of the brass.

To be honest I kinda feel the same way about PETG. Yea its good material, but I really don't see enough of a gain over ABS (for my purposes of course) to justify paying that much more per spool. I have only ever gotten 2 spools of PETG. The first I ordered before my printer ever got here....so I didn't know. The 2nd I got from MG in a grab bag, and paid ABS price for it lol.
I do try to not use the bit of PETG I have left though....just in case. From my understanding it very resilliant to lots of chemicals and cleaners. I just have no use of that in my normal workflow.

edit:
I have not yet tried carbon fiber filament. I really want to, want to make some RC parts with it, just havent got around to it yet lol. I would imagine that it is as harsh as some of the stone, wood, or metal based filament out there.

CF filament is so damn expensive that I could never use it but CF is abrasive by nature and is roughly akin to your sandstone as it is like sandpaper going through the nozzle and will tear up any brass nozzle. As I said for non exotic filament Brass is fine but I still question SS for a nozzle due to the fact SS is a beast to heat up and keep it hot so it really is counter intuitive to use it as a nozzle.

PETG has more bonding ability than ABS, or PLA, and is one of the things people love about it. Bonds to itself almost like it were injection molded they say and for really large parts (over 100mm) it is the way to go since it doesn't warp, or delaminate, but, of course, if you have an enclosure with active heating ABS will not warp, or delaminate, either. For me the bastard Filament is PLA but I have a few rolls of it but I just don't like printing with it.

[JimHs1]

Seems to be more drag than I anticipated when skating!!

Here is the finished assembly. By changing the plate you can accommodate different width spools then this will sit on mounting rails that attach to the bottom of the box. Pretty modular design.

[IMG][/IMG]

Would you mind sharing the files? Couldn't find anything on thingiverse that really compared. Thanks, either way.

[DaveB]

WOW, maybe Emily has been shut up by the powers that be at Qidi or she no longer gives a damn. :/

Five for $9.98? WOW, a hell of a steal at that price point and good find.

Look at these from the same seller - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01FS9CID4

And if a 0.2mm nozzle size didn't float your boat,

How about qty 5 each 0.5mm SS for $13?
www.amazon.com/dp/B01IH6702E

Or
How about 0.3mm in SS? Again qty 5 for $13
www.amazon.com/dp/B01IH5V9YK

So now SS MK10 nozzles in .2mm, .3mm, .4mm or .5mm sizes are all available for cheap, and from Amazon no less. I'm tempted by .3's, might be worth a try.

[jfkansas]

Not a word back from Emily. Taking JFKansas' excellent suggestion, I collected the nozzle, throat and pre-cut PTFE tube parts and measured. And the measurements were all over the place. I found that the internal drill out (depth and chamfer angle) on the inside of the MK10 nozzles varies substantially by nozzle manufacturer. Consequently the length of the 4mm OD PTFE tube that is needed varies depending upon your mix of parts. The PTFE tube length needed for the steel MK10 nozzles I purchased on eBay differed from the QiDi sourced nozzles by ~.4mm. Within the QiDi lot the differences were ~.1mm.

I did notice a new $10 / qty 5 price point on amazon for MK10 nozzles: www.amazon.com/dp/B01FJS19C0

Yep even the depth (and shape) of the Stock nozzles for QIDI, FF, MicroSwiss and P3-D are all a little different.

[wirlybird]

Report your findings when you are done as I would love to know if the right obeys and the left doesn't though that would be beyond weird if it does.

Will do but probably next weekend. Vacation time now.

[wirlybird]

Would you mind sharing the files? Couldn't find anything on thingiverse that really compared. Thanks, either way.

No problem there. The part with the bearings is similar to one on thingiverse but I wanted some changes. I'll try this evening but otherwise it will be next week.

[wirlybird]

Opinions:

I am sure everyone here has done their research! What would be your choice for a larger format printer that doesn't break the bank?

I am starting to get calls for parts that are a little to big for the QIDI. These are not fancy intricate statues but things for sprint cars or larger drones for example. Some friends race and have thought about some parts that are made out of aluminum but are not so durable. And other parts that are not specifically designed for the cars and could be modified a bit to work better. A printed part could be lighter, cheaper and can be customized.

[marcnaz]

I posted the very first message in this thread/forum one year ago. I just wanted to say that I still have my printer. I use it regularly and am still very pleased with it. After a couple of minor issues which were fixed (Qidi folks sent replacement parts very quickly), I have had no problems.
I noted that for a while I couldn't find them on Amazon (where I made my initial purchase) but looks like that is no longer the case. I was impressed to see that this thread has grown to nearly 2500 posts and lots of users. Thanks to those who have provided information and experiences about these printers!

[cncartist]

I posted the very first message in this thread/forum one year ago. I just wanted to say that I still have my printer. I use it regularly and am still very pleased with it. After a couple of minor issues which were fixed (Qidi folks sent replacement parts very quickly), I have had no problems.
I noted that for a while I couldn't find them on Amazon (where I made my initial purchase) but looks like that is no longer the case. I was impressed to see that this thread has grown to nearly 2500 posts and lots of users. Thanks to those who have provided information and experiences about these printers!

Very nice and thanks for returning! The thread has grown quite a bit and gathered a ton of posts, lots of great information here.