Quick Review, Ultimaker 2go and Orion

[JohnA136]

Greeting from New York International Maker Faire! This is turning out to be the biggest "Show and Tell on Earth"! My son and I are in the 3D Printer Village demoing our 3D Printers. We stopped by Ultimaker and SeeMeCNC and told them we would be happy to demo their new printers for the crowd (now what company would actually turn over a new machine to the likes of us??) But, low and behold, they both said "Sure, we'll send one over!"

Saturday morning we had two brand new boxed up printers in our booth. For those of you who have weened yourself on RepRaps, Cupcakes and the likes, you know how frustrating setting up a new printer can be? Well, fear not friends, the age of plug and play printers is here! No "tricks", no Smart Extruders, just solid little machines that you pullout of the box, plug in, put in filament and PRINT. Now, we do not have the best conditions here, it is dirty and dusty and windy! The temps are in the low to mid 70's but we don't care...and, obviously, our printers do not either? We cranked out print after print on all five printers all day long! and the results are great. Everyone that has visited our booth is impressed with the quality! We even printed the dreaded "Make Magazine 3D Printer Shoot out test Rook on the Orion yesterday and it passed 100 percent. I am going to have my son do one on the Ultimaker 2go today.

If you have never visited a Maker Faire and there is one in your area, yo owe it to yourself to go. It is a blast! We have had owners and CEOs of most major 3D printing companies visit the 3D Printer Village and they are the nicest people ever. Truly interested in seeing how everything works and is being used. The creativity of the artists is remarkable and all the kids (and there are thousands and thousands of them), are having a great time. I will post a picture of some of our prints later.

Oh yeah, the review. We have 5 printers going, our Kossel Mini, one of our Prusa i3 Metals, our Ultimaker 2 plus the two loaner machined. Since both loaner printers are working flawlessly, I can only judge on the features.

The Ultimaker 2go is a smaller machine with a 4" by 4" unheated build plate so it is a PLA only machine. It comes in a sturdy, foam travel case with compartments for all the tools and pieces so you can pack it up and carry it to schools, shows and demonstration, this is awesome! It is a perfect demo machine and great for schools and libraries due to it's small size, affordability and the fact that it has a closed back and side to prevent little fingers from touching hot things.

The See MeCNS Orion is well built and easy to use, has an eight inch round heated build plate and a massive build height. It has no enclosure so you can see it printing from all sides. Both printers have a LCD control panel and print off an SD Card.

The Ultimaker 2go sells for $1450.00 USD and the See MeCNC Orion sells for $1049.00 USD so they are relatively close.

If I was asked which one I would buy, it would have to be Orion because I just love to watch the Delta printers print.

Well, the sun is coming up so I have to leave the Hotel and go back and set up our booth. I home somebody form the board actually stops by and says "Hi!", it is lonely there among the 40,000 people a day visiting the Faire.

[curious aardvark]

Also the orion has 4x the build volume.
Not sure what market ultimaker are aiming the go at.
4 inch just isn't big enough for most people.

Still, one presumes they did the market research and someone out there wants them.

The faire sounds like fun. Don't think we have those in the uk.

[JohnA136]

I agree, a 4 by 4 build area seems to be moving backwards but I saw at least six in people's booths printing? Most specialized in printing small items like ear rings. and other jewelry. They have these Maker Faires are starting all over, even Tokyo so maybe they will get around to the UK?