None of the sloppiness around the brow, no extra lines around edges, the print on the bottom totally clear, and it's almost possible to read the tiny writing on the aft. Impressive!
I got this as a kit (of course!), and putting it together was pretty easy, though not trivial. There's quite a tome of a manual, with each step illustrated with photos and text. No soldering is involved, and all the necessary tools were provided. On the down side, some texts were ambiguous ("put the screw in the left hole" - but I can turn this thing any which way!) and the photos were not very good, especially since they had to show details of black on black. I could certainly take better shots (and did a couple of times, just as a sample). I worked together with my friend Christina, and we only made one mistake where I had to go back and undo some of the assembly. Inserting the nuts was sometimes tricky, in most cases we were able to pull them in using a screw from the other side, but not always.
The basic design is the same as my current one, with the bed moving in the Y axis, the extruder running along the X axis, which is in turn lifted by threaded rods on the Z axis. The details have improved a lot, though. Gone are all the endstops, since the motors are able to sense when they skip, which is enough to detect the end. The extruder has a built-in filament sensor, so it can stop printing if running out of filament. There's also a power panic system in case of power outages. The bed is with a separable bendable steel plate, held on by so many magnets that there are warnings not to use it if you have a pacemaker.
The operations are also very easy. There is a panel in front with a little dial, which allows controlling the printer in many ways. Starting a print from an SD card is three clicks away, and it auto-calibrates the bed height before each print. The self-test and larger calibration was quite effective, pointed out an issue I had missed.
For Z axis calibration, there is a live adjustment option, so while the print is happening I can adjust - micrometer by micrometer - how close the the bed the first layer should be. To get the right height, I printed the Prusa logo model that came on the SD card, adjusting the height by 0.05 mm every two centimeters or so. I stopped printing after the first layer, so I could see the quality:
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| Top side of print. Left part is with the nozzle closer to the bed |
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| Bottom side of print. Left side is nozzle closer to the bed. |
It was clear when the nozzle was way too low or way too high. In between, at about -0.95 to -1.1, the printing was just about perfect. This is a way better calibration than the single-strip built-in method.
The main problem since I got printing going has been to make the prints stick during printing. At first, I just used the recommended isopropyl alcohol swap to clean the plate. That didn't help much. Increasing the bed and extrusion temperature made it possible for a large flat piece to stick. Washing thoroughly with soap made things somewhat better, but printing this little hedgie proved too much for that. Next step was my trusty hair spray, which didn't help either. The trick from this video of putting a bit of gluestick on and spreading it with alcohol made no difference whatsoever. Only when I smeared the printing area with gluestick did it actually stick, but then that also adds more thickness. After reading various discussions about this problem, I ordered a flat sheet instead. It's supposedly less durable, but being able to print without smearing the plate is important.
I also ordered some filament - this is a 1.75mm extruder where my old printer is a 2.85mm - and some different-sized nozzles. I even got one of the experimental 0.15mm nozzles, since I want to try printing miniatures for gaming. I understand even using the 0.25mm one is tricky, so I don't expect instant success. I grabbed a 0.8mm nozzle for the old printer, it can be relegated to the easier tasks.
All in all, this is a really nice printer. The printing world has moved a lot since I got my Mendel90 half-kit, and it shows. I expect (hope) to be able to spend less time repairing the printer and more time designing.
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| The new wonder! What shall I call it? |
