Which FDM printer?

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philipy
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Which FDM printer?

Post by philipy » Sat Feb 26, 2022 12:13 pm

I think I'm in the market for a new filament printer. I have spent several whole days wrestling with my current Qidi and I've come to the conclusion that there is either something wrong with the firmware or the hot ends. It has two nozzles and both seem to be showing the same problem - it prints for about 10-15 layers and then glues up solid because ( I think) the temperature drops. Then I have to take the whole thing apart to clean the solidified filament from the extruder, put it all back together and repeat! It is now 5 years old and was relatively cheap at the time and things have moved on a lot, so rather than wrestle with it, the time may have come to replace it.

So, what are the current thoughts on what is available? I've read what folks have done/said about the machines they have and so far I think I've distilled out things that I don't want ( f'rinstance I don't want a machine that forces me to print on a raft every time), but not sure where that leaves me with what I DO want! :lol:

So I'm open to your thoughts.
Philip

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Re: Which FDM printer?

Post by ge_rik » Sat Feb 26, 2022 12:41 pm

This'll be fun! Good luck with working your way through the various suggestions ....... :shock:

I can only talk about the two FDM printers with which I've have experience:

Anet A8
+ Cheap, popular so plenty of add-ons and mods, reasonably effective
- Poor quality prints, needs a fair amount of nurse-maiding
Note: I bought the cheapest possible version with a plywood frame. The more recent metal framed version gives much better quality prints

Eryone SE Thinker
+ Good value for money, large build plate, reliable with good quality prints, works well with Eryone branded filaments
- Limited user adjustments available, lesser known brand name so fewer add-ons and mods

Rik
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Re: Which FDM printer?

Post by Red Star » Sat Feb 26, 2022 1:02 pm

I currently have a Flashforge Finder - nothing bad to say about it, other than a limited print size. It's designed to only take 0.5kg reels, but I've printed out a side mount for 1kg reels so I'm not limited to buying only the Flashforge ones.
I've also in the past used various Makerbot machines - the replicator 2 was my go to machine, though it's probably been superseded by a newer model by now.

Andrew

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Re: Which FDM printer?

Post by philipy » Sat Feb 26, 2022 3:04 pm

ge_rik wrote: Sat Feb 26, 2022 12:41 pm

Anet A8
plenty of add-ons and mods,
- Poor quality prints, needs a fair amount of nurse-maiding


Eryone SE Thinker
+ Good value for money, large build plate, reliable with good quality prints, works well with Eryone branded filaments
- Limited user adjustments available, lesser known brand name so fewer add-ons and mods
Thanks Rik.
Yep, thats one thing I DON'T want... to keep on having to add more and more add-on bits to make it produce satisfactory prints. I want the printer to be a tool that works out of the box, not a project. :lol: To be fair to my Qidi, it's never needed anything mechanical doing to it until this last week or two, apart from routine maintenance and settings tweaks.
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Re: Which FDM printer?

Post by philipy » Sat Feb 26, 2022 3:07 pm

Red Star wrote: Sat Feb 26, 2022 1:02 pm I currently have a Flashforge Finder - nothing bad to say about it, other than a limited print size. It's designed to only take 0.5kg reels, but I've printed out a side mount for 1kg reels so I'm not limited to buying only the Flashforge ones.
I've also in the past used various Makerbot machines - the replicator 2 was my go to machine, though it's probably been superseded by a newer model by now.

Andrew
Thanks Andrew. I have had a cursory look at the Flashforge and Makerbots but they seem well overpriced compared to more recent manufacturers. I suspect they are still living on the fact that they used to be the only real options.
Philip

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Re: Which FDM printer?

Post by -steves- » Sat Feb 26, 2022 4:04 pm

Try the Ender 5 Pro, Ender 5 plus, Ender 6 or Ender 7 depending on how big you want to print and what material you want to use. Solid, reliable printers all of them.

BTW, I have had the exact same issue as you are having a few times now. I replaced the thermistor and the heater, hey presto, all fixed. I am sure the thermistor reads the wrong temperature and then cools the heater down and causes a blockage. Worth trying before splashing out on a new printer and that's just what I did the first time, hence I now have 2 x Ender 5 Pro's. :shock: I bought them as a stack of 10 each, it costs pence to replace now. If you use the same ones as me I am happy send send you a couple, mine are 24v, can't recall the barrel size :cry:
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Re: Which FDM printer?

Post by ge_rik » Sat Feb 26, 2022 5:42 pm

-steves- wrote: Sat Feb 26, 2022 4:04 pm Try the Ender 5 Pro, Ender 5 plus, Ender 6 or Ender 7 depending on how big you want to print and what material you want to use. Solid, reliable printers all of them.

BTW, I have had the exact same issue as you are having a few times now. I replaced the thermistor and the heater, hey presto, all fixed. I am sure the thermistor reads the wrong temperature and then cools the heater down and causes a blockage. Worth trying before splashing out on a new printer and that's just what I did the first time, hence I now have 2 x Ender 5 Pro's. :shock: I bought them as a stack of 10 each, it costs pence to replace now. If you use the same ones as me I am happy send send you a couple, mine are 24v, can't recall the barrel size :cry:
I'll endorse what Steve says.

Firstly, I had similar problems with my Anet until I replaced the thermistor.

Also, I regret not investing in a Creality printer. My impression is they are virtually bullet proof - though reviews suggest this has led them to be a bit complacent when it comes to innovation. However, they have gained their position as being a leader in the field because of their reliability and consistency.

My mate around the corner has an Ender 3 and has been very happy with it, though I'd be more inclined to go for one of the Creality printers with a larger build plate

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Re: Which FDM printer?

Post by philipy » Sat Feb 26, 2022 6:38 pm

Steve, Rik,
Thanks very much for the suggestions. I did wonder about something along those lines but not knowing what I would be doing I could see myself spending a small fortune getting bits that made no difference!

Steve, thanks very much for your kind offer, but I'm afraid it won't help. I have found this on an old 3d print forum,"Qidi Tech 1's use a thermocouple, instead of a thermistor, and they use an oddball size thread to connect it to the heater block". I have read in other places that they used non-standard threads for parts, so I'm inclined to believe it, plus I also found a Youtube video which refers to replacing the thermocouple, not thermistor.

I may drop Qidi Support an email and see what they suggest. They were very helpful with my queries when I first got it.
Philip

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Re: Which FDM printer?

Post by GAP » Sat Feb 26, 2022 8:50 pm

I have an Ender3V2 and after some teething troubles most likely caused by the operator it is working fine at the moment.
Assembly out of the box was straight forward and the print quality is very good.
The only thing I did was print a side feed mount for the reel it lowered the reel mount from on top to down the side.
I did it to alleviate a sharp curve in the filament as it went into the head other than that it is as delivered.
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Re: Which FDM printer?

Post by philipy » Sun Feb 27, 2022 6:41 am

Does anyone know the differences between the Creality Ender series and Creality CR series, apart from price and the ability of the CR's to work from wifi?

I've emailed Qidi support but not yet had a reply, so while I'm waiting I've been looking at options when I came across the Creality CR 10 series. On the face of it, it appears to be mor or less the robot that Steve was half jokingly suggesting he wanted to convert his Ender's to. I'm less clear on the compaison between the actual print characteristics of the two series- not talking about bed size etc but as far as I can see the actual printing parameters seem to be about the same?

BTW Steve, do you use Cura with yours?
Philip

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Re: Which FDM printer?

Post by ge_rik » Sun Feb 27, 2022 8:55 am

philipy wrote: Sun Feb 27, 2022 6:41 am Does anyone know the differences between the Creality Ender series and Creality CR series, apart from price and the ability of the CR's to work from wifi?
This might help, though he only looks at one model in each range
https://all3dp.com/2/cr-10-v3-vs-ender- ... 20250%20mm.

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Re: Which FDM printer?

Post by -steves- » Sun Feb 27, 2022 5:07 pm

philipy wrote: Sun Feb 27, 2022 6:41 am

BTW Steve, do you use Cura with yours?
Yes, it didn't originally support the Ender 6, so I found a couple of articles online and did some fudging around with files and got it working. These days Cura supports the Ender 6 straight out the box.

Note that the Ender's do not come with a BLTouch and it is 100% worth adding, especially on the 3 and 5, my 6 got quite up set over it so we had a chat and came to a compromise that works for both of us, lol ;) The 6 does some with a runout sensor which works perfectly but run outs sensors don't work with Octoprint unless they are wired directly into Octoprint, not an issue if you are not going to use Octoprint.
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Re: Which FDM printer?

Post by philipy » Sun Feb 27, 2022 5:20 pm

Thanks both.
I'm still waiting for my Chinese friends to get back to me so I'm still looking around at options.
Philip

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Re: Which FDM printer?

Post by GAP » Sun Feb 27, 2022 8:33 pm

I understand that the Creality slicer that comes with their printers is Cura based and it works with their printers quite well.
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Re: Which FDM printer?

Post by HugoFitz » Mon Feb 28, 2022 8:59 am

If you can stomach the price I'd go for a Prusa i3, it will just work really well from the get go and is built with some half decent components and a decent extruder

To be honest my one obsession with the cheaper printers is to upgrade the hotend package from stock something like an E3Dv6. I helped my old colleague/friend with a couple of Wanhao printers. I designed new carriages for the hotends and it transformed the printer for him.

Also stick a genuine BL Touch on it as well to create hassle free printing.

If you do go for Ender you can upgrade to a direct drive hotend such as the E3D Hemera https://e3d-online.com/products/e3d-hem ... kit-1-75mm

E3D have guides for upgrading quite a few printers with links to parts to print, a full bill of materials etc. https://e3d-online.zendesk.com/hc/en-us ... de-Guides-

(My printer is and E3D BigBox which has been heavily modified, rewired and uses Duet 3D control boards, I started my 3d printing adventure with a RepRap Huxley which I heavily modified...) Sorry if I'm coming across a san E3D fanboy but I've found the result if using their parts to be most excellent.

I hope you get fixed up with something in the end that gives you great pleasure to use and doesn't result in you tearing your hair out! :-)

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Re: Which FDM printer?

Post by philipy » Mon Feb 28, 2022 9:12 am

Thanks for that input. It all sounds fascinating but I really want something that just works without significant rebuilding. Although I've already been converted to the idea of adding the BLTouch, which seems to be universally praised. I've never really had any problems with manually levelling my Qidi, though.
I have always quite liked the idea of Prusa, but apart from the price, I'm a bit reluctant to get trapped into a "our way or the highway' type situation similar to Apple, which I've always avoided for the same reason.
Philip

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Re: Which FDM printer?

Post by philipy » Mon Feb 28, 2022 9:18 am

-steves- wrote: Sun Feb 27, 2022 5:07 pm The 6 does some with a runout sensor which works perfectly but run outs sensors don't work with Octoprint unless they are wired directly into Octoprint, not an issue if you are not going to use Octoprint.
Steve,
As a general question, I've looked quickly at Octoprint in the past and although I like the sound of what I think it can achieve, I find their website blinds me with science! Is it as complicated and difficult to set up and install as it seems to suggest? I know nothing about Raspberry Pi but have found Arduino too much to get my head around.
Philip

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Re: Which FDM printer?

Post by metalmuncher » Mon Feb 28, 2022 6:01 pm

I would second the Prusa suggestion, you should get a really good ready-to-go printer from them, but for a price compared to the Chinese stuff.

PrusaSlicer is also my favourite slicer, and should include nicely tuned profiles for their own printers.

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Re: Which FDM printer?

Post by philipy » Mon Feb 28, 2022 6:22 pm

Thanks Richard.
As I said before, I have looked at Prusa in the past and liked it, but despite what you say, the price is a killer for me. The 'Original i3' is 700 quid in kit form ( and 4-5 weeks delivery) and a grand if bought complete. Admittedly the 'mini' is significantly cheaper but the print volume is also significantly smaller - too small imo.
Philip

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Re: Which FDM printer?

Post by -steves- » Mon Feb 28, 2022 6:53 pm

philipy wrote: Mon Feb 28, 2022 9:18 am
-steves- wrote: Sun Feb 27, 2022 5:07 pm The 6 does some with a runout sensor which works perfectly but run outs sensors don't work with Octoprint unless they are wired directly into Octoprint, not an issue if you are not going to use Octoprint.
Steve,
As a general question, I've looked quickly at Octoprint in the past and although I like the sound of what I think it can achieve, I find their website blinds me with science! Is it as complicated and difficult to set up and install as it seems to suggest? I know nothing about Raspberry Pi but have found Arduino too much to get my head around.
Ok. Octoprint also worried me at first as I know nothing about Arduino and such like and have only built a Retro Pie system from an image. Luckily for people like us is that the community know this and all you need to do is get hold of a Raspberry pi Zero 2 W,, a micro SD card with convert to plug it into your PC and load an image on it from the internet using the Raspberry Pi installer which you also download from the internet. The rest is just a local web setup, as long as you can trace it's IP address you're away. Extra bits are simple plugins which require you to press install from the same web application page. Honestly it's super easy, camera is plug and play, so so simple.

Hope that helps
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