Snapmaker 2 A350T
I’m beginning to believe this device is not a reasonable product for 3D printing. Maybe this product should be marketed for the Laser Engraver and CNC. Basic 3D printing should not be this bad.
Rough surfaces and excess print material is a consistent problem. What am I missing?
Competitor (not so expensive) printer prints the same models perfectly without excessive adjustments.
Without any details about your print results (pictures?) print settings and model that you printed
Nobody will be able to give you any suggestions or advice.
I was amazed with the out-of-the-box print quality on the Bambu, having started with the Snapmaker where I needed to tweak tons of settings to get prints to finish at all, let alone look nice.
My guess is that linear modules just aren’t as smooth as belts, and produce vibration that only shows up in 3D prints. This could be a QA thing, where some batches of modules perform better than others, and that would explain why some owners think the A350 is fantastic at 3D printing and others can never get it to work well. Or it might be some other aspect of the design, for example using two modules on an axis (instead one module and a stabilzing linear rail) that are not perfectly in sync. Since these units are user-assembled, there is no way for QA to reject flawed units post-assembly.
Generic suggestions for improvement would be to do linear advance calibration (it helps a surprising amount, and the default values are terrible), and of course to take into account the stepper motors in the linear modules when slicing the model (use increments of 0.04mm for layer height, according to my notes from back when I bought the thing).
Agreed. It really is quite terrible at 3D printing compared to dedicated 3D print machines of similar size that cost less than 1/3 of the price.
There a a LOT of calibrations and tunings that need to be done with these “unrefined” machines. There are a couple of online guides you can follow to help with most of it, but then there are still some parameters that are specific to the SM that kind of just have to be figured out because there is no guide, and the manufacturer has historically been silent on the subjects.
Here are the 2 guides I recommend people follow:
https://teachingtechyt.github.io/calibration.html
And here is the list of calibrations and tunings which need to be completed, in order, for best results:
Welcome to hobby-level 3D printing; you’re gonna love and hate it (pretty sure most people hate it once they realize the work required to do it right, especially with so little support and guidance from the actual manufacturers).
A least one issue here is an easy fix; the model needs supports for the overhangs.
Keep in mind that you may need reduced speeds for overhangs as well, because the SM’s stock part cooling performance is horrendously sub-par.
You should probably go back to your other printer then.
