Been wanting to jump into printing, lasering, and routing for quite some time. The issue has always been that 3 machines were too cost prohibitive. At $1400 I’m willing to make the jump. Is this a good machine? I plan on using it to finish building my A-10c flight simulator panels for DCS.
I only have the v1, but that’s pretty much the reason I picked it up. 3 machines for the price of 2 was a pretty good deal. There do seem to be a few issues with the v2, but they’ll get them worked out.
The v1 print quality is excellent. I’ve done several prints with a layer of 0.05mm. For those that think in Imperial, that’s 0.0019" or ~2 thou, which is a pretty nice tolerance. I’ve found that printing at a finer resolution gives better overhang support. I was able to successfully print a 80º overhang with a 0.1mm layer, even though the finish was a little rough.
If you’re making a flight simulator panel, what material are you planning to use? The Snapmaker team has done some v1 testing on milling aluminum and published a bit of info on v2, but it seems that the 1.6W laser cannot etch metal. Depending on how large your project is, you may find that working with Aluminum works, but is becomes frustrating. I wouldn’t expect any issues if you’re working with wood or plastic.
I assume you plan to do more than just one project with the machine. At $1400, it’s a bit steep for a one-off project. You can buy a lot of time in a Maker space for that, and they have bigger machines that can handle more and thicker materials. Still, I’m glad I bought mine. If I was planning a project too large, I would do the prototyping and testing on my v1 before going to a Maker space.
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