Since I want to make small filigree decorative items in small quantities out of wood, MDF and acrylic, I would like to know if the Artisan is something for me. I think I would use the laser and CNC router the most.
My husband has some experience with CNC routers and is interested in 3D printing.
But I don’t know if we wouldn’t be better served with a 40K Co2 laser + an extra 3D printer. Does anyone have any ideas?
Is the Artisan our jack-of-all-trades?
Thank you in advance!
Hi Bianca,
it is a bit of jack-of-all-trades and a bit of master-of-none. The Snapmaker 3-in-1s are capable of all three workloads, but in being so need to make compromises. IMHO this mainly reflects in speed - they are slow 3D printers, slow laser machines and slow milling machines. Having dedicated machines for each workload will make you faster, and in some regards better and more flexible. Also, if Artisan continues the “tradition” of the previous Snapmaker machines, a bit of tinkering and fine tuning will be required by the user, while with dedicated machines you’ll find models that kindof work out of the box. The advantages of the 3-in-1 concept is mainly that you save desk space and have a “unified” experience. The Artisan being in the 3K$ range, you’ll potentially not save money compared to dedicated machines.
If you plan to laser acrylic, make sure that the materials you plan to laser are really working with the blue 450 nm laser the Artisan uses. Clear acrylic e.g. will not work. CO2 lasers have different material cpabilities.
Two things to consider, especially in light of @Hauke 's comment. Yes, it is master of none mechanically, but it is one system to learn, one set of hardware, one piece of software. It’s not perfect, but I am pretty happy with my A350…and Artisan fixes a number of the things I would like fixed on my A350. And then there is space. It does take up about two machines worth because you do have to keep all the parts to swap out available. So, on my table, there is the A350 in an enclosure and all of the plates and heads and bits to swap out to use the different modes.
I cannot recommend. So far the CnC with the 4 acid module will not calibrate and immediately broke the cutting as it slammed into the material to be cut during calibration…and the dual extruder will not calibrate or reset.
Been receiving troubleshooting instructions from support about once every 4-5 days for just over a month. None have had any effect or solved the issue of not calibrating.
It really depends. Do you have the space for three seperate machines? If this is the case then absolutely go with three seperate machines.
To me the Artisan fills a very specific usecase, if you’re like me and you own an apartment, and you simply do not have the room for three seperate machines, it makes for a pretty decent bit of kit.
The Artisan’s laser is only a 10W blue-violet visible-light diode laser. This means you cannot cut coloured materials that are the same colour as the laser (so blue and purple materials are out seeing as they’ll just reflect the laser rather than letting it cut), as well as clear or transparent materials such as Plexiglas or clear acrylic. As a woodcutting laser it does the job nicely, even if it is a bit slow. Not bad for a hobbyist but it is no professional machine. If you want to do large-scale production runs, go with a CO2 laser. It’s way faster and can cut through thicker materials.
The 3DP function is a bit slow because the machine has to do double-duty as a CNC Router and a laser cutter, so torque is more important than speed as it has to physically push the spindle through the material you intend on cutting. Now don’t expect this to be akin to something like a Stepcraft or Tormach CNC, it’s very much an entry level machine. Its 200W spindle will do a fine job for hobbyists and people who want to do basic machining, it is ideally aimed at woodcarving and small scale routing.
As for the 3D print functionality, despite the lack of speed it’s been a pretty good experience for me. All 3D Printers can and will have issues that pop up from time to time, and you’ll need to learn the basics on how to fix them if they do come up. The good thing about these machines is that they’re relatively easy to fix. For example recently I had a jam in my right extruder where the gears shredded my material (due to bad retraction settings). On another machine, i may have to take apart the entire hotend to get to the jam and remove it. The Artisan’s head? well it was about as easy of an unjamming experience that i’ve ever had.
When you design an all-in-one machine you have to comprimise somewhere and where this machine compromises is in its CNC and Laser functionality. It is a 3D Printer first, a laser cutter/engraver second and a CNC router third. In this case I would assume you’re doing CNC and Laser first, and 3D printing as a sort of a side thing, so I would focus on a machine that is a CNC and Laser cutter first, then maybe get a seperate 3D Printer like the Snapmaker J1 if you want something a bit more up-to-date with the current trends of 3DP. (The J1 uses an Independent Dual Extruder (IDEX) CoreXY design with a lowering print bed as opposed to the Artisan, which is a Prusa-like bedslinger.)
also you gotta consider the size of your space. Yes the Artisan is an all-in-one but do not underestimate how big this thing is. I had to make an entirely new computer desk for my room because of how big this machine is.
The discussion below might of interest to you…
https://forum.snapmaker.com/t/artisan-for-small-scale-production/31512?u=ftoons