I’ve been turning out a lot of prints lately with my A250, some with tight tolerances and with 20+ hr runs… I’ve moved to using PETG. I just want to praise Snapmaker, it’s turning out better prints than any of my earlier printers have done. A friend of mine does semi-commercial parts (replacements for impossible-to-find parts for old Brit cars). I’ve tried printing some of his stls and getting at least as good if not better than his Prusas. He’s impressed. I suspect that the ‘problems’ with most printers that people report are because of poor calibration/alignment. And, Snapmaker has been pretty good about addressing real issues, like now calibrating with a hot bed.
BTW, I recommend to everyone I talk to that they dump PLA and go with PETG. Far better strength/durability/UV-resistance.
If you want to try it out, my settings are bed 80C, nozzle 240C, layer speed 50mm/sec for all settings except 20mm/sec for first layer, travel speed 80mm/sec, retract 4mm on layer change at 24mm/sec, Z-hop 1mm. Haven’t decided if I need the fan on or not, still experimenting. OTOH, the stock nozzle fan is one of the worst features, it’s pretty lame, so maybe that’s why I’m having difficulty telling. One downside to PETG is that it is known for very fine stringing, and I see that. But, a quick wave of a little butane torch fixes that instantly.
Lots of stuff on the net about how you don’t need a heated bed, I haven’t found that to be true. But of course, I’m sure it depends upon the bed material. Seems to be split on fan or not.
Finally, one reason I backed it was because of all the multiple heads. I’ve found that the laser head was so slow and underpowered I don’t use it. Instead, I use a Chinese 35W CO2 that does a great job. After much tweaking. As for the CNC, my use is just simple engraving on plastic. I do real milling on my real CNC mill that does metal easily. So, I think it would be great if they just sold a plastic print version without the other heads. If they do already, my apologies, haven’t looked at the sales site lately.
That’s unfortunate. It certainly has the potential to be a really good printer (as I’ve seen). The structural rigidity is quite good. Oh well. Wish my luck would extend to the lottery.
As for photos, I’ll try to get some done soon. Major problem is that I don’t have a macro lens, can’t get enough magnification to show the layer detail. But, as a lame-ish idea, I printed: Flying Sea Turtle by amaochan - Thingiverse in PETG, it worked perfectly. If you look very closely at the pics, there are some tiny hinges where the struts attach to the turtle body. They printed with no problems at all, and the finished print works great with no lubrication, fiddling, etc.
Correct. It is unfortunately often a lucky dip situation. I would say that QA is the biggest issue they have. Closely followed by poor testing of their software releases. And thirdly a lack of forethought, such as not designing a quick bed change mechanism or even a quick tool head change mechanism up front. Otherwise definitely a lot of potential.
Ok, a couple of pics. This was a thingiverse many hour run in PETG, 50mm/sec print speed, normal quality. Everything fit, no sanding needed, works smoothly. Also, as much of a closeup as I can get of the gear teeth:
I’ve done a number of prints lately that have tight tolerances (look up sea turtle on thingiverse, look at the tiny printed-in-place hinges), all have been successful.
