New to snapmaker

Snapmaker 2.0
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Hi everyone
My name is Bob, I hope everyone in your family are well. I am new to snapmaker. I am looking to buy a machine. I know this is about the snapmaker 2. I am wondering how often there are problem which require repair work on their machines. I want to use this in small shop for manufacturing. I need a reliable product that work day in and day out. I dont have time to do alot of repairs.

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Hey, nice you look forward for a Snapmaker.

How big are your projects on the machine?

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Nice to meet you Bilzer.
My projects are not big. I am a metal spinner and metal caster. I make hollow ware. I would like to use the printer to print out wax pattern for some designs that cannot be shot with tradition moulds and wax injectors. I need high quality prints. Some would say go to a sla printer but my work is to big for that style of printer. I figure I can take a hair dryer to the wax patterns to smooth. I was hoping to use the cnc router to cut things like teapot handles which are expensive to order. If do this I need a machine that works when I turn it on. I will use it at least once a week and likely two or three times a week. I cannot develop a piece for sale and spend my time trying to figure why a machine will not work mechanically. That would be a disaster.

Thanks for your interest Bob

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When you say, ā€œnot bigā€ā€¦ how big are you talking, volume-wise? What kind of things are you casting?
You will find, just like with most advanced tools, there is some serious learning up front, and some headaches with figuring out the capabilities of the new machine. There WILL be bad prints. there WILL be lost materials and time, but over time it will decrease. This is true for any 3d printer you purchase. They all have various problems to solve before you can dial in the prints.

There is alot of information here on the forum, and it can really jump-start the learning process for you.
Have you used 3d printers before?
What software do you use to design the objects you plan to cast?
Can you link the filaments you are interested in using? There might be some people on here who have tried wax filaments.

To get to the point of your original post,thoughā€¦ The SM2 is the second iteration of the Snapmaker. Itā€™s a very new product, and coming out of a crowd-funding kickstarter campaign. There are many more features, which bring it up to speed with other printers on the market these days. However, like many new products, there are some kinks that the Snapmaker team is trying to work out.

I cannot comment on the CNC capabilities of this machine. The Snapmaker 1 CNC I used to some degree, with mixed results. I suspect you could make handles with SM2, though Iā€™m curious about how much finishing might be involved. They are planning on having a turning attachment, which could make the CNC a slow lathe. That could provide for some very interesting handles, but the attachment isnā€™t released yet.

Iā€™ve used the laser feature, and you can get some surprising detail once you dial in the settings.

As you can see from my profile picture, I also have some experience with metal casting.

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I will order the three fifty If I do this. the smallest 3/4 is an inch. the largest eight inches

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I cast things like goblet stems, cup bases, finals, knobs, and coffeepot spouts

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oh wow iā€™seen the wax filament its very expensiv, but when it works a great help to cast.

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so how reliable is the snapmaker. Can it hold up to constant use

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Hey Bob! I am using Snapmaker Original for over 2years and now I am new to 2.0.
At the end it will be reliable, but you have to learn and make mistakes.
This is no industrial machine, there will be trail and error.
You have to say what the machine has to do, if the machine canā€™t do so ( for example do this very fast) it will fail.

Its a hard desicion. May you share a stl or model to print, then we can see if it works?

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I bought an artillery printer. Put a lot of the learning curb on it but will need more. The artillery is not reliable. In fact one of the favorite statements is, I love my artillery printer but. The learning curb doesnt bother me. If you want a learning curb, learn to spin metal.

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Why is the artillery not reliable?

With a SM2 you have a lot of potential to make nice things and in the future there will be cool addons.

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It can hold up to constant use. I have been running it 80 hours+ a week. The only issues I have are issues it started with. There has been no new issues.
It is a little loud while Iā€™m use, especially if you try and crank up the speed. The Snapmaker isnā€™t the fastest printer either.
If you share an stl maybe someone will test print for you, like xdchris says.

Elsewhere there has been an ask for preventative maintenance recommendations. As far as I know they havent been posted yet.

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it seems to have all sorts of issues from extruders, motors, cables and boards. I used it for about three months and got tired of fixing it. So I delayed introducing a new product. One person bought seven genius printers. four are working with one making a noise.He seems to be moving parts from to another while he waits on replacement parts. Its unreal go check out their forum.

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To be completely honest with you @bob, if you are looking at just 3d printers, there are better 3d printers that are cheaper. What makes snapmaker special is that it is a 3 in 1 laser etch/cut, CNC, and 3d printer. There are not many printers out there right now with that capability, even though the gantry for all three are similar.

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i want the printer along with the router

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Thank you for your geniune feedback :grinning:

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Both the Snapmaker Original and 2.0 are highly modular, they differ in a lot of areas but modularity is something they have in common. You can think of the Snapmaker Original as a little brother to the Snapmaker 2.0, with a more affordable price point and a smaller build volume. The Original has proven to be durable with time and the build quality of the Snapmaker 2.0 is on par, if not better, with that of the Snapmaker Original. You can learn more about their differences here on our website.

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I have a snapmaker 2.0 A250. I bought Print2Cast wax filament. After a few hours of try, i did not get it to print. It looks like the temperature is too low for the software to tell to the extruder to feed with the filament. Printer is making the pattern on the bed but the feeder doesnā€™t push the filament.

What printer do you use . Have you succeeded in any other ways ?

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I think he might not be around these parts anymore, this thread is nearly 2 years old.