Long time no see everyone! Been absent (still am) from my LR3 sadly, but I’ve taken fancy in the MP3D lately and was wondering:
How would people compare the MP3D to e.g. the one I’m planning on buying, RatRig V4 in terms of speed and print quality?
I was thinking of getting the 500x500 bed size from RatRig, is this a possible size (and economically viable) to achieve on the MP3D, and maybe possible to go even larger?
As with the LR3, PLA is still preferable as I’ve seen in the manual for rigidity on the MP3D but since I will be using a lot of ASA, nylon etc. I need to be in a heated and closed environment. What else than PLA would be a viable option? CF?
As with anything the larger you go the slower it will be. I don’t think anyone has made a 500x500 yet but It should be possible.
All my plastic parts are printed in ASA. The V5 with the aluminum plates makes the plastic not really matter as much. The rigidity comes from the aluminum not the plastic
As with anything that is being printed large, even for a RatRig. But which is the highest documented speed on it (that would also be called a successful print)?
Yeah, kinda figured that out, though I wouldn’t be spending all that money on a printer for printing PLA washers and nuts
But I’m really curious about its limits, if it’s in close proximity with RatRig/Voron in terms of speed and print quality, with a price tag under 1000USD, I might actually skip on the RatRig (under the circumstances that I find all necessary build info/material without migraine). My end goal is to have a small print farm of different sizes
From the discussions I’ve seen (I haven’t built an MP3DP, just a Prusa Mk4), it looks like the MP3DP is on par with the Vorons for speed and quality, but might require a little more work up front to get tuned and working smoothly. Since Ryan uses them as his printer farm for V1E, I assume they are at least reasonably reliable and accurate. I don’t recall off-hand what his maintenance schedule is for them, i.e., how often he re-tunes the printers. But it can’t be too bad, or he’d have a garage full of something else… The Voron and RatRig are (I assume) actual products. The MP3DP is an advanced project kit for folks who want to use the same printer(s) that Ryan does. It’s not a “Product of the Line” for V1E like the MPCNC or LR. But it’s got a lot of interest, so there’s a lot of folks who are willing to help out, and likely to have run into any issue you might have.
I have no idea. I don’t own a RatRig or Voron to test against. But just like with either of those, the ability to tune them is what counts the most towards speed/quality. My V4 and V5 both print really well and I have been happy with them. Most of the issues I ran into were just me learning not the fault of the printer or anything else.
I will add that at the 500mm size you want, I do think something like the ratrig would be a better option. The MP3DP uses an unsupported X rail, and at that length I think it would be harder to keep higher quality and any amount of speed
What is your actual printing goal? A large printer prints small prints fine.
CoreXY has a 500x500 limit that most people will not cross, that is just a ton of belt at that point.
If you look real long and hard no Core XY printer is very differnt.
You are really focused on numbers and those come from the entore choice of hardware you use and tuning. Moving at 500mm/s doesn’t really mean anything. If you want to put down a ton of plastic an make giant parts the key here is large diameter nozzle with a big heater.
mm^3/s is the only number that really matters for big prints. How much plastic that gets laid down.
If you want extreme detail you get a SLA printer if you want giant parts and a huge volume you get a large nozzle and big heater. What you don’t do is build a giant printer hoping to print huge things with a 0.1mm layer height that will take a week no matter how fast the printer actually moves.
To give you real numbers my print times went from 8 hours to 5 hours when I changed from a 0.4mm nozzle to a 0.5mm nozzle and I adjusted the layer height as well.
I’ve printed as high as 200-250mm/s with my 0.4mm nozzle with no issues, but it still wasn’t spitting out as much plastic as it was at half that speed with my 0.6. There’s a lot of variables to what speed is, and practically, that is going to change based on what you are printing, nozzle size, extruder, layer height, etc. etc.
I ended up going down to a 0.4 nozzle to print some things with finer details, but with a 0.6 or 0.8 nozzle and the right extruder, you can lay down a ton of plastic.
But then we need to have a conversation about cooling…
The limits of all these printers stop at whatever amount money you are willing to throw at it.
I think this would be a concern for me too. At high speeds, you will likely carry more vibration in X, and none of us have built one that large to tell you how it will be affected
That said my printers are a very DIY endeavour there are no build videos from every maker no precompiled firmware or yellow brick road to follow. If you are unsure about any components or firmware, this is not the project for you, you have to do all that yourself.
I made a very rigid motion system, the rest is up for interpretation. Not because I am lazy or anything, because we are still testing. I have been through three extruders already and now playing with nozzles, control boards, and leveling systems. Big fast printers are like race cars you can just keep tuning and throwing money at it and it will keep going faster.
This is understood, it’s just that I currently only have bedslinger models, largest measuring 400x400 and they all fail at a low jerk due to heavy bed so they are great as slow machines using high flow hotends with 0.8-1mm cht nozzles. But I need something that is quicker (higher jerk) while printing thin objects/prototypes for light effects e.g. lithophane.
I’m gonna focus on working with architects that are in need of large models
