So, I have always wanted to do multi filament printing. The thought of doing multicolor or washable supports has been such a cool idea and I tried to make that a reality all the way back when I bought my Geeetech A10M… And oh boy did I hate it. (Don’t do single extruder multi filament kids, it ain’t worth the headache.)

So, with only my trusty prusa mk2 at my side I’m thinking of finally getting an IDEX machine and trying again right this time. Then I looked at the price of the Prusa XL and died a little.

So, this is where I am gonna ask for some help.
I saw that Flashgorge is selling their Creator Pro 2 for only $400 and with a cheap upgrade for a magnetic plate seems like it would be an awesome deal even if it’s a bit small of a build size.

Or I could go 3rd party and get the JGMaker Artist D Pro IDEX 3D Printer (which I have never heard of) for the same price but with a heck of a lot more build space.

Or I could swallow my pride and a shit ton of credit card payments and do just the 2 head semi-built prusa XL for 3x the cost.

So essentially has anyone tried the Flashforge Creator Pro 2 and thinks it would be worth it for basically half off?
Have 3rd party Chinese brands gotten more trustworthy and actually able to print decent at these insanely low prices?
Or is it still one of those you pay for what you get and if you want good multi filament printing you have to pay for it?

  • Betty_Boopie@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I know this thread is a bit old but I want to rant a little about my experience with the 2T Prusa XL. Hopefully this helps your decision a bit.

    First off if you’re gonna buy it, build it yourself. 100% anecdotal but the people I’ve seen with crashing tool heads and major issues all have pre-assembled units. Maybe something happens to the frame in shipping, but my semi-assembled unit hasn’t had any tool crashes or serious flaws… yet

    Secondly, the price is much higher than the website tells you. Prusa doesn’t secretly overcharge you, but they also don’t include many things I feel should be at this price point. The lack of enclosure being the most egregious to me, but I also would like a camera or at least support to add one. I’ve had to spend an additional few hundred dollars getting more nozzles (seriously, fuck 0.4mm on a 360³ build plate), an enclosure, and even another peice of extruded aluminum so this thing doesm’t rattle itself to pieces. It definitely feels more like a ‘first gen’ product more than anything I’ve had from Prusa in the past, but I do think the platform has a ton of potential.

    So far performance has been good, not great like I expected out of Prusa. Mainly; it’s a bit slow for a coreXY, and I’ve had some adhesion problems even with pla on a textured plate. I think I solved the adhesion issue with an enclosure, it’s in my garage so the temperature varies a ton. Still, keep in mind since they do not even give you the option to buy an enclosed XL.

    Multi color and material has been where this printer really starts to shine, I would argue that the single tool head isn’t even worth producing. The filament waste is negligible and tool changes add very little time to the print (about 12 minutes per 100 changes), although I have had some issues with z shift after a tool change. It’s impressive to watch it change extruders effortlessly, and probably the only part of this printer that I would say was worth the price.

    If I had to do it all over again I probably would have just cancelled my pre-order. Seeing printers like the peopoly magneto at a similar price really drives home how long this printer was delayed. It almost feels outdated upon arrival, especially since the XL still has a lot of software features missing.

    TL;DR it’s a good printer, but not as good as I expected out of Prusa. Compared to truly state of the art printers it seems overpriced, and unless you plan on exclusively printing multi-color or material you will be better served by other products.