Hey everyone, my company just ordered a CubePro Duo mainly to create fixtures for inspection and assemblies (I am a manufacturing engineer for a medical device manufacturer). I am going to be the point man for operating the printer and was wondering if anyone had any tips or things I should look out for when I start out with it. I know it is not open source (sadly), so I don’t think I will be able to use Simplify3D unfortunately.
Are there any weird quirks with this machine? Is it reliable?
Any information would be greatly appreciated!
UPDATE: I really appreciate all the responses so far, I apologize I might not be able to get back to everyone but I appreciate the help! We actually just received the printer today… so we might be stuck with it. Thanks again for all the tips… I might try to talk to management to see if we can get it returned (not sure if that is possible though?) I wish I was a part of 3D Hubs sooner and had asked about this right away.
Thanks,
Adam
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It’s a solid business-grade 3D printer, but not being open source is a pain point for me, particularly with their filament.
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I run a CubePro TRIO. Do not use the glue to fix the print to the plate, it is better an hair spray. ABS is a problem, better focuses on PLA. I have always problems when the spool reaches 10% teorically still available, it stops working. All in all good luck.
3dofsc
4
I am a reseller for this product and many other lower end models. My advice is to cancel this order and get a Flash Forge Creator Pro - this is a better machine all around - it has a heated bed, open source for supplies and have not been cancelled by the manufacturer. Cube Pro Duo has been discontinued by 3D Systems as of last month. If I can help, please send me a message. Good luck
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Hello, I’ve had the cubepro for about 2 years not the best printer that I had. But if you get the build platform level you should be good for a few print’s. Here’s my grading scale for this printer. A for the printer, F for the software, D for customer support, if you ever have any mechanical problems don’t expect anything from support because as far as I can tell they don’t even now what they built. Plus you are going to have to buy there really expensive filament which is $100 dollars a cartridge, compared to regular filament on this earth you can get for $30 bucks. All I’m saying is your company may have made the wrong discussion for a 3d printer. I’m in the process of taking all the electronics out of the printer, and replacing them with open source electronics “smoothieboard” so that I don’t have to use there D graded software and the expensive filament. Which = less money I have to spend. And I’m changing the extruder out to, that’s another one that’s not the best quality you’ll see what I’m talking about when you get it. Well good luck with the printer. Cheers Jake
I would go search the S3D forums. there is a lot of talk on this subject.
I second the FFCP or look at the QIDI Tech-1. I have both. Real workhorses and QIDI support is outstanding.
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Just don’t use Cube pro.
We have one and it is very bad.
Actually you can use Simplify3D or other slicer for CubePro if you make or load a profile for it.
With third party slicer software we achieve better quality.
We use a lot of FDM printers with different prices and CubePro is unquestionably the worst and the most expensive.
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We have a trio, it works great as long as you use it often. when not in use remove or back out the filament. We’ve found that it will always gets stuck when left in.
Have fun.
PS: try the water soluble support material for those complex models
Roger
3d systems makes ok printers (I have 7). I believe simplify 3d will work for this model. But If you can cancel this order you need to. filament cost will be murder and you will regret being stuck with this printer. I was able to hack(ish) my printers to use bulk filament but I had 6 others to use while i figured it out.
3D_2
11
Its an average FDM desktop 3Dprinter at a high price and locked to pay high prices for just a fev materials. Cancel the order and get a Desktop SLS from Sinterit or sintratech. Those machines can match production SLS in both quality and strength. And no support is needed as in FDM
Did they get a great deal on it? Because I believe its been discontinued.
We had one for a couple years (Cube Pro Duo), and we are a reseller of 3D Systems equipment.
We’ve since started selling Markforged 3D equipment, and sold off our Two Cube Pro’s for peanuts.
As others had mentioned, if you have the means to cancel your cube pro order, it would be worth doing.
The Cube Pro filament is expensive and uses RFID to ensure that you can’t refill with open source materials.
The print quality can be good, and reliability was OK. Printing with two materials usually ended up with a bit of a mess.
Rinse-away material worked OK, but didn’t always adhere well, so you end up with a part that is half-way supported.
If you’re looking for a serious desktop FDM printer, I would suggest Markforged Onyx One.
Lower price than Cube Pro Duo, and is superior in almost every way.
3DBrent
13
Hi Adam,. What mDe you decide to go with the Cube Pro Duo? I’ve used a Cube Pro Trio and had mixed feelings about it. It occasionally drifted on the x axis, having trouble figuring that out as well. When it worked well it made some amazing prints, but the material was 6 times the cost compared to my MakerBot. I hope you have better success than me! It seems like a well designed machine, really wish I could have gotten that issue fixed.
I have an FFCP at home and love it. In fact it’s the reason my company decided to purchase a printer… I would bring in prints or make a fixture that we needed an management was fairly impressed.
Well it was not my first recommendation to the company and back when I was researching printers for them I did not know nearly as much as I do now. From what I could find at that point the CubePro seemed like a pretty good printer (although if I had talked to all you guys prior I would not have recommended it at all) and they wanted a bigger print area than my FFCP. I think the support material and ability to print in Nylon was also a selling point. In a sense it is really my fault that the company purchased this since it was one I recommended. I know I mentioned that there were less expensive printers with virtually the same qualities as the CubePro, but at that time I didn’t know enough about printers to make a strong argument. I have learned a lot since then! I’m also relatively new at my job (3 months into a job fresh out of college) so I wasn’t quite sure how much I should push my opinion.
Thanks for the help! Maybe I’ll get lucky and have a good experience with it!
How difficult was it to load a profile for Simplify3D? That would be the route I would probably take if it wasn’t too hard.
I do not think we got a special deal on it. Can someone confirm that it has been discontinued or not? I have heard rumors that it is discontinued, but haven’t found anything about it myself.
Is the Markforged Onyx One a new machine? I have not heard of that model before.
Thanks!
Any idea if there is a return policy on the printer?
Have you printed Nylon with it? Thanks for the tip about not using their glue
How difficult or messy is the post processing with these machines? I’ve never had any personal experience with an SLS but would love to have one personally. Also how reliable are they? i know the desktop versions pretty much just became available.
