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Long story short: After a very bad experience witht the MakerBot Replicator 5th Gen I wrote my frustrations onto my blog as a review. Since then the amount of visitors on my site has exploded into the thousands a month, so I took on the mission to test more 3D printers and explore the possibilities of 3D printing for Creative Professionals like myself.

Reviewed so far:

Coming up in the next weeks:

  • ZYYX
  • Cyrus
  • Leapfrog Creatr HS

Ill unveil more later, including reviews of software and filament!

Let me know what you think and which printer you would really like to see reviewed. And please share my posts through social media if you like them. You can follow me on Twitter if you want to get updates on the latest reviews and in-between photos of my testprints.

Cheers,
Nick

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Hey Nick, cool that your doing this, personally I would love to see a review of Zortrax M200 and Form 1.

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I talked to the LulzBot guys at NY Maker Faire and saw the new version they will release. That new model and the Taz would be great since they have the first Open Source Hardware stamp of approval from the FSF.

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I’ve been in contact with Zortax and they’re not currently sending out printers for reviewing. I’m also interested in the Form 1, so I will contact them soon.

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Hi @NickLievendag, maybe you could find some useful information here : 3D printing trend report | Hubs

All our data are offered on a silver plate, so you could use it maybe ?

Hope it could help,

Julie

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Thanks Julie!

I was already aware of your nice trends page. Hoping I can influence them :slight_smile:

Cheers,

Nick

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Cool stuff! I know @Gfisherwils knows more about LulzBot as well

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I really think the Zortrax deserves an official review, heard many good stories about it.

Cheers!

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I agree. I had contact with Zortax, but they aren’t currenly lending out printers for reviews. Maybe I can convince them if more people on here want to see a review of it!

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Good site, Nick. I look forward to reading your reviews!

I’d be interested to see your review of the Up! Plus.

Cheers!

Andy

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You should review the Makergear M2. After extensive research I believe this printer to be simply the best in every way, and should actually work “out of the box” like many others claim they do. Wow the 5th gen is still clicking? Does this thing have spring loaded drives? I’m on a CTC creator, and after cutting the stupid teflon tube in the nozzle and upgrading to spring-loaded extruders I never ever hear even the slightest clicking unless I turn up retraction too high. I think mine will click at around 35 or 40. If you are hearing clicking it’s either that makerbot hasn’t put spring-loaded drives yet on their 5th gen, or the hotend is just plain clogging up, and there isn’t enough grip on the filament to push it past the pressure. You should gently hold the filament while it’s printing so you can see if it’s slipping (clicking) while it’s retracting or while extruding or both. Sounds like my CTC (basically 1st gen replicator), after the upgrades is printing better than these new Makerbots. These makerbots only print okayish with the speed turned all the way down and retraction turned all the way down.

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Also you can reduce stringing by increasing the travel speed when not extruding. But your stringing is mainly because of the clicking. If it is not gripping it to retract it, then it’s no use turning up retract rate to retract quicker.

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The MakerBot 5th Gen does not have spring loaded drives. But I don’t have it anymore anyway. I’m currently testing the Builder Dual Feed, which has spring loaded drives.