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Hi,

I aleady have a UM2, and it’s an amazing printer for PLA/PET, standard size and big print. But not so amazing for small (5mm) and/or ABS print.

I’m searching all over printer review but I’m not able to make a choice between Non-Open Source and specific Zortrax M200 plateform and Mass Portal Pharaoh ED Open Printer with standard filament.
I want to print ABS on these second printer.

Anyone has already experienced the Mass Portal Device ?

Thanks

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Do you want to print big stuff in ABS? Then you need to look for a heated chamber at best, otherwise both of them should be fairly good. My preference however would be to look for a printer that can use very small nozzles. I think the Lulzbot mini and the big one are compatible with 0,2mm nozzles, those should be able to produce high quality prints and fine details. Also the Lulzbot print bed surface is perfect for ABS and such.

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I would like to print relly small stuff in abs, thank you for your advice.

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I was thinking of getting the Mass Portal Pharaoh ED but I am waiting for the latest version with the big screen, etc.

I is suppose to be out sometime later this year.
I had a Zortrax M200, the printer printed ABS great but it had numerous problems. The display knob would not always work.

Had problems heating the extruder and the bed. The way the bed is connect is the wires is just plain wrong.

Every time you have to remove the bed you had to be so careful about ripping the jack with the wires, this is issue that will eventually bite you.

Anyway after three days of using the Zortrax the bed would no longer heat up, keep on getting an heating error.

I contact Zortrax and they said I need a new bed but they would not give me one that I would have to get it from the US dealer that sold the printer to me. I contact my dealer, dynamism.com, which is one of the best companies I have ever done business with - they are honest, helpful and do everything to please the customer. Dynamism said that of course they would send me the parts I needed but the problem was the Zortrax has never sent the spare part order that they should have shipped when Dynamism start selling Zortrax printer. Dynamism said that they would contact Zortrax to see what ever happened to the vendor parts. Zortrax never responded. I recontacted Zortrax and explained what Dynamism said. After many emails they finally contacted and said that I would have to wait for the dealer to get the parts as they would not give me nor sell me any parts. With this I re-contact Dynamism, explained what Zortrax said and Dynamism offered a full refund including shipping and free shipping of the printer back to Dynamism. Like I said Dynamism is a great company.

I ended up buying the Ultimaker 2. I love the Ultimaker 2. I does not print ABS has well as the Zortrax but I refuse to do business with Zortrax. Their service is horrible. They are arrogant in their communication and treatment of their customers.

They think because that just because they make a good product and have been very successful that they could be arrogant and give bad customer service with their abusive emails that they could get away with it.

Go to their forum and read. Search on the internet and read about their crappy customer service. They will delete any negative posts on their forum. They will even banish you from their forum. I never posted anything negative on their forum but I wrote them a detailed email about what they did wrong and how I felt. They connected me 2 months later and said that I should have persevered and perhaps they would have came up with a solutions. F@&K THEM!!!

Anyway - bottom line - I would never do business with them - PERIOD.

You will read/hear about how some people never had a issue with Zortrax, their machine or their customer service.

But I could only go about how I was treated and others I have read about. Funny thing I know about the bad reviews with their customer service but I also read how those people with their bad reviews must be mistaken but I always had excellent service from Zortrax - So I purchased the Zortrax anyway and had my own BAD EXPERIENCE.

From now on I will take critical review more seriously especially when there are many of them.

So go with the Mass Portal. I am when they come out with their new printer.

Also I ordered a BCN3D Sigma printer with two fully independent extruders, shipping to me Sep 28th.

I like the concept of two fully independent extruders.

Check out their website BCN3D Technologies: Professional desktop FFF 3D Printers models

The company is in Spain so you have to chose ENG for your language.

I was hesitate because I don’t speak Spanish but they have communicated with me very quickly and answered all my questions., unlike Leapfrog who is another company that just doesn’t get it with the customer service, they just ignore their customers day in and day out.

Another printer you might to take a look at is the IRA3D Poetry 2. It is IRA3D’s newest printer and it seems pretty amazing.

IRA3D is another good company. Great customer service, great communication. They will always answer your questions, they will even call you from Italy. I was going to purchase the Poetry 2 but I was really intrigued by the BCN3D Sigma printer with two fully independent extruders. If the BCN3D Sigma doen’t work out for me I sell it and get the IRA3D Poetry 2.

Here is an email that I received from IRA3D:

Since we stopped producing the Poetry 1 to produce Poetry 2 and we’re going to introduce a new 3D Printer, called Poetry Infinity, i’m proposing it to you.

Our new Amazing 3D Printer it’s already in pre order but will be introduced in September.

It’s quite an incredible product, the technology has been called FLD (Fast

Layer Deposition), not FDM anymore… cause it’s very fast:

  1. Print Speed 400 mm/s

  2. Travel Speed 1200 mm/s

  3. Acceleration 9000 mm/s*2 (amazing!!)

We have also doubled the resolution to 15 microns and add a full colour

touch screen LCD with a new coloured case !

We have added also some fantastic function like “Side Kick” (a battery pack

to avoid voltage dips) and like “Phoenix System” (if you have a Voltage Dips

Poetry Infinity will save the file and you can resume it as soon as you power on

the printer again !

Poetry Infinity has also a huge build volume 250x250x300, with an optimized all

metal double extruder to print our wide range of special materials (from

gummify to IraBrick, IraCopper, IraCarbonFiber, ABSuper and so on)

Temperature is up to 280 degrees and plate is 110 degrees!!!

Poetry Infinity price is €2389 (£1674)

Attached you’ll find all the datasheets and the offer.

For any further clarification do not hesitate to contact me

Looking forward to hearing from you

Best regards

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No Mass Portal but for small detail work M200 does a nice job.

20150510_211421.jpg
20150510_211421.jpg3264×2448 1.57 MB

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Just to give a second opinion: I never had problems with the leapfrog customer support, they might need 1-3 days to respond to your request (depending on your problems), but they never refused to send replacement parts of any kind, due to updates they even send me the whole updated electronics assembly which would probably be worth 300€. They were flawlessly kind and respectful. I neither own a Zortak or the mass portal, also not the Lulzbot mini, but what I heard from the mini seems to be the most promising when it comes to ABS printing, second best is the portal in my opinion. I own a leapfrog creatr HS and currently improve a lot of the stuff, that just doesn’t make sense / can easily be improved. Everything I’m saying about the other printers is based on what I heard and saw from them, I never actually had the pleasure to use them. Cheers, Marius Breuer

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Thank you so much for this sharing.

About support, in EU (I’m in France) we have laws for that, and the initial support has to be responsibility of the vendor only during 2 years.

About 2 other printers, could you post your test when you’ll receive the BCN3D ?

I’m not interested by dual extruders, except when it will be possible to use it for changing filament for the big print. But it’s not my point right now.

About the IRA3D Poetry Infinity, it’s look good, but we will not have any experience with this technology.

FDM with PLA is good for lots of things, but for final product and finish possibilities ABS is better.

Then I must buy another printer for ABS…

Thank you again

Rgrds

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did you print it with M200 with ZABS ?

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Yes…ZABS. The picture is not too good as there is fine detail that is blurred.

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Pretty good result for ABS small print. Thank you for your picture.

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I have a UM2 (had it for about a year) and I bought a Zortrax M200 about 4 weeks ago. I don’t know about the Pharaoh, but for me the leap in reliability and ease of use was massive and I would definitely recommend the M200. I actually used my UM2 for ABS mainly, and if you prep the build plate with ABS slurry and build a door from some old cardboard it does work rather well. However; it is in the big amount of extra trouble the UM2 looses. On the M200 I basically have no need for preparations or post processing and more important, it works every time.

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12

Hello,
Between open source and semi profesionels printers, I recommend semi profesional.
The Zortrax have the advantage of plug an play, fast, precise and reliable.
So for production, it is the ideal tool.
the software is very well without a lot of complicated parameters.

Regards,

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Thank you for your advice

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I don’t have experience of the Mass Portal Pharaoh ED printer but due to it being a delta it has a circular print area. As the diameter of that circle is 200mm your maximum print size for a square base object is about 141mm. Similarly the printer can print its full 200mm height only at the centre its print area but out toward the edge it can only print 186mm. So if you are printing circular objects like vases the print area is comparable. If you expect to sometimes need to print larger rectangular objects then the printed of the Pharaoh is actually a lot smaller than the Zortrax and you almost might as well have an Up Plus at a much lower price.

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Hey,

If you want to choose between Zortrax and Mass Portal, there is a simple choice to make - Zortrax all the way. I know guys working behind Mass Portal and have worked with the printer for some time. I can tell you that it is nothing more than a quality RepRap delta printer. You won’t find the reliability and Plug’n’play capability that Zortrax offers (not to mention quality that is comparable to 40k Stratasys FDM machines).

Zortrax is currently one of the top 3D printers right now and MP does not come even close. Also if you want a machine that prints ABS reliably, Zortrax does just that. I am yet to see a printer which can print ABS without any warping but Zortrax has come pretty close. You can check our homepage for some sample prints with the Zortrax at Galerija | TRIDOS

You have a choice between high-quality reprap machine that you can tinker with and do some crazy stuff (and lose some nerves on it) or you can buy an industrial machine that offers little no none customizability (you cannot even change the temperature for the hotend) but offers rock solid performance every. single. time. I’ve gone through several self-built repraps and I do not want to return to the rock age after using Zortrax.

Just my 2 cents… Hope you got the idea I was trying to explain…

Mikus Upmalis / Founder & CEO at TRIDOS

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Sad to hear that you have had bad experience with Zortrax service. It is weird that the dealer had no response from Zortrax support since every reseller has it’s own contact person (we have). They usually respond within hours and are very helpful to sort out any problems.

I have to warn that you will find little to no support from Mass Portal too. They usually let the users learn the machine themselves and don’t offer too much support. That is what I know from several MP owners here in Latvia.

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I am not surprised about Zortrax support because I have heard many stories that they tend to be a bit arrogant and at the end of the day, unhelpful. They do have an active user community which is very helpful though and this is a big help with the few niggles one might have. Another big problem here though is they have a reputation for deleting posts that they find too controversial. It is such a shame because the Zortrax is clearly a great product but their authoritarian and Zortrax knows best approach has stopped the machine becoming close to perfect and has left many users really frustrated.

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Hey

Thank you for your testimony Mikus, you’re totally clear.

I think I will order Zortax today all of you have convinced me with the reliability of the device for production.

I will buy it with enclosure for optimize temperature with ABS. And it will probably solve wrapping issue.

Thank you for your link too. If I can give you an advice for your pretty pictures, add a €uro coin for scaling.

Regrds

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Hello,
Recently, in Zortrax released a new printing plate
This one is thicker to eliminate deformations or warping.
Attached is the link to a reseller in France Plateau Perforé Zortrax M200.
Since acquiring this tray, no more warping effect … so reliable prints for parts of large size: up to 20 cm is possible.
Best regards​

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Zortrax Forever.

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