Flashforge Creator Pro - very unplanned purchase

[KAS]

I would pickup the 325mm arms from Trick Laser. That would in theory push the between tower issue a little further towards the edge. But the circumference gain is what I'm most interested in. I've not even come close to printing anything that utilizes the max height yet.

I'd already have a set but my wife is literally going to kill me if I keep buying stuff for this printer...

[BenTheRighteous]

She's literally going to kill you? Might be time for a restraining order!

[0110-m-p]

But how do you fix unsquare towers!? The frame is melamine and easy to break, all towers are coupled at the top so that pulling on one pulls on all the others. I even emailed the SeeMe folks and one of them confirmed all they do is slide the towers down the melamine and that’s it. No digital angle thingy or anything like that. The fact that SeeMe “fixed” a printer from one of the users here by shimming the bed is telling. Why did they not square the towers instead? I think it’s because it’s practically impossible. If you pull too much on the melamine you can break it. And what little progress you may gain when pulling and tightening is lost because the other two towers are coupled to the one you just adjusted (and so the other two towers lose alignment). And if you adjust that towers without the melamine top, they may not fit in the melamine. You may end up moving the towers a bit to get the melamine top on, throwing off your tower squaring work in the process.

This may be a limitation of the V2 printers. With the V1, you can square the towers before ever installing the top because it is only one melamine sheet thick. Also the top base sheet and the top sheet don't have fitted thru- holes for the towers, but open slots. This means you should never have to pry on any sheet to make a tower square.

[EL Cuajinais]

But how do you fix unsquare towers!? The frame is melamine and easy to break, all towers are coupled at the top so that pulling on one pulls on all the others. I even emailed the SeeMe folks and one of them confirmed all they do is slide the towers down the melamine and that’s it. No digital angle thingy or anything like that. The fact that SeeMe “fixed” a printer from one of the users here by shimming the bed is telling. Why did they not square the towers instead? I think it’s because it’s practically impossible. If you pull too much on the melamine you can break it. And what little progress you may gain when pulling and tightening is lost because the other two towers are coupled to the one you just adjusted (and so the other two towers lose alignment). And if you adjust that towers without the melamine top, they may not fit in the melamine. You may end up moving the towers a bit to get the melamine top on, throwing off your tower squaring work in the process.

This may be a limitation of the V2 printers. With the V1, you can square the towers before ever installing the top because it is only one melamine sheet thick. Also the top base sheet and the top sheet don't have fitted thru- holes for the towers, but open slots. This means you should never have to pry on any sheet to make a tower square.

2015-10-06 10-00-34_file.php (1840×3264).jpg

Interesting. I did not know of this important difference between V1 and V2.

[stonewater]

my max is down for a rebuild, I am putting motor dampers dampers on and all my new toys from brian, and a set of FSR's my goal is to have it auto calibrate with rollies script, gotta send that man some lettuce!! . my Robo is working full time right now so I ordered the flash forge, my friend John B has one and he really likes his, he has a davinci a robo and a flashforge, its his favorite of all 3.


should be here is a few days!! any thing I should look out for or be wary of let me know.

Tom C

[0110-m-p]

should be here is a few days!! any thing I should look out for or be wary of let me know.

I have all of the following parts on my FFCP.

This is a mandatory part in my opinion if you want the filament to unwind from the spool correctly. I had 3 failed prints before implementing this upgrade.
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:409297" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If you want to use spools other than what come with the printer you need to print two of these. I have them on my machine and they work well.
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1023420" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

My door didn't sit flush with the frame, so these latches are used to keep it closed. Again, these work well.
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:655519" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This helps keep the filament guide tubes and wiring harness tied together and off of the acrylic canopy.
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:416889" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[jram]

I'm pretty close to sold on the flash forge. Though I'm a bit reluctant due to be limited number of slicers. Is Simply 3d the only slicer that will work? I love my Max v2 and have it printing nicely but it would be great to have to going at once.

[0110-m-p]

I'm pretty close to sold on the flash forge. Though I'm a bit reluctant due to be limited number of slicers. Is Simply 3d the only slicer that will work? I love my Max v2 and have it printing nicely but it would be great to have to going at once.

There are a number of other (free) slicers that work, but I have no experience using them with this machine. I have only used S3D since I already had it for my Rostock Max.

The requirements for a slicer for the FFCP is that it can output a .x3g file rather than .gcode. The most common one used seems to be ReplicatorG, but it looks like the newest version of Matter Control can do it as well.

https://www.matterhackers.com/news/new- ... ontrol-1-4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[stonewater]

0110-m-p

thanks for the links, I was having trouble with the other spools I had..... they sent me a hot pink/purple abs spool that I will probably never use, and a spool of silver..... so I can print with that. I had just been setting the spool on the ground behind it and uncoiling a bunch. . after playing with the FFCP its a nice printer, its quiet, BUT the build volume is TINY compared to my Rostock. and it consumes a lot more space on my work bench. my Robo 3D R1plus prints just as nicely as the flashforge, and it has auto leveling built in. it' s not enclosed thought, and they use a very loud power supply. on the FFCP already had to make some adjustments to the belts, and had to Z level the bed again. the bed is a bit of a PITA if you are leveling for both extruders. I am running a single extruder for now, so not too worried about the second one.

I did purchase S3D, I really like the interface a lot. apart from Mhackney's concerns which are valid, I really enjoy using it, bit a of a steep learning curve. when using it with the ROBO (the configuration wizard makes it easy to change the printer, which changes the picture of the printer bed onscreen) you have to set a Z offset because the auto calibrations sets the Z zero ON the glass plate so you need to tell it what you want the offset to be. I had to put in .062 into S3D so it would print. with the flash forge the profile worked great out of the box. my max is still down (working on the FSR install now) so I have not tried the presets yet.

one thing I tried for grins was plugging all 3 of my printers into my lappy, opening S3D and swapping printers with the config wizard. since the com ports and drivers were different for all printers, I was able to individually control them with the machine interface (one at a time of course) it was just something I wanted to see if I could do.

its really nice having more than one printer I had only my max for a couple of years, which puts a lot of pressure on keeping it running and calibrated. the Cartesian printers are easier to work with, both the Robo and the Flash forge, worked out of the box, not having to build it was nice.

I would have paid the extra for an assembled max had it been available at the time. if you can afford it buy it assembled, you can just print right away.... I would have gotten an orion but I wanted the larger volume.

Tom C

[BenTheRighteous]

I just saw this today - I can't tell, is this the same machine as the FFCP? Button placement looks a bit different, but...

http://www.monoprice.com/product?c_id=1 ... 1&format=2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

At $699 it might not be too shabby of a deal.

[teoman]

I found a very good comparison of the rostock max and the flash forge creator pro.

Looks very honest and un-oppinionated.

I was doing some manual labour and listened to all of it. Very informative. Everyone should watch it 5 times.
Have your Rostock Max v2 3D Printer Professionall…: http://youtu.be/kiq3j4jjZPo" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[BenTheRighteous]

Lol. I smell a troll!

[teoman]

Troll?

I was going for sarcastic