Orion VS Rostock

[prussiap]

Hey Guys,
I was referred to your company from a close friend of mine that built a delta conversion kits, has a few Mendels, and Makers . I also have an Ultimaker and Printrbot Jr at our Hacklab.

Having said that I love this Delta form factor and the quality we get out of this. I'm having trouble though figuring out the differences between the Orion VS Rostock other then the obvious Kit vs Assembled. Also the print bed is huge on the Kit.

What are some of the finer details that may help me decide. I'm pretty sure I want either one of those (and the Resin is rather intriguing).

Some of the problems with the Jr and Ulti is that the parts are harder to get, maintenance can be kind of a pain but it seems like the community here is vibrant and informative which is a huge plus .

In any case any personal experiences or factors that you think might help decide on either of those would be appreciated. I'd like to leave this at our MakerSpace once i've set it up and played around as a donation so it will probably get quite a bit of use.

[lightninjay]

Mostly comes down to size factor (both build height and diameter) and whether or not you want a fully assembled unit, or a kit so you can get more personal knowledge about the way it works.

I chose the Max v2 and it was my first printer. I had very few problems with the kit, all of which were my own user error rather than issues with the kit. The revision the SeeMeCNC guys are putting out for the Rostock Max V2 is smooth and prints reliably.

I have no experience with the Orion, but it seems like a nifty little desktop version of the 4-foot monster Max v2

[prussiap]

Hi,
Thanks for the reply. So the Max2 was your first one? How much use do you get from the device? Wait the Max V2 is that huge not sure i have room for that on my desk he he.

I'm curious just to get your impressions on your prints how much tweaking you have to do and how hard parts and replacements are to get?

[lightninjay]

I actually have a few posts throughout the forum (mainly here and here) for examples of my printer setup and some of my prints.

I found the Rostock fairly easy to calibrate, so long as you have a very good attention to detail and a knack for following Geneb's guide that we assemble the printer with. I started off with all of his suggestions (minus the quick-change connectors for certain things like the hotend) and even purchased some astrosyn dampers from astroboy here on the forums and installed them to reduce the hum the motors can make when they are enabled.

Funnily enough, when I first turned on my printer and heard the motors engage, I was alarmed and thought maybe I had done something wrong! But when I read about how the electric current frequencies being amplified by the hollow base and then up the extrusion arms to the top of the printer, it all made more sense. Astrosyns make for a happy, quiet household. lol

Parts are relatively easy to source on the internet, and I even made a custom PEEK shroud that fits a Radioshack fan, slightly larger than the 20 mm fan that ships with the printer. (I broke mine)

[prussiap]

Hi,Thanks for the follow up. Still had to choose The printer in your link is a monster and those fossilized heads are pretty cool.

Looks like i need the dampeners off the bat, and that making a shield to keep the temperature from changing too much on the printer seems to be a big plus.

hmm. so pre-built or build yourself and find the time but learn how to put it together. tough one.

[prussiap]

Hi,Thanks for the follow up. Still had to choose The printer in your link is a monster and those fossilized heads are pretty cool.

Looks like i need the dampeners off the bat, and that making a shield to keep the temperature from changing too much on the printer seems to be a big plus.

hmm. so pre-built or build yourself and find the time but learn how to put it together. tough one.

[626Pilot]

If you need to print stuff that goes out to the edge of the build surface, you may find the Rostock MAX 1 and 2 have calibration issues that make it impossible to get a reasonable first layer. Some of the printers have this problem and others don't. SeeMe looked at one of them and as far as I know they couldn't figure out why. They suggested changing the carriage offset but that did nothing for me. The trouble happens when you try to print outside the triangle defined by the three towers. Inside everything is peachy, but as soon as you wander too far afield you get crazy height errors such that the nozzle is either digging into the build surface or hovering too far in the air to put down a first layer. There are dozens and dozens of pages of posts on this issue. My theory is that it has to do with the clearances being far too high on the towers and other parts during the tightening-down process. The towers have enough room to wobble right and left. They also have no hard stops to rest on, so you have to manage the vertical orientation on the towers at the same time you're praying they don't move left or right. When you tighten down the T-slot nuts the torque can cause them to move whether you like it or not. The other Rostock variants I've seen have much tighter tolerances and don't seem as prone to this issue. Everything snaps together very tightly and nothing has any space to wobble around like that.

I don't know if the Orions have this problem. If I wanted another SeeMe printer I'd get that since I wouldn't have to spend time building it, and it comes pre-calibrated from the factory. But I'd ask at least three Orion owners if they can print a .1mm layer height object that goes all the way to the edge. Maybe one might do it okay because it's a factory freak, but I wouldn't expect to see all three do it properly unless the printers themselves are better at this than the Maxes.