A few weeks back I posted about my experience researching 3D Printers and in depth details about my purchase of one specific printer here. Over the Holliday break I had the fortune of bringing home the school's Pegasus printer to calibrate and I have worked with my friend's Taz 5 a lot more and I have changed my mind. I have decided to wait for the Taz 6. It should be out in a few months and it improves a many things over the Taz 5.
The Pegasus overall is an inexpensive printer kit and you get what you pay for. I made a lot of custom parts and modifications. If I get a chance I'll post the STLs of the printed mod parts. The good about the Pegasus is it is inexpensive and a good first step into 3D printing and it will give you a lot of experience. I also really like where the filament roller is. Don't get frustrated though, because it has some down sides that don't happen with all good printers. First, it takes a lot to get it calibrated. Making sure all 3 axis are perpendicular is tough for any printer, but since the parts in the Pegasus are on the lower end to save money there are a few other problems. The stepper motors overheat and when they overheat the print head can end up anywhere. The software must have a firmware update because some things just don't work. I don't like the digital calibrate and the bed screws make it difficult to manually calibrate the bed. Calibrating the X axis is very difficult. The changes I made are to add a bowden tube to prevent any feed problems. I modified the filament holder roller mechanism. I printed out some open beam wire clips. I made a system to level the bed with a class clip and a hand twist nut head. And the Z stepper motor lead screws have a cap on them so you don't accidentally hit them or bend them. That's the short list. There's a few other changes.
The Taz 5 has an X calibration issue that the Taz 6 should fix with a number of other worthwhile changes to an otherwise very solid machine. I like the all-in-one electronics box on the left size. You can see the parts lists, STL files and photos of the TAZ 6 here.
No comments:
Post a Comment