The more I see of the output from delta style extruders and the more

The more I see of the output from delta style extruders and the more I hear about the problems people are having getting them working nicely, the more I think they’re just a really bad idea.

Based on the outputs I’ve seen and the comments I’m hearing, both negative and positive, I’m leaning heavily towards an Ultimaker (the new one with the heated bed) as my first choice or a Robo as my second choice. And that’s if I don’t just bite the bullet and finance a binder type instead of an extruder type printer (yay for full color printing, right? lol)

Realistically though, what are people seeing out there right now once you finally get your printers, of any type, up and running smoothly the way you want? From out of the box and all the beginner hassles to being something you can call quality prints, how much went into getting it there?

Can’t say…I’ll let you know once I get a hobbed bolt to consistently feed filament on my delta. I CAN say that sourcing all the parts myself means I’m 40% of the way to building a second printer.

Haha, see that’s exactly the kinds of things that make deltas scary to me :slight_smile: How much have you invested into the building of it so far?

It wouldn’t be hard to come up with about $800 in receipts. Some of that is correcting my mistakes (smoked my first Rumba)…I just wasn’t wanting to spend 1500 for a kit to get the build envelope I wanted. (8x8 diameter…eventually)

The Robo is a bit of a mixed bag right now. They come “calibrated” meaning they leveled the z axis probably and set the z stop height.

There were some intial QA concerns, like a switch being flipped around or loose belts. Overall it’s very minor tweaking, and several of these issues have since been resolved in QA

I was able to get up and running on the first night I had the printer. The most advanced tool you need to make it work is a phillips head screw driver and maybe a flathead.

The ultimaker is probably a little more reliable out of the box, but it also has a few years of experience and a higher price tag.

My simple was basically assemble, then some light trouble shooting, and then it worked. I did have to calibrate the x-y distance per step, as I was getting oval prints(one value was about 5% off). I have to adjust homing a couple times a week, and re level the bed every few weeks.

The Mendel 90 I own was much more difficult to assemble and calibrate, however I have only had to do it when I make hardware changes ( I am switching hot ends to unify my filament size). I couldn’t justify the cost of a ultimaker, but I would love one.

My delta works really well, I get excellent prints. I do use a micro extruder on the effector though, I think bowden tubes are 99% of the problem deltas have. I haev a corexy too and I’d say the print quality is comparable. I get prettier prints on the delta and dimensionally more accurate prints on the corexy, but not quite so pretty.

@Jeff_Karpinski it should all be here… http://wolfmanjm.github.io/wolfstock/ The trick in my case was to beef up the arms and make the effector 20% bigger. Yes the effector has more inertia, so lower acceleration needed, but the quality of the prints are pretty good… http://www.flickr.com/photos/wolfmanjm/9598078016/

The experience and knowledge I gained building the Mendel90 kit from @nop_head has been invaluable in my 3D printing journey so far. Most of my problems are user error, or jHead issues, which are solved by the e3D hotend.

Oh wow, that is significantly better print quality than I’ve been seeing from most deltas

Have you seen the quality from the @HypeCask DreamFactory @Daniel_ShadowDrakken ? It’s a different level type of machine, but definetly worth a look!

Deltas seem more counter-intuitive to tune in, but have a larger build area and can print faster (speaking in general terms, there are always exceptions.) Ultimaker is a great machine, but consider the kinds of things you think you’ll be making when deciding on a printer.

What I find is that a delta handles acceleration much better, giving very high position accuracy. However, the Bowden coupling gives slightly less control of filament output on speed change (corners, layer change). Overall my prints are very much improved from my old cartesian printer.

If you want to hear some first hand experience regarding the Ultimaker 2 I would recommend to check out our forum. Today I have received this feedback from a customer: ’ Here’s a sentence I’ve never written before…
‘It worked straight out of the box’
And another sentence I’ve never written before…
‘It totally exceeded my expectations ’
I give feedback as a job.’

I’ve read a lot of Ultimaker stories, that’s why it’s my first choice right now =^_^= but I want to hear more real life experiences with a larger variety of machines. Mainly about what it took for people to move from out of the box, to super clean prints, because even the Ultimaker stories I’ve heard there’s a tiny bit of tweaking and a few parts to print out before it reaches its peak :wink:

Thanks for your reply. That depends a little bit on if you go with the Ultimaker Original or Ultimaker 2. I have heard from multiple users that the Ultimaker 2 truly worked right out of the box!! But please, don’t take my word for it. I am looking forward to hear others opinion and experience. Just pointing out, our forum is a source of genuine and real experiences. Both flawless and a little bit less flawless :slight_smile: