You are welcome. Please let me know if you have any specific questions.
The mention of BuildTak reminded me that the Robox uses a heated PEI bed sheet - for 95% of printing, there is no need for tape, hairspray, etc. It is also hugely more durable than BuildTak - one sheet has lasted my printers for two years of printing.
The big thing to remember about any 3D printer review is that it will be hugely dependent on the user. I have seen reviews on the Robox that were obviously well thought out and from people who have legitimate complaints right next to reviews from users that have never contacted support for help and have never read the manual or looked for any assistance with a problem that could have been solved in about 5 minutes.
So if you have no experience with any 3D printer, my first advice is not to blame the printer until you ask for help or learn how to use it. Always give the support a chance to solve it before you rake them over the coals.
My Replicator is dialed in to a point where I just hit go and walk away. The only reason I consider upgrading is for a heated build plate and larger volume.
I was using the good old glass and hair spray for a while until BuildTak came along (I also use BuildTak’s awesome spatula). I am curious about trying out these flexible build plates though: http://www.fleks3d.com
Pausing a print when there is a feed issue is amazing, and absolutely a feature people new to printing should look for.
That alone would save me from many failed prints (basically after that your only issue is bed adhesion, and with a level sensing modification and a proper bed plate like a Gecko or BuildTak… you would have no fail points left)
The heated PEI build plate takes care of most of the bed adhesion issues. For the filaments that are really problematic, like nylon, GecktoTek makes plates for the Robox. I have all of them and use them when needed, which translates to nylon, PC, and a few high-warp PET blends.
The Robox also does a 9-point bed map at the start of every print and uses the first several layers to average out any high or low spots.
The only failure points I have anymore are either from poorly designed models that won’t stick to the bed even with the exotic beds, or from trying new materials and having to dial in the settings a little more.
It does look like a nice machine. Even has a dual head option for only 250GBP - not bad for a 1000GBP machine. I might have gotten one of those had I known about them before the M2. She Who Must Be Obeyed won’t look kindly to adding another machine to the stable though. (She’s already being a sport letting me build a Tardis materializing in the wall between the garage and the house where I used to have the Makerbot station.)
I am itching to pull the trigger on a 3D printer and I think you sold me. I just finished reading about the CEL Robox and I love the little details they thought of and also the 20 micron layer height is a huge plus for that price point. I’m gonna sleep on it and the probably purchase tomorrow. Thanks for the help
Keep in mind that 20 microns is extremely hard to print with and takes a long, long time. The printer is capable of it, but it is not provided out of the box. Out of the box you have the options of 100 microns, 200 microns, and 300 microns. You can create additional profiles but they do take a while to dial them in. I think that most users gave up on the 20 micron profiles because after 50 microns they could not see any additional improvement and the profiles took so long to dial in.
The Diamond is not compatible with the Robox - the printer design is such that it uses a proprietary hot end and extruder. This enables the use of the needle valves that close the flow at the nozzle, eliminating stringing.
Another vote saying the really low layer heights are at best difficult to dial in and very slow. (To a first approximation, machine speed is limited by how fast you can fling the head around rather than how fast you can extrude, so a 50-micron layer takes roughly as long to lay down as a 200-micron layer. Only you need 4x as many of them.) At some point, depending on how the extruder works, you also get to extruding so slowly that the individual steps of the extruder motor (and thus pulses of material) become visible.
Also the plastic gets more sheared as it is laid down, which gives a more matt finish. It can also be less well bonded because it has less heat capacity so it cools faster and so welds less.
She Who Must Be Obeyed won’t look kindly to adding another machine to the stable though. (She’s already being a sport letting me build a Tardis materializing in the wall between the garage and the house where I used to have the Makerbot station.)