What frustrates me about these companies advertising their blazing fast speed, there's no mention of how important the filament is when determining max speed. Focusing on nozzle speed without talking about filament speed leaves the impression that filament speed isn't important. Sort of like talking about horsepower without talking about torque. Really fast printers, even X1s make really bad prints if the filament can't keep up. Your night & day improvement of experience when you changed filaments but not printers makes my point. That's not a commentary on this video, this video is excellent. Informative and well-produced!
I'm printing normal PLA at 500mm/s , I just raised temp 4/5 C°. Of course I use good brands but it's te same filament I use with my old printers, sure I'll do some tests with cheaper .I dunno about other brands but this seem to work
Yes, the Qidi Plus 3 seems to use a Vulcano Style Hotend with a long Nozzle. The 35 mm³/s seems to align with it. Those numbers are only feaseable with a high conductive Filament normaly it would be down to 15 mm²/s like a Bambu Lab with generic Filament. The Qidi Plus 3 has the advantage that you can easy swap in a Vulcano CHT Noozle which may reach 50mm³/s ideal and about 20-25mm³/s normal. I have upgraded my Bambu X1 with the China CHT Kit for 30 Bucks as much as a Bondtech CHT Vulcano nozzle costs. It's for soft materials only but it works fine in Fast prints. CNC Kitchen has a nice Video about it. So the first Upgrade for the Qidi Plus 3 imo would be a Bondtech CHT Vulcano Nozzle. So it can reach it's maximum print Volume. And my Bambu Labs prints ATM at 450mm/s with around 20 mm²/s very stable on cheap Filament and fully melted. I have upgraded my Table massivly and ankered it to the wall, so it doesn't move and kills vibration. Before the 70kg Bench started to move and the Bambu Labs said over 350mm/s is to much. Something to remember as well: You need a solid Plattform for High Speeds. When the Head Speed is the Horsepower of the engine, the Flow Rate the Torque, then the Surface are the tires.
@@Victor-ze3sd Didn't saw the Question. The Qidi x Plus 3 has the bigger Volume. The P1S has the AMS, which is a Gamechanger. The CHT Nozzle Problem is solved thanks to E3D which have a highflow Nozzle for the P1A now in Cooperation with Bambu Labs, 30mm³/s Flowrate with normal Filaments up to 50 with highspeed Filaments. The Flowrate dictates the Speed of the Printer not the maximum speed. Both can use Orcaslicer. AMS is a Gamechanger as you can have 4 Spools in it and they allow to be worked after another, now there is the mini Add on there that you can use External Spools while attached to AMS. Comfort option. The AMS is a Drybox, keeps your Filament Dry, and Multicolor (Slow). I never had Problems with ABS Prints and Warping on my X1C. I simply set the Hearbed Temp to 70°C, the hotend to 150°C and stop the Case Fan. After 15 Minutes i have a stable 40°C and can start printing with 45-50°C over the Print which prevents Warping. For Larger Build Volumes, maybe watch out for the Sovol SV08. 350³mm on a Voron 2.4 Clone. The Plattform is Semiopen to the Open Source Voron, which is still the best Printer in the Market. But again no Multicolor, but big Build Volume. Imo the Bigger Buildvolume of the Qidi X Plus 3 is not worth it. It has the same Problem the Commodore C128 had: Nobody used the extra capabilities. Today the most common STL are for 220x220mm² Beds or the 256x220mm² a Bambu Lab offers. Or when you go for a Big Printer then you get 350x350mm² for Voron 2.5 Beds. But 280x280mm² is pretty uncommon and only for personal Files and STLs. And i have a Tronxy with 400x400mm² and use it.
@@Elkarlo77 Thanks for your detailed reply. I did end up going for the Qidi x plus 3 though. Many new printers should be comming out in summer, if I feel like I need an upgrade or a diferent printer I might look then.
As someone who recently took the dive on an X1C, the thing so many manufacturers are missing including creality, is the power of the AMS. When you're thinking about cute colored models it doesn't really provide much value, but when you begin to understand the power of creations using multiple elements, and the productivity savings to be had by having multiple filaments in the printer and ready at any moment is a game changer. The fact that the X1 can produce such amazing quality at the speeds that it can is really secondary to the AMS for me. The combination of the two though, means my printer is running MUCH more frequently than my Ender 3 was.
I have the X-Plus 3 as well. You mentioned issues wirh overhangs a number of times. This can largely be solved in the slicer by ensure the "extra perineters on overhangs" option is turned on. Also ensure that the perineter ordering is inner-outer-infill (which it shoukd be be default). With that set this printer can actually handle overhangs of 80 degrees fairly well. Regarding the bed lifting issue, this will be due to the PLA shrinking and warping because you're printing really long parts. It's actually a testament to how well the PEI plate adheres to the PLA. Using packing tape under the parts instead may help here. Also, there's actually the chamber heater which can be used to hold the chamber at something like a steady 55C which shoukd also prevent the parts from cooling as quickly. If you get the chance, try printing with PETG-CF from Tinmorry. It can be found on Amazon. 255C nozzle (use hardened nozzle), 80C bed temps, and 10mm^3 mazimum flow rate with a 0.95 flow ratio. This filament is amazing, has almost no shrinkage, and comes in a variety of colors. I think if you try it you will fall in love with how the parts almost never look 3D printed unless looking very closely. It's true that Qidi's default filament profiles are slightly off, usually with a little too much flow ratio, and sometimes with overly aggressive peak flow rates. It sounds like you're dialing things in well though. Good luck and happy printing!
Outstanding review! I love how professional you are and do not trash the printer. I am looking for a first 3D printer and this one is definitely NOT the one for me. I am leaning towards Bambu P1S at this point. Thank you very much for all the work you put into this.
Fantastic vid once more Michaela. I love my Bambu but am also excited to see these whole new generation of printers that are appearing. And thank you so much for the shout outs once more :)
Yes! It’s a super exciting time to be into 3D printing with all of these new faster machines and innovative products being released. And I’m not about to complain about being able to add to the droid squad at an even faster rate now lol
The recommend keeping the door and the top open for PLA. I ignore that completely for my X Max 3 and I find my parts come out better with the top off and the door closed. The ambient temp of the chamber stays nicely at 33C and that seems perfect for keeping shrinkage to a min
Great video, I recently bought an Qidi X-MAX3 and have encountered a few problems printing large objects in PLA, I thought it was mostly down the PLA not being able to melt fast enough when the machine gets to high speed on big prints, so I slowed things down, but your tip on over cooling and turning down the side auxiliary cooling fan is something I will definitely try it on my next big print, many thanks
Yeah the cooling seems to be way too efficient lol. I could see it being alright on smaller pieces where the nozzle is having to travel back over the same areas much quicker than on a piece taking up half or more of the build plate, but on larger pieces it’s too much. I hope you have better luck with your next prints!
Check the maximum volumetric speed for your filament. For high speed printing, there are special "high speed" filaments that are runner when melted. eSUN PLA plus really only can go up to 250mm/s
@@MMsPropShop Hi, if you could buy only a single printer, would you go with the Qidi x plus 3 or the Bambu P1S ? Or are there better options at that price point that aren't very popular?
@Victor-ze3sd to me the x plus 3 and P1S are kind of in completely different classes from each other. The QIDI has the heated chamber and the better capability of handling any type of difficult filament you may need for hobby or professional applications, whereas the P1S is more of a fancy hobbyist printer. Technically it should be able to handle harder to work with filaments but it might not run as smoothly. The x plus 3 also has the larger build volume so depending on what you’re most interested in printing could make or break your choice. The only reason I’d ever personally be interested in purchasing a Bambulab printer would be for its colour changing capabilities with the AMS but it seems like every printer company imaginable is gearing up to release their own filament changing machine so I’d be more likely to go with one of those.
What a thorough and informative review! The full 3 printer lineup from Qidi seems pretty amazing. The X-Max3 is only $900 right now. The K1 Max is the same price, but smaller, without a heated enclosure, and lacking other features. The X1C is $1200 and doesn't have a heated enclosure plus it has a much smaller build volume. The X-Plus3 is $629 and that goes up against the P1S for $700 or K1 for $500, but again with much larger build volume, the heated enclosure, and more. The X-Smart3 is only $300! Can you imagine if Creality or Bambu Labs dropped a $300 enclosed fast Core XY Klipper printer right now? All of the reviewers would go nuts. Qidi is so slept on right now.
I agree the X1C is a bit high. The P1S is almost the same printer for way less money and works very well without the heated chamber. I put a towel over the unit and it holds the heat in enough for ABS/Nylon (lots of print hours on tough stuff without problems). I am eyeballing the QiDi max3 for it's build size, hopefully the print quality matches my Bambu.
@@fivepointeightnate With the release of the new Qidi Q1 Pro at $439 with a coupon the competition gets hotter. Print quality and capability in every review I've seen is excellent!
@@Victor-ze3sd The P1S would be my choice between the two. Being your first printer the P1S software is much easier to start with. The print quality always turns out a bit better than my xmax3 too. The only thing the Xplus3 has on it is 1" bigger print area. If the print job is 9.9" or smaller I always use the Bambu.
I know you've said for your ABS prints you preheat the enclosure and then rely on the printbed to keep the temperature up, but I've found that keeping the active chamber heater going during the prints at around 55C means no curling or brim required for large parts. Just be aware that Qidi have a setting to turn off the active chamber heater when a print starts which is really annoying as it may or may not come back on again, if you look in the printer settings custom Gcode this setting is the M141 S0 command, for mine I just changed this to M141 [first_layer_volume_temperature] which will follow whatever you've set the first layer chamber temperature to in the filament settings. Making this change stick means just saving out a new printer profile, mine is called "X-Plus 3 - chamber heater", but call it whatever makes sense to you, it defaults to "X-Plus 3 - copy" but this isn't really all that useful as a printer name. EDIT:Since posting this Qidi have updated their slicer to remove the first layer volume temperature setting, but still keep the M141 S0 in the custom Gcode. This means my old setting no longer works, but M141 [volume_temperature] works 😀
I really appreciated your critical discussion of the issues you found in printing stuff that you intend to use. Whether you print a benchy in 30minutes or 90minutes is interesting but not real use. As someone who has only printed in PLA your advice based on your own experience of branching out into ABS for the first time was really informative and encouraging. Thank you for an excellent overview of the x-plus 3: it was very helpful.
Open the top for pla or petg and for ABS I use a good filtration/ventilation system not as bad as resin but, really not good for you. ABS is so nice you can smooth with acetone and make a goop by mixing acetone and scrap supports for gluing, smoothing, strengthening etc. it's also light weight. It's my favorite material beside tpu.
This is the first video i've seen of yours and I sub'ed! I had't really heard of this brand, but looking at customer reviews, and what you get for the money (build volume, with a contained chamber), this is the best value, but also seems high quality. I really want one :D Might have to convince my wife on an early Christmas present lol
It would be interesting to see you compare the Qidi to the Creality K1 Max. The latter is a little more expensive, but it's also a little bit bigger, and boasts the same sort of speeds as the Qidi. I'm glad the ABS worked out well for you. I think most people avoid it because of the stench/fumes/VOCs more than anything else. The results you got were really clean, though. Resin probably still has the best, cleanest detail, but FDM is closing in. Personally, I'd rather use FDM than deal with the mess of resin, even though it means more finishing work after the print. Nice review of the Qidi machine. I enjoyed listening to you talk about the ups and downs, and your overall opinion in the end.
Nice review. I have a bambu P1P which is about $50 more. And the user experience based on what you described is night and day where the P1 works out of the box and requires very little to get to optimal printing results for me. Would love to see you get a P1P and do a side by side.
Here I am still running a 2nd gen Qidi X-One. This sounds like a possible upgrade for it. I have other bigger printers too, but have been holding onto the X-One for nostalgia mostly at this point.
Added to my Amazon wish list, plentry of room for some projects I have set aside. Maybe this winter I will move it to the cart. and press buy... Love that it runs klipper, already using it on current printer. You could put some clips around the edges of the flex plate, I used to have that happen with creality build plates so ditched them.
I'm really not a fan of Qidi machines. I bought their I-Box mono printer from them a little while back only for them to discontinue it without warning. Now paint is flaking off the vat and I can't get the parts needed to repair it. Their designs are innovative but seem to lack durability and long term support. I've definitely learned my lesson about trusting reviews on a product without first seeing its long term reliability, which is where most of the showstopper problems you may encounter start to pop up
Aw man, that sucks! It almost looks like they’ve decided to step back from SLA printers and focus on FDM. There’s hardly anything listed about their past resin printers but lots about multiple generations of past FDM machines including spare parts available. In general I find that SLA printers are pretty notorious for discontinued parts as the various companies are constantly pumping out newer versions of the machines and stopping production of older models and their components.
@@MMsPropShop Yeah. It's very unfortunate since more expensive Resin printers are especially difficult to sell, so they end up becoming e-waste or a donation once you can't get spare parts anymore
Their light curing machines are indeed on clearance. But I saw the I-Box email address on their website, so maybe you can approach them for the parts you need, and I'm sure they'll help you out as much as they can.
I got the X-Max 3 and I am very happy with it. My main reasons to choose the Qidi and not a Bambu P1S nor a Creality K1 were: - extremly solid robust hardware. The weight speaks for itself. - activly heated chamber - open source klipper, as I like to tinker on the printer myself Imho the printer has two flaws: No auto-z calibration (no big deal as an advanced user) and you have to pull the filament on unload, else it might be tangled inside the extruder (happend actually on my very first unload). Still no big deal, but this prevents using an ERCF for automatic filament change with the stock hotend. For perfect filament tip on unload there are two approaches: a) ramping profiles and integrated nozzle/heatbreak combos (Revo, TUN, Nextruder) b) cut&poo, as the SMuFF project uses and was copied by bambulab With a high flow hotend a) is nearly impossible, this is the reason bambulab has chossen method b). While the Rev. 1 of the X-3 series had a manual filament cutter inside the hotend, the actual Rev 2 does not have it. So I had to modify the hotend... I replaced the hotend by a revo voron. As the qidi uses a thermocouple and revo a thermistor, I had to add a 3th mcu (I used an old creality board). With a Revo High Flow nozzle I get about the same volumetric flow as with the original hotend (but still bad filament tip / failiures on unload). However, with a Revo Standard Nozzle I get a nearly perfect filament tip (I have not even adjusted ramping yet). And of course, with an ObXidian I can print abrasive materials. Another advantage: All Revo nozzles are very precise manufactured to the same lenght. So I do not even need to re calibrate the z-offset after nozzle change. I did not add an ERFC yet, but did some manual colour changes - it worked well with the Revo Standard and ObXidian. Actually my first prints on the modified were the parts for my Prusa mk4 upgrade - printed on the Qidi, with a Creality board as 3th MCU, with Bambulab mint ABS for the Prusa. Any major brand missing?
Thank you for listing the mods you did. I was considering swapping the hotend myself, but then came across the Diamondback nozzles. Sadly they don't offer a matching length for the Qidi's, but I got around that by buying the Volcano length and cutting the threads back by 2mm, and now it's a perfect length. The Diamondback allows for about +10% flow using the stock hotend. I had some issues dialing it in, but then found a video on UA-cam where the nozzles were put under a microscope. It turned out that the 0.4mm nozzles were actually 0.46mm in diameter. I updated the slicer with that value and everything came out perfect then. There's now no need for me to change the nozzle pretty much ever. I just find it interesting tye different solutions out there. Hopefully Qidi can learn from these minor quibbles and keep improving.
@@stew675 I thought about a Tungsten Carbide nozzle first. However, my main issue was bad filament tip on unload. This is solved with a Revo standard nozzle. So I could add an Enraged Rabit Carot Feeder. Still for single colour I can print fast with the RevoHF. Also since I started using Revo nozzles I much more often swap nozzle size. But of course the main reason for changing hotend was just the fun trying it;-)
I’m not sure if anybody else has said this but try increasing your retraction slightly until your stringing goes away. Seems to happen when you have pieces where it needs to retract and move then print.
I'm here for RJ83! That will be one of my 1st prints when I buy a printer. I want to mechanize it in the future. I'm still looking for a good beginner friendly corexy printer. The P1S Combo is top of my list.
Droid Division also has an excellent L0-LA droid that’s a great beginner print project. I believe there is a version of the file that’s prepped for adding animatronics as well.
Well, it's an inch bigger each way if it's really 285x285. Not much. I always hated messing about with bits of paper, even on my FLSUN that only needed it once per level, like the Qidi.
Which part? Please be specific, since I can honestly say I took the half hour to read through both the short form and the long form. So I'm curious which specific part scares you.
Love your videos ! Will you make a video on the max3? I’m questioning between the 2 of them , on other review it seems the xplus is better than the max but could be more user error , you seems to have crack the code !
Yeah I can definitely look at doing a video like that! I’m hoping that it’s a very similar user experience between the two printers but I guess I’ll find out.
I have Prusa MK4 and Prusa Mini for my first printers and I love them both. Fast and reliable. Quality prints with zero issues if I sliced it right .. I know the popular opinion is Bambu Labs but I extremely happy with my Prusa’s.. Great video. I have never heard of this product.. Have to check it out..
I think one very important detail that tends to be over looked when comparing printers to Bambu options is ease of high quality printing. Bambu tuned all of their settings so well that it takes little effort to reach what I will call "final production quality". The one thing I've come to really dislike about 3d printing was the never ending editing of print profiles to fix or improve quality issues. It's very time consuming and wasteful ($$$). The Bambu X1 has greatly minimized that to where I have yet to need more than 2 test prints to refine quality to where I wanted it.
Hi I’ve watched some of your videos and I wanted to get into 3d printing. I wanted to know how I can get started into resin printing as a beginner and what should I start with?
I appreciate the info and the experience you shared. I'm on the fence between the Bambu Lab Carbon and the QIDI X-Plus 3. Any thoughts? I don't like seing a lot of texture on 3D prints which is why I'm wondering which of of the two would produce better smooth results for printed objects that may be exposed to some degree of heat.
It depends on what you plan on printing and what materials you want to make those prints out of. If you’re mostly looking at larger pieces and/or pieces made of more exotic filaments like ABS, nylon, etc. then a QIDI is your best option with the larger build volume and heated chamber.
Great review! I’m deep into the Bambu ecosystem but I still enjoyed hearing your take and seeing what you could do with a large printer. Btw I think the brand name is pronounced “chee dee”.
Love your channel and your star wars builds. Would you recommend the X-Plus 3 or the X-Max 3, live in Canada if that makes a difference to your recommendation.
Really the only difference between the two is build volume. Print quality, UI, features, etc are all the same. If you’re someone who is constantly printing large parts like a full scale helmet in one piece, then the x-max would be your best choice. If you want a great all around size printer and don’t feel you need the extra build volume, then go with the x-plus.
Hello, Unrelated to the video but IG-11/12 update when? It looks incredible 😊 Where did you get the rubber joints for the arms? I have looked everywhere 😢
Basically as soon as I’m able to edit through all of the footage. I’m hoping to tackle it over the next couple of weeks. The joint covers I printed in a flexible resin mixture. They work and look perfect.
Hi Michaela, how are you? My name is David, and I'm 24 yo from Israel. Just wanted to let you know that on these tough times your videos give me a lot of inspiration and motivation. I have been doing some small scale statues over the last few months, and now I feel it's time for some life size projects, such as your Grievous which is one of my holy grails. I hope that when the war is over I will be able to make some props myself and share them with you and hear your feedback ❤🙏
Personally the Neptune 4’s have always intrigued me more. Most, if not all print slicers have the ability to calculate the material used. You would have to go through all of the pieces/print jobs and tally up the calculated estimated material usage.
An excellent review, you did a great job of showing issues and what you did to work through them. It seems like Qidi isn’t quite as polished and dialed in as BambuLab; things like the overcooling and rail lubrication seem like they should have been worked out by the company before shipping. The machine losing its place looks like too much cost-engineering, leaving out limit switches for slightly lower parts and assembly costs. The print head losing contact with the main board may just be a one-off cable problem, but you said others had experienced it as well. Overall, my impression is the printer is a fantastic deal for someone like yourself who’s experienced and doesn’t mind putting in the time to figure out a product’s quirks, and who also needs to crank out a lot of large parts. For me though, the Bambu X1C remains the almost-perfect solution. I went through a period years ago where the printer was my hobby, now I have way too many other things going on, so just need a “fire and forget” machine, which the X1C pretty much is for me. That’s why it’s my hands-down recommendation for anyone getting into 3D printing who can anywhere near afford the price. It’s pricey, but I think not for what you get, and the dozens of hours of troubleshooting and tinkering it’s saved me is worth it’s price many times over. All that said, this was an excellent review, thanks for sharing such a thorough breakdown!
want to upgrade from my old homey ender 3 ..... bambo X-1C will probably be my choice ... but asi i see bambu pushed other 3d printer makers to do something new ... will probably wait few more months.
Great vid. Just wondering how you have found this printer now after a few months of using it? Seriously looking at this unit but wondering what its reliability and consistency is ?
Still love it. It’s my most reliable printer. I’ve had it making me ABS droid parts the last couple of weeks pretty much 24/7. Once you’ve figured out your ideal settings for the material you’re using its press print and forget about it. The only maintenance is making sure the rods are well lubricated from time to time. The only issue I’ve had with it since the video was caused by a tangled spool of filament that caused a piece to be permanently stuck in the hotend assembly, also messed up the extruder a bit as well. QIDI sent over a new hotend and extruder no problem. They really are leagues beyond every other major printer company in terms of customer service.
@@MMsPropShopthanks for your feedback. Great to hear about there customer service quality as well. Really happy to hear this as i am pretty much sold on this machine for its asa abs plus engineer filament printing.
Hi, I just baught this printer because I'm planning to do a full Republic Commando Armor in ABS Could you maybe share your settings for printing the clone helmet? I'm especially interested in the support settings and any other tips you might have for a beginner 😊
Very cool project! Here’s my slicer profile: drive.google.com/file/d/1YBSg4LpSCg5PDyewEZFgVety9DaS6zIW/view?usp=drivesdk The one thing you’ll probably need to modify would be the temperature and fan settings to best suit the specific ABS filament you’re using. Some ABS will only print well with no fan on as opposed to the 30% that I believe it’s set at in that profile. You also might need to decrease the speed depending on the specific filament but I tend to just change the print speed percentage on the printer if I’m printing with a harder to handle ABS/piece. Especially in your case with printing armour as they’ll be a lot of thinner pieces that are more prone to delamination. Definitely use a decent sized brim on everything to avoid any possible lifting from the build plate.
@@MMsPropShop thank you very much! I now just have problems with the supports, if I auto generate them, then the slicer fills the complete inside of the helmet and I'm too unexperienced to paint them manually 😅 I watched some videos of printing clone helmest and most of them only had supports on the outside and at the visor, so I suspect this should be enough. Also print time would be over 6 days 😅 Could you share some tipps with supports? Would be much appreciated :D
@codyrex4382 typically I have them auto generate, then use the paint on support tool to erase the areas that don’t need the support. It’ll leave all of the other supports it generated but stop them from being added to the areas that you blocked out.
@@MMsPropShop Thank you so much for your help! :) I just noticed in your settings you really toned down print speed. When I remove the support in the middle, the slicer tells me that the whole helmet still will take almost 2 days of print time. You said in your Captain Wnoch video that you printed and finished the helmet in 48 hours. Could I speed things up or would you not recommend this and keep the slow speed?
@codyrex4382 in the slicer preview you can see a breakdown of how much time each type of step is taking to see where time is being spent. It could simply just be due to the piece. Because Enoch printed in multiple pieces, there was very little time being spent on support material so it overall took less time than if it was to print as a single piece. The settings are definitely on the conservative side just because I wanted the prints to be successful but you should be able to speed things up. You might want to start with the slower speeds and then work your way up. Some ABS doesn’t like melting very fast so in that case slower speeds would be necessary. Time estimates also aren’t always 100% accurate so in reality it might take less time.
They’re in completely different classes so it’s not really a fair fight, haha! My QIDI printers are still my go to machines - I print most of my projects in ABS and they can print it better than many printers can print PLA. A1 is great for PLA/PETG and the more fun, aesthetic prints that you’d typically be making with those filaments, but it’s not about to replace my X-Plus 3.
Hi Michaela, I loved the battle droid head you show in your video, followed your link to purchase and realised it was for a full battle droid, does the model come with the base you had in your video or is this from somewhere else or did you model it yourself? Great review of the printer, thanks.
Yes, the full battle droid comes with the head base. There’s a bunch of awesome freebie files as part of that battle droid download as well like the B1 version of the pit droid sign I printed.
I never understand why printers need you to do the card thing if they jave bed leveling. Bed leveling implies i knows where the bed is (pressumably a sensor) so why cant it just set the height accordingly?
Probes/sensors can be installed with slight variances and when your dealing with something where fractions of millimeters can be the difference between a successful print and a failure, it’s still a good idea to manually check the z offset. The nozzle itself could vary ever so slightly as well.
I want to get a 3d printer, but I'm clueless about what or which is good to start and why? I would like to print dragons for my 8-year-old and astro boy for the 7 yr old. Can anybody give some advice? Thank you.
There’s unfortunately no perfect answer to this question. For years the top suggestion would have been some version of a Creality Ender 3 printer - still a very good and popular printer today. It has the benefit of a large online community with years of information for just about any question you might have about the machine. Lately it’s been all about the ultra fast printers like this one and the Bambulab machines. It’s also going to depend on how much you want to invest into this hobby right away, especially if you’re unsure how much use you’ll get out of the machine in the long run past your initial project plans.
@mauriciohenao6590 yeah, Black Friday tends to be one of the best times to pick up a 3D printer. Especially if it’s last year’s version of a machine/just not the most current model.
@@MMsPropShop By any chance did you ever tried the CR 10? do you know how much better would be the Ender 3? because it looks in general very similar to me and I had a terrible experience with CR-10... being it new it came with some problems... the "pre-montage" was lazy to a point I was forced to readjust mostly every bolt in it... the extruder gave lots of problems etc...
@BioClone my very first printer was a CR-10. It depends on the model of CR-10/Ender 3 but they tend to run off of similar features, the CR models are just larger machines. Many of the old problems have been fixed with newer models of the printers. It’s definitely not worth buying an original Ender 3 printer today. The newer models that are a few dollars more end up having multiple hundreds of dollars worth of upgrades on them as well as new and refined features.
I’ve used the 3-in-1 multipurpose oil and Suber Lube synthetic grease on mine. Both work but the oil seems to wear off faster (probably because it’s much thinner) so I’ve been sticking to the grease.
Madam I am new to 3d printing however i am a software developer i read the manual and followed all instruction the first print was also from the manufacturer sd card I also had all sensors switched on as instructed all test prints failed i am now being put through the motions of a defective or second hand printer what constitutes brand new should mean or be plug and play. when you have to change this and do this and do that flaws everything about being new
The best printer will be different for every person. For me my most used machines right now are my QIDI printers. I’m typically wanting to print pieces in ABS and they handle it better than many printers can print PLA. The Kobra 2 is indispensable when it comes to needing to print large pieces though. It’s the only printer in my workshop that can handle certain projects.
Okay perfect! So both!! Question - you have helped so much in the past, I know you don't remember, but I recently printed a bust. I thought I had bumped the frame while it was printing, and yes, the print ended up shifting about 3mm to one side, being it had printed so much I let it go, this happened about 12mm away from the neck. The bust finished, but then I noticed that it didn't print a layer all the way around in one spot, so while i was cleaning it up, the head came off :). That I can fix. But what do you recommend on the shifted part? Cut and glue? I do not know. I would love to send you pics, wish I had your email, no funny stuff, I would send, or I could send them from my phone to you. But your help is appreciated.
@rickerickson7072 oh no! That’s super unfortunate. For layer shifts it normally depends on how well attached to the rest of the model it is. Sometimes the shifted part will quite easily break off and in that case it’s a lot better to remove it and glue it so that the model is strong, but if it’s really stuck together then it’ll probably be better to just leave it and sand/cut off any edges hanging off and fill in the gap on the other side. Also, my email is info@studioofmm.com
It seems to be working for me but here it is: www.etsy.com/ca/listing/804696082/spacebobs-battle-droid-inspired?click_key=2563c2ccfed9f4663f643cf451e21166bd7fd76f%3A804696082&click_sum=f5e61700&ref=shop_home_recs_1&crt=1&sts=1 It is the full B1 droid, the head can be made separately with the display base.
I love it when reviewers say they are not being paid for the review. Let be real, The system they sent you is the payment they just hope you'll be on the positive side because they wont hesitate to send you the next model. That aside great review the larger build plate is a plus over the Bambu Lab offering but we all know that's just around the corner next year. I see this has no AMS so a 3rd party product is needed to to multi color printing. All in all this seems to be a solid choice for $649.00
There is a big difference between being sent a product for free to do what you want with it, and a specific video that is being separately paid for, which why I wanted to clarify. I get how it can sound ridiculous when it gets condensed down to a single line or two in a video. It would be great to see Bambulab come out with a larger machine! As this is being used as a prop building printer, I have no interest in an AMS. Pretty much everyone I know that has a Bambulab printer doesn’t have or use the AMS regularly either so it’s not as big of a selling point as with other types of makers.
@@MMsPropShop a review for a machine that you didn't pay yourself and are clearly staying on the positive side to keep a good relationship with the manufacturer is not really a review but rather an unboxing and "first look" imo.
@rkatz69 overall I had a positive experience using the machine, that’s why it’s a positive video. I’m not going to drag and complain about a product for no reason just to appear more “legitimate”. I have since purchased an additional QIDI printer with my own money. Couldn’t care less about the state of any brand relationships. My content has never nor will ever be solely focused on new printers, etc. I’m obviously super grateful that I can look at accepting opportunities like this but my channel doesn’t rely on sucking up to companies to stay relevant.
I've been really enjoying the quality of your videos. It's rare that a channel on propmaking still manages to teach new things in interesting ways! I have a show I'd love to invite you to guest on. Whats the best way to contact you?
It does have a stronger scent when printing compared to other filament types but I personally wasn’t bothered by it. I’m sure the scent could vary depending on filament brand. The printer itself has an activated carbon filter as part of the chamber circulation fan which could possibly cut down on the smell a bit as well. Running an air purifier close to the machine printing ABS might completely eliminate any smell.
Now that you've been living with this bad boy for a few months would you recommend it as a first printer? I'm torn between this and a P1P or P1S. Thanks in advance!
P1S is P1P thats enclosed u can always enclose the P1p as well because u can 3d print the sides or buy them off the store. so it really depends on what u are wanting to print.
In terms of ease, print quality, etc. then yes, I think this would be an excellent first printer. The QIDI customer service is also on a completely other level compared to every other major printer company I’ve dealt with. They really go above and beyond with their support whereas you’ll sometimes be lucky to even get a response from others. That being said, this is a printer that could technically be considered as a bit overkill for a beginner just because of its range in abilities. Typically a beginner would be sticking to printing in PLA pretty exclusively which can be done with great success on any decently reviewed printer on the market. Every company now is coming out with ultrafast printers with almost identical tech specs to the P1P/S, and similar at a fraction of the price, which in my opinion make them much more reasonable machines for a beginner to consider.
@@MMsPropShop Well if some sort of grease will not work for ordinary printer, sure enough for 3D printer the same is true. So even if you used not special linear rail lubricant better reconsider.
What I see is every company compares them selves to bambu labs witch tells me bambu is far ahead of everybody else tring to out do bambu with build volume
You lost me at placing the sheet under the nozzle for the friction test to set the z offset. It looks like it is probing the surface with the nozzle itself...if thats the case, i see no reason as to why setting the z offset would rely on something as subjective as the "friction test".
If you don't need an AMS, X-Plus 3 > P1S because: Stock klipper, heated chamber, reinforced hollow steel rods instead of carbon rods, superior customer service.
I have the X1C for about 10 months now and there's a lot of features the X1C offers that you didn't cover. One is the flow calibration two is the multicolor UP TO 16 Colors, 3rd the filament sensor and 4th the spaghetti sensor that you have not mentioned. The filament ran out sensor and spaghetti sensor had saved my prints multiple times where it paused for 7 hours. I refilled the filament and it continued where it stopped when on a riprap printer would become a nightmare to continue the print, glue, fill and sand to make the large print more pleasing to the eye... Don't get me wrong, the X1C has some minor annoyances, but it seems that every other 3D printer manufacturer is playing catch up with the BambuLab.
Till I heard that it dies not auto calibrate the Z level, it was an option. So I will choose the Bambu every day of the week before this printer. Its a pity they did not fixed that on a otherwise nice machine
I liked the video but 50% of the video could have been different if you actually print some smaller files and calibrate your material first ghehe. Would also recommend to get away from using grid infill for taller prints. Sure it'll take longer with others but your success rate will go up by a lot.
What frustrates me about these companies advertising their blazing fast speed, there's no mention of how important the filament is when determining max speed. Focusing on nozzle speed without talking about filament speed leaves the impression that filament speed isn't important. Sort of like talking about horsepower without talking about torque. Really fast printers, even X1s make really bad prints if the filament can't keep up. Your night & day improvement of experience when you changed filaments but not printers makes my point. That's not a commentary on this video, this video is excellent. Informative and well-produced!
I'm printing normal PLA at 500mm/s , I just raised temp 4/5 C°. Of course I use good brands but it's te same filament I use with my old printers, sure I'll do some tests with cheaper .I dunno about other brands but this seem to work
Yes, the Qidi Plus 3 seems to use a Vulcano Style Hotend with a long Nozzle. The 35 mm³/s seems to align with it. Those numbers are only feaseable with a high conductive Filament normaly it would be down to 15 mm²/s like a Bambu Lab with generic Filament. The Qidi Plus 3 has the advantage that you can easy swap in a Vulcano CHT Noozle which may reach 50mm³/s ideal and about 20-25mm³/s normal. I have upgraded my Bambu X1 with the China CHT Kit for 30 Bucks as much as a Bondtech CHT Vulcano nozzle costs. It's for soft materials only but it works fine in Fast prints. CNC Kitchen has a nice Video about it. So the first Upgrade for the Qidi Plus 3 imo would be a Bondtech CHT Vulcano Nozzle. So it can reach it's maximum print Volume.
And my Bambu Labs prints ATM at 450mm/s with around 20 mm²/s very stable on cheap Filament and fully melted.
I have upgraded my Table massivly and ankered it to the wall, so it doesn't move and kills vibration. Before the 70kg Bench started to move and the Bambu Labs said over 350mm/s is to much. Something to remember as well: You need a solid Plattform for High Speeds.
When the Head Speed is the Horsepower of the engine, the Flow Rate the Torque, then the Surface are the tires.
@@Elkarlo77 Hi, I was wondering, would you go with the Qidi x plus 3 or the Bambu P1S?
@@Victor-ze3sd Didn't saw the Question. The Qidi x Plus 3 has the bigger Volume. The P1S has the AMS, which is a Gamechanger. The CHT Nozzle Problem is solved thanks to E3D which have a highflow Nozzle for the P1A now in Cooperation with Bambu Labs, 30mm³/s Flowrate with normal Filaments up to 50 with highspeed Filaments.
The Flowrate dictates the Speed of the Printer not the maximum speed. Both can use Orcaslicer.
AMS is a Gamechanger as you can have 4 Spools in it and they allow to be worked after another, now there is the mini Add on there that you can use External Spools while attached to AMS. Comfort option. The AMS is a Drybox, keeps your Filament Dry, and Multicolor (Slow).
I never had Problems with ABS Prints and Warping on my X1C.
I simply set the Hearbed Temp to 70°C, the hotend to 150°C and stop the Case Fan.
After 15 Minutes i have a stable 40°C and can start printing with 45-50°C over the Print which prevents Warping.
For Larger Build Volumes, maybe watch out for the Sovol SV08. 350³mm on a Voron 2.4 Clone. The Plattform is Semiopen to the Open Source Voron, which is still the best Printer in the Market. But again no Multicolor, but big Build Volume.
Imo the Bigger Buildvolume of the Qidi X Plus 3 is not worth it.
It has the same Problem the Commodore C128 had: Nobody used the extra capabilities. Today the most common STL are for 220x220mm² Beds or the 256x220mm² a Bambu Lab offers. Or when you go for a Big Printer then you get 350x350mm² for Voron 2.5 Beds. But 280x280mm² is pretty uncommon and only for personal Files and STLs.
And i have a Tronxy with 400x400mm² and use it.
@@Elkarlo77 Thanks for your detailed reply.
I did end up going for the Qidi x plus 3 though.
Many new printers should be comming out in summer, if I feel like I need an upgrade or a diferent printer I might look then.
As someone who recently took the dive on an X1C, the thing so many manufacturers are missing including creality, is the power of the AMS. When you're thinking about cute colored models it doesn't really provide much value, but when you begin to understand the power of creations using multiple elements, and the productivity savings to be had by having multiple filaments in the printer and ready at any moment is a game changer.
The fact that the X1 can produce such amazing quality at the speeds that it can is really secondary to the AMS for me. The combination of the two though, means my printer is running MUCH more frequently than my Ender 3 was.
I have the X-Plus 3 as well. You mentioned issues wirh overhangs a number of times. This can largely be solved in the slicer by ensure the "extra perineters on overhangs" option is turned on. Also ensure that the perineter ordering is inner-outer-infill (which it shoukd be be default).
With that set this printer can actually handle overhangs of 80 degrees fairly well.
Regarding the bed lifting issue, this will be due to the PLA shrinking and warping because you're printing really long parts. It's actually a testament to how well the PEI plate adheres to the PLA. Using packing tape under the parts instead may help here. Also, there's actually the chamber heater which can be used to hold the chamber at something like a steady 55C which shoukd also prevent the parts from cooling as quickly.
If you get the chance, try printing with PETG-CF from Tinmorry. It can be found on Amazon. 255C nozzle (use hardened nozzle), 80C bed temps, and 10mm^3 mazimum flow rate with a 0.95 flow ratio. This filament is amazing, has almost no shrinkage, and comes in a variety of colors. I think if you try it you will fall in love with how the parts almost never look 3D printed unless looking very closely.
It's true that Qidi's default filament profiles are slightly off, usually with a little too much flow ratio, and sometimes with overly aggressive peak flow rates. It sounds like you're dialing things in well though.
Good luck and happy printing!
Outstanding review! I love how professional you are and do not trash the printer. I am looking for a first 3D printer and this one is definitely NOT the one for me. I am leaning towards Bambu P1S at this point. Thank you very much for all the work you put into this.
Definitely go with Bambu. They make the best hobby printers right now and are good at making firmware updates.
@@mikeb1596 Hobby lol, look at the dig there...
Fantastic vid once more Michaela. I love my Bambu but am also excited to see these whole new generation of printers that are appearing.
And thank you so much for the shout outs once more :)
Yes! It’s a super exciting time to be into 3D printing with all of these new faster machines and innovative products being released. And I’m not about to complain about being able to add to the droid squad at an even faster rate now lol
The recommend keeping the door and the top open for PLA. I ignore that completely for my X Max 3 and I find my parts come out better with the top off and the door closed. The ambient temp of the chamber stays nicely at 33C and that seems perfect for keeping shrinkage to a min
Great video, I recently bought an Qidi X-MAX3 and have encountered a few problems printing large objects in PLA, I thought it was mostly down the PLA not being able to melt fast enough when the machine gets to high speed on big prints, so I slowed things down, but your tip on over cooling and turning down the side auxiliary cooling fan is something I will definitely try it on my next big print, many thanks
Yeah the cooling seems to be way too efficient lol. I could see it being alright on smaller pieces where the nozzle is having to travel back over the same areas much quicker than on a piece taking up half or more of the build plate, but on larger pieces it’s too much. I hope you have better luck with your next prints!
did that end up fixing it?
Check the maximum volumetric speed for your filament. For high speed printing, there are special "high speed" filaments that are runner when melted. eSUN PLA plus really only can go up to 250mm/s
@@MMsPropShop Hi, if you could buy only a single printer, would you go with the Qidi x plus 3 or the Bambu P1S ? Or are there better options at that price point that aren't very popular?
@Victor-ze3sd to me the x plus 3 and P1S are kind of in completely different classes from each other. The QIDI has the heated chamber and the better capability of handling any type of difficult filament you may need for hobby or professional applications, whereas the P1S is more of a fancy hobbyist printer. Technically it should be able to handle harder to work with filaments but it might not run as smoothly. The x plus 3 also has the larger build volume so depending on what you’re most interested in printing could make or break your choice.
The only reason I’d ever personally be interested in purchasing a Bambulab printer would be for its colour changing capabilities with the AMS but it seems like every printer company imaginable is gearing up to release their own filament changing machine so I’d be more likely to go with one of those.
What a thorough and informative review! The full 3 printer lineup from Qidi seems pretty amazing. The X-Max3 is only $900 right now. The K1 Max is the same price, but smaller, without a heated enclosure, and lacking other features. The X1C is $1200 and doesn't have a heated enclosure plus it has a much smaller build volume. The X-Plus3 is $629 and that goes up against the P1S for $700 or K1 for $500, but again with much larger build volume, the heated enclosure, and more. The X-Smart3 is only $300! Can you imagine if Creality or Bambu Labs dropped a $300 enclosed fast Core XY Klipper printer right now? All of the reviewers would go nuts. Qidi is so slept on right now.
I agree the X1C is a bit high. The P1S is almost the same printer for way less money and works very well without the heated chamber. I put a towel over the unit and it holds the heat in enough for ABS/Nylon (lots of print hours on tough stuff without problems). I am eyeballing the QiDi max3 for it's build size, hopefully the print quality matches my Bambu.
@@fivepointeightnate With the release of the new Qidi Q1 Pro at $439 with a coupon the competition gets hotter. Print quality and capability in every review I've seen is excellent!
@@fivepointeightnate I'm looking to buy my first 3D printer and can't decide between the x plus 3 and P1S, how would you make the choice?
How would you chose which printer to get between Bambu P1S, Qidi x plus 3 ?
@@Victor-ze3sd The P1S would be my choice between the two. Being your first printer the P1S software is much easier to start with. The print quality always turns out a bit better than my xmax3 too. The only thing the Xplus3 has on it is 1" bigger print area. If the print job is 9.9" or smaller I always use the Bambu.
I know you've said for your ABS prints you preheat the enclosure and then rely on the printbed to keep the temperature up, but I've found that keeping the active chamber heater going during the prints at around 55C means no curling or brim required for large parts. Just be aware that Qidi have a setting to turn off the active chamber heater when a print starts which is really annoying as it may or may not come back on again, if you look in the printer settings custom Gcode this setting is the M141 S0 command, for mine I just changed this to M141 [first_layer_volume_temperature] which will follow whatever you've set the first layer chamber temperature to in the filament settings. Making this change stick means just saving out a new printer profile, mine is called "X-Plus 3 - chamber heater", but call it whatever makes sense to you, it defaults to "X-Plus 3 - copy" but this isn't really all that useful as a printer name.
EDIT:Since posting this Qidi have updated their slicer to remove the first layer volume temperature setting, but still keep the M141 S0 in the custom Gcode. This means my old setting no longer works, but M141 [volume_temperature] works 😀
Why would they turn of chamber heater when a print starts? Makes no sense
@@juliusvalentinasThey are probably concerned about the total power consumption. IIRC the bed and chamber heater are powered by the DC power supply.
Excellent video, thanks for making this! I've been eyeing this printer for a while now, and now I'm sure this will be the next machine in my 'shop!
I really appreciated your critical discussion of the issues you found in printing stuff that you intend to use. Whether you print a benchy in 30minutes or 90minutes is interesting but not real use. As someone who has only printed in PLA your advice based on your own experience of branching out into ABS for the first time was really informative and encouraging. Thank you for an excellent overview of the x-plus 3: it was very helpful.
Excellent review, this printer seems like an excellent value for the performance!
So tempted to get a new printer. my CR10s4 is showing its age for sure!
Open the top for pla or petg and for ABS I use a good filtration/ventilation system not as bad as resin but, really not good for you. ABS is so nice you can smooth with acetone and make a goop by mixing acetone and scrap supports for gluing, smoothing, strengthening etc. it's also light weight. It's my favorite material beside tpu.
This is the first video i've seen of yours and I sub'ed! I had't really heard of this brand, but looking at customer reviews, and what you get for the money (build volume, with a contained chamber), this is the best value, but also seems high quality. I really want one :D Might have to convince my wife on an early Christmas present lol
i can not stand outside look of that printer
In-depth review. Thanks.
It would be interesting to see you compare the Qidi to the Creality K1 Max. The latter is a little more expensive, but it's also a little bit bigger, and boasts the same sort of speeds as the Qidi. I'm glad the ABS worked out well for you. I think most people avoid it because of the stench/fumes/VOCs more than anything else. The results you got were really clean, though. Resin probably still has the best, cleanest detail, but FDM is closing in. Personally, I'd rather use FDM than deal with the mess of resin, even though it means more finishing work after the print. Nice review of the Qidi machine. I enjoyed listening to you talk about the ups and downs, and your overall opinion in the end.
I would be interested in that as well. Going between which one is better.
Really good video lady, really like the prints and the advice on printing. Looking forward to the next video :)
Nice review. I have a bambu P1P which is about $50 more. And the user experience based on what you described is night and day where the P1 works out of the box and requires very little to get to optimal printing results for me. Would love to see you get a P1P and do a side by side.
Anything next to Bambu Lab right now comes in second 🤷
Not really the qidi x max 3 has an actively heated chamber
@@Mikehatespigs 🤣😂🤣🤷♂️on paper the bambu lab x1 carbon wins hands down
@@individualone for pla only
Then again after careful consideration, the Prusa XL tool changer comes really close
Here I am still running a 2nd gen Qidi X-One.
This sounds like a possible upgrade for it. I have other bigger printers too, but have been holding onto the X-One for nostalgia mostly at this point.
@theInfiniteEgg-z8i this printer has auto leveling...
So glad I found your channel
YOU are a true Craftsman or actually a true craftswoman. most of us are just tool collectors and i hope one day i will be to. thanks for you content
Added to my Amazon wish list, plentry of room for some projects I have set aside. Maybe this winter I will move it to the cart. and press buy... Love that it runs klipper, already using it on current printer.
You could put some clips around the edges of the flex plate, I used to have that happen with creality build plates so ditched them.
*The rear spool is not a problem for me since I went to Home-Depot and bought a ball-bearing turn-table and now it spins around with just a nudge.*
Great review. Think I’m going to look into this one for my farm.
An amazing review. Best ever, and l have seen a lot. Gonna get one!
I'm really not a fan of Qidi machines. I bought their I-Box mono printer from them a little while back only for them to discontinue it without warning. Now paint is flaking off the vat and I can't get the parts needed to repair it. Their designs are innovative but seem to lack durability and long term support. I've definitely learned my lesson about trusting reviews on a product without first seeing its long term reliability, which is where most of the showstopper problems you may encounter start to pop up
Aw man, that sucks! It almost looks like they’ve decided to step back from SLA printers and focus on FDM. There’s hardly anything listed about their past resin printers but lots about multiple generations of past FDM machines including spare parts available.
In general I find that SLA printers are pretty notorious for discontinued parts as the various companies are constantly pumping out newer versions of the machines and stopping production of older models and their components.
@@MMsPropShop Yeah. It's very unfortunate since more expensive Resin printers are especially difficult to sell, so they end up becoming e-waste or a donation once you can't get spare parts anymore
Their light curing machines are indeed on clearance. But I saw the I-Box email address on their website, so maybe you can approach them for the parts you need, and I'm sure they'll help you out as much as they can.
The quality of these abs prints is insane
I got the X-Max 3 and I am very happy with it. My main reasons to choose the Qidi and not a Bambu P1S nor a Creality K1 were:
- extremly solid robust hardware. The weight speaks for itself.
- activly heated chamber
- open source klipper, as I like to tinker on the printer myself
Imho the printer has two flaws: No auto-z calibration (no big deal as an advanced user) and you have to pull the filament on unload, else it might be tangled inside the extruder (happend actually on my very first unload). Still no big deal, but this prevents using an ERCF for automatic filament change with the stock hotend.
For perfect filament tip on unload there are two approaches:
a) ramping profiles and integrated nozzle/heatbreak combos (Revo, TUN, Nextruder)
b) cut&poo, as the SMuFF project uses and was copied by bambulab
With a high flow hotend a) is nearly impossible, this is the reason bambulab has chossen method b). While the Rev. 1 of the X-3 series had a manual filament cutter inside the hotend, the actual Rev 2 does not have it.
So I had to modify the hotend...
I replaced the hotend by a revo voron. As the qidi uses a thermocouple and revo a thermistor, I had to add a 3th mcu (I used an old creality board). With a Revo High Flow nozzle I get about the same volumetric flow as with the original hotend (but still bad filament tip / failiures on unload). However, with a Revo Standard Nozzle I get a nearly perfect filament tip (I have not even adjusted ramping yet). And of course, with an ObXidian I can print abrasive materials. Another advantage: All Revo nozzles are very precise manufactured to the same lenght. So I do not even need to re calibrate the z-offset after nozzle change.
I did not add an ERFC yet, but did some manual colour changes - it worked well with the Revo Standard and ObXidian.
Actually my first prints on the modified were the parts for my Prusa mk4 upgrade - printed on the Qidi, with a Creality board as 3th MCU, with Bambulab mint ABS for the Prusa. Any major brand missing?
Thank you for listing the mods you did. I was considering swapping the hotend myself, but then came across the Diamondback nozzles. Sadly they don't offer a matching length for the Qidi's, but I got around that by buying the Volcano length and cutting the threads back by 2mm, and now it's a perfect length.
The Diamondback allows for about +10% flow using the stock hotend. I had some issues dialing it in, but then found a video on UA-cam where the nozzles were put under a microscope. It turned out that the 0.4mm nozzles were actually 0.46mm in diameter. I updated the slicer with that value and everything came out perfect then. There's now no need for me to change the nozzle pretty much ever.
I just find it interesting tye different solutions out there. Hopefully Qidi can learn from these minor quibbles and keep improving.
@@stew675 I thought about a Tungsten Carbide nozzle first. However, my main issue was bad filament tip on unload. This is solved with a Revo standard nozzle. So I could add an Enraged Rabit Carot Feeder. Still for single colour I can print fast with the RevoHF.
Also since I started using Revo nozzles I much more often swap nozzle size.
But of course the main reason for changing hotend was just the fun trying it;-)
I’m not sure if anybody else has said this but try increasing your retraction slightly until your stringing goes away. Seems to happen when you have pieces where it needs to retract and move then print.
I'm here for RJ83! That will be one of my 1st prints when I buy a printer. I want to mechanize it in the future. I'm still looking for a good beginner friendly corexy printer. The P1S Combo is top of my list.
Droid Division also has an excellent L0-LA droid that’s a great beginner print project. I believe there is a version of the file that’s prepped for adding animatronics as well.
@MMsPropShop Reason why I want to print out an RJ is because I animated him in some YJA episodes. 😉
@dyops oh that’s awesome!
Subscribed for the lothcat ❤️❤️❤️❤️
Awesome.
Wow. It's enormous!
PS - I too had never printed a benchy until recently when I printed the one that came on a X1C and broke my streak.
Well, it's an inch bigger each way if it's really 285x285. Not much.
I always hated messing about with bits of paper, even on my FLSUN that only needed it once per level, like the Qidi.
@NickBR57 it never seems like it’s that much larger but it ends up being the difference between fitting a full helmet on the build plate or not.
@@MMsPropShop fair enough!
This is great! Subscribed
Qidi X plus 3 Rocks.. best printer Ive ever owned !
Bambu labs privacy policy is scary
Which part? Please be specific, since I can honestly say I took the half hour to read through both the short form and the long form. So I'm curious which specific part scares you.
Love your videos ! Will you make a video on the max3?
I’m questioning between the 2 of them , on other review it seems the xplus is better than the max but could be more user error , you seems to have crack the code !
Yeah I can definitely look at doing a video like that! I’m hoping that it’s a very similar user experience between the two printers but I guess I’ll find out.
@@MMsPropShop then you got a new subscriber !
I turn the side fan off when printing PLA, the default 100% is far too much and lifts anything near it.
I have Prusa MK4 and Prusa Mini for my first printers and I love them both. Fast and reliable. Quality prints with zero issues if I sliced it right .. I know the popular opinion is Bambu Labs but I extremely happy with my Prusa’s.. Great video. I have never heard of this product.. Have to check it out..
sloooooow and steady
I think one very important detail that tends to be over looked when comparing printers to Bambu options is ease of high quality printing. Bambu tuned all of their settings so well that it takes little effort to reach what I will call "final production quality". The one thing I've come to really dislike about 3d printing was the never ending editing of print profiles to fix or improve quality issues. It's very time consuming and wasteful ($$$). The Bambu X1 has greatly minimized that to where I have yet to need more than 2 test prints to refine quality to where I wanted it.
What was the settings for printing ABS? What brand of filament did you use? What was the nozzle? What's up volcano type? Thanks for the great video
Life size chopper…. Woman after my own heart ❤ - we all need a little murderious droid
Thanks for the great video! Just snagged me one these Printers. I love the look of that black ABS. Would you mind sharing which brand it is?
It’s the Creality ABS. Definitely my favourite black that I’ve tried so far for ABS.
Awesome just ordered some! Looking forward to dialing in my settings to get that great look. Thanks again for sharing so much. @@MMsPropShop
Can you post your slicer config file or if you modified the klipper config, that as well?
Can you please post the links to the files for the droids and battle bot?
Wait, where can I find a life size Chopper? Been looking for one for a while now.
Mr. Baddeley has both animated and live action versions of fully working Chopper files: m.facebook.com/groups/MrBaddeley/?ref=share&mibextid=lOuIew
Hi I’ve watched some of your videos and I wanted to get into 3d printing. I wanted to know how I can get started into resin printing as a beginner and what should I start with?
I appreciate the info and the experience you shared. I'm on the fence between the Bambu Lab Carbon and the QIDI X-Plus 3. Any thoughts? I don't like seing a lot of texture on 3D prints which is why I'm wondering which of of the two would produce better smooth results for printed objects that may be exposed to some degree of heat.
It depends on what you plan on printing and what materials you want to make those prints out of. If you’re mostly looking at larger pieces and/or pieces made of more exotic filaments like ABS, nylon, etc. then a QIDI is your best option with the larger build volume and heated chamber.
Just wondering if I can do multicolor prints somehow with this printer. The Bambu printers have an add-on that allows this. How about the Qidi?
Great review! I’m deep into the Bambu ecosystem but I still enjoyed hearing your take and seeing what you could do with a large printer. Btw I think the brand name is pronounced “chee dee”.
If they wanted it pronounced 'chee-dee', they shouldn't have put a 'Q'.
@@Nortemokay, but language do that sometimes.
Love your channel and your star wars builds. Would you recommend the X-Plus 3 or the X-Max 3, live in Canada if that makes a difference to your recommendation.
Really the only difference between the two is build volume. Print quality, UI, features, etc are all the same. If you’re someone who is constantly printing large parts like a full scale helmet in one piece, then the x-max would be your best choice. If you want a great all around size printer and don’t feel you need the extra build volume, then go with the x-plus.
Hello,
Unrelated to the video but IG-11/12 update when? It looks incredible 😊
Where did you get the rubber joints for the arms? I have looked everywhere 😢
Basically as soon as I’m able to edit through all of the footage. I’m hoping to tackle it over the next couple of weeks.
The joint covers I printed in a flexible resin mixture. They work and look perfect.
would you share your ABS Settings ?
Hi Michaela, how are you? My name is David, and I'm 24 yo from Israel. Just wanted to let you know that on these tough times your videos give me a lot of inspiration and motivation. I have been doing some small scale statues over the last few months, and now I feel it's time for some life size projects, such as your Grievous which is one of my holy grails. I hope that when the war is over I will be able to make some props myself and share them with you and hear your feedback ❤🙏
Hi David! I’m so happy to hear you’ve been enjoying the videos. Wishing you the best of luck with your future prop projects!
I just got my 16-year-old autism son a 3-D printer. What should I start him with?
I have yet to have any print come off my bambu bed. After 8 months not a single one
Hi 😊
1. Neptune 4 (max) vs Kobra 2( max )?
2. How to calculate the amount of filament for a human-sized project? is there any pattern?
Personally the Neptune 4’s have always intrigued me more.
Most, if not all print slicers have the ability to calculate the material used. You would have to go through all of the pieces/print jobs and tally up the calculated estimated material usage.
An excellent review, you did a great job of showing issues and what you did to work through them. It seems like Qidi isn’t quite as polished and dialed in as BambuLab; things like the overcooling and rail lubrication seem like they should have been worked out by the company before shipping. The machine losing its place looks like too much cost-engineering, leaving out limit switches for slightly lower parts and assembly costs. The print head losing contact with the main board may just be a one-off cable problem, but you said others had experienced it as well.
Overall, my impression is the printer is a fantastic deal for someone like yourself who’s experienced and doesn’t mind putting in the time to figure out a product’s quirks, and who also needs to crank out a lot of large parts.
For me though, the Bambu X1C remains the almost-perfect solution. I went through a period years ago where the printer was my hobby, now I have way too many other things going on, so just need a “fire and forget” machine, which the X1C pretty much is for me. That’s why it’s my hands-down recommendation for anyone getting into 3D printing who can anywhere near afford the price. It’s pricey, but I think not for what you get, and the dozens of hours of troubleshooting and tinkering it’s saved me is worth it’s price many times over.
All that said, this was an excellent review, thanks for sharing such a thorough breakdown!
Would you reccomend this printer for someone new to 3d printers. I was to start making props from small to eventually lifesize
Hi there. Where can i order this machine? And how much is this? Thanks a bunch
compared to the Bambu lab?
want to upgrade from my old homey ender 3 ..... bambo X-1C will probably be my choice ... but asi i see bambu pushed other 3d printer makers to do something new ... will probably wait few more months.
Great vid. Just wondering how you have found this printer now after a few months of using it? Seriously looking at this unit but wondering what its reliability and consistency is ?
Still love it. It’s my most reliable printer. I’ve had it making me ABS droid parts the last couple of weeks pretty much 24/7. Once you’ve figured out your ideal settings for the material you’re using its press print and forget about it. The only maintenance is making sure the rods are well lubricated from time to time.
The only issue I’ve had with it since the video was caused by a tangled spool of filament that caused a piece to be permanently stuck in the hotend assembly, also messed up the extruder a bit as well. QIDI sent over a new hotend and extruder no problem. They really are leagues beyond every other major printer company in terms of customer service.
@@MMsPropShopthanks for your feedback. Great to hear about there customer service quality as well.
Really happy to hear this as i am pretty much sold on this machine for its asa abs plus engineer filament printing.
Good video. The audio is messed up though
Thanks for the review! It does feel to me a bit like you’re saying user error for things that are actually poor UX with the printer?
Hi, I just baught this printer because I'm planning to do a full Republic Commando Armor in ABS
Could you maybe share your settings for printing the clone helmet? I'm especially interested in the support settings and any other tips you might have for a beginner 😊
Very cool project! Here’s my slicer profile: drive.google.com/file/d/1YBSg4LpSCg5PDyewEZFgVety9DaS6zIW/view?usp=drivesdk
The one thing you’ll probably need to modify would be the temperature and fan settings to best suit the specific ABS filament you’re using. Some ABS will only print well with no fan on as opposed to the 30% that I believe it’s set at in that profile. You also might need to decrease the speed depending on the specific filament but I tend to just change the print speed percentage on the printer if I’m printing with a harder to handle ABS/piece. Especially in your case with printing armour as they’ll be a lot of thinner pieces that are more prone to delamination. Definitely use a decent sized brim on everything to avoid any possible lifting from the build plate.
@@MMsPropShop thank you very much!
I now just have problems with the supports, if I auto generate them, then the slicer fills the complete inside of the helmet and I'm too unexperienced to paint them manually 😅
I watched some videos of printing clone helmest and most of them only had supports on the outside and at the visor, so I suspect this should be enough. Also print time would be over 6 days 😅
Could you share some tipps with supports?
Would be much appreciated :D
@codyrex4382 typically I have them auto generate, then use the paint on support tool to erase the areas that don’t need the support. It’ll leave all of the other supports it generated but stop them from being added to the areas that you blocked out.
@@MMsPropShop Thank you so much for your help! :)
I just noticed in your settings you really toned down print speed. When I remove the support in the middle, the slicer tells me that the whole helmet still will take almost 2 days of print time. You said in your Captain Wnoch video that you printed and finished the helmet in 48 hours. Could I speed things up or would you not recommend this and keep the slow speed?
@codyrex4382 in the slicer preview you can see a breakdown of how much time each type of step is taking to see where time is being spent. It could simply just be due to the piece. Because Enoch printed in multiple pieces, there was very little time being spent on support material so it overall took less time than if it was to print as a single piece. The settings are definitely on the conservative side just because I wanted the prints to be successful but you should be able to speed things up. You might want to start with the slower speeds and then work your way up. Some ABS doesn’t like melting very fast so in that case slower speeds would be necessary. Time estimates also aren’t always 100% accurate so in reality it might take less time.
10 years printing and I have never printed a benchy as well 😁
Would you recommend this for direct print ready to wear earrings?
It depends a bit on the type of earrings you’d be
printing. You might be better off looking at a resin printer.
Now, how does this printer compare with your Bambo A1?
They’re in completely different classes so it’s not really a fair fight, haha! My QIDI printers are still my go to machines - I print most of my projects in ABS and they can print it better than many printers can print PLA.
A1 is great for PLA/PETG and the more fun, aesthetic prints that you’d typically be making with those filaments, but it’s not about to replace my X-Plus 3.
Hi Michaela, I loved the battle droid head you show in your video, followed your link to purchase and realised it was for a full battle droid, does the model come with the base you had in your video or is this from somewhere else or did you model it yourself? Great review of the printer, thanks.
Yes, the full battle droid comes with the head base. There’s a bunch of awesome freebie files as part of that battle droid download as well like the B1 version of the pit droid sign I printed.
I never understand why printers need you to do the card thing if they jave bed leveling. Bed leveling implies i knows where the bed is (pressumably a sensor) so why cant it just set the height accordingly?
Probes/sensors can be installed with slight variances and when your dealing with something where fractions of millimeters can be the difference between a successful print and a failure, it’s still a good idea to manually check the z offset. The nozzle itself could vary ever so slightly as well.
I’ve never tried ABS. It looks amazing. Did you do anything to filter the air due to the whole toxic ABS air issue?
I have an air purifier running right beside the printer at all times and I typically am not in the room when it’s actively printing.
Never printed a benchy?! Whaaaaaattttt!!! :)
I do input shaping all the time. I just look like I'm doing nothing
I want to get a 3d printer, but I'm clueless about what or which is good to start and why? I would like to print dragons for my 8-year-old and astro boy for the 7 yr old. Can anybody give some advice?
Thank you.
There’s unfortunately no perfect answer to this question. For years the top suggestion would have been some version of a Creality Ender 3 printer - still a very good and popular printer today. It has the benefit of a large online community with years of information for just about any question you might have about the machine. Lately it’s been all about the ultra fast printers like this one and the Bambulab machines. It’s also going to depend on how much you want to invest into this hobby right away, especially if you’re unsure how much use you’ll get out of the machine in the long run past your initial project plans.
@MMsPropShop thank you. I'll keep an eye out to see if later on, they might have some specials during the holidays.
@mauriciohenao6590 yeah, Black Friday tends to be one of the best times to pick up a 3D printer. Especially if it’s last year’s version of a machine/just not the most current model.
@@MMsPropShop By any chance did you ever tried the CR 10? do you know how much better would be the Ender 3? because it looks in general very similar to me and I had a terrible experience with CR-10... being it new it came with some problems... the "pre-montage" was lazy to a point I was forced to readjust mostly every bolt in it... the extruder gave lots of problems etc...
@BioClone my very first printer was a CR-10. It depends on the model of CR-10/Ender 3 but they tend to run off of similar features, the CR models are just larger machines. Many of the old problems have been fixed with newer models of the printers. It’s definitely not worth buying an original Ender 3 printer today. The newer models that are a few dollars more end up having multiple hundreds of dollars worth of upgrades on them as well as new and refined features.
Got my X-Plus 3 this week. Any recommendations on lube for the rails?
I’ve used the 3-in-1 multipurpose oil and Suber Lube synthetic grease on mine. Both work but the oil seems to wear off faster (probably because it’s much thinner) so I’ve been sticking to the grease.
@@MMsPropShop thank you very much, ordering some now. Also relocating that spool mount.
Madam I am new to 3d printing however i am a software developer
i read the manual and followed all instruction
the first print was also from the manufacturer sd card
I also had all sensors switched on as instructed
all test prints failed
i am now being put through the motions of a defective or second hand printer
what constitutes brand new should mean or be plug and play.
when you have to change this and do this and do that flaws everything about being new
I bet Using that heated chamber and lower fan speed would've stopped the contraction you experienced with the long pieces
So is this the actual best? Or is the Anycube Kobra 2 Max that you also did a review on and were very impressed with?
The best printer will be different for every person. For me my most used machines right now are my QIDI printers. I’m typically wanting to print pieces in ABS and they handle it better than many printers can print PLA.
The Kobra 2 is indispensable when it comes to needing to print large pieces though. It’s the only printer in my workshop that can handle certain projects.
Okay perfect! So both!! Question - you have helped so much in the past, I know you don't remember, but I recently printed a bust. I thought I had bumped the frame while it was printing, and yes, the print ended up shifting about 3mm to one side, being it had printed so much I let it go, this happened about 12mm away from the neck. The bust finished, but then I noticed that it didn't print a layer all the way around in one spot, so while i was cleaning it up, the head came off :). That I can fix. But what do you recommend on the shifted part? Cut
and glue? I do not know. I would love to send you pics, wish I had your email, no funny stuff, I would send, or I could send them from my phone to you. But your help is appreciated.
@rickerickson7072 oh no! That’s super unfortunate. For layer shifts it normally depends on how well attached to the rest of the model it is. Sometimes the shifted part will quite easily break off and in that case it’s a lot better to remove it and glue it so that the model is strong, but if it’s really stuck together then it’ll probably be better to just leave it and sand/cut off any edges hanging off and fill in the gap on the other side.
Also, my email is info@studioofmm.com
I have one. It's more than amazing.. It's so fast I thought that it was going to destroy itself. Unbelievable. Nothing comes close. 🙏😎
All of the Bambu Labs??
@@1tokeover the qidi max X3 ..awesome machine. Great customer service. Even answer emails on weekend. Bril 👍
I am in doubt between these printers, the Creality K1 or the Flashforge 5m Pro o Qidi x Plus 3, which one would you recommend? Thank you.
Great review! I need that b1 badly. I think your link for it is broken.
It seems to be working for me but here it is: www.etsy.com/ca/listing/804696082/spacebobs-battle-droid-inspired?click_key=2563c2ccfed9f4663f643cf451e21166bd7fd76f%3A804696082&click_sum=f5e61700&ref=shop_home_recs_1&crt=1&sts=1
It is the full B1 droid, the head can be made separately with the display base.
I love it when reviewers say they are not being paid for the review. Let be real, The system they sent you is the payment they just hope you'll be on the positive side because they wont hesitate to send you the next model. That aside great review the larger build plate is a plus over the Bambu Lab offering but we all know that's just around the corner next year. I see this has no AMS so a 3rd party product is needed to to multi color printing. All in all this seems to be a solid choice for $649.00
There is a big difference between being sent a product for free to do what you want with it, and a specific video that is being separately paid for, which why I wanted to clarify. I get how it can sound ridiculous when it gets condensed down to a single line or two in a video.
It would be great to see Bambulab come out with a larger machine! As this is being used as a prop building printer, I have no interest in an AMS. Pretty much everyone I know that has a Bambulab printer doesn’t have or use the AMS regularly either so it’s not as big of a selling point as with other types of makers.
@@MMsPropShop a review for a machine that you didn't pay yourself and are clearly staying on the positive side to keep a good relationship with the manufacturer is not really a review but rather an unboxing and "first look" imo.
@rkatz69 overall I had a positive experience using the machine, that’s why it’s a positive video. I’m not going to drag and complain about a product for no reason just to appear more “legitimate”. I have since purchased an additional QIDI printer with my own money. Couldn’t care less about the state of any brand relationships. My content has never nor will ever be solely focused on new printers, etc. I’m obviously super grateful that I can look at accepting opportunities like this but my channel doesn’t rely on sucking up to companies to stay relevant.
@@MMsPropShop I'm sorry I brought but it up it was just on my mind. it was a wonderful review. BTW did you see Uncle Jessey door smash (classic)
@MrDonXX you have absolutely nothing to apologize for! I always want things to be transparent.
I don’t believe I have seen that.
I've been really enjoying the quality of your videos. It's rare that a channel on propmaking still manages to teach new things in interesting ways!
I have a show I'd love to invite you to guest on. Whats the best way to contact you?
Here’s my email: info@studioofmm.com
Never printed with ABS. Ive herd fumes can be an issue. Is there any ventalation or issues
It does have a stronger scent when printing compared to other filament types but I personally wasn’t bothered by it. I’m sure the scent could vary depending on filament brand. The printer itself has an activated carbon filter as part of the chamber circulation fan which could possibly cut down on the smell a bit as well. Running an air purifier close to the machine printing ABS might completely eliminate any smell.
Now that you've been living with this bad boy for a few months would you recommend it as a first printer? I'm torn between this and a P1P or P1S. Thanks in advance!
P1S is P1P thats enclosed u can always enclose the P1p as well because u can 3d print the sides or buy them off the store. so it really depends on what u are wanting to print.
In terms of ease, print quality, etc. then yes, I think this would be an excellent first printer. The QIDI customer service is also on a completely other level compared to every other major printer company I’ve dealt with. They really go above and beyond with their support whereas you’ll sometimes be lucky to even get a response from others.
That being said, this is a printer that could technically be considered as a bit overkill for a beginner just because of its range in abilities. Typically a beginner would be sticking to printing in PLA pretty exclusively which can be done with great success on any decently reviewed printer on the market. Every company now is coming out with ultrafast printers with almost identical tech specs to the P1P/S, and similar at a fraction of the price, which in my opinion make them much more reasonable machines for a beginner to consider.
What did you use to lubricate x as y axis?
Just some synthetic grease.
@@MMsPropShop Well if some sort of grease will not work for ordinary printer, sure enough for 3D printer the same is true. So even if you used not special linear rail lubricant better reconsider.
What I see is every company compares them selves to bambu labs witch tells me bambu is far ahead of everybody else tring to out do bambu with build volume
You lost me at placing the sheet under the nozzle for the friction test to set the z offset.
It looks like it is probing the surface with the nozzle itself...if thats the case, i see no reason as to why setting the z offset would rely on something as subjective as the "friction test".
If you don't need an AMS, X-Plus 3 > P1S because: Stock klipper, heated chamber, reinforced hollow steel rods instead of carbon rods, superior customer service.
I was hoping for a 3d printer raffle 🙂
I have the X1C for about 10 months now and there's a lot of features the X1C offers that you didn't cover. One is the flow calibration two is the multicolor UP TO 16 Colors, 3rd the filament sensor and 4th the spaghetti sensor that you have not mentioned. The filament ran out sensor and spaghetti sensor had saved my prints multiple times where it paused for 7 hours. I refilled the filament and it continued where it stopped when on a riprap printer would become a nightmare to continue the print, glue, fill and sand to make the large print more pleasing to the eye... Don't get me wrong, the X1C has some minor annoyances, but it seems that every other 3D printer manufacturer is playing catch up with the BambuLab.
Lol wth, 4:46 the spot for Japanese says YAMATO (supposed to be 日本語) XD
Uur awesome.
Why does it matter how fast a figurine is printed?
No auto Z in this day and age is ridiculous
Till I heard that it dies not auto calibrate the Z level, it was an option. So I will choose the Bambu every day of the week before this printer. Its a pity they did not fixed that on a otherwise nice machine
Roger roger.
❤
I liked the video but 50% of the video could have been different if you actually print some smaller files and calibrate your material first ghehe.
Would also recommend to get away from using grid infill for taller prints. Sure it'll take longer with others but your success rate will go up by a lot.