Curious about opinions on XYZprinting machines?

[OTE_TheMissile]

For the past handful of years here at work, we've been using an XYZ da Vinci 1.0A to rapid prototype oddball machined parts being developed for new products so our shop "old guy" doesn't have to spend a whole day trying to whittle them out on our manual vertical mills. Management picked this particular model out, specifically because it was cheap (I think they told me they paid $400 for it?), and while it's far from fancy, it's served the company well.

We're actually on our second one, the first one made successful prints straight out of the box - literally set it on my desk, removed the shipping fixtures, plugged it in, installed a cart of filament, and ran a sample print - and worked great for 2-3 years until something went haywire and it refused to power the heating element in the nozzle. After chatting with support the issue was tracked down to the printer's motherboard which would've required shipping it back for service, which would've cost more than the printer itself so that one got sacked and Management turned around & bought the one I have now. This one did need to have the print bed leveled before I could get it working and the X-axis had a sticky spot in the middle, but after spending an afternoon on the bed and running the printer with the screws for one of the X-axis rails cracked loose (thinking it might be very, very slightly bent), it's worked flawlessly and I haven't had to touch anything on it since. Failed prints are few and far between, and 99% of the time can usually be blamed on operator (me) error.

Like I said, it's not fancy; very few user-serviceable parts, included software is basic and offers what I imagine are the bare essentials to operate a 3D printer, not a lot of snazzy materials to choose from (we've always used ABS. Flexible filament was attempted to make what would become a molded rubber part but I couldn't get it to properly feed through the nozzle), but considering we only need this thing to replace making machined prototypes and NOBODY here including myself has ANY prior experience using a 3D printer before, it's been a good experience. If anything, I wish Management would've bumped for the da Vinci 2.0 dual-filament model so I could use the water-soluble support material filament instead of having to sit down and chip it off myself with my knife. But, it gives me an excuse to sit at my desk and putter for 10-15min so I don't complain too much.

Reason I'm making this thread is none of you guys ever seem to mention XYZ whenever I pop my head into this part of the forum. The things are dirt cheap, maybe not perfect build quality but plenty good enough for what they cost, and by my standards fairly idiot proof. I'm just curious about why they never seem to come up in conversation. I like it, but I literally know nothing else besides it, so maybe (probably) some of our more "3D printer enthusiast" members know something I don't?

 

[avongil]

It is a proprietary machine in every respect. This is why no one talks about them. If it gets the job done then great. They are dirt cheap because they are giving them away at that price. They make up their money on the consumables.

If you want to get more out of 3D printing go for an open source machine. The general rule in 2020 is, if you don't want to fuss with the printer and have it work out of the box - Prusa i3 - 1K pre-built. You get a 3d printed 3d printer that is just about perfect. You are free to uses whatever material you want. If you buy theirs, the settings are pre-done and their materials by far the best I have ever seen. The build tray is also amazing.

for 200 bucks, you can buy an Ender3 and suffer quite a bit getting it to print reliably. When you do figure it out, it does work rather well though even for its crudity.

Most people will use the Cura Slicer or the Prusa slicer. These are both excellent and amazing products.

Non-proprietary is important to me. I find using a variety of materials and infill techniques really awesome.

if you want to see what you are missing by playing around with settings and materials, I highly recommend CNC Kitchen channel on you tube.

 

[Crash1211]

I had a Da Vinci Pro 1.0 for 6 years. It was my first 3D printer. It did a ok job. It never did print super great like the ones now, but printers and firmware for them have gotten so much better. I liked that you didn't have to use the chipped filament on it, and that it was enclosed and could print ABS without warping. Almost the only thing I used to print back then. I didn't like that there weren't many user serviceable parts., and I didn't like the slicer at all in fact I had to go to Simplify 3D to get it to print better . You couldn't use Cura with it back then. I have heard that the slicer got better. I ended up building my next 2 printers, and last year decided to sell the Da Vinci to someone for cheap, because I just didn't use it much anymore, and it was taking up space. I do miss the enclosure.