Flashforge Hunter

[bigseb]

This has really piqued my interest. The new Flashforge Hunter. A DLP resin printer that costs $3000 - $3500 (tbc) and allows for 3rd party resins. Go Flashforge! Check it out here. FF are making some cracking stuff at the moment and I think their approach to usability of 3rd party materials is a breath of fresh air in an industry where more and more companies want everything locked down. Looks good too.

 

[MikeHenry]

I just received a Wanhao D7 DLP printer ($700 delivered), which also uses 3rd party resins. Haven't had a chance to try it yet, but web reports that printers in recent shipments have some problems. Uniz Slash is also supposed to be releasing a small DLP that prints very fast and the Moai SLA printer on Kickstarter is $1,000, with delivery in June 2017. These are interesting times to live in.

 

[bigseb]

I have seen the review of the Moai. Not bad at all. My only gripe would be that Flashforge are an established company with a history fo good products and support whereas Moai are newcomers. But thats about it.

I'll be honest and say that DLP/SLA has not quite won me over yet. Its a messy wasteful process. If I were to buy another printer it be either the Up Box or Up Mini 2. Close second would be Zortrax.

 

[MikeHenry]

I'll be honest and say that DLP/SLA has quite won me over yet. Its a messy wasteful process. If I were to buy another printer it be either the Up Box or Up Mini 2. Close second would be Zortrax.

I'll find out soon enough for myself on the waste and mess but from most reports you are probably right. Heaven help you if you knock over an open 1-L bottle of resin and it dribbles onto a carpet.

If you go with a Zortrax, check out Z-temp.com - they sell accessories that make it possible to use 3rd party filaments, like PLA, PLA+PHA, flexible filaments, and some of the exotics with brass or carbon additives. There is also a hard-to-find freeware application that converts G-code to Z-code so that you can use Cura for slicing instead of Zortrax's proprietary slicer.

I have seen the review of the Moai. Not bad at all. My only gripe would be that Flashforge are an established company with a history fo good products and support whereas Moai are newcomers. But thats about it.

I agree that Flashforge is the safer choice, especially if you have the $3k+ budget for one. For me it's a hobby and I need something to make parts that are just a little too small to FDM print and just a little too fiddly to machine. Please post a user report if you get the Flashforge Hunter.

 

[bigseb]

I'll be honest and say that DLP/SLA has quite won me over yet. Its a messy wasteful process. If I were to buy another printer it be either the Up Box or Up Mini 2. Close second would be Zortrax.

I'll find out soon enough for myself on the waste and mess but from most reports you are probably right. Heaven help you if you knock over an open 1-L bottle of resin and it dribbles onto a carpet.

If you go with a Zortrax, check out Z-temp.com - they sell accessories that make it possible to use 3rd party filaments, like PLA, PLA+PHA, flexible filaments, and some of the exotics with brass or carbon additives. There is also a hard-to-find freeware application that converts G-code to Z-code so that you can use Cura for slicing instead of Zortrax's proprietary slicer.

I have seen the review of the Moai. Not bad at all. My only gripe would be that Flashforge are an established company with a history fo good products and support whereas Moai are newcomers. But thats about it.

I agree that Flashforge is the safer choice, especially if you have the $3k+ budget for one. For me it's a hobby and I need something to make parts that are just a little too small to FDM print and just a little too fiddly to machine. Please post a user report if you get the Flashforge Hunter.

I won't get the Hunter, at least not any time soon. While the quality is amazing it is really too much hassle and expense. The resin isn't cheap, in fact it is far more expensive than filament. The vats have a finite lifespan too. And of course the almost all prints need support that require extra cleanup and leave marks. If this type of printing is needed at some point then how about this: the Carbon M1? Nice piece of kit!

Worth pointing out that Flashforge have their own slicer (not sure if you were aware of that). Its called Flashprint and it is very good. Easily the best of the free slicers and while it doesn't have the options of S3D the print quality is the same. I have been doing some A-B comparisons with S3Ders and Flashprint is right up there. Anyway Flashprint is for all FF printers, including the Hunter, which is interesting... FDM and DLP in one package.

 

[MikeHenry]

Worth pointing out that Flashforge have their own slicer (not sure if you were aware of that). Its called Flashprint and it is very good. Easily the best of the free slicers and while it doesn't have the options of S3D the print quality is the same. I have been doing some A-B comparisons with S3Ders and Flashprint is right up there. Anyway Flashprint is for all FF printers, including the Hunter, which is interesting... FDM and DLP in one package.

No I wasn't aware of Flashprint - thanks for pointing it out. It looks like Hunter and the D7 share the same work envelope so maybe Flashprint will work for the D7.

 

[bigseb]

Worth pointing out that Flashforge have their own slicer (not sure if you were aware of that). Its called Flashprint and it is very good. Easily the best of the free slicers and while it doesn't have the options of S3D the print quality is the same. I have been doing some A-B comparisons with S3Ders and Flashprint is right up there. Anyway Flashprint is for all FF printers, including the Hunter, which is interesting... FDM and DLP in one package.

No I wasn't aware of Flashprint - thanks for pointing it out. It looks like Hunter and the D7 share the same work envelope so maybe Flashprint will work for the D7.

To my knowledge all FFs work using the x3g format and Flashprint can only output this format. It is dedicated FF software.

It has some nice features though. For example you can import jpg, bitmaps, etc and create heightfields in several shapes like cylinder, cone, plate, seal, lamp, etc. It also allows you to cut a model into smaller pieces. Always handy if you don't have CAD software to do this.

 

[MikeHenry]

Hi Seb,

If you are still considering a Zortrax, they are on sale for the next 5 days or so, 20 % off + free shipping. They've also released a new slicer today that lets you use non-Zortrax filaments but I haven't tried that yet. Here's the link for the sale page:

https://store.zortrax.com/3d-printers?u ... c47a1254ce

 

[bigseb]

Yes I am, just not at such short notice

 

[MikeHenry]

Too bad. They've been having sales every few months lately so I'll try to post here when they have the next one.

 

[bigseb]

The Zortrax system is very appealing. Definitely one of the better systems out there along with Up, Ultimaker 3 and Leapfrog.

That said, my FFCX is very capable and delivers top quality. Even after 2500 print hours...

 

[MikeHenry]

That does look really good - what layer height and material is it?

ABS usually comes out best, so far as surface finish goes, but it tends to warp on footprints larger than about 10x10 cm and bottom finish could use some improvement. I've been using PLA+PHA for larger parts lately and that usually turns out pretty well. Zortrax's latest firmware update lets me see total print time and I was surprised to see that I'm nearly up to 2200 hours.

 

[bigseb]

That does look really good - what layer height and material is it?

Thanks. I am using Filaprint Premium PLA. Layer height is 0.16mm. The one in the picture is done using removable supports i.e. one material for supports and part. Both Simplify 3D and Flashprint do this very well. Next I'll try some dissolvable supports with PVA.

ABS usually comes out best, so far as surface finish goes, but it tends to warp on footprints larger than about 10x10 cm and bottom finish could use some improvement

Personally I always preferred ABS. It looks and feels much better. But yeah, it can be tricky to work with and ever since moved for South Africa to the UK I have been struggling to control the print conditions. SA has a very dry and warm climate, perfect for ABS. I have been playing with PLA for about a year now and its growing on me.

 

[GDBranch]

A PLA you might want to try is RAPTOR from Maker Geeks. I was suspicious at first of their claims but it is so inexpensive I
gave it a shot. I designed a part that is used in an environmental test chamber with quick and constant temperature changes.
Very easy to print with accurate repeatable results. My customer bought an inexpensive printer just to make these parts and produces
them by the hundreds with excellent results. The parts need to go through what Maker Geeks calls annealing. The parts are
exposed to 100c for 10 minutes. I have the customer dipping the parts in a container of boiling water.
I ordered a couple rolls for personal use this week and found a new video about the material you might find interesting.
http://www.makergeeks.com/rasepla.html
My only complaint is that technical data is nonexistent on their website and I can't find a telephone number to speak to someone
directly.
Gary

 

[bigseb]

I may try them at some point. Currently the Filaprint PLA costs £22/kg incl. VAT so that a pretty good price. If I do splash out more expensive stuff Polymaker have some good filaments. I have tried both PolyPlus and PolyMax and they were very good.

 

[MikeHenry]

I may try them at some point. Currently the Filaprint PLA costs £22/kg incl. VAT so that a pretty good price. If I do splash out more expensive stuff Polymaker have some good filaments. I have tried both PolyPlus and PolyMax and they were very good.

Have you looked into their Polysher hardware for making smooth surfaces? Maybe that's not important to your work though.

 

[bigseb]

I have some Polysmooth. No real use for it though. I very seldom print trinkets.

 

[MikeHenry]

Yeah, I figured that your use was more for engineering-type parts. Mine is too, in a loose sense, but I was curious to see how the Polysher fared compared to ABS smoothing. Looks like FedEx will deliver that today.

 

[bigseb]

Cool. Post before and after pics!