The Geeetech Has Landed

[bigseb]

My Geeetech A30T has arrived. A lot sooner than expected. Not complaining, just saying . I ordered it on Saturday morning and it arrived on Tuesday around noon. This is pretty amazing since all businesses are shut in Germany on a Sunday. And Monday too since it was a public holiday.



Assembly was pretty simple as these type of printers are common these days.

 

[bigseb]

I expect to do a full review once I've finished playing but here are some basic specs:

- 320 x 320 x 420 build volume
- 3-in 1-out extruder with mixing nozzle
- 0.4mm nozzle plus 2x spares
- filament run-out detection
- 4.3" touch screen
- 32-bit board
- silent stepper drivers (as in properly silent)
- optical endstops for X and Z
- dual steppers AND dual endstops for Z (nice touch, that)

Not without its little niggles but honestly nothing that impedes its performance:
- would've liked silent cooling fans along with the silent steppers drivers, kinda makes sense, you know?
- the build surface is too good. Yeah, you read that right
- the filament included with the printer (see photo) is very little
- the manual could've been a lot more detailed. Not an issue for me but a beginner might struggle to get it running
- the filament is difficult to load when the spools are mounted (or my hands are too big, take your pick)
- cable management (outside the case, not inside) is untidy
- The cooling fan shroud is 3D printed. WTF?! This was a thing 8 years ago but now? Everything else is either sheet metal or injection moulded. Works great though so...

Overall this feels like a solid and well-put-together printer with very neatly made parts. I ordered it straight from the Geeetech site in China along with three 1kg spools of filament. All in €413 including shipping. Bargain.

 

[bigseb]

Here is the first (and so far only) print I've done. I need to stress that ABSOLUTELY NO SETTING OR CALIBRATION HAD BEEN DONE for this print. This is the out-of-the-box printer and and bog standard Cura profile supplied by Geeetech. I DID NOT calibrate the extruders, set acceleration or jerk, NOTHING.



It isn't a perfect print but for a first attempt at a new machine without any calibration this pretty darn good. I DID level the bed but that hardly counts as in-depth setting. A little bit of colour bleed near the X and Y (upping the purge should fix that) and acceleration and jerk settings should fix the 'hard' corners. There was a bit of stringing but dropping the temperature and moving the print closer to the purge tower should fix that. I'm well pleased with this.

The model was created in Alibre and measures 50mm³.
Wall, floor and ceiling thickness: 0.8mm
Infill: 15%
Nozzle temp: 195°C
Speed 60mm/s
Material: Geeetech PLA in black, grey and red.

 

[jfnewman]

I expect to do a full review once I've finished playing but here are some basic specs:

- 320 x 320 x 420 build volume
- 3-in 1-out extruder with mixing nozzle
- 0.4mm nozzle plus 2x spares
- filament run-out detection
- 4.3" touch screen
- 32-bit board
- silent stepper drivers (as in properly silent)
- optical endstops for X and Z
- dual steppers AND dual endstops for Z (nice touch, that)

Not without its little niggles but honestly nothing that impedes its performance:
- would've liked silent cooling fans along with the silent steppers drivers, kinda makes sense, you know?
- the build surface is too good. Yeah, you read that right
- the filament included with the printer (see photo) is very little
- the manual could've been a lot more detailed. Not an issue for me but a beginner might struggle to get it running
- the filament is difficult to load when the spools are mounted (or my hands are too big, take your pick)
- cable management (outside the case, not inside) is untidy
- The cooling fan shroud is 3D printed. WTF?! This was a thing 8 years ago but now? Everything else is either sheet metal or injection moulded. Works great though so...

Overall this feels like a solid and well-put-together printer with very neatly made parts. I ordered it straight from the Geeetech site in China along with three 1kg spools of filament. All in €413 including shipping. Bargain.

I have been looking into multi-nozzle but the prices are sky high but this one is a little more than my CR-6SE

 

[jfnewman]

I expect to do a full review once I've finished playing but here are some basic specs:

- 320 x 320 x 420 build volume
- 3-in 1-out extruder with mixing nozzle
- 0.4mm nozzle plus 2x spares
- filament run-out detection
- 4.3" touch screen
- 32-bit board
- silent stepper drivers (as in properly silent)
- optical endstops for X and Z
- dual steppers AND dual endstops for Z (nice touch, that)

Not without its little niggles but honestly nothing that impedes its performance:
- would've liked silent cooling fans along with the silent steppers drivers, kinda makes sense, you know?
- the build surface is too good. Yeah, you read that right
- the filament included with the printer (see photo) is very little
- the manual could've been a lot more detailed. Not an issue for me but a beginner might struggle to get it running
- the filament is difficult to load when the spools are mounted (or my hands are too big, take your pick)
- cable management (outside the case, not inside) is untidy
- The cooling fan shroud is 3D printed. WTF?! This was a thing 8 years ago but now? Everything else is either sheet metal or injection moulded. Works great though so...

Overall this feels like a solid and well-put-together printer with very neatly made parts. I ordered it straight from the Geeetech site in China along with three 1kg spools of filament. All in €413 including shipping. Bargain.

Auto leveling?

 

[bigseb]

Auto leveling?

Geeetech A30T



It has the bracket for a BL Touch already on the hotend housing. I don't bother with auto-levelling because levelling a bed is kindergarten.

 

[bigseb]

Just as an update: the mixing nozzle, while a great concept, has it's flaws and isn't quite ready for the mass market imo. I suspect it's down to a) material sitting too long in a heated chamber and b) inadequate insulation of the hot block, both resulting in clogs so I am modding to use a 3-in 1-out non-mixing nozzle. But that was the plan from the beginning so...

 

[bigseb]

And... the supplied print surface is not great. I order both a glass plate and the magnetic flexible print surface. Gonna experiment with which is best once the hot-end mods are complete. Unfortunately AD beta testing and gaming are taking up a lot of my time...

 

[jfnewman]

Have you seen Prusa XL mult head printer?

 

[bigseb]

Have you seen Prusa XL mult head printer?

I'm vaguely aware of it. Not really a prusa fan so I don't pay too close attention. 360x360x360 dual extrusion for $2600... way overpriced!

 

[GIOV]

bigseb the best seller made in China

Can be any printer for alloy metal materials MADE IN GERMANY 5X?
Next step for you.

 

[bigseb]

There aren't any consumer-grade printers 'made in Germany' that I know of. Only big companies like Arburg, Trumpf, Voxeljet and a handful of others. Pricey. And metal printing even more so.

However Ralf gave me a great link to a German desktop CNC mill manufacturer that I'll be looking at next year. That would be a better addition to my arsenal imo.

 

[GeorgD]

Hallo Bigseb,
auf Conrad.de zu renkforce 3D Printer anzeigen. Ich habe ein älteres Model. Renkforce 2000. Es ist ein sehr schöner Drucker.

 

[bRIBEGuy]

That printer looks pretty nice for the price.

 

[MikeHenry]

There aren't any consumer-grade printers 'made in Germany' that I know of. Only big companies like Arburg, Trumpf, Voxeljet and a handful of others. Pricey. And metal printing even more so.

However Ralf gave me a great link to a German desktop CNC mill manufacturer that I'll be looking at next year. That would be a better addition to my arsenal imo.

If you are interested in desktop mills, PocketNC is planning to release a larger version of their desktop mill this year. 5-axis with a (roughly) 150x150x150mm work envelope. I'm kind of excited about that one, myself.

 

[bigseb]

If you are interested in desktop mills, PocketNC is planning to release a larger version of their desktop mill this year. 5-axis with a (roughly) 150x150x150mm work envelope. I'm kind of excited about that one, myself.

I am very much interested. But I'm short on space All my guitars and basses (with more on the way) plus various amps and cabs, drums, keys, etc means I need a ton of room. Don't honestly know where to put the mill atm...

 

[MikeHenry]

I am very much interested. But I'm short on space All my guitars and basses (with more on the way) plus various amps and cabs, drums, keys, etc means I need a ton of room. Don't honestly know where to put the mill atm...

From the (very preliminary) video below it looks like the mill won't take up much space.

There's more info much later in the video. Finding space can be a problem - I'll probably sell off my Clausing 8520 knee mill to make room for the new PNC mini mill.

 

[MikeHenry]

Sorry - caught the wrong time stamp. Try 11:10, around 23:00, and possibly a bit more toward the end. Their @InventorCaptain Instagram account has a few teaser static shots and short video clips.