new user , i love the printer but have some problems/concerns

Zortrax M200 General Discussion
#1

my company received our zortrax printer last week and its a great machine but lacking in several areas .

the first is a second extruder, we are looking to purchase a few more printers but i will not allow my company to consider zortrax until a second extruder is added...we do lots of small detailed items(i work in mahattans fashion district,,,we have an embellishment factory and im looking to print fashion embellishments and accessories that have lots of detail and support removal is impossible with the current  zortrax machine...i need a second extruder where i can use dissolvable support material.

my second problem is the current printers inability to change the temp setting..

plain plastic is cheap looking and boring...i see now that i will be using far more specialty materials like wood and rubber filliament and without the ability to change the temperature on the extruder, these materials are not possible.

today i loaded some laywoo wood fillament and it printed great for about 2 hours of a 4 hour print but then i got a nozzel clogged...i could tell by the quality of the first half of the print that this machine has the potential to run laywoo wood fillament and print in amazing quality, the only problem is the extruder temp is about 20 degrees above the hottest allowed temp for laywoo and this almost certainly caused the blockage.

these are my two main issues and i seriously hope they get resolved soon but i would eventually like to see a few features that would at least allow this machine to compete with ultimaker or makerbot.

i did some research before buying and i know i had a reason for choosing zortrax over an ultimaker 2 but at the moment i cant remember why .....perhaps it was the promise of super high resolution in the future i dont know but knowing what i know now i dont think i would have chosen zortrax..

its not easy to say this because i absolutely love this printer, the quality is great and with the exception of the nozzle clog i got today( (my own fault because i tried to use wood fillament when i knew the extruder was too hot)..the zortrax machine prints with fantastic quality and is completely trouble free...

its just that for my purposes, i absolutely need to be able to adjust the temperature settings and i absolutely need a second extruder...i dont know why zortrax still does not offer at least one of these options when just about every other company does ..it seems like company suicide ...new start up companies shold inovate and i cant imagine updating the firmware to allow the temperature to change to be that hard..why is this not done already??...and its a shame because i love this machine.

anyway, that brings me to the reason i came here...todays blockage now has my printer unable to function but nowhere on the zortrax site nor with any paperwork that came with my printer, does it show how i can remove the extruder in order to clean out this blockage...can someone either explain or better yet direct me to an illustration showing how i remove the nozzel so i can clean out the blockage??

i also read that some people recieved a second nozzel with their printer?? i did not receive one..am i missing it or is a replacement nozzle no longer included??

like i said, i love this printer and my company wants to buy a couple more but i wont allow them to buy zortrax until they offer adjustable extruder temps and a second extruder....if you guys had to guess on when these options will be available , how soon do you think this will happen?

if i didnt wish to wait, is there perhaps a third party provider who sells double extruder setups that will fit this machine? i kinda need a second extruder now, this support removal is a nightmare,,, oh that also reminds me, is there no option for raft removal??? this seems like another simple option that all the other printers have and i see no option for it....ninja flex is not an option until the raft can be eliminated and the temperature adjusted of course.

#2

today i loaded some laywoo wood fillament and it printed great for about 2 hours of a 4 hour print but then i got a nozzel clogged...

Please DO NOT use ANY third party filament with Zortrax. Using some material for RepRap machines can damage your extruder permanently!

It's not only matter of temperature of the hotend. Whole extruder is designed for Z-Filaments only - upper "cold" part, design on the hotend, extruder gear shape and pressure from bearing, lenght of the hot and cold zone and many other details - everything works perfectly but only with dedicated materials. Using third-party filaments WILL cause problems.

If you used Laywood or Ninjaflex you probably have clogged not only nozzle but also hotend and maybe filament hole in extruder. It may be very hard to clean now. Extruder is not designed to be repaired by user (expect hotend parts) - please contact with the support - but remember that your warranty is no longer valid.

#3

James…

I just bought a car with front wheel drive and gasoline engine. But I need 4 wheel drive to get up my steep driveway and I also put Diesel in it and now the engine stopped working. I think it’s company suicide that the car manufacturer did not give me 4 wheel drive and a Diesel engine.

Seriously?

1 Like
#4

You just should have buy an ultimaker, or a makershit.

We all deposit our confidence with this machine and it is great, it s a very professional equipment. I don't care to buy materials directly from supplier even when they cost twice the ones I use for my Up. But when you have the promise of consistent, trouble free results with complicated materials such as PC-ABS, PC, Nylon and some others you have to be confident with this guys work. Of course if nothing of this happens many people will sell the printer or never buy another one from a company who doesn't achieve what was promised and selled.

But in the meantime we are still waiting for firmware 0.0.4 to test and hopefully get better results.

I have found that after several weeks just by cleaning the platform from debris no need of a new calibration is needed. Just adjust correctly the z gap and this thing will run trouble free for a long time. maybe in some months a readjustment will be necessary but as far as it goes it's working great.

#5

Ninjaflex will never work with the M200 because of its feeder design, regardless of any temperature control. Ninja and FIla are challenging to print with any printer. I have a specially-modified Up that I use only for these filaments. It's possible that Zortrax may develop a flexible filament someday that may work with the M200 (something like PolyFlex maybe), but I doubt it will be as soft and flexible as Ninja.

Re Filip Kowal's post about permanent extruder damage from any non-Z filament, I think that's a bit hysterical, but to be expected from the printer manufacturer and filament vendor. I have used many quality third-party ABS materials with the M200 without any serious problems.

And yeah, what Andre said. Although to be fair, we were told at one point that temperature control would be offered...

#6

i appreciate the advice on the ninja flex, i bought some and i will not putt it in the machine, but like i said, the laywoo fillament printer great the first 2 hours, so im pretty sure this machine has the ability to print with wood fillament but after 2 hours the extruder did block so im pretty sure the extruder temp was to blame.

thanks julia, i read your other posts and i appreciate your advice, i take the advise of the manufacturer with a grain of salt, i believe they are obligated to make the recommendations they do but as far as im concerned, the machine is not an expensive one, and if i have the potential to achieve results with specialty material, even if i risk damaging the machine, i will take that risk, but if you think there is no chance ninja flex can ever be printed successfully then i will not bother.

yes, i hope zortrax allows for temperature control soon and i certainly hope they release specialty materials as well..we are an embelishment factory and if all i can print with is cheap looking plastic i will be forced to buy an up as well.

one exciting thing that happened today was my company purchased a roland mdx-40a, its a 4axis rapid prototype milling machine, its a subtractive tech prototype machine, i will be able to make objects from almost any material, im hoping that with this machine and a zortrax with these added features there will be little we cant make.