LulzBot Mini 2 desktop 3D printer review: Portable, professional quality

When I first got into 3D printing I made the conscious determination to get cheap. Over the years, I have increased my budget to include printers upwardly to around $1,000, but I've never wanted to get above that. Afterward all, how much meliorate could a $1500 printer be than a $700 one? Information technology turns out it can be a whole lot better.

The LulzBot Mini 2 is quite simply a professional quality desktop printer. With such a small-scale form factor, LulzBot could have been forgiven for cutting corners. Instead, it created a precisely engineered, open source, and characteristic packed little car.

This LulzBot Mini 2 was loaned to us for the purposes of the review, and I've been using it for almost a month. It also came with 1 kg of 2.85 mm Polylite PLA from Polymaker that I used all of to create the models you volition see in the review.

A lot of smarts in a portable packet

LulzBot Mini ii

An amazing out-of-the-box feel

The quality of the prints volition surprise you lot.

Pros

• Professional printing out of the box
• 0.5 mm nozzle for a variety of applications
• Solid frame
• Excellent printer layout

Cons

• Uses its own version of Cura
• The build plate a little minor

What you'll like about LulzBot Mini 2

There is a lot to like nearly the LulzBot Mini 2. From the moment yous open the box, yous can see the quality of the machine. It comes with everything you lot demand to go started printing, including 2 sample rolls of PLA, simply enough to brand the Rocktopus that comes preloaded on the slicer software and to make clean the E3D Titan Aero extruder that the Mini 2 comes with. The box fifty-fifty comes with a little tool kit that has all the little things yous need similar a palette knife, a gum stick, and replacement textile for the nozzle scrubber.

Earlier each print, the printer will movement the nozzle to the back of the machine and scrub it over a rough material to clear any debris, and so it volition apply the car level points on the PEI covered bed to brand certain your build surface is perfect. The PEI sheet – a type of yellowish plastic that seems to stick PLA and ABS to information technology like mucilage, then release it with merely a picayune pressure – is thick with only the right amount of roughness to help the print adhere to the bed. Of all the prints I managed to cease, but 1 failed due to poor bed adhesion, and a little application of Magigoo fixed that problem on the adjacent become.

The impress quality on the Mini 2 is astounding. I printed prints on this printer at layer heights I would never take believed could produce such good results. The Aero Extruder from E3D with the 0.5 mm nozzle makes light piece of work of fifty-fifty the toughest prints. At 2.v mm, the tankard I made still feels smoother than prints I have washed on other printers at 0.15 mm. At 0.15 mm, the Mini 2 produced beautiful details that I simply cannot reproduce on whatsoever of my current machines, no affair how much I tweak the settings.

The print quality on the Mini 2 is phenomenal.

The rigid frame on the Mini 2, coupled with the open source Marlin firmware and open source 3D printed parts, all meld together perfectly to make a machine you tin fix on the wing if you need to. At that place are plenty of parts on the Mini 2 that are printed by other LulzBot printers at the manufactory, like the clamps for the smooth rods and the vents for the cooling fan, and while they are clearly printed roughly at a layer top of 3 mm or above, the force in each slice is apparent in the solidness of each part.

1 terminal niggling thing I adore near the Mini 2 is the placement of the buttons, toggles, and switches. Far also often on 3D printers, the power button is on the back, the SD card reader is small and cheap, and the LCD panel can be in an odd position to utilise. The Mini 2 makes none of these mistakes, making everything hands accessible and made from quality components.

What y'all will not like about LulzBot Mini 2

I am a big fan of open source. I have been an avid Android user from twenty-four hours one and honey that the software can be used by anyone for just about anything. The aforementioned goes for the 3D printing world and companies like Marlin, who make the LulzBot firmware, and Cura, the slicer of choice for the open source community. The big problem I accept though is using the open source software to make your ain, branded version.

LulzBot Cura is OK as far as software goes. Information technology does what it needs to do. With its branded logos and branded color, it looks the part as well only with any of these programs comes the same problem: they are never quite as adept as the original. The standard version of Cura is the selection for people who don't desire to pay for Simplify 3D and is feature-heavy with updates coming almost weekly. But the settings for the LulzBot are absent.

The LulzBot version, on the other hand, is always a few steps behind the standard version, and I but don't understand the demand for it except as a branding do. Requite me the settings for standard Cura. And give me a really good FFF profile for Simplify 3D, the slicer of pick by almost every 3D printing professional. In this mode, yous promote your open up source nature and evidence the earth you desire to be used by as many people as possible.

As the name suggests, the Mini two is the smallest LulzBot and I understood that the bed was adequately small-scale and it is larger than the Mini 1, but information technology feels like it could have been bigger than its 160 mm past 160 mm by 180 mm given the size of the housing. This isn't a reason not to buy the Mini ii, specially if it is your beginning, or only, printer. It's just something that strikes me every time I look at information technology.

Should yous purchase the LulzBot Mini 2?

If you lot are looking for a printer that you can lift out of the box, plug in, and impress amazing models, the LulzBot is for you. If you intend to buy merely one printer and have information technology sit on your desk, this is a perfect choice. I am now fully on board with the idea of spending $1,500 on a printer, especially if it produces such good prints with nearly no attempt.

Whether you are a designer, a cosplayer, or merely someone who loves the thought of press models, the LulzBot is an excellent pick.

See at Matterhackers

We may earn a commission for purchases using our links. Learn more.

History catches up

The problem for a consumer HoloLens was always the lack of Windows Phone

What is the futurity for Microsoft (and Windows) mixed reality? The latest report from Business Insider sheds some light, just this all comes back to one major problem for Microsoft: No mobile Windows OS. But what about a future headset that is deject-based? Some thoughts on what could happen for Microsoft mixed reality.

Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/lulzbot-mini-2-review-portable-goodness

Posted by: arneybadeltudy.blogspot.com

Share this post