A few pictures

[Jon]

Attached are some pictures of the printer and prints I've done.  I am confident that a lot of you will criticize these heavily but so be it.  If you have any recommendations, I would be happy to hear it.  I am trying here to be honest.  I had no experience printing so I know someone else would be able to show you better prints.

I am literally focusing on out of the box prints here without adjusting any settings or using any methods to improve adhesion.  While I've had the printer for a couple weeks now, I was in town and free for very little of that time. I do not have  heated bed.  All of the yellow filament is $7/kg stuff I got off amazon that came in a broken container and I left on my desk for a year... not high quality stuff.

The blocky rectangles I've included here are my very first single extrusion and dual extrusion prints.  They were meant be part of a Gordian knot but I didn't finish that.  There is a small amount of curving on the yellow one as the print lifted off the glass bed during the print.  I am showing the better side of the dual one as I printed with a raft and it did not come off well. 

My wife's "hat kitty" was also printed the first day.  She keeps it in her purse.  Nevertheless I broke off the leg trying to see how strong it was. A random extra drop of filament got on that layer from the side of the nozzle so that layer was fragile. That is the only defect I saw here I blamed on the printer.  The distortion in the brim of the hat was me trying to see it I could smooth it using my "MODIFI3D" (basically a soldering iron) which I how I reattached the leg. I don't suggest that for thin parts.  Note that the brim is about 1mm thick and at exactly 45 degrees. This was printed with no supports (didn't know how to do that yet) and a brim. The cat is blocky because I made it in blender in the process of making a smooth one and the wife liked the blocky one.

I'd rather not show you my company logos or personal initials I've printed and my wife's other kitties are at her work.

I, therefore, printed a test print just for you.  It did lift off the bed despite using a brim.  I am sure you can judge quality better than I.  I was careful not to do anything to smooth it, remove loose threads, or hide anything at all.  I printed using the second nozzle.  I know this print is often used to adjust printer settings so let me know if you see anything.

I was able to print almost everything here within hours of getting the printer.  It took little time to figure out how to assemble and the settings were adequate to get workable prints.  The quality of everything is high as far as I am able to tell. I was able to take apart a hotend and put it back together and I didn't break anything (yay).

Issues:

I have had exactly 3 issues with the printer that caused failed prints and/or delays.  In order of severity:

1. During assembly when you add the y axis, screw in the short screws before the long ones if you can.  When I add the long one first, even if I hand screw it in, the wheel sometimes hits the frame.  Only part of assembly that caused any issues.

2. My primary hot end slowly leaked filament. The secondary hot end never has at all.  I took apart the hot end, reassembled it.  Added a little Teflon tape (probably too amateurish sorry) near the top of the heated block.  I've not had this issue since.  Still ruined a couple of prints.

3. Prints don't always adhere to the glass bed.  A heated bed, 3M tape, purple glue sticks, and adjusting first layer height all reportedly help. I have not tried any of those yet so this issue is my fault. Nevertheless many prints have failed because the first couple layers lift up, touch the nozzle, and get stuck.

I have resolved 2 and think the last one will be easily resolved when I put the effort/time in to do it.

Please note this is a critical review where I am trying to not hide a single detail.  I love this printer and would have been happy with it if I had spent a lot more money on it.  I'm not saying that because I think it will get me my printer (I already have it).  I am saying that because I am very satisfied and am eager to use it heavily once I get a little more free time.

[Will Adams]

Those are actually pretty good for first prints.  You should see the first prints from my Prusa i3 replica.  Hoooboy.  What was that supposed to be again!?

[Thomas]

Thanks for posting Jon!

Yes, these look good for first prints, especially if you did not need to modify more than you stated here! 

I have another printer and it took a while to finesse (still not where I want it). I have found that AQUANET Extreme hold hairspray (in the purple bottle) works great to adhere PLA to a glass bed. It may be worth a shot. It will leave a film that you may need/want to occasionally clean off. (it made me aware of the crap/residue that is left in our hair from cosmetics...). 

I've also heard gluesticks work well to adhere PLA to heated beds. This link may also help https://www.simplify3d.com/getting-prints-to-stick/  . I use slurry for ABS - much more of a pain to get it to stick.

Anyways, thanks for the notes, comments, and photos!

[Nic Sievers]

Nice start.  Yeah I hope most people realize before they tear apart any first prints that people post...  No matter if they provide settings or not there is always tweaking/setup time for an fdm printer.  Conditions such as room temp, type or make of filament, print surface, heated bed, etc, etc all make huge differences even on the same printer.  And now that we are getting this not assembled it requires calibration as well, so I am sure we are going to see all sorts differences in quality across the board.  

good luck, keep posting