Honest review: The Mid-2014 Printrbot Simple (Maker’s Kit)

Here’s my review of the Mid-2014 Printrbot Simple Maker’s Kit (1405)!

Printrbot Simple Maker Kit

I’m Tom, and this is my review of the 2014 Printrbot Simple Maker’s Kit. Now, of course the name Maker’s Kit implies that it comes as a kit with all the parts necessary for you to build the machine. I did not actually build this one, this is a printer from Nils Hite of 3DDinge.de, who also stained the wooden parts of the Printrbot to give it that cool dark color. The build process itself basically boils down to using a hex key and going through three packs of zip ties, so anyone who can assemble IKEA furniture should also manage to build the Printrbot Simple.

The 2014 version of the Simple, internally called 14 05, introduces a couple changes over the previous version, 14 01. The biggest one is the inclusion of a contactless probe as the z-endstop, which means that you’ll never have to fuss with the alignment of the printbed again. And, in fact, the Printrbot simple doesn’t even provide a way to align the aluminum printbed. Now, this is not a heated bed, and if you want to upgrade to one, you’ll have to find and swap out a couple other components yourself. The other change they introduced was proper GT2 belts instead of the fishing line and sandpaper solution for the X and Y drives they had used before. Huge upgrade.

Now, to be totally honest, the first time i saw the Printrbot Simple, i was pretty shocked. I knew that the layout of the Simple’s axis wasn’t going to make for a particularly stiff motion platform. But as everything is being held in place by zip ties – and those stretch  over time – the printrbot was one of the flimsiest and weakest printers i had ever seen. You can tighten up the zip ties a bit more and risk breaking the wood, and it makes the axis a bit stiffer, but doesn’t completely solve that issue. Then, the z-coupler is a type that really shouldn’t be used for that application and it’s also not gripping onto the lead screw particularly well. So, of course, this introduces z-wobble. You can play around with how you insert the lead screw into the coupler, but it’s never going to be a perfect solution like this. Then there’s the wiring. Now, you should be able to tell that this isn’t a perfect wiring solution. There’s a whole bunch of them sticking out the back of the printer, and where they lead into the motors and such, you can see them bending in the exact same spot with every move. Needless to say, this is not the proper way of doing reliable wiring, and, in fact, this already took its toll on the cable for the z-proble, which already suffered a cable break. Oh, and the whole printer smells like emollient from the wires, which makes it somewhat unsuitable as a desktop machine.

But then it dawned on me: The printrbot simple isn’t perfect. And the folks at printrbot knew that perfect at that price point was impossible. Just look at what other companies tried to sell on kickstarter and then compare how many of them managed to grow a successful business out of their concept and how many failed to deliver even their original Kickstarter pledges. I think it’s pretty obvious which route Printrbot took. Yes, many things aren’t lining up perfectly, and yes, the printer is already starting to get crooked under its own weight. But, you know, that’s not what counts for Printrbot. I can see two goals that they had with this design: Goal number one is enabling the user to start printing while taking away as many of the challenges and inconsistencies as possible that the user might run into. The top-notch extruder and the inclusion of the z-probe testify to that. Goal number two is being cheap. And when you look at the Printrbot Simple, it is chock-full of bright ideas that simply save Printrbot money that they can then use for better parts where it actually matters and for better customer service. Or, you know, for making the printer itself cheaper for you.

Now, as far as the actual print quality goes that you get from this printer. Well, uhm, it’s pretty horrible at first. By default, the printer’s axis are set way to responsive, which ,combined with the weak mechanical structures, gets you some serious wobble, overshoot and ringing artifacts in your prints. But once you slow everything down by a good bit, which i’ll show you how to do in this video down here, you’ll actually get quite decent results from the Simple. Of course, you can only print PLA, but that’s the most common plastic anyways. The first thing you should print, though, is a fan shroud for the cooling fan. The default blowing style is somewhat ineffective for cooling PLA fast enough.

Now, one thing you should also keep in mind when choosing a printer is what kind of company you’re supporting. When you’re buying a Makerbot, you know you’re effectively funding Stratasys who are trying to monopolize the consumer 3D printing market with vendor-tie-ins and proprietary formats. Oh, and they’re patenting everything they can get their hands on, effectively keeping the community from using their own inventions.

Now, Printrbot is a much friendlier company. For example, they are actively supporting open-source projects like Allessandro Ranucelli’s Slic3r project, but they are also supported by other open-source companies, like with Ultimaker’s Cura software, which includes machines profiles for every Printrbot ever made. And because the Printrbot and the Printrboard mainboard are open-source and use open-source software, you can modify them as much as you’d like. If you want to.

So, is this a printer that i would recommend? Well, it depends, as it always does. If you’re on a really tight budget and just want something to print, sure, go for it. The Simple isn’t perfect out of the box, but it has some room for improvement and it’s a good way to get your feet wet with 3D printing. Plus, it’s probably the only printer in that price segment that isn’t complete vaporware *cough* Makibox. The 2014 Printrbot Simple Maker’s Kit is 349 dollars from Printrbot, plus, tax, shipping and, if you’re outside the United States, imports and all that stuff. If you’re in Germany or Europe, you can also get the Maker’s kit for 425€ from 3ddinge.de Link to that is in the description. And as far as the pricing goes, i think it’s pretty reasonable for what you get.

But if you’ve even got the tiniest bit of extra budget to spend, you really shouldn’t be looking at the Printrbot Simple Maker’s kit. Even Printrbot themselves are offering a significant upgrade, the Printrbot Simple Metal, for not that much extra cash, which gets you a metal frame, stiffer axis and a bigger print envelope. Oh, and it gets rid of the zip ties.

So there you have it! That’s my review of the 2014 printrbot simple maker’s kit, thanks for watching! If you want to stay updated as i release new video, please hit the subscribe button below. And let me know in the comments what your experiences are with the Printrbot line of 3D Printers.

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