Stepping Up from Adventure 3 with Question
Hello Prusa community. I recently put down a deposit on an XL. I’ve been playing around off an on with a FlashForge Adventure 3 for almost 2 and a half years now. I say off and on because while I’ve had many successful “simpler prints”, there are some things I just can’t get nailed down, so I get frustrated and walk away for a few months. It seems as though now matter what settings I change, it makes little to no difference in my print. Things either come out nice, or they don’t. For example my benchy’s aren’t perfect, but they are acceptable. Then there are other prints; for the life of me I cannot get the 4 tower retraction test to print without spider webs. While I can definitely make the print worse, I can’t get it to be any better than 4 towers with some spider webs in between them. While not horrible, even a few extreme changes in retraction and temp settings don’t make much of a difference.
My latest frustration is with a print of everyone’s favorite R2 unit from https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3680311. My print is scaled to 51mm in the Z. The three examples in my photo are from using the standard FlashPrint slicer settings, fine, and with some customizations I thought would make a significant improvement. And while each print looks better, it feel like I’m fighting a battle of diminishing returns on the time it takes to print.
While I’m not looking for Adventure 3 technical support, (although if you have suggestions I’m all ears) am I going to be disappointed if I attempt to print the same R2 on the XL? I understand the technology that separates the XL from everything that has come before it and expecting the XL to be a better printer in every way, especially the Adventure 3. And although I never used one, I know about the SLA printers. I wouldn’t think I would need one to get a halfway decent R2.
Am I expecting too much from a FDM printer? Is the XL going to let me down?
Mini+MK3S+XL 5 Tool
RE:
This brings back memories… It's been a while but I had an Adventurer 3 as well (well, the Monoprice Voxel, which is just rebranded) and was actually very happy with the surprisingly good quality of the prints until I couldn't handle the nightmare of bed calibration anymore…
If these models are 51mm in height, I'd expect better results—I actually found the Adventurer 3 to print very decent minis. But I don't have one anymore and can't really offer any more help at this point.
As far the the XL is concerned: If the reason you put a deposit down is to get better minis like the ones in the picture, you wasted $200. I don't see any reason to believe the print quality of the XL is going to be significantly (or any) better than say a Mk3S or a Mini you can buy today, for a lot less money. Your reason to buy an XL should be a) you need the large print volume and/or b) you need the multi-tool capabilities. If none of these apply, I'd cut my losses at this point and not throw good money after bad and buy a Mk3S or a Mini instead. Both should be able to produce nice prints of this model, and as I said, I don't see any reason to believe the much more expensive XL will do any better. Full disclosure: I have pre-ordered the XL. In my case it's for the multi-tool capabilities.
Having said that, an SLA printer will always produce better minis. For my purposes and sense of aesthetics though, what I get out of my Mk3s and Minis is good enough to not want to deal with the chemicals that an SLA printer requires.
In any case, I feel confident that a Mk3S or a Mini would be a great experience for you, with quite a few quality of life improvements over the Adventurer 3.
RE: Stepping Up from Adventure 3 with Question
Thank you for the response, to be honest it is the Voxel model that I reflashed the firmware and turned in to an Adventure 3. The firmware and slicer versions Monoprice offered were just completely out of date with what was available from FlashForge. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I made the purchase when I did, I can't tell you how much I've learned from that printer, and unfortunately the frustrations that went along with it, bed calibration being one of them.
I only printed the minis because I didn't want to waste the time printing a larger version of them that looked like similar garbage. I do have a project my son and I will be doing where the volume of the XL will be required. I just got on the waitlist and I don't know when to expect to receive one, to be honest I'm thinking about just biting the bullet and getting a Mini to become familiar with and hit the ground running when it finally arrives. I feel there's going to be a long wait and I'm not sure I want to waste any more time with the "Adventure."
Mini+MK3S+XL 5 Tool
RE: Stepping Up from Adventure 3 with Question
Hopefully I’m keeping the spirit of “general discussion” I’m still experimenting with my R2 print. I opened a fresh filament, used a clean nozzle, lowered my print temperature and extrusion ratio with similar results.
On a Reddit post someone mentioned humidity. While I normally keep my material in the original box with the original desiccant, looking at the cheap hygrometer I have it’s currently reading 45%. What’s considered “high” humidity and what’s the target ambient humidity for the XL?
Mini+MK3S+XL 5 Tool