Qidi Tech X-Plus 3 3d Printer Review - Success Through Perseverance

why do I have two Chidi Tech X plus three  printers sitting in front of me I'm glad you asked so I've tried to shoot this part of the video  probably 15 times and what I'm trying to get   across is that this review was a journey  as a multi-month journey from the first   version of the machine that I think was  probably pre-production or early release   to the the finished product I would call it  the finished product that is behind me now   there is a Valley of differences between the  two machines and so in this video I want to talk   about those differences I want to talk about  what I would see as a failure to begin with   that ultimately ended being a fantastic product  in my opinion at least with my use to date   and so the story is worth telling  because how the company handled that   I think speaks volumes and this is not meant  this review this part of the video or parts of   the video is not meant to shine in negative light  on anything the company did nobody hits a home run   every time no body is successful 100 of the time  and I think how you handle adversity or failure   is more important than success in the end spoiler  alert we have a successful fantastic 3D printer   but it didn't start that way so stick around  kind of travel this Lazy River of a fever dream   with me with some of the experiences some  of the differences between the two machines   ultimately we'll get there and I think you'll  see that it is a fantastic tool so stick around   all right so it's very simple the reason I  have two of these printers is because one of   them works and one of them doesn't and the reason  that one of them works and one of them doesn't is   about three and a half months difference maybe  three months difference between the production   of the first one and the second one and so I was  afforded an opportunity to review this Chidi Tech   X plus three and I jumped at it because it's  very similar at least as much as I can tell   to the bamboo Labs printers and the creality K1  printers that are out now core XY Construction   they may or may not have carbon fiber guides  it's very fast 600 millimeters a second uh 20   000 millimeters a second squared acceleration all  the same kind of specs that we're seeing with the   bamboo type printers and so I don't have a bamboo  printer so I was very curious to see what all the   hype is about because there is a lot of hype  surrounding that particular brand of printer   and so Chidi Tech very very nicely sent me this  X plus three this one right here and I took it   out of the box and I started trying to print  with it and so I was successful somewhat with   pla material I created a lot of swarf or a lot  of trash I would say with failed prints and it   began to be quite bothersome to even get anything  to successfully print on this particular printer   and so I was kind of going back and forth  with their tech support and we tried a few   different things we tried changing speeds and  whatnot and then after about a week of kind of   working back and forth with them trying to figure  out what was wrong with this they said Stand Down   we don't care what you do with that machine we'll  be back to you in 60 to 90 days and we're going   to come out with a second version of that printer  and I said okay and so kind of in the back of my   mind I'm like okay will I see a second printer  is this just kind of we're just going to stop   I didn't really think that they were going to  stop because they've been around for a while   they've got a lot of printers out there a lot of  different specialty printers some specifically for   like carbon fiber Advanced Materials engineering  materials so I had a good feeling that they were   going to come back with something and so what's on  the right right here is what they came back with   now it's hard to see everything just by glancing  at them you can't really tell that there's much of   a difference but there is a substantial difference  because this one worked out of the box I have   printed pla a lot of pla I have printed petg I  have printed abs and I have printed carbon fiber   nylon successfully on this printer with little  fuss and so there's a big difference whether you   can see it or not in the shot there is a huge  difference between this one and this one this   one is garbage this one works fine so let's get  into the details on what the differences are as   best as I can tell you all right so before  we get into the differences between the old   version and the new version let's talk about some  of the specifications for the new version so this   unit right now is priced at 6.99 and that puts it  well in the ballpark of the other core XY kind of   front runner machines that are out there and there  are some key differences between this machine and   let's say one of the bamboo p1s's or the even the  creality series of printers and we'll get to that   here shortly firstly the build volume on this is  280 by 280 by 270 which is about 11 by 11 by 10.6   inches and that is larger than a bamboo Labs  printer this has a Pei removable build plate   I've printed on that plate with everything that  I mentioned before pla abs petg and carbon fiber   nylon and everything once you get that first layer  down everything stuck and I didn't even I didn't   have anything that peeled off that wasn't my  fault uh as I mentioned earlier this has 600   millimeters per second print speed which is on  par with the other core XY machines that are out   I also mentioned that it has 20 000 millimeters  a second squared acceleration so it's very fast   changing directions and stuff like that this has  input shaping I didn't really know what that was   until I got the first version of this printer  and basically what that means is this machine   just like everything Bridges houses cars there's  a resonant frequency that this thing has and it   may not be the same depending on where you sit  it it could have an interaction with the table   that it's sitting on that causes it to shake or  causes it to resonate differently and so when   you do the calibration process with this where it  goes and levels the bed we have an additional step   you can do and that's input shaping and what the  machine will do is it's acting like it's having   an absolute fit because it's shaking itself at  different frequencies at different speeds and   it's looking for those resin frequencies so that  it can tune those out let's say so if it's doing   a print very very quickly it's going to know what  speeds and and frequencies and accelerations to   avoid to get the best print quality a little  bit difficult to explain but very cool in   practice and the results that this thing put out  kind of speak for themselves we'll get to that   this has a high flow hot end so 35 millimeters  cubed per second so it's really chunking the   plastic out I mentioned before this is a core XY  uh I'll show that on the screen as to what that   means this is running Clipper firmware and this  has a 62 64-bit processor in it so very quick   machine even though this is wrapped in plastic  kind of neat looking kind of futuristic Space   Age looking it has a metal frame on the inside  and that is one of the differences between this   one and the old one this unit comes standard with  two hot ends the first one is a copper alloy I did   all my pla printing with that and I think I did  I did ABS with that and petg with that actually   I didn't switch to the hardened nozzle until I  was doing something that had like an additive   in it like the carbon fiber or if you were doing  glass field something like that something that's   a lot tougher on the hot head so I did use both  the hot ends that came with the machine the the   hardened nozzle hot in and I'm not sure maybe even  the the copper alloy 350 degrees is the max temp   this has a dry box now this is the one off the  original but they're basically the same it's   got some instructions on the back but it's almost  like a tupperware container if I'm slightly dating   myself here but you pop those tabs off and then  you've got desiccant that comes with it that goes   down in this compartment in the back and then you  have a sealed filament line that comes out these   are like pneumatic type connectors but there's a  tube that goes in here that feeds the filament to   the hot end and it's all kind of contained in this  so it's kind of neat it's a blessing and a curse   we'll get to that later but it's nice to have a  dry box on the machine usually with the machines   that I've used in the past depending on what  time of year it is I can get away with leaving   the filament out sometimes you can sometimes  you can't so having this having this is good   uh something very interesting about this machine  is it has a heated chamber so you can actually   get the chamber up to like 60 degrees C uh maybe  65 degrees C depending on what model of this you   go with so that's a nice ad it has auto level  so in order to level it and I don't have one in   front of me but it comes with this little plastic  sheet and so the machine will go to kind of its   home position at the center of the bed and then  you creep up your Z until you drag the kind of   textured plastic underneath the nozzle you can  feel it dragging and that sets your Z and then   it will go and measure the bed from that point  on so that's what I did every time I switched   filaments because it seemed to work better  when I did because you're bringing the bed up   to different temperatures for different filaments  and that can ultimately affect your print quality   another awesome thing about this is I've always  used Cura for my 3D printer slicers and this time   I'm using what came with the machine and that  is a rescanned version of prusa slicer how do   I know that because I installed prusa slicer and  I installed this slicer and the the comparison   was pretty obvious that it's a reskin but it  worked fantastically this unit also has not   only hardwired ethernet port on the back but it  also does Wi-Fi and this is the first machine that   I've had connected to Wi-Fi where I could just  send the job from my computer to the machine and   it starts Printing and I didn't know how well I  would like that feature so that's really really   good so let's move on and talk about some of the  differences between the first machine and this new   working machine all right so we're going to talk  about the differences between the first version   that didn't work and the second version that  does work and these are in no particular order   but first I noticed that the cable chain and  if you're not familiar with that is basically   a plastic assembly that can carry the filament  nozzle and wires and different things to the hot   end and so it has to move when the printer is  moving they're different they're just mounted   in different spots and it may actually be a  length issue but the one on the old printer   kind of drooped down and looked kind of out of  place this one looks very much more put together   and you can tell by looking at the back of the  chassis basically that there's two different   spots where that chain can be installed but  it's different on these two so that's one thing   um an interesting one that I just discovered just  by physicality is the weight so the first printer   was 42.7 pounds which is roughly 19.3 kilograms  the second one is 56.1 pounds and that's 25.4   kilograms so that's a difference of 13.4 pounds  or 6 Kilograms and you can feel that the all metal   frame that they've added to this and I'll get  to why they probably did that here momentarily   but it's it's Stout this is this is a heavy heavy  guy and to accommodate that to accommodate some of   the resonant frequencies and just the grip that  this thing needs because it's moving so quickly   it does have a kind of accessory or auxiliary  feet that you kind of slide onto the bumpers on   the bottom of this to give it a little bit more  of a cushion and a grip on the work surface so   I forgot to mention that earlier but that is a  difference between the first version and this   version this one has secondary feet so to speak  almost like coasters that this is sitting on and   it kind of gives it a better purchase on whatever  work surface you've got it sitting on there is a   center fan in the back of the new one that's not  in the old one it looks to me like it's an exhaust   fan but you can see where one could go in the  old printer but it's actually installed in the   new printer the bottom design now this is twofold  so the physical underneath side of the printer is   completely different between one and the other and  I'll do a shot showing the original one and then   a shot showing the updated version and it actually  has a cover plate some things have been rearranged   but it is different also the floor design now  inside the printer so if you raise the bed all the   way up the floor that's in there it's very much  different this one is metal that one is mainly   plastic and that is one of the Achilles heels as  to why the first version was not Dependable from a   printer standpoint we'll get to that later they've  also changed the thermal brake on the hot end so   you can tell by looking at an old hot end and then  the new hot end they're a little bit different   there's a little bit more of a gap there's some  different materials going on and I think that's   to kind of create a better thermal break between  the really really hot end and then the feed tube   that's kind of leading up to it so last thing  that was blatantly obvious is the old one much   like a bamboo Labs machine has the carbon fiber  rails for the x-axis now some more information   has come out about those you have to kind of keep  them clean you have to wipe them down because they   can generate some dust or some trash of their own  and I think surface quality was something that was   kind of hit or miss with those I'm thinking with  the new one they actually have hollow steel rods   for the x-axis it's hard to see in the shot but  they're those are two different materials the   first one showing the carbon fiber the second  one showing the hollow steel and that actually   is interesting because the carbon fiber was what  the bamboo Labs or what the bamboo Labs is doing   the hollow steel is what creality is doing so  that's kind of interesting but uh this the the   steel should be much less maintenance if any other  than just kind of wiping the dust off so um those   are really kind of the main things without you  know taking the thing apart and seeing what else   is different all right so let's talk about why  the first one wasn't as good as it needed to be   I've got some things laying in front of me here  and these are what I would call successful prints   there's some anomalies on the bottom and that came  from kind of bad bed adhesion but if I was looking   for one Smoking Gun as to why the first one didn't  work correctly the bed adhesion is part of it and   it's not because of the build plate it's something  different so when you look inside the printer   you've got four guide rods that have uh bearings  on it that lift your z-axis up or your bed up   two lead screws those are connected with  a timing belt in the bottom of the machine   and so it lifts the platform up to the  nozzle instead of the nozzle coming down   to the platform and so that's that's fine  that's a typical core XY kind of design   but the way that those rods and the lead screws  are mounted in the bottom of the printer all of   that is plastic now what happens when the machine  gets hot things expand things shift what happens   when you turn on the the heated enclosure and  you're really pumping the heat in the chamber   everything's expanding and that's really the  Achilles heel for me is for what you see in front   of me if you can see any of this in the shot but  different pieces printed a little flexible sharp   printed a little container that kind of works  these are battery holders you've seen these before   printed a benchy this one doesn't look very good  and that's part of the issue there's a layer Gap   right there and it basically snapped off it was  so loosely done that it just kind of snapped off   when I tried to take it off the bill plate but  also the columns the front columns on the benchy   came off and kind of hung there and not not a good  Venture right and so that's indicative of what I   was seeing was you would have spontaneous layer  separation and I'm like what's going on and so   there was they've changed this in the software but  they were when you ran the calibration it would   actually show you a screen that showed you like  kind of a numerical map of your highs and lows of   the bed and I was constantly chasing that I found  myself doing a recalibration all the time and so   that was part of the issue because I would try  to put down a first layer and it wouldn't stick   or it would stick and then a few minutes later  or sometime throughout the build it would just   go south and it would break it would come loose  I mean because it wasn't it wasn't able to really   push it into the bed and then your chain you're  chasing that thermal creep the hole through the   whole print job and it might get you in the early  part of their job it might get you towards the end   but it was kind of Hit or Miss so I had a trash  can a small little like bathroom trash can that I   was just keeping all the trash that I was creating  all the plastic waste or filled prints I was kind   of keeping it stocked up in that trash can because  I wanted to visually show you the fight that I was   having with this machine and the prints that it  all failed unfortunately my son was cleaning out   the trash cans and he saw that and he's like trash  and he chucked it so I don't have that visual aid   to give you but in contrast what I can tell you  is how that trash can would be nearly empty if it   was this printer that I was using and the reason  I say nearly the only failed print that I had was   a very tiny carbon fiber nylon link that I was  trying to print that I designed myself it was   very thin I didn't try to use a brim I didn't try  to use any sort of support and it just didn't have   enough contact on the bed to stay put that's on  me that's the only print that I had that I would   call not successful in contrast I probably only  had maybe 30 percent of what I tried to print   with that first version that actually came  off the machine and I would call it a success   all right so let's talk about what was included  with the Chidi X plus three so first and foremost   they included a half spool or 500 grams of  black pla now I had to figure out what kind   of filament it was because it does not say what  kind of filament it is on here but based on the   printing temperatures I was able to deduce that it  is in fact PLA and I ran this entire thing out so   that was good I always appreciate when they give  you some material to work with right out of the   box especially if you're new to 3D printing that  can be very helpful I already talked about the dry   box and the desiccant that is in that this is the  little plastic sheet that I mentioned earlier and   this is what you use to kind of set your Z height  and so that's kind of nifty we've got a couple of   spacers here that you can use in the dry box for  different stools different hubs it has an Ethernet   cable which is kind of nice it's got a little  complement of tools we've got a wrench we've   got some allen wrench shirt Allen wrenches it's  got a spare fuse some Hardware that was actually   used to hold the bed down for shipping it's got a  a needle to clean the tip if you need to and then   we've got our secondary hot in this one happens  to be the copper alloy hot in because I've got   the hardened steel nozzle version in there right  now very tiny and very relatively easy to install   I'll get more into that a little bit later we  have a little flathead screwdriver a glue stick   which I have not had to use yet and then a little  scraper to get any stubborn prints off the bed   so you also have a USB thumb drive that's  included that's how I started off putting   jobs on the printer before I found the Wi-Fi  capability which I knew it was there but I've   never used it before so this is the first  time I've used the Wi-Fi I love it I will   definitely be doing that from now on it does  have this lid that's on top of here if I can   take it off real quick for different materials  you may or may not need this and the printer   conveniently enough tells you when you need this  or when you don't need this based on what filament   type you set in the slicer so that's good you  don't always need to have a hood on it but in   this case when I was running ABS you definitely  want to keep that heat in and it's very helpful   all right so there are a lot of things sitting on  this table and I don't want to bore you with the   details I kind of want to hit the highlights but  the majority of what is sitting in front of me is   pla the black pla was the pla that came with the  printer I've got some Atomic filament pla here   I've got this multi-color just generic that I got  off of Amazon some time ago that I use for testing   I've got some blue Abs from hatchbox right here  I've got some ptg from Atomic filament and then I   have some carbon fiber nylon that is actually the  Chidi brand and there are a few of these pieces   that aren't complete and let me tell you why so  as I was printing I got to the end of the spool   that came with the printer and the Machine  quit running and I'm like okay I'm gonna go   see you know I'm gonna go check it out well it was  supposed to be a container that was supposed to be   This Tall and what I ended up with was about half  of the container now it did print the lid because   the lid was down low on the bed but the container  basically air printed for the second half and I'm   like Why didn't it stop because it's got a sensor  Why didn't it stop so I looked at it and the end   of the filament had a little hook in the end where  it was I guess spooled onto the spool and that got   hung up and the extruder couldn't pull it off the  spool so I'm like okay that makes sense so then I   think I probably went to maybe this material  so this multicolor material I was trying to   print this Dice Tower and so it was running it was  almost finished and it was supposed to be it was   supposed to look like this and it ended up looking  like that I'm like Why didn't it stop that time so   I go and look and sure enough it had printed  every bit of filament that was on the spool   but it didn't stop and so I was like I'm still  confused so I tried it one more time and then   I ended up with kind of half of this little  mechanical mechanism that's supposed to have some   Pistons that are moving when you rotate the inside  of this wheel and it didn't finish but it thought   it finished and so after bouncing an email off of  support they said make sure that this particular   setting on the screen is turned on and it just  so turns out that you can toggle off and on the   filament sensor but by default it was off and I'm  like why that doesn't make any sense so I don't   have an answer for why it was toggled off I just  know that once I hit the button on the screen I   didn't have that problem anymore and I actually  moved to this filament which is the atomic PLA   and I just cut off like a length of like 15 feet  and just had it sitting in the dry box and I let   it run out maybe 15 feet maybe 10 I can't remember  exactly but it was some length of filament I knew   it would run out before it finished and sure  enough it ran out somewhere in the middle of   the base and I just re-strung the filament and  it started printing I believe exactly where it   left off when it ran out of filament which I'm  like that's kind of cool because I've tried that   feature on other printers before the filament run  out detector and it seems like it it it didn't   start where it stopped it actually started on the  next layer which may not destroy a print but it   could be you know if it was an engineering type  material losing that one you know half a layer   that could be a big deal so I was pleasantly  surprised I believe if I saw it correctly it   looks like it started exactly where it left off  so I haven't had that problem since so that was   good so I printed all this stuff in POA a lot of  this stuff was samples that came with the printer   this right here is like a little marble track that  you can download off of I believe this came off of   fangs or maybe uh prusa I'm not I can't remember  exactly but you can put a little ball bearing in   this and it'll do the loop-de-loo and they've got  all these different tiles where you can kind of   build your own marble tracks so that printed with  zero support and there's just a little bit of of a   loop of filament that didn't quite hang as it was  trying to print in the air basically did a really   really well on that I've got a kind of puzzle  cube I've got little containers that have screw   in lids and this all was dead to rights right  off the machine they just work the puzzle just   works it's one of those kind of puzzles where you  can move all the cubes and kind of keep rotating   it around you've seen me print similar stuff  like that before we've got this thing that's   got the Pistons that that rotate in it that  came off the printer just like that works great   didn't realize I had dropped my microphone sorry  about that um so all these dice Towers I figured   my wife could probably use that at school or  something like that but if you have a if this   was a die you could just drop it in and instead of  children accidentally throwing the dice across the   floor and you're losing them under a bookcase  or something you can just use this and it'll   accomplish the same thing so that's why there's  so many of those except for the one that didn't   finish so moving on to a different material so  first time ever that I'm trying to print in ABS   I've tried an ASA before with a different printer  and I did not have good success I didn't have any   success so abs and ASA are not terribly dissimilar  they're very temperature sensitive this prints   rather hot the bed was a hundred degrees C which  normally it's running at 60 degrees C so that was   huge hot end temperature is a lot higher even the  chamber temperature was turned on to help this not   tear itself apart and I think I was running 45  maybe 50 degrees C in the chamber temperature   the only issues with this it seems to be kind of  a cooling issue we've got some drooping on the   bottom as it was trying to print these extreme  overhangs other than that the outside looks   fantastic silky smooth there I don't see hardly  any ringing very flat and that goes to the input   shaper that's where that beautifulness comes from  if that is a word also printed a benchy and like   I've mentioned before every time I printed a new  bench and a new material I'm like well that looks   better than the last one or at least as good so  had great success and printed a XYZ calibration   Cube as well so one thing before I move on from  that this is where I learned that I needed to   recalibrate the Z height when I switch materials  because you're putting more heat into the printer   it's going to thermally affect the printer you're  going to lose you're not going to lose but your   tolerances are going to change because the printer  is going to expand or contract depending on what   temperature you're going at so after a couple of  failed attempts at trying to print this power I   ended up redoing the Z calibration and then I was  able to print everything perfectly fine after that   so anytime I switched materials like this going  to some petg I would do a recalibration on the Z   height and I didn't have any more issues so  that was I would say just do that if you're   switching materials just get in the habit of  doing that and it doesn't take very long at all   so from the petg which this is  gorgeous this came from Atomic filament   um I really like that and it prints very easily so  I'm pleasantly surprised I thought it was going to   be more of a challenge it wasn't that was just me  being a chicken so from there I moved on to carbon   fiber nylon and I was really concerned about this  but this is a little bracket little trinket that I   was working on Flats about three millimeters thick  and again this is pa-12 or carbon fiber nylon and   I had no layer adhesion issues I had no bed  lifting this is just a flat piece and it stayed   perfectly on the bed you've got the texture from  the bed all the way across the bottom of the part   that was my first print I'm like that really  turned out good so from there I tried to do a   benchy and I ended up doing a couple of them the  tops of them look fantastic put the bow for some   reason has an issue and I'm really going to chalk  this up to the material because I found that in   certain circumstances it was just kind of peely  and and even with this um I don't know if it's   old it wasn't the bad the the bag that it was in  the seal was broken and I'm like that's probably   part of it and I don't have a filament dryer so  maybe I need to throw this in a dryer all right   so a quick word from editor Dave so I wasn't  happy with how the Banshee turned out in the   pa-12 carbon fiber nylon so I went back and looked  and discovered that I was almost four times faster   in print speed than I was supposed to be so I was  printing at 200 millimeters a second and it was   supposed to be at 60 millimeters a second Max  30 to 60 was what The Sweet Spot was and so I   got so much better of a result the second time  or technically the fourth time that I printed   it the bowel and everything the bottom of the  boat looks great there's some weirdness going   on with the Smoke Stack and a little bit of droop  across this front span but so much better than the   original one and I'll have I'll have these  on the screen so you can see a better shot   I did print this angle bracket I haven't knocked  off the support but I'll have a close-up picture   of that something that you can make use of  the strength of the material or the toughness   uh the the one thing that I said that I that uh  that failed was when I was trying to print these   little kind of there's kind of like a test article  but it's a little link and this one's 15 in field   this one's solid I was trying to do this same  thing in the carbon fiber nylon and it got about   halfway before it let go and there's just not  enough material on this finicky of a of a material   this nylon there wasn't enough bed contact and  I didn't use any brims or any sort of support   so that's kind of my bad but that's really the  only thing that that didn't cooperate let's say   the last thing I want to talk about and then again  I could talk about this forever because I've got   all kinds of little doodads that I printed some  functional some cosmetic you've seen this before   if you've seen any of my printer reviews but  they've never looked this good and the kicker is   this normally takes let's say on the last printer  that I reviewed it's normal working speed that I   got the best results was 105 millimeters a second  this thing can do a lot more than that and so I   printed this what would normally take the bed  Slingers that I've reviewed in the past five   hours to do this machine did it in two hours and  17 minutes and it's never looked this good it's I   dare say it's perfect Perfect's hard to attain  there's no stringing on this there's no layer   shift it's absolutely gorgeous and I'll I'll have  a close-up so you can see what I'm talking about   but the takeaway from all of this is I don't see  how I can go back to a slow 3D printer because   this is just the the quickness that I can iterate  especially if I'm working on parts for my day job   I can I can turn around parts so much faster  now um I don't think there's any going back   all right so let's talk pros and cons and I'm  going to go through these lists rather quickly   because there's a lot here so Pros it's fast  with great quality it worked out of the box   this time extremely well packed for being as  heavy as it is it survived and was unscathed   it's fully enclosed and heated which is different  from a a bamboo Labs p1s or something like that   one of the models that's out now the fact  that it's actively heated separates it from   the bamboo it's heavy that can be good and bad  it's got better feet so it's got a better grip   so it shouldn't slide around and it also dampens  some of the vibrations that's good the removable   flexible bed build plate that we were able to  print all of these four materials on with no issue   the touch screen and the menu is great it's very  easy to look at it's very clean it looks very   modern but everything's accessible everything  makes sense if you've messed around with a 3D   printer before you I don't think you'll have any  issue navigating that menu and the touchscreen was   very responsive in this unit unlike the previous  unit this unit does have a built-in light which   I didn't mention before and you can't toggle  that off and on in the menu the rescan version   of prusa the prusa slicer they call it the Chidi  slicer I found that's first time I've ever used   that particular product and it worked great and  I really like it a lot a lot of options in that   the connectivity of this unit we've got Wi-Fi  we've got ethernet like hardwired ethernet and   then we also have a traditional USB thumb drive  capability so you can talk to it in multiple ways   all the different materials that we did he'll do  so much more than what I was able to test this is   what I had as far as the Exotic materials I would  say but three of the four materials that I printed   on this printer I've never used in my life and  I got great success with it so that should speak   volumes had all the necessary tools we needed to  unpack the unit again it's packed the bed secured   the head secured it's really locked up tight and  so you've got all the tools that you need to kind   of take it out and get it set up and ready to go  the dry box is a nice ad especially if you live   in a humid area that's a big help the build area  280 by 280 by 270 which is bigger than a bamboo   that is awesome so let's move on to the cons also  it's heavy that could be a con it's got handles   built into the side so I did get some help getting  it out of the out of my vehicle to unbox it and   whatnot because it was kind of unruly but get some  help with it to make sure you don't hurt yourself   this filament swap is involved with the dry box  on the back you can't always see what's going on   especially the way I had it set up in my office  it was kind of backed up to the wall only leaving   enough room just to slide the dry Box off of this  post that it mounts to on the back of the printer   but you also can't see how much filaments in  the box or anything like that and if you're   trying to thread filament through the hole  that's in the dry box and then get it into   the pipe it can get a little bit cumbersome  if you have unfettered access to the back of   the machine I think you're going to be happier  but it's doable that's the way I had it set up   um the fact that this machine unlike a bamboo  machine does not have multi-filament in the   same print capabilities so the bamboo Labs if  you know nothing or you know everything about   the bamboo Labs you there are AMS units  start with either four four materials   that you can put into one print all the way  up to 16. so that's huge and I've seen some   fantastic stuff come off of that but as yet  this machine does not have that capability   unlike the bamboo this unit also does not have  a camera in it so you can't watch uh the build   you can't do time lapses built in with the build  so just know that because of the active cooling   the active heating the auxiliary fan that's on  the inside that's blowing air to to help get the   material cooled since this unit is printing so  fast all those fans make noise so this is but in   this is undoubtedly the the most noticeable noise  printer that I have it's not unpleasant but you   definitely know that it's running uh the hot end  swap is involved you've got little screws that   you have to undo you've got dainty little wires  that you're having to move around connectors that   you're having to plug and unplug the hot end has  a cooling fan that goes across the heatsink for   the thermal brake on it that fan is not defaulted  onto each nozzle so you have to actually uninstall   that fan from the nozzle that you have in there to  reinstall it or to install it on the fan or on the   hot end that you're installing and it's it's  involved so just know that on to some wishes   and some of these are going to be obvious but the  filament sensor enabled should be done by default   as soon as you install the software as soon as  you clean up the printer that option should just   be on by default I shouldn't have to turn that on  I don't I can't really see a reason why I would   not want that on so if that makes sense I would  update the slicer software to have more of the   common recipes already baked into the software  I did find myself having to go in and look at   the very nice kind of recipe book that's in  the manual that comes with the unit it gave   you some starting points for different filaments  all the all the cheaty filaments but it even has   some generic settings in there and that's what  I use to get the good results that that I did   I just wish that was already in the software we  could just hit a drop down and be like you know   these are the settings for this filament and  some of those are in there but some of them   are not exactly like I had to do and maybe maybe  some of that is subject to the individual or the   print job or whatever but I wish they were more  aligned let's say I'd love to have a window in   the dry box so I can see the how much filament  is on the spool from the side I just think that   would be easier the the the opaque lid that's on  it doesn't really lend a good view to how much   filaments on the spool so I wish that was better  I wish the hot end swap I've already covered this   I won't beat it to death again but I wish that  process was a little bit easier I don't know if   that would be like a cartridge or something or  maybe maybe even if the fan was included on the   hot end so you didn't have to actually remove it  and then re-install it on the the other hot end   and then lastly a camera to be able to see what  was going on that would also be nice and to have   I would wish I could show you some slick time  lapses but you know without the camera in there   and I don't have a camera that I can put in there  so you know I don't have those cool shots for you   all right so that's a wrap on the Chidi Tech X  plus three 3D printer what a fast machine this   is and I can't go back to being slow when it comes  to 3D printing this makes iterating parts so much   of a better experience and you can get more  done faster you can tweak designs faster and   that really resonates with me because I do a lot  of that so I really appreciate the fact that it's   so accurate and so fast and what a contrast this  second machine was compared to the first machine   they really kind of went back to the drawing board  and tightened this unit up added some pounds to it   but I think overall it made it a much much better  printer and a very much better experience straight   out of the box with it printing beautifully right  from the jump so I'd love to know what you think   about it please leave those comments and questions  down below if you have any suggestions for the   channel any suggestions for reviews leave those  down below as well if you're not a subscriber to   the Channel please consider it I'd love to see  you around again I'd love to make sure you get   to see the new videos that will be coming out  and if you feel so generous please leave me a   thumbs up it helps the channel and it helps get  the message out for Neo 7 CNC I would greatly   appreciate it I thank you for spending your time  with me and I look forward to seeing you again

Channel: Neo7CNC

Views: 4,347

Keywords: diy cnc, diy cnc machine, cnc machine, Mach3, Homemade, Home, Made, CNC, Router, DIY, Neo7.com, Neo7cnc.com, Milling, Machine, Mill, Stepper, Motor, 80/20, Aluminum, Hobby, Proximity, Sensor, Limit, THK, Actuator, Linear Bearing, NSK, IKO, Dust Hood, Ballscrew, Servo, Neo7cnc, mic-6, mister, neo7cnc, maker, make, weekend projects, DIY projects, pneumatic, david burrell

Id: DB0mmF975KQ

Length: 42min 16sec (2536 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 27 2023