Railcore II 300ZL Project R3D 3D Printer Kit Review

hey it's Joel many have asked and it's about time we get down to the review of the rail core to 300 ZL kit from project our 3d and rail core labs do it right here on 3d printing dirt yes the rail core to 300 ZL 3d printer a printer I first saw at the Midwest RepRap Festival maybe that's where you first saw it as well since then Tony has made some changes upgrades it's all open source all the plans are available online that build materials you can just get and source it yourself however project our 3d saw this machine and thought maybe we can do something to help out which means they collect the parts that you can then buy and it comes as a kit from them I'm told this is the first kit and this is the kit that my buddy Robert put together and the kit that I get to review let's start with some specs about the machine I'm gonna read them directly from the website do it so I don't get anything wrong it's 300 by 300 by 300 which means it has a very large build volume comes with a duet Wi-Fi and it's paired with the do x5 that means that if you're interested in the e3d tool changer it will take that no problem it's got a key novo heated bed this one came with the e3d v6 gold but it's slice mosquito compatible it's a bond tech BMG extruder up top aluminum stepper and idler mounts from seven one three maker aluminum X carriages from mandala rows works awesome meanwhile power supplies Zil tech linear rails one point eight degrees steppers on the z axis to give it point zero one millimeters per step point nine degrees steppers for XY in the extruder the wiring harness is complete and labeled to keep wiring time to a minimum and when you buy the kit all 3d printed parts are included printed out of atomic dark cherry PLA and atomic carbon fiber reinforced PE TG I've had the machine for a little while and I've got some thoughts on it but first let's throwback to when the machine was brought to me and I got to talk to Robert hey Robert hey Joel how are you doing great look at this wonderful machine so people have asked a out this machine ever since I talked about it with Tony at Murph and everybody said Joel you should build one and I didn't but you did now tell everyone why you built it and not me so I built this machine because this is the first kit production of this machine and I had the time to build it and I have the passion about the printer itself you love you love the hardware end of this absolutely absolutely I the assembly and the engineering and the process is really interesting you did have fun on your twitch stream didn't you I did we streamed for about 14 and a half hours straight with no breaks that's and you had viewers you had people watching you build this meeting the entire time it was it was amazing and it was humbling and it's just it was an awesome experience well in this build there's three things I really want to ask you about and find out what your experience is where one is the power side of things the second is the mechatronics because I know it's core XY and the third being the hot end so let's let's actually swing it around this way let's talk about the power box a little bit slide those feet so I'm gonna take these screws out so I can actually show it to you guys it's a good idea how many screws to remove the cover there are four okay and they're just 16 Miller I think these are 12 millimeter m3s oh that's pretty it looks like you're telling me earlier that the low-voltage side is separated from the high voltage side which is great it's separate it's separated pretty well all of your high voltage is and I'm not gonna stick my hands in oh don't do it is is is right here you've got your high voltage ins this is your mains Inlet there's some connectors here and then the SSR solid-state relay that powers the heated bed is right here and you were saying earlier it's something usually it's a 15 amp SSR yeah so the heated bed is 750 watts and if teen amp SSR would be plenty the Panasonic SSR that's in this is rated for 60 amps okay so that is overkill it is absolutely overkill bunch is pretty much the definition of this machine you figure okay so I SSR and then that powers the bed it can get nice and hot room it well it is a very very thick aluminum bed so it still takes about as long as average but it's also much more stable because it has that thermal mass Oh cuz it's gonna hold on to the heat and I'm crazy okay so on the other side of the it's a meanwhile right yeah it is a power supply yeah it's a meanwhile it's all name-brand parts so it looks like it's it's running a duet Wi-Fi board mm-hmm and you and the bottom board is a duet yes is that right so it's correct what's the difference for those that don't know so the duet board does all of the thinking and the duet X is basically a IO input-output expansion that's what enables it to allow the three Z motors correct okay and that's why the three Z's are actually plugged in down here this also gives us an extra sense point for a second bed temperature probe for thermal protection okay that's not enabled yet but it is coming in in fairly soon firmware updates oh that's just once you have the hardware and that's just saw correct it's just software and it looks like there's plenty of open ports for expansion you can add all kinds of things this you could replace steppers with servos and have actual feedback you could do things like additional tool heads or things like that in the future there's so much expandability it's very clean good job Robert you wire you move wires and route them much better than I would yeah that's so on the other thing this kit comes like this wiring harness here is pre-built you don't have to build this harness you don't have to build this harness it's just oh it's pre pre-wired it's pre heat shrunk it's pre terminated it's literally like they're already the right distance you just the connectors are on it they're labeled where they go so you just it's kind of Lego well that means even I could probably do something like that yeah so it's it's not an insanely hard build it's a very intense build from a there are a lot of steps and a lot of places you can do something wrong but if you can follow instructions and you can step by step in your detail-oriented it's not a difficult build it's just a little time-consuming well let's move from the electronics box let's move up top and take a look at the core XY mechatronics so here's the interesting thing I was going to stop camera to do positions so we could look at it from top down but then Robert shows off the sturdiness of the machine fights filling it on its side can you print on its side I suspect you could I don't think it would have any issues for no side and I think that might be something you should try that might be kind of fun okay so this is a core XY system and for those that don't know can you explain the difference between this and a standard Cartesian machine sure so your x and y are not directly tied to x and y they're tied to both x and y so this is y and this is X and if you look if you turn Y you'll notice it moves in both x and y is it like a neck and etch a sketch yes it moves just like an etch-a-sketch both of the steppers work together to make shapes you'll notice I get I get one direction yeah and then if I which is a little more hard to do with your brain if you turn them on opposite directions yeah you get your other axis but if you turn them both if you just turn one you get a die get the diagonals okay it's as if an etch-a-sketch was opposite like that so then with this machine here you have the core XY system it's on linear rails most people are gonna say are they high wind rails are they these are not high wing rails are 3d sourced these specifically because they are high quality rails at a much more cost-effective price point this machine's not putting any significant stresses on the rails so high winds are known for their super high level of quality these are all QC checked before they go out they are cleaned and greased and they move smoothly when you get them I didn't have any trouble with them at all that's great to hear and for the Z is there anything that we need to know because the Z is on three different linear rails as well so bed movements are smooth obviously that movements are really smooth but the three Z screws is sort of the signature thing about this printer most printers when they bed level and they they've create a mesh bed level they're met they're leveling the z-axis and they're just doing it in software where as they move across a slightly on level bed they're either raising or lowering the Z just a little bit this machine what it does when it levels the bed is it goes around and it all of the points and then because it has individual access at three points it can physically level the bed so it is true level instead of mesh level wow it's so oh my god oh Christ yeah true level I did a bed level test and 0.1 was zero point zero zero zero millimeters off 0.2 was zero point zero zero millimeters off 0.3 was zero point zero zero zero millimeters off and and that enables you to print remarkably thin layers at extremely fast speeds so the last thing I really want to focus on as far as the build and what's in there is the head itself so just for the sake of making sure everything's fine let's flip it back up I'll move the camera and then we'll we'll take a look the hot end everything at the top if I'm if I'm seeing things correctly you've got a bond tech extruder mmm-hmm linked to a piece of capricorn tubing correct going into what I would assume to be in a 3d v6 it is the e3d v6 Gold Edition gold what makes it what is the Gold Edition uh that's a good question I don't know it does have it does come with a hardened steel nozzle okay so you can already go ahead and print things like so I can send nice chewy things again it is actual III D stepper motors on both the X Y and extruder are they're 0.9 degree steppers that's how they get some of the the really intense accuracy the whole hot end assembly is 3d printed it's got a bunch of brass inserts all of that has to be done during the assembly so you can actually melt the brass in inserts into the parts they have really good instructions on how to do that people are gonna tell me 3d printed parts on this machine what are you doing those won't stand up to it or is that something that people need to be worried about not at all the few parts that are structural that need to be really rigid are there's no load on not enough load on this to matter okay and then for bed leveling let's see on the other side let's see if I can't turn this even just little bit there we go that thing right there yep that optical sensor so that's for bed leveling it's not like a Beale touch correct it's not a pin de probe it's not it doesn't smell conductive it doesn't make physical contact with the with the bed but it also doesn't matter what the material is with the exception of it has to be able to see it okay so it might not be able to see glass would Pei work Pei should work okay anything that's uh not transparent should be okay oh so like Pei semi-translucent and it can see it's there's still something there to see if your mouse can see it this can see it that's good to know I want you to see this this Ben she right here was printed at what 75 millimeters a second and this isn't some pretend I mean this is legit 75 millimeters per second at what layer height point-to-point to most benches that you print at point two you're not printing at 75 millimeters a second and if you are you have yourself a highly customized or well-built personal machine but look it I want you to see the bow of this boat look at that that is that is seven shades of amazing right there usually the bow is gonna be one of those things where cooling doesn't happen correctly and it folds up on itself and it looks kind of icky but this doesn't look icky at all I like this but here's one other thing this is what's called the King's hand is that right this is the King's hand and what layer height is this printed at so that was printed at point zero two millimeter layers point zero two at what speed 75 millimeters a second it looks good it looks really good it looks really really good like we're getting to the point where this machine could print models that rival injection-molded correct right because point zero two that's and you're laying down so little plastic at that point that it's it's almost like wizardry well and and some of the interesting things there are other machines out there that can print really low layer Heights but they can't do it at these speeds right and that's a function to the fact that the bed is supremely level that's true it's a shrew level yeah yeah true level one more let's let's let's show this off that is that there's surface or Pinsky's triangles or Pinsky's triangle okay i can't believe i got that right print it out 75 75 as well 75 does slow down slightly on the very very top because it needs time for cooling but that's the only reason it has to slow down well I want you to talk about the cooling as well because the fan on it is crazy and you're saying for PLA fan needs to be a 25% max yeah there were times I was running about 28% but that was just for for tweaking and playing most of the time I run somewhere between 18 and 25 percent okay for PLA for PLA at 75 millimeters per second correct okay this is fun well I'm really looking forward to playing this with this machine this machine I don't get to keep this is just something I get to use and get and off on its merry way I believe Adam gets this one yep however you get a different beast I want you to talk a little bit about what you get so this is the first kit there is another version of this printer that is a what they call as ELT the T stands for tall and it is twice as tall it is 300 X by 300 Y by 600 Z and it's capable of the exact same performance so it's it's literally double the Z with no degradation in performance rekt I can print something that's 600 millimeters tall at point O 2 layer Heights and it only takes a month yeah for the first couple layers right and you know well at a 75 millimeters a second it doesn't really take that long this Kings hand this King's hand piece right here it only took about four hours at point zero two at point zero two that's not bad and it's almost solid the infill on that is like 80% flip it over you can actually see the infill oh oh I see I don't know if the camera can pick that up but yeah it's dark so you don't see it but a big thanks again to Robert for bringing this machine by and you'll have it back in no time again it's not my machine I have to give it back first let's talk about the giant pile of stuff on the inside when you're testing a machine and it's not something that has a printer profile that's been tuned and easily available you have to well if you're gonna make a cake you got to crack some eggs and crack some eggs we did this is actually the third pile like this because I had three total piles of failed prints in this machine just from testing over and over and over again there we go a nice fresh clean machine before we get into my thoughts on the machine let's actually explore the models that I have right here and talk about them right off the bat this space city this was printed in atomic starry night pee lane I think it was and it looks great I don't think I had the slicer profile down perfect because it was a little stringy but the angles and the organic shapes and the overhangs are just perfect it is it is an example of what this machine is truly capable of I know I tweeted about this or put it on Instagram this is the flow allistic kind of 3d printed chain mail this was printed in strong hero 3d PLA the machine did a great job with this and what was really cool is I just wanted to test retractions and the ability to retract and it had no problem whatsoever the chainmail prints down like this and it has to go into dots over and over and over again and it just worked I had a most somewhat tuned profile that I got from I believe the Facebook group and it worked really well you may remember a video where my son and I made scooter stands and these two scooter stands were printed on the rail core the scooter stands themselves this is PLA this is PLA and they printed great no problems the walls look good everything is strong I thought they turned out great in the rail court did a really good job can't have a test print without having a maker coin and this is sized up a little bit bigger this is proto pastas I think Tom's orange it's the orange he made I really like this filament it's got some glitter in it and this the models other than a little bit stringing this the the mall is perfect I did have some proto pasta carbon fiber HT PLA and I wanted to print out some of these little little vases here they they look great as well it's vase mode so it's it's really easy to usually produce something that looks good it looks like there was a little bit of wobble at the top but otherwise the prints turned out decent these are gift quality I like I would I would plant a little succulent in one of these and give it as a gift easily I did have issues one of the prints failed because there was a jam in the hot end I cleared the jam and was able to print again so I don't know what was happening but maybe we'll we'll talk about the hot end and the cooling ability here at the end also you may remember when my editor Sean was over here and we 3d printed the power rangers blaster these are pieces that we printed on the rail core remember I think in the video we had talked about pieces that didn't turn out so well these turned out great this is this is just PLA before we didn't have a proper profile when we had a proper profile and we were able to print these pieces other than some just kind of stringiness which I guess you're sensing is a pattern with what I'm doing here they turned out great these parts are better than the ones that I think we printed for the for the actual blaster that Sean has at home sorry about that Sean I'll keep these safe for you what's a 3d printer test without a few mascots we've got sir layers a lot I've got a 3d fill and another 3d fill I think that this one is probably one of the better ones the Sur layers are Lots these were printed with two different profiles this was one and then you could tell there was a little bit as it's a little bit of stringing just a tiny tiny little bit then I changed the profile and printed this one and it was a bit more stringing but the model I thought turned out better this is atomic starry night same one as that right there this 3d fill this is interesting this is nylon 230 it's split I'm trying to figure out why I was able to print a vase mode nylon little vase little pot and it worked great I did attempt to print this scooter stand in the on this machine whereas I actually had to move it over to the Prusa machine to print with because I couldn't get the nylon would Jam or it would just it wouldn't stick well to itself here's a GoPro mount and and you can tell it's just it's in pieces normally nylons stick to itself really well I dried the nylon and tried and still same thing so I don't know what was going on you may find some tips for nylons in there I thought maybe because of the overhang the nylon was curling up a little bit and that it didn't have the ability to stick to itself but if you take these two pieces separately like this part of the 3d fill is strong its nylons strong and so are the feet it just so happens the little connection point right here didn't seem to work nylons were difficult for me on this machine and I don't know exactly why the same models that I would print on this machine actually worked on the preusse using the same temperatures the team the same print speeds and the same bed temperatures layer Heights all that stuff so I I don't know what was going on I'm guessing it was still something I was doing or something in the configuration of the machine so I'm willing to bet if I had more time I could probably get nylons printing no problem here's a metallic PLA print of that pot very similar you saw this in proto pastas carbon fiber PLA this is I believe a proto pasta brass or or bronze film I believe and it turned out great as well you can see that there's these layering these gradients of layers when you look at it from the side I think that has to do with the model and not necessarily the an extrusion issue because these these curls and these organic shapes these under hangs these overhangs they're perfect so I think this is the model and it's not indicative of a problem with the extruder so where does it leave us with this machine let me first start with some of the things that I wasn't necessarily a fan of the blower on this kit is way overpowered for what it needs to be if I ran the fan for filament cooling above 30 percent then nothing would work because it would cool the filament faster than the ability of for it to stick to itself and so layers would just delaminate and that's not what happened with the nylon prints because I didn't have the fan enabled for the nylon prints just in case you were asking I think a kit should come with an appropriate filament cooling fan and this one is just a bit overpowered the auto bed leveling is fantastic on this with the three stepper motors on Z it allows you to level the bed to exactly perpendicular to the nozzle which means the nozzle isn't isn't plowing or trailing or dragging filament it's laying it down and that's why you're able to achieve incredible detail with models but the problem is it's an IR sensor and some people like it some people don't I think that I would rather have a bo touch or a mechanical solution for bed leveling because I've tried buildtak I tried gecko tech material I tried in what's on there currently as a wham-bam systems removable flex plate the IR sensor is gonna have difficulty unless your build surface is entirely opaque I did have to do adjustments when I was using gecko tech because the IR sensor couldn't pick it up perfectly but I think a mechanical solution for bed leveling is in my opinion better that may not be everybody's opinion but that's what I think it needs alright what do I think about this this is probably one of the harder questions I've had to answer myself I know it's a printer and I know I'm reviewing a printer but it feels like a group of really good ideas Tony's idea and and whoever was involved in creating this came up with incredibly good solutions for problems that we face in 3d printing and the solutions they came up with allow this machine to print at crazy lair Heights at incredible speeds which means that we're going to be able to make parts with this machine that are closer to injection molding than with typical 3d printers and those parts are going to be able to be made faster well there were some things that I think the Machine needed to change those things were very few otherwise this is in my opinion the king of 3d printer kits now is this printer for you maybe this is not a first 3d printer this is not a printer to cut your teeth on this is what you get when you know exactly what you want and you know exactly what you need because this machine though it is a kit it is still an advanced kit you are tapping holes you are unless you get it from Project are 3d you are assembling wiring bundles you may be soldering I don't know but in the end you have to remember that this arrives in a box as a bunch of parts and it's up to you to put it together I have assembled kits before and I think the Prusa i3 kit is an example of a kit done really really well for the consumer market in fact a proofs a kit I could recommend as a first 3d printer for someone who has some technical ability this machine once you have your Prusa or york reality or you'll your first printer once you have your end or three that you've cut your teeth with you've got it dialed in you've done some mods and you're ready for an upgraded experience and you save your pennies this is what you get this right here this is the king of 3d printer kits hands down if you can show me another 3d printer kit for $1,500 us that's able to print at 300 by 300 by 300 that's III D tool changer compatible and that comes with all these upgraded components that's able to produce parts that look like they may have been injection molded if it's out there I don't know of it unless it's this well there we go that's my review of the project r3d kit for the rail core - 300 ZL 3d printer you agree or not let me know in the comments thanks for watching don't forget to hug each other more I love you guys as always high-five

Channel: 3D Printing Nerd

Views: 156,079

Keywords: 3d printing nerd, joel telling, joeltelling, 3d printing, 3dpn, railcore ii, railcore 3d printer, railcore 2, railcore printer, railcore ii 300 zl, railcore ii 3d printer, railcore corexy, railcore review, railcore ii review, railcore 2 review, project r3d, project r3d railcore, railcore kit, railcore kit review, 3d printer review

Id: D7wYGaTCIW8

Length: 26min 38sec (1598 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 23 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/mobius1ace5]

Saw the video. You guys have a really nice kit there! I'd love to add some of those upgrades to my dbot!

[u/JohnOCFII]

Great printer! Very fair review.

[u/jojowasher]

Great looking kit, just watched that video this morning, I am considering getting a bigger printer, this is tempting... just worried I would spend most of my time tinkering with it to get it to print nicely.

[u/link_dead]

It wasn't clear from the video, is a 300ZLT kit coming?