3D PRINTING ON FLASHFORGE 5M
Well
this is something I have wanted to try for years. I did some research
when home 3D printing first became a thing and liked the look of what
was achievable but nothing ever came of it, if I remember correctly
it was the cost. A month or so later and thought the technology is
getting better, I'll give it a go but nothing came of it. This
pattern came and went until 2nd August this year when the
thought returned once more but this time I looked on Amazon and did a
bit of research then looked on Amazon to see what could be delivered
the following day, I was serious about it this time.
My
search led me to FlashForge Adventurer 5M, I knew I wanted something
affordable but not so small that I could only print a whistle and not
too big that it would be out of my price range and the FlashForge
Adventurer 5M seemed to suit my needs. I ordered one early enough in
the day, from Amazon, to have same day delivery and it came with a
0.05kg reel of burnt titanium of PLA filament, I also ordered a few
1kg reels of filament at the same time one of which was a white PLA
filament. The printer was secured well in the packaging but was not
too difficult to unpack and I was ready to print within 5 minutes of
opening the box, it was that easy to get going, now what do I print?
I didn't really have to give it much thought really as it did a test
cube when setting up.
I
have grand designs on what I want to print, a fully 3D printed
Ironman suit, no kidding, but understood that 3D printing technology
was new to me and wanted to start with something a little more
sensible. I liked the thought of being able to print something
articulated in one go and so like a lot of people, I assume, decided
on printing an articulated dragon and one was available in the
library of items that came with the machine.
 |
| Articulated Dragon |
As
you can see, my dragon was quite the success and moved just like I'd
seen in other peoples videos, I was very pleased and quite excited. I
was hoping to print things that weren't available in the printers
library so started searching online for sites that had .stl files and
found Printables, that had a whole host of 3D objects ready to
download and print and my first downloaded was a bust of Anubis which
I printed with the white filament that was still in the printer as I
was a little uncertain how to change the filament.
I
have found FlashCloud browser app the most ideal way of getting my
.stl files to the printer, simply download an .stl file to your
computer from somewhere like Printables, upload the file to
FlashCloud then from there select the item and press print.
In
my research I had also been made aware that there would be print
failures at some point so when I was printing a chalice and there was
an issue, it printed the base then it printed the stem and then a few
minutes into printing the actual cup section the stem broke, I was
upset but the buffer of knowing that things like that can happen
helped.
So
far I've had it for a couple of weeks and I'm loving the experience.
I like the fact that you can find something you'd like to print
whether it's useful or not, set the printer going and then just leave
it until it's finished and then you have either a product to sell,
something to put on a shelf, a gift for someone or a completely
useless item that will never see the light of day. So far I have
printed an articulated dragon, a bust of Anubis, a statuette of
Elvira, a bust of the Terminator, a hinged case for SD and microSD
cards, a hinged case for Nintendo Switch cards and of course a broken
chalice. I'll leave it for you to decide which of these items falls
into which bracket.
The
question now is would I recommend 3D printing to anyone who is
interested and the answer is yes. There are cheaper printers than the
FlashForge Adventurer 5M and there are ones that are much more
expensive, my advice would be to do a lot of research as there are
many variables to take into account: size of items you wish to print,
what you intend doing with your finished products, budget, print
speed etc.
Pros
Fast Print Speeds:
Both models boast impressive acceleration and speed, rivaling more
expensive printers.
Stable Frame: The
CoreXY structure offers excellent stability, reducing wobble and
improving surface quality.
Ease of Use: Setup
is quick, and the touchscreen interface is intuitive.
Reliable Performance:
Many users report consistent, out-of-the-box success with minimal
failures.
Cons
Print Quality: While decent, it’s
not exceptional. Stitch lines and layer separation can occur on
complex prints.
Software Limitations: FlashPrint
5 includes only one slicing profile per nozzle, requiring manual
tweaking for optimal results.
Auto-Leveling Issues: The Pro’s
auto-leveling feature can be unreliable.
Webcam Quality: The built-in
webcam on the Pro model is low-resolution and not ideal for remote
monitoring.
Michael