MakerGear Forum

insta wrote:

mathisyourfriend wrote: I've asked this before to no avail. Could We please have a new thread for specific M3 and M3-ID questions (one for each would be nicer). I think it would make finding info much easier for all users.

Make one, nobody's stopping you.

I think what he is trying to ask for is a whole new "forum" section not just a new thread.

stone wrote:

"I think what he is trying to ask for is a whole new "forum" section not just a new thread."

Thanks for clearing up my confusing post. That's what I meant.

added

I personally own an M2, and was able convince my place of work to buy an M2 about a year ago, and just recently an M3-ID.

The M3-ID comes with a download key for Simplify3D, that alone improved the quality of my prints, I found that the print path of each layer happens in a much more logical manner with Simplify3D. I was previously using Cura. After that that ran some prints on each machine using the same exact Gcode file. They both turn out well, but the effect of the new cooling set-up is obvious. The M2 print has a different surface appearance, it is more glossy as opposed to the M3 which is more of a matte finish. The corners of the M2 print are more rounded.
I will dig up a stress test model to print on both and take some pictures.

In short, I do think the M3 is worth it.

Hi all,

I just got this 3D printer for my classroom. It has been smooth sailing so far except for a couple of things:

During setup, the included filament bundles up as it's extruding and then finally streams down. Does it always purge on the side? When it is purging it also doesn't cut the filament, it stretches and streaks across, like for the zig zag samples and so on.

After we did the zigzags and got it calibrated, we had some trouble with the Key chain example. The first run, the extruder actually scraped the plate and some tape came off. Then when we got it to work, it was really stuck and one of the students, when removing it, scraped some tape off too. Is the tape necessary for the prints? It's scraped in 3 places right now...Is the tape essential, can we take it off?

Other than that we are excited to use this printer, hopefully after everything is calibrated lol.

So happy to have finally received my M3-ID, it was definitely worth the wait. I received it a couple days ago and went through the setup process to get it calibrated which went pretty smoothly. While learning octoprint, I did accidentally put a small chip in the glass because the controls in octoprint seem to be inverse with common sense. You would expect pressing the up arrow for the Z axis to bring the printhead up, but it went down. Nothing that isnt easily replaceable in the future though.

As far as print quality, compared to my Rostock Max V2 I had, I am amazed at what it can do right out of the gate. Here is an image of a benchy (I know, cliche') I did right after calibrating so I could get a baseline of where I was at.
https://imgur.com/zWy7Re7

I was shocked at how well it turned out using the default slicing settings in S3D using the M3-ID profile.

All-in-all, I'm a happy customer

Physixdude wrote:Is the tape necessary for the prints? It's scraped in 3 places right now...Is the tape essential, can we take it off?

Consider the tape a consumable. Some people have success with bare glass and some sort of adhesive but I've had many successful prints with the Kapton.

I've since switched to one of Insta's MIC6 plates with PEI, but prior, I used tape.

You can buy 8" rolls or pre-cut sheets. Buying a roll is cheaper but may be a bit annoying to re-apply unless you come up with some sort of jig

Man I should really start making those sheets again.

wait, what? i just ordered one of those pei/mic6 plates from that link... does that mean it'll be a while?

You ordered the bare aluminum plate, I have some of those still