Ease of set up
Are we talking minutes or days?
The majority of 3D printers have evolved from maker projects and some, such as the Prusa i3, are still available in kit form. When it comes to unboxing, few printers are ready to go and require brief calibration, material loading and a checking process that will vary greatly in time and technical ability.
All five of our printers are at the top of their game, but some are decidedly easier than others to set up and use. In the past, SLA printers have been a bit of a hassle to set up as they have required lengthy resin commissioning compared to the lock and load approach of filament printers. The FormLabs Form2 changes this with a clean and simple cartridge and resin basin system that takes a couple of minutes to install and 35 minutes to fully commission out of the box.
The LulzBot Taz 6 is a huge machine and requires a little assembly before you can start: The print head and base along with electronics all needed to be bolted and screwed into place prior to loading the filament. Once switched on, the Taz 6 has an auto-leveling bed which cuts out the hard set up work. The process is well documented and all tools that you need are included. There really isn’t a reason why anyone should find getting started with the Taz 6 a problem and it will take around 25 minutes to set up.
The Ooznest Prusa i3 is a different creature: it arrives in a box with further boxes inside and requires building from the ground up. It does take some skill to work your way through the construction, but it’s all well documented and every box, bag and part is labelled. You’ll likely find that the full construction job will take you the best part of a day.
The Ultimaker 2 Extended is the largest of the Ultimaker 2 series. Setting up this printer is exceptionally easy and only requires the filament holder to be clicked into the back before loading it up with filament. The Ultimaker doesn’t offer auto bed-levelling, but there’s a handy step-by-step guide and the full set up takes about 25 minutes. The XYZPrinting da Vinci Jr 1.0 is the smallest of the printers in this Roundup, and when out of the box it’s a matter of switching it on, loading the filament and the printer is ready to go— no challenge or fuss in less than 10 minutes.