Will the Original Plus be adequate?

[jokamo 1]

Hi everyone!

I've been looking at 3D printers for a few months now, and have decided to splash out on one! I've been eyeing up the Ultimaker Original Plus as it seems like a great midway between price (me being a college student!) and performance/quality. However, i would like to print items such as parts of items for wearable costumes (helmets for example, to be built piece by piece) which will be fairly large, as well as smaller more intricate items, like personal memorabilia and moderately sized display models. Do you think the Original Plus will be good for the job? especially as this will be my first foray into the world of 3D printing! also, can the Original Plus really print down to 20 microns? as i think this would be perfect for more detailed items!

many thanks,

joe

[neotko 1,417]

I have an UMO+ and I'm quite happy with it. Yes it can do 20 micron, but it takes a lot of time to print at that resolution. When I want to print high quality I just go 60-70 microns. Good think it's that with some slicers (with cura too if you like using plugging's etc) it's that you can make some areas at 40-60 microns and others at 0.1-0.2 so you can speed up the process and get some high layer details. Anyhow the nozzle it's 0.4 (or 0.25 if you buy others like E3D or china-stuff).

The think it's that at 20-70 microns you really need good quality filament, you won't be getting good results at any resolution with bad filament but at that microns it's even more noticeable.

So yeah, you can print really tiny high quality items, but remember the x/y will always be the size of the nozzle, but the z it's where you can get some extra quality.

Also, depends on the material. With some coconut filament I don't get any 'lines' at 0.15 because of the viscosity.

Anyhow this printer it's really nice, and the mods available are just great.

If you wan't a less-hands-on machine UM2 it's also a superb option, specially with the olsson block to have different nozzle sizes.

[nallath 1,122]

If you are going to use them for costuming, its a excellent option. In most cases you will need some 'cleaning' work (eg sanding, smoothing, glueing, painting, etc) but as its for costumes i find that acceptable.

[peetersm 124]

I have several UMO+ and they are great. I print in k12 schools and they are workhorses , just keep running with great results. Even my UMO (2 years old) is still running well with basic maintenance and care. You are correct that the UMO+ is a great price point. Give your self a weekend to assemble it. Also I have posted updated assembly instructions which might help, since the current (v2.0) instructions contain some errors. There used to be a category in the forums for "assembly" but that was merged into general.

I will link to that once I find it (refraining for rant about new forums short comings)

[nallath 1,122]

Oh and one extra advantage; Assembling will give you a good working knowledge of how all of it fits together. This will improve the quality of your prints.

[SandervG 1,521]

Hi @Jokamo, if you have found an answer amongst these which answered your question sufficiently could you select one as 'best answer'?

It would help a future reader to find the best answer asap and give credits to the replier after taking the afford of helping you out.

Thank you!

[gr5 2,178]

Do you think the Original Plus will be good for the job? especially as this will be my first foray into the world of 3D printing! also, can the Original Plus really print down to 20 microns? as i think this would be perfect for more detailed items!

The quality of the UMO is excellent and I think as good as the UM2. Because you put it together you will have less resitance to modifying it (e.g. changing to a smaller nozzle).

[kvones 5]

I've had my UMO+ for six months now and I love it. The quality is always great and I've had very few problems so far, including no blocked nozzles! Putting it together was great fun and has meant that I completely understand how it works from the inside out and would not be scared to fix it if something did go wrong. And for the problems I did have the forum was always a great help. I also painted and customised it which makes it even more appealing.

I am a jewellery artist, and the things I have printed out are mostly on a 'body scale'. I found that for intricate parts Meshmixer is a great help as it generates easily removable custom supports. The things I make for my work, once I have fine-tuned the settings in Cura, don't need a lot of clean up and I would be happy selling as they are. An FDM printer always has certain limitations in terms of quality compared to 'professional' larger machines, but also so many advantages in terms of controlling the output yourself - a lot also depends on your CAD modelling skills. Because of the compatibility with the stainless steel E3D nozzles, printing things like Bronzefill on a large scale is possible, which might be useful for costumes involving armor.

I would recommend it to anyone...and no, they are not paying me to write this