I got my Flux in yesterday and thought i would share my experience as well as a few pictures of the package and my first prints.
Flux packaging at my door (shipping was very fast (i’m in San Diego California) I received notice that my package would ship on the 16th and got it yesterday on the 17th EXTREMELY impressed):
Sorry i didn’t take any unboxing photos, i was too excited! XD
Setup was very simple, just following the included manual and the prompts in the software. i was initially unable to use the latest software because of issues with installing the latest firmware that basically amount to me not reading the support page carefully enough where it says to “use the USB drive option” so my first print was done with the older firmware in the older flux studio software:
As you can maybe see i had some warping on the bottom of the center ball and some stranding on the overhangs, as an additional point of information this was printed on 3M branded blue tape without the use of the included glue stick provided by Flux. All things considered for being my very first print right out of the box just putting the print head on, feeding the filament through and hitting go it’s still very impressive! (getting prints this good right off the bat almost never happens Ive seen printers more than twice the cost of Flux fail their first print very hard)
I determined that the artifacts were due to too much heat (something that can vary based on a multitude of factors) so i dropped the temp down from 215c to 210c in the advanced tab in flux studio. I also (for speeds sake) removed the raft and changed the layer height to .2 and set forth on the task of printing: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:763622 (after correcting the firmware issue switching to the latest Flux studio and applying some of the glue (thanks Flux) to the top of my blue tape for good measure. the end result being:
Which while there is still room for improvement is just incredible for a second print! That’s as far as i have been able to get so far (have to go back to work some time) but I did take some additional photos of the printer to share as well (sorry for the state of my desk):
And here is a close up picture of my second print:
Next I plan to continue dialing in the settings and also try out the laser/pen module which if everyone is interested in i’d be happy to post the results of here as well!
Some additional things to note which I was not expecting: Flux provides a handy bag of goodies! (Glue Stick, very nice stiff sharp putty knife, and lubricant) to save you from making the mistake I did and going to a hardware store to buy these things ahead of time. I would also recommend 3M branded(<<important) blue painters tape as well as a nice thin set of needle nose pliers to clean excess off the nozzle after heating up and prior to printing (nice clean starts help). The print bed is surprisingly heavy duty (thick and heavy) not really relevant to anything i was just surprised since it seems a lot of manufacturers were going the opposite route so that you can warp the bed and get prints off. Luckily the putty knife is fantastic for this and wont warp your print bed.
Thats all for now, pending interest stay tuned for more updates, and a big thank you to the guys at Flux for making such a great product!
