THE STANDOUTS
THE BEST FROM OUR TESTS
BEST VALUE
Printrbot Simple (page 60)
Runner-Up: Ditto+ (page 78)
BEST IN CLASS: PROSUMER FFF
Replicator 2 (page 68)
Runner-Up: Ultimaker 2 (page 66)
BEST IN CLASS: JUST HIT PRINT
Up Plus 2 (page 70)
SURPRISE HIT
Felix 2.0 (page 76)
BEST IN CLASS: RESIN
Form 1 (page 92)
Runner-Up: B9 Creator (page 93)
BEST DOCUMENTATION
Lulzbot TAZ (page 82)
Runners-Up: Replicator 2 (page 68), Felix 2.0 (page 76), Ditto+ (page 78), Form 1 (page 92)
BEST OPEN-ARCHITECTURE
Ultimaker (page 66)
Runners-Up: Printrbot (pages 60, 86), Deezmaker (pages 64, 84), Lulzbot (page 82)
OVERVIEW: HOW THEY COMPARE
Through our testing, the machines began to organize into specific groupings. Here’s the shakedown.
Trading volume for incredible portability, at a surprising price.
Printrbot Simple
Bukito
Don’t need to print big and don’t want to tweak print quality? These printers are for you.
Up Plus 2
Afinia
Cube 2
Up Mini
Exceptionally detailed prints; build volume is somewhat limited. Artist’s and designer’s tools of choice.
Form 1
B9 Creator
We found these machines to have profes-sional reliability and robust software; well suited for engineers and design firms.
MakerBot Replicator 2
Ultimaker 2
These printers pleasantly impressed us. Their print quality separated them from the “Middle of the Road” crowd.
Felix 2.0
Ditto+
These prototype models in our tests will be revised before they make their way out into the world.
Mini Kossel
Type A 2014 Series 1
These printers did not perform well, arrived broken, or broke during the testing.
MendelMax 2.0 from Maker’s Tool WorksSLA
Solidoodle 3rd Generation
MBot Cube II
Not standouts in our testing, but deserving consideration. We were unable to dial these in satisfactorily during testing but look forward to their continued improvement.
Bukobot 8 v2
Lulzbot TAZ
Printrbot Plus
3Dprinter4U Builder
Airwolf 3D
Leapfrog Creatr
Type A 2013 Series 1
Looking Forward: Our Recommendations to Printer Vendors
Untethered printing is good; the more onboard controls for this, the better.
PLA cooling fans work wonders. Having one on all PLA-optimized machines will be a great benefit to users.
More super-compact, durable, portable printers: Rapid prototyping is much easier when you can bring your machine with you.
Automating functions like platform and nozzle leveling go a long way to solving the issues faced by all 3D printer users, particularly beginners.