New Wanhao Duplicator i3 as Backup Printer?

[mitchfx]

http://wanhaousa.com/collections/3d-pri ... teel-frame

Wanhao just announced this new Prusa i3 based model and I'm considering getting one as a secondary printer. I assume this would be no problem at all to make a S3D profile for. I have a Rapide Lite 200XL on order which will be my "good" printer, but the Dremel Idea Builder that I own now and we planned to be my backup unit is slowing having more and more issues. Given it's only 6 weeks old I shudder to think how well it will fare after a year of use

I'm curious how well these i3 units will do with printing 100 micron parts and how much ringing/ghosting they will exhibit.

[JoeJ]

That's pretty interesting. I'm kind of surprised they used the exact same i3 name, but I guess it is an open-source design, so who's to stop them from taking the design and selling it for a profit!

As with any printer in the sub $500 range, I would wait to hear some reviews about the build quality. At that range, you can easily have some cheap materials that really limit the quality of the prints you can achieve. Cheap components generally have worse tolerances.

[mitchfx]

Yeah, that is my concern. However the pre-sale price is so good I might just bite. Supposedly it will be $700 after June 1st.

[dsegel]

I;m wondering about this as well. With discount codes you can get it delivered for $375, which makes it one of the cheapest printers out there. Even if it's crap, the controller board and motors alone are worth ~$150-200. And the warranty claim is strong:

Warranty: 1 Year Full Factory Warranty (Includes FREE Parts Replacement and FREE Repair)

Somebody already asked me for details:

Order here: http://wanhaousa.com/products/duplicator-i3-steel-frame

Add this code to take off $20: WUi3

[mitchfx]

I went ahead and pulled the trigger and ordered it from MakerGeeks a couple of days ago. They also have a discount code "HOT10" for 10% off which brought the price to $382 and they include 2kg of their filament. The guy at MG is claiming it will trounce my Dremel so I'm looking forward to a "Print Off" once it arrives!

[mitchfx]

First videos are showing up on youtube today...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bzDkrFyIsI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1toFa13vXQc

[bdavid]

I have been using this model for about a week now. I was surprised to see it fire up and print right out of the box. I have several machines and this one easily compares with some I've spent 3x the money on. Its a basis ready to run printer suitable for most basic prototyping needs. I would definitely recommend this printer - you simply cant get hurt at this price.

[mitchfx]

I've had mine for a couple of weeks now. Out of the box it was exhibiting some serious z wobble and misaligned layer lines. I've installed flexible z couplers and made a few other mods suggested on the Wanhao Google group and it appears to be doing much better. I'm still not at the same level of quality my Dremel Idea Builder spits out at 100 micron but there are still a couple of other recommended hardware tweaks I've yet to try. I will post some photos of the results here later.