Hands-off 3D printing!

3DQue claim to have solved part auto-ejection - but is it really that simple?

Filament used:

Models shown:
Hanging Skull Planter by Uncle Jessy

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[MakersMuse]

Uhh so to clarify, without your custom made ram guard, it was using the cooling fan to push prints off??? I've been using metho or IPA to clean the same garolite sheet for almost a year now and it's good as new using default settings, im not sure that custom coating is doing them any favours. Super appreciate the review! I still prefer to change by hand but a print farm application would be a different story.

[Sciman]

For the price, I'm surprised it doesn't at least come with a tool head shield like what you had to design

[AttilaSVK]

At my previous workplace, we used three MK3S printers to print enclosures for our custom made electronics for our clients. I would create two G codes for the printers: one which would run for 8 hours (or a bit less), and the other which ran for 16 hours (or a bit less again). This way the printer was running 24/7 during weekdays, and a colleague would start the 16 hour G code on weekends as well, since he was every day at the office, even on weekends, at least for a few hours.
To equip all three printers with a Qinly would cost us 1650 dollars, or 1620 euros. I could have two more MK3S+ printers for that, or four clones, and still have enough money left over to buy a Raspberry Pi 3B+ to run a second instance of Repetier Server Pro (which we've bought) and some original Prusa sheets (if we'd go for the clones). It would be better, since there's no need to tweak profiles and parallel printing is faster and more flexible.

[ChrisRiley]

Thanks Tom, I used one of these to create parts for a local 3D printer part manufacture because they were in a pinch. It was a part they used in packaging. I used mine on an Ender 3. After I got it dialed in, it was set it and forget it. I lost about 3% of the parts due to first layer inconsistency, but I ran it for weeks, turning out over 400 pieces and I didn't have to do anything at all. I would do it again for sure.

[orange-micro-fiber]

I like the robot voice edits. I really don't like it when there are *CORRECTIONS on screen. I'm often listening while looking at another window.

[jamesthorogood]

FYI you can also do this with the Prusa Textured build plate.

I run a 3D printing business, and we have about 8 machines using them. They work great.

We find that 70 degrees results in zero issues with PLA sticking, and prints pop right off around the 25 degree C mark.

[Sleighbells]

Cool to see the prusa sponsorship! Hopefully more people move on to printables

[bBubi]

I highly appreciate the length of the video :)

[setouttoexplore]

In the beginning of the pandemic, I was printing PPE face shield headbands in PETG. I've got an Anycubic Chiron with the Ultrabase bed.
I had built a temporary enclosure to aid with energy usage reduction, and I set up a 24 hour job that would use g-code and an Octoprint plug-in to trigger a gpio relay to power a cooling fan mounted to the side of the enclosure between parts to assist with bed cool-down to release the part (took about 5 minutes), and had a small bumper attached to the toolhead to remove the part, and a paper guide sheet to direct the parts to a basket sitting on the floor under the printer.
Worked reliably like this for weeks churning out hundreds of headbands.

[Jobobn]

Real talk, Tom: I love that your reviews are so honest and unflinching. I hate how objective information gets twisted for profit, so massive kudos for sticking to your integrity on these!

[licensetodrive]

You're totally right about the price / convenience aspect of deciding whether something is worth the money, trouble free solutions can be worth their weight in gold.
Great sponsor, Mk3 owner for 4+ years which is still going strong, so very glad it's my first printer.

[wreckervilla]

As a proof of concept it seems really promising. Get a G10 plate, hook up a gcode operated fan for rapid plate cooling and some kind of air cylinder with a bumper to push parts off the plate at a less aggressive angle and it just might work.

[natalieisagirlnow]

the price is outrageous for what you get

[Zettymaster]

don't forget to DISABLE pruge lines, brims, skirts and basically everything that needs supports or a rafts (as rare as rafts are, they are sometimes useful)!

[fellzer]

Mingda Rock3 Pro has an amazing print bed. It's textured glass and DOESNT have some odd sticky coating preapplied to it. The result is a bed that sticks when hot, releases easy when cold. Mine is perfectly clean after thousands of prints unlike a lot of other beds which always have traces of prior prints left behind.

[MichaelJHathaway]

Great video, Thanks Tom. Wow, that is crazy expensive. Our Autopilot program is only $50 or free with MatterControl Pro. And the bed surface that auto releases is just Garolite with a scratch improvement coating. I did a ton of testing on this surface, it is not proprietary. You don't need to tilt your printer, just add a flexible plastic sheet to the front and that's it.

[marcosramirez]

I remember seeing a reddit post where someone built something similar but with an arm that came down to remove the parts from the bed. Seem better than have you x carrige crash into your prints everytime.

[darktherapy]

The continuous print plug-in for octoprint is great. You can even manage multiple networked printers running non-stop from a single instance of octoprint.

[DarkArtGuitars]

I reviewed the Quinly system last year and had many of the same issues as you. While I was ready to accept the finicky settings, I'm sad to see that the software still is as unfinished as when I tried it (admittedly it was a beta back then, but doesn't look much different from what you showed).
The release times also change dramatically depending on your ambient tem. I tried it during winter with ambient around 18C and it only needed around 15min. But in summer it took often an hour or more to finally cool down. They argue that most printfarms would be climate controlled anyways but who wants to pay to cool to 18C when 23C would be fine otherwise too?

[bartzrt]

Considering the price and the reduced build volume, it's probably worth pointing out that for the price of a mk3 plus this kit you can also buy 3 Prusa MINIs. If your goal is rapid mass production of sufficiently small parts, I would guess that that's the better option.