I am the owner of a small business that builds and sells high precision optical test equipment. My product comprises parts that I had previously had manufactured using CNC turning and milling of aircraft-grade aluminum, at a very high cost due to my low sales volume. I transitioned to SLS (selecting laser sintering) of Nylon a couple of years ago, using very expensive SLS equipment owned by another company. This enabled me to reduce cost. However, I hoped to further reduce cost by purchasing my own 3D printing equipment.
So, after reviewing the offerings and reading reviews of various 3D printers, I ended up purchasing the Artillery Sidewinder X1 3D printer, along with another competing unit (at more than twice the cost), just before Christmas 2020. I have now had sufficient experience with both units to state that the Artillery is by far the superior printer. If I could award more than 5 stars to the Artillery, both in terms of speed and quality of output, I would. The Artillery unit produces PLA parts for my test equipment product that is of sufficient aethetic quality to sell right out of the printer, without the need for post-production re-work! To say that I am please would be an understatement!
Unfortunately, my experience with the Artillery unit didn't start off that way. In one of my first efforts to print a part, the PLA gobbed up right at the print head. What a mess! I ended up having to heat up the hot end (print nozzle area) in order to try and extricate the gobbed up mess. The gob actually pushed the rubber-like boot surrounding the nozzle away from the print head. So, the boot thingy went in the garbage, along with as much of the gob of PLA as I could remove. I am happy to say that the printer now works EXCEEDINGLY well without the boot thingy!
Also, I had some trouble getting used to how much glue stick stuff to smear onto the build plate, so my parts wouldn't come unstuck. But now, that problem is solved.
I also had some trouble figuring out what to do with the warp in the build plate. The leveling process works just fine to level the four corners of the build plate. However, the build plate is warped downward at the center (like a dish), so the slide-the-paper-under-the-nozzle trick was useless for achieving the proper distance from build plate to nozzle at the center of the build plate. Since my parts tend to be small-ish, I just decided to concentrate on getting the proper distance from nozzle to build plate at the center, and not worry about the edges of the build plate. So, I carefully adjusted the four corner leveling adjusters in order to evenly raise the build plate to the proper spacing to the nozzle at the center of the build plate.
I am extremely pleased with the ease of use of the Ultimaker Cura slicer software. The printer profile for the Artillery unit that is bundled with the Cura slicer seems very well tuned for the Artillery. The only tweak I have made is to increase the internal density level for parts from 20% to 30%. At 20% density, there is excessive "print through" of the internal light weight scaffolding of the part which shows up on the outside of the part and degrades the cosmetic appearance.
The bottom line is that I am very pleased with the Artillery Sidewinder X1 3D printer! I would just recommend to the manufacturer that they review the need for the boot thingy surrounding the print nozzle.
Customers also viewed these products
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
Reviews with images
Top Notch 3D Printer, to note this takes a good amount of time to learn
When I got it delivered to my home I was happy to see it nearly complete. What you had to do is just connect it’s bed frame to the Z axis which is just U shape piece. Once you finish correctly screwing in the printer you have to connect it’s cable ribbons into the correct spots . While the manual was easy I would suggest watching a youtube video to do this. Now that setup was complete all I did was download the Cura slicer and the profile from their site and began printing my first ever print which was the battery case I printed out. I used PLA filament for this; but you can go higher quality just note some filament you would need to swap the nozzle for hardened steel and not brass which is in stock. now as for the bed leveling It’s ok but trust me in time it will get really easy to level the bed with paper. you can mod it to add auto leveling but I decided not to yet. Also a note do not update the firmware unless you know what you are doing. If it’s working don’t fix what isn’t broken.ProsExtremely well prints if you do layer height of 0.12 you can barely see the layersEasy to setup and printComes with extra cable ribbons in case it breaksConsfilament spool holder isn’t so great ; but you can print out a custom one so mehNo wireless connection ( this may be ok but I wished it could do wireless )Touchscreen is ok if this was 2008 ( could have made it glass instead of plastic display )so why did I give this 5 stars even after cons?because this is extremely upgradable printer. Everything can be changed and their are many forums and discord servers that can help you with issues and upgrades
