The Replicator Desktop 3D Printer ($2,899) is the second MakerBot printer we've tested, and it offers a much better user experience than the MakerBot Replicator 2X. The Replicator Desktop 3D Printer—often referred to by MakerBot and others as the fifth-generation Replicator—is free of the extruder problems I saw with the Replicator 2X, and, except for one misprint, consistently produced good-quality output in testing. With its ease of setup and use, wealth of connectivity choices, user-friendly software, and good print quality and consistency, it brings more to the table than the Ultimaker 2, and replaces it as our Editors' Choice high-end 3D printer.
Design and Features
The all-black Replicator is a large printer. At 16.2 by 17.4 by 20.8 inches (HWD) and 35 pounds 6 ounces, it is best kept on a table or bench of its own. Its rigid frame is open at the front, on the sides, and on top, permitting quick access to the print bed and easy viewing of prints in progress. A drawback of the open frame is that the Replicator is relatively noisy for a 3D printer. Its build volume is 5.9 by 7.8 by 9.9 inches, a tad smaller overall than the Ultimaker 2's 8.1 by 8.8 by 8.8 inches.
Setup
Setting up the Replicator is a straightforward process. Once you unpack the printer, you install the Smart Extruder by pressing it against the back of the extruder carriage. Magnets lock the extruder into place. Then you lift the filament drawer in back of the printer, load a filament spool onto the spool holder, rotate the spool, snake the filament through a tube, and close the drawer. You then peel the backing off of a sheet of blue tape (several sheets are included), affix the tape to the build plate, and slide the build plate into place. You then plug the printer in and power it up.
The setup is completed with the help of the control panel, which consists of a 3.5-inch color LCD on the front of the printer, along with a dial, and two buttons to help you navigate through the menus. Your first task is to level the build plate, which is largely automatic except for one part where you have to turn a couple of knobs located below the plate until a light on the extruder assembly goes on. Leveling the Replicator's build plate is easier than with 3D printers that require you to tighten the gap between extruder and build surface at several points until you can move a sheet of paper between the two with slight friction.
The next step—loading the filament—is a cinch. Press Load Filament on the control panel, and when the extruder is hot enough, you are instructed to insert the end of the filament into the top of the extruder. When it's in far enough, gears will grab the filament and pull it in further.
Filament
The Replicator uses 1.75mm polylactic acid (PLA) filament, which MakerBot sells at $48 for a 2-pound roll of standard filament, and $65 for rolls of specialty (neon and translucent, for instance) PLA. This is near the high end of the price scale for PLA, though similar in price to the filament from Ultimaker, which uses a thicker (3mm) version. Although you can use filaments from brands other than MakerBot with the Replicator, the company strongly recommends against it, claiming that its filament is optimized for the printer, and that other filaments could contain impurities or otherwise compromise print quality.
If you are the sort of person who likes to experiment with multiple filament types, I have some bad news and some very good news. Currently, MakerBot only sells PLA filament for the Replicator. The good news is that it is all set to change in 2016, when the company is due to debut a line of composite filaments in which PLA is mixed with non-plastics (namely, limestone, iron, maple wood, and bronze) and can take on some of the properties of these materials. For instance, a magnet will attract an object printed from iron filament, while you can sand and stain an object made from maple wood. When the new filament types are released, however, you will probably need to get a new extruder designed to work with them.
Extruder
The Replicator's Smart Extruder is exceedingly easy to install or remove, as it's held in place by magnets. The printer comes with one extruder, and you can buy more from MakerBot for $175 each. What makes the Smart Extruder smart? For one thing, it detects when you're out of filament and automatically pauses the print; without it, you would have to scrap the print if you run out of filament midway through a session. It also sends notifications to the MakerBot Desktop software and the MakerBot Mobile app. In my testing, it proved much more reliable than the two extruders in the MakerBot Replicator 2X.
Connectivity
One of the Replicator's strengths is its range of connectivity choices, the widest I've seen in any 3D printer. You can print from a computer over a USB, Ethernet, or Wi-Fi connection, as well as over Wi-Fi from an iOS or Android phone or tablet with the MakerBot Mobile app installed. You can also print files from a USB thumb drive, as long as they're saved in MakerBot's .thing file format. The USB port can be found to the right of the LCD. This is in marked contrast to the Ultimaker 2, for which connectivity is officially limited to printing from an SD card. (It may be possible to send a print from a computer to the Ultimaker over a USB cable, but it's not officially supported as it can be problematic, as was the case in our testing.)
I installed two MakerBot print apps on my iPad Air 2: MakerBot Mobile and MakerBot PrintShop. The former is the mobile equivalent of MakerBot Desktop, and I used it to print several objects I downloaded from Thingiverse—MakerBot's repository of hundreds of thousands of user-created 3D object files. You can also use the app to see the print in progress, or take a snapshot of it, as the Replicator has an onboard camera looking down into the build area from the printer's front right corner.
The PrintShop app lets you create and modify objects from on-screen templates, such as a bracelet, a ring, a vase, a medal, or a block of text. A special function, Shape Maker, lets you photograph a 2D drawing with your iPad, convert it into 3D, and print it out. In my one test of PrintShop, I tweaked and printed text, namely a 3D rendering of my ham radio call sign to place in my shack, and the results were very pleasing.
Software
The printer uses MakerBot Desktop software, which you download from the company's site. From it you can load, modify, and print files, save files in a personal Library that you've created, printed, or want to print, find new objects in the Thingiverse to print, and access instructional and troubleshooting videos. To print, you first press the Prepare tab in a taskbar near the top of the screen. This brings up a representation of the print bed, which fills the screen. You then pull down the File menu in the screen's upper-left corner and click on Add, which opens Windows Explorer. You then click on the 3D file of your choice (in STL or OBJ format), which will load and appear on your monitor. By pressing icons on the left side of the screen, you can zoom in or out, or move, rotate, or resize the object.
At the screen's upper right are a line of tabs. The Settings tab opens a dialog box that lets you choose between low (300-micron), standard (200-micron), and high (100-micron) resolution and add a raft (a small platform of plastic underneath the object to provide support, which can be removed when the print is done) or supports. You can open a Custom menu that lets you change printing speed, extruder temperature, amount of infill, and more. The Export to File tab lets you save a file in MakerBot's .thing format to a USB key (or other drive) for printing out. In the screen's upper right corner is the Print tab, from which you launch your print, provided your computer is connected the printer. That's printing in a nutshell. Really, all you need to do is load the software, add a file, tweak it if you're so inclined, and hit Print.
Performance
I printed more than a dozen test objects with the Replicator, using all the printing methods described above except Ethernet. With the exception of one misprint, output quality was consistently very good to excellent in testing. Print quality is a tad better than the Ultimaker 2, despite the fact that it printed the test objects at a resolution (100 microns) that's twice as fine as the Replicator's 200 microns. (We print nearly all our test objects at a printer's default resolution.) The Replicator did particularly well in printing out a test object comprised of geometric forms.
A frog was the one object the Replicator had a problem with in testing. Many printers have trouble printing out its legs, which can become detached from the body and often reattached in the wrong place. The Replicator simply scuttled the job, instead forming a blob of plastic around the extruder nozzle. By default, we test this object without supports or a raft; when I added a raft, the frog printed out with its feet in the proper place and showing good detail.
I had no extrusion problems when testing the Replicator, with no layering issues or extruder jams. Filament flow issues often reveal themselves as gaps in a print's layers, or the printer will stop extruding altogether, which was the case with the first Makerbot 3D printer when we reviewed it. The MakerBot Replicator 2X, a dual-extruder model, experienced clogs in each extruder at different times, which necessitated taking apart the extruders to clear, a frustrating and time-consuming process.
Safety and Noise
With open-frame printers, there is always a risk that you could get burned by touching the hot extruder. The Replicator minimizes the chances of this by placing the extruder nozzle behind the extruder assembly, making it hard to reach from the front or sides. From the top, it's blocked by the carriage that holds and moves the assembly. This design should keep both adults and children about as safe as is possible with any open-frame printer.
I didn't notice any fumes from the hot plastic with the Replicator, and nor did I expect to. While acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) plastic filament can emit a burnt-plastic odor that some people find objectionable, PLA is nearly odorless.
Like many other 3D printers, the Replicator makes a range of sounds from motors revving to soothing electronic melodies. It's louder than most printers, due in part to its open-frame nature. Several nearby coworkers mentioned the noise to me on several occasions during testing. If you buy this 3D printer, you'll want to find a place for it where it won't disturb others.
Other Considerations
Perhaps the Replicator's main shortcoming is that its maximum object height is 5.9 inches, so it can't print objects as tall as some of its competitors—the Ultimaker 2 can print objects up to 8.1 inches, while the Ultimaker 2 Extended can build objects up to 12 inches, and the LulzBot TAZ 5 3D Printer goes up to 11.7 inches. If the ability to print tall objects is important, one of those models would be a better choice. If you want to experiment with different types of filament, you can do it now with either the LulzBot Mini or the LulzBot TAZ 5, each of which supports numerous filament types. Within the next year, however, MakerBot should have its own exotic composite filaments, although they will be PLA-based.
The MakerBot Replicator Desktop 3D Printer is an impressive 3D printer. It's a good choice if you're a product designer or engineer who needs to rapidly make prototypes, an architect or artist, or if you work in a shop involved in short-run manufacturing. Its user-friendly setup makes it a good choice for schools, or well-heeled consumers. It costs a lot, but you get a lot of value in return. It stands out for its combination of ease of use, smooth and consistent operation, very good print quality, and variety of connectivity choices. All this earns it our Editors' Choice for high-end 3D printers.
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