My journey to choose a high end 3D printer (Ultimaker S5) — Part 5
You can’t choose between different printers if you don’t actually look at more than one printer.
Spoiler Alert
I’ve actually committed to purchasing the Raise3D E2. At this moment in time, I have an Ultimaker S5 in my house and I’ve been testing it quite thoroughly. And I’ve actually settled on the Raise3D
- not because of price (I was offered a matching price)
- not because of quality (they were both close… REALLY close)
- not because of overall features (they were pretty balanced)
In fact, I made the choice because after testing the Ultimaker S5, I felt it wasn’t the printer I dreamed of without also having the air filter and the material station. I feel that after testing both printers extensively, the E2 was capable of meeting my needs and most importantly, it was quieter which was a major selling point.
But enough about that, we’ll save that for part 6.
What is an Ultimaker S5?
A printer that just prints
I’m not kidding, that’s what it does. The only other printers in the sub $20,000 range I’ve ever encountered which is easier to use than the Ultimaker S5 was the FormLabs Form 2, 3, and 3L. The Ultimaker is maybe the easiest to use and easiest to learn printer that I’ve ever imagined.
Drag, drop, prepare, print.
That’s the simple truth of that printer and OMG it does it well.
A solution
The Ultimaker S5 printer has such a polished and clean experience almost from beginning to end that it’s 3D printing on easy mode.
Whether loading filament, tweaking settings, etc… the Ultimaker is the only printer I know of that makes the entire process from unboxing to printing an almost “no fail” situation. Please note the super important “almost” in the previous sentence. I’ll get to it later when I start criticizing.
Where’s my tools?
Let me say that this point which will sound criticizing from me is actually a huge bonus to other people.
I LOVE TELEMETRICS
The Ultimaker S5 makes me feel like I lost my best friend. When I’m printing, I want feedback. I want to see how many lines have been printed. I want nozzle and bed temperatures. I want tools like I have in OctoPrint which allow me to actually watch the pattern that will be printed as it’s printing it. The Ultimaker experience has made the printing experience so incredibly smooth that they’ve removed all my diagnostics information from me… and I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s some magic hidden menu that brings them back, but (shoulders drooping) I’m scared to mess with the big fancy printer because I know I’m not supposed to, I’m supposed to let it do it’s job.
A noise maker
This is a criticism. I own a 3 story wooden town house. I keep the printer on the second floor on a wooden desk held up by a wooden chest of drawers on a wooden floor on wooden beams.
The Ultimaker is an amazing printer in so many ways, but the vibrations it causes are substantial. I believe my experience with this printer if I were to put it on the first floor on a solid surface on a concrete floor would be entirely different. Or, as I’ve experienced in all the other places I’ve used Ultimaker printers (offices, garages, factories, stores), the printer would be barely noticeable. But without making alterations to my house to accommodate the printer, this printer is just not going to make it here.
I did try slowing it down. I did try putting something beneath it. I moved it away from the wall and closet. It just didn’t work.
Let’s talk quality
For my testing, I’ve used PolyMaker PolyMax PC, Ultimaker PVA, and ProtoPasta HTPLA v3.
The massive project I’m working on is a robot arm for my daughter to play with. I’m doing the mechanical, she’s doing the electronics and programming.
So, let me start by saying that the arm is printed of all 3 materials. They are printed entirely on two printers.
- Ultimaker S5
- Darren’s own special Ender 5 Plus which even Creality wouldn’t recognize.
To begin with… the modified Ender 5 Plus outperformed the Ultimaker S5 on every single single filament print. This was true for both PolyMax and for ProtoPasta HTPLA v3. This is not surprising or unexpected. Because of the infinite configurability of a DIY printer, it’s not particularly difficult to build a printer that outperforms even the best commercial 3D printers. But it takes blood, sweat and tears.
How much of a difference was there?
On HTPLA v3, the Ender 5 Plus was a 9.9/10 and the Ultimaker S5 was a 9.75/10. In fact, the difference between the prints were so close that I couldn’t capture it on regular camera and the microscope made the problems too represent.
On PolyMaker PolyMax PC, the difference was very strange.
On the Ender 5 Plus, I could print directly on the bed using a ooze shield to create a heat funnel that caused the PC prints to come out perfect and without warping … up to about 12cm in width. Then the edges curled a bit.
On the Ultimaker, even using MagicGoo, I couldn’t get it to print reliably over 5cm in diameter without a little peeling. Of course, the solution for this is to use a raft… or use a PVA raft.
I have not tested the Ultimaker S5 with the hood. So, printing PC on the S5 was absolutely doomed to fail as it was not an enclosed chamber… which is important with PC.
As a single extruder printer, the Ultimaker is pretty good. My Ender 5 Plus and the Ultimaker S5 run head to head. I have not tested the PC filament on the Raise3D yet, but I expect to see better results than either of the other two printers because of the chamber.
Let’s say that without the hood, the Ultimaker S5 is a good single extruder printer, nothing to write songs about. But we can speculate that with the hood, it should be exceptional.
I am willing to say that at this time, the Ultimaker S5 and the Raise3D (and my E5P) all reach the maximum possible potentials for the materials tested. I would have to experiment with more exotic filaments, possible flexibles to really see the difference.
Dual Extrusion
The printer store gave me about 10 meters of Ultimaker PVA which is properly dried and stored and I used all but a little so far.
I’ll write more about this at a later point, but Ultimaker PVA is great, but compared to PolyMaker PolyDissolve S1, it’s yucky. It’s really a bunch of glue snot. It’s not nice to touch, it’s not nice to work with. It’s really nothing more than hardened glue. But for pure PVA filaments, it really outperforms EVERYTHING else… except for PolyDissolve S1 which makes it look like garbage.
For the most part, the part you see above printed wonderfully. But let’s see the ugliness.
When changing tools which requires moving the print head to another location and clicking a mechanical switch to raise or lower the right nozzle, the Ultimaker S5 oozes.
This is not really a surprise. This is common on ALL dual nozzle printers. And I’ve completely given up hope that this will ever change in FDM printing. The Ultimaker and every other dual extrusion printer absolutely must purge a little because the filament which has been sitting in the nozzle while the other nozzle prints needs to get started moving again. Some filaments will actually self destruct if left too long in a warm nozzle.
I was told that I probably didn’t have to do this with an Ultimaker and from what I’ve been told, the Ultimaker brand filaments are so perfectly tuned in Cura that it’s very likely this won’t happen if you use Ultimaker brand.
But in this case, I used Proto Pasta HTPLA v3.0 and, it’s very clear to me that an purge tower is an absolute must.
Consistency?
I actually had problems printing with the Ultimaker PVA. On small support structures, the PVA for some reason stopped extruding in some places (which are hidden in the model and can’t be photographed.
Overall, since they were supports for small overhangs, it didn’t have an overly negative effect.
Layer adhesion
So, here’s the thing about PVA. It’s a terrible substance.
I had really hopped to have almost “first layer shine” on the interfaces between the Ultimaker PVA and the Proto Pasta HTPLA v3, but the surfaces were much more similar to what is achieved with normal supports. I won’t say there wasn’t and improvement. It just wasn’t the earth shattering improvements you’d hope for.
Does this mean you’d want to skip it and use normal supports?
NOOOOOO
Really, whether using PVA or break away or whatever other support type you could imagine, removing PVA is much cleaner and nicer than regular supports. It requires less scraping and cutting with small sharp knives.
The Bowden Extruder
I needed to add a section here for this. Ultimaker is the only company on the market that has really made the Bowden configuration work. I under no circumstances recommend printing overly soft flexible filaments. And I think there’s always going to be a problem with those insanely long Bowden tubes, but since it’s 2.85mm filament, it will perform very well no matter. I haven’t printed any flexible on the printer since all my flexible filament is 1.75, but I know there are many people printing with great results using NinjaTek products. But I will say that the direct drive extruders on the Raise3D are really something interesting to me. I like soft materials.
As a bonus, I hope to review printing with ColorFabb VarioShore in the near future. Stay tuned.
The Build Plate
Believe it or not, even if I could fix the noise problem, the build plate would have been the reason I chose the Raise3D E2 over the Ultimaker S5.
The build plate on the S5 produces probably the most truly perfect and smooth prints I’ve ever seen from any printer. You may think :
“It’s just a piece of glass”
But I would guess someone at Ultimaker has spent hundreds of hours perfecting printing on “just a piece of glass” and the result is like nothing I’ve ever seen from anyone else. Plastic ends up looking like polished stone. It’s just perfect.
This was one of the most beautiful first layers I’ve ever encountered and it was a thing of glory.
And I nearly killed myself getting it off the plate.
To print on glass, you HAVE TO USE GLUE. In my case, I used Magigoo for PLA and it stuck so well that I was eventually wondering if I should sacrifice the print or the glass. I COULD NOT get it off the glass and I was upset.
I used hot water, cold water, freezers, etc.. Well it came loose.
Now, you might suggest “don’t use so much glue” and my answer is “I’ll get the Raise3D, and then I’ll pop the print off in about a second or two.
Print quality summary.
I’ll stop with the print quality for now. I’ll summarize a little here for the short version.
High end 3D printers have probably now reached the absolute maximum quality that will be achieved from using FDM materials.
The Ultimaker S5 is not a particularly amazing printer compared to other high end competitors regarding quality without the ventilated hood. However, I can confirm I’ve seen far better results with the hood while at the printer store. I simply wouldn’t consider the Ultimaker S5 without the hood to be exceptional… only excellent.
The Spool Holders
On the left, on the right, maybe use an external one on the floor? Honestly the spool holders are on the back, right by the extruders and unless you have REALLY easy access to the back of the printer, you’re in trouble.
This is also a very high end and high price printer. For that price, some form of enclosure should have been included. Instead, they made “the smart stick”. Which is basically a long, standard spool holder which has some weird sensor electronics in it to detect if there’s filament.
IT’S A NIGHTMARE
So, let’s say you’re near the end of the roll but have more than enough to finish the job. Let’s say that the last few meters are looped around the spool but a little loose and not heavily enough to register.
The printer stops printing.
ALL THE TIME
I mean, it’s the worse out of filament sensor ever made. I’m amazed at how easy it is to make it print again, but over and over and over again, I had to continue prints.
And I swear … THAT PRINTER IS DESIGNED TO DETECT ME SNORING.
I mean, really, it would print for 18 hours straight, then I’d put my head on the pillow or go out to eat and as soon as I left, the printer would just stop printing and tell me to change the filament. Then I’d wiggle the 10 meters or so I had a little and click continue. So 3 day prints became 5 day prints. UGH!!!!!
But again, if you’re buying an S5, the filament manager is going to be bought sooner or later and… just buy it. The Raise3D stock filament system sucks too, but the Ultimaker one is just unforgivably bad.
The Camera
So, the year is 2021, the iPhone 13 has been released with a 2.5 gazillion megapixel camera. I can buy a dozen different Raspberry Pi camera modules within 30 minutes of riding an electric kick bike of my house. Every one of those cameras are at least MUCH better than the Ultimaker camera.
The camera in the Ultimaker is something out of a retro Nokia phone catalog. I don’t know what kind it is, but it’s probably a sub-megapixel bargain basement module.
I don’t think I need to say more about that.
Yes I do! I mean really… you’re going to sell a printer, hood, and material station for well over $10,000 and you can’t even provide a better camera than the backup camera on the buttocks of my car?
And what’s with the angle? Do you seriously not want me to be able to see what I’m printing or whether the print job needs attention? Move the camera!!!
Ohhhh…. I get it… you wanted to give FlashForge something to copy so they’d look worse? Ok… I understand.
Software
If you’re reading this, you almost certainly have tried Cura. If you haven’t let me explain that it’s currently the best overall printing solution on the sub-$20,000 market. It’s just that good.
But there’s more. There’s software :
- For dual extrusion in Cura
- Filament management in Cura
- Monitoring
- Cloud
- On the printer itself
I am going to be quite critical now. And I want anyone reading this to understand that what I hate others will likely love… except for the problems.
On the printer
Loading Filament (Alternate Method) — YouTube
The software on the printer is truly beautiful. As soon as you change filament on the Ultimaker you see it really shining. It’s such a lovely experience.
If I ever started a 3D printer business (I won’t, but if I did), I would run out, buy an Ultimaker S5 and spend all my time working on making my user interface as slick as theirs.
Sure, it’s missing every single piece of diagnostics information I love, but for changing filament or connecting to the network… whatever… it’s at least twice as good as its nearest competition. It walks you through step by step and when you’re done, it actually tells your Cura software what kind of filament is in the printer.
I think the FormLabs printers are the only ones done better.
Filament management in Cura
Cura reads your printers mind and knows what kind of filament is installed. But when you make your own filament profile and you want to send it to the printer, you have no idea whether it sent or not. I downloaded profiles from the Cura market place and when I changed filament on the printer, they weren’t there and I couldn’t figure out how to start the synchronization process. So, it seems like communications from printer works reliably but sending stuff to the printer… not so much.
This is clearly an area for improvement.
Dual Extrusion in Cura
It slices, it dices…
Well, I do love Cura. And when I’m ready for dual extrusion, there is only one… and it’s a massive one… and enormous one… a crushing one complaint I have with the Cura interface. It’s that they don’t add a separate pane for “Common Options” on the dialog for settings.
This is annoying to say the least. When you have a multi-extrusion configuration, I want to have one panel which lets me set configuration options for left nozzle, another for right nozzle and a final pain for things like “what kind of supports?” and stuff.
Other than this, I think every other 3d printing company needs to look VERY closely at Cura and learn from them about how to configure the printer. You REALLY DON’T NEED MORE THAN
- One pane per nozzle
- One pane for common options
But, Cura makes it so that you don’t really know… well until you know that there are options that are for one nozzle or options for the print itself.
I think if Ultimaker were to invest a few hours of coding (I’ve looked at the code and don’t say this lightly), they could add that third panel and it would make dual extrusion printing nothing short of perfection.
Overall though, once you figure it out, then the only Cura annoyance is that when you click “Generate Support” you have to go scrolling like a fool looking for the options again because they didn’t automatically realign the position of the “Generate Support” option.
Cloud
So, I learned just yesterday that BCN3D bought AstroPrint. I am not a fan of BCN3D printers and since I have a policy that I don’t want to write bad things, I won’t write an review of their printers. But, OMG AstroPrint is probably the best cloud ever made for a 3D Printer. I think I may invest some time into reviewing AstroPrint at a later time, but I only bring this up now because compared to AstroPrint, Ultimaker Digital Factory (and Raise Cloud) are garbage.
I unfortunately can’t post images of it here because my Ultimaker Digital Factory is linked to the shop where I borrowed the printer from and there is identifying information here that isn’t mine to share and I’m far too lazy to Photoshop the images.
The Ultimaker Digital Factory is functional. That’s it. It’s functional. You get a list of prints in a queue, you get a list of printers, you see what the printers are printing and how much time is left. It is very boring and it’s missing things like temperature, layer… it just really drains all the fun out of printing.
I think that for a business or a school, it’s just enough without being too much. But for me, I want to use the cloud to do much more. I want to pause prints and take pictures and stuff like that.
I think that Ultimaker should seriously consider hiring a group of web developers and UX experts to come deal with this. But on the other hand, I’ve now talked to multiple Ultimaker users who actually like how simple and sweet it is.
This is really a personal choice. But I’d really prefer maybe a basic mode and an expert mode.
The printing experience
WHERE’S THE PROGRESS BAR?!?!?!?!?
WHERE’S THE MESSAGE TELLING ME WHY IT’S NOT PRINTING?!?!?!
As someone who’s used OctoPrint for years and when I click print in Cura, the file uploads and I know precisely where it’s going and what the printer is currently doing, this is the most frustrating aspect of the Ultimaker S5.
When I click print over network, it upload the file to the cloud and then tells me nothing. I click everywhere, I touch everything. I have no idea what’s happening or if it will ever print. I have concluded the best thing to do is give it half an hour and if it’s still not printing, start pushing things.
I will admit that you REALLY need to make sure that the materials match what you configured in the print. And the bigger the print job, the longer you’ll wait cluelessly for something to happen. But if you keep the same filament settings from job to job and you are patient, it’s really still drag, drop, slice, print.
A Summary
I’ll do a little competition like comparison here I’ll assign scores to five printers and you will get a good idea of where I think things stand at this time. This is a unscientific scoring, but it’s a grading of where I rate each of those printers. All printers in the group are multi-material and there is no consideration whatsoever to price.
FlashForge Creator 3
Score: 1.5/10
I only gave it 1.5 because I refuse to be 100% negative about anything. I think this printer would be excellent for putting behind a car to keep it from rolling downhill backwards.
Prusa i3 MMU2S
Score: 6/10
If this review were only about consumer printers and not professional or semi-professional printers, the Prusa i3 MMU2S would have easily scored at least a 9/10. But it’s not enclosed, it’s a single nozzle, there’s no touch screen… I can go on, but this is currently the best “off the shelf” multi material printer for a home user. I use one of these regularly and let’s just say that Prusa is as respected as they are for GOOD REASON. If you’ve used a Prusa i3… except for their big oopsie on the original multimaterial design, you will understand why I love them so much.
Ultimaker S5, no material station or hood
Score: 9.1
For an FDM printer, it’s amazing. Without the accessories, I don’t think the Ultimaker S5 will ever be a perfect buy. Unless you really just need a damn good PLA/PVA solution and you want a great user experience. I think a Prusa i3 MMU2S with AstroPrint might actually be a better solution for most people though.
Raise3D E2
Score: 9.25
The Raise3D E2 in my opinion could score a 9.4 by fixing the filament storage (I have a plan), providing an upgrade kit for the extruders that come on the E2 CF, cleaning up the software, well, I’ll explain in part 6.
But the real reason the E2 wins over the stock S5 is that as a user, I can fix the filament storage problem, the build plate is better, it’s quieter. The difference would be bigger if IdeaMaker was closer to Cura than Similify3D and was a little more polished.
Ultimaker S5 Pro Bundle
Score: 9.45 — the winner
I know that the S5 I tested was crippled by not having the hood and the spool holders really spoil the experience. You saw the picture of my desk, I don’t have room for that MASSIVE air handler on the top. The huge space required just because the Bowden tube were in the way was too much for me.
But, if I had the space for it… and the vibration were less… and I could spend a few more grand, this would really be the ultimate winner. It would be the printer to rule them all.
I didn’t just give it a 10/10 because there is CLEARLY room for improvement. There are obvious fixes they should make. A decent build plate, more information about when print jobs will start, better management of filament synchronization to the printer, vibration levels, etc… but this is currently the reigning champion of all printers that cost less than a house… that I’ve tested.
What’s coming in part 6?
I’m waiting for the 3D printer store to actually sell me my printer. I’m anxious to take ownership of my brand new Raise3D E2. I told the store I’m holding their Ultimaker S5 Pro hostage until I get it. Somehow they just laughed and seemed to not mind … ugh!
Once I get the printer, I’ll run some more tests to let you know whether I feel the same way or if I feel some buyers remorse. I know already that the printer isn’t perfect, but since I’m buying the printer with my eyes wide open, I’m willing to live with its shortcomings. I was given a choice between two very expensive printers and although I wouldn’t mind taking a Raise3D Pro2 for a spin, I feel 100% confident that I’m making the right choice.
I’ll write part 6 about 2–3 weeks after having the printer at home and really putting it to the test. I’ve settled on using ProtoPasta HTPLA as my main material which I’ll also explain. I’ll use both PolyMaker PolyDissolve S1 and PolySupport for supports (depending on application).
Was there a whisper of a YouTube video?
Yup…
I just bought a liter of FormLabs Rigid 10K Resin!
I repeat… I bought a liter of FormLabs Rigid 10K Resin!
I’m going to pickup my Form Wash from my friend and I’m going to put together a heated curing chamber with another friend. But I’ve bought the resin, I’ll try using it ad-hoc for a print or two. Then I’ll move onto doing it the “Pro Way”.
And I’m going to make a video because the FormLabs Rigid 10K Resin is possibly the most amazing 3D printing technology I’ve ever seen and I’ve been to industrial additive manufacturing expos. I can’t wait to share it with you.
