The final 12 months have been nice for 3D printers. My favorites thus far have been the Bambu A1, regardless of its now-resolved points, the latest Creality K1C which I really like, and now the Qidi Tech Q1 Professional which is only a nice out-of-the-box expertise throughout.
The Q1 Professional is a totally enclosed unit that’s cubed in form relatively than rectangular. That is, in the principle right down to the display positioning on the right-hand facet of the body, whereas machines such because the K1C have opted to pop the display on a bracket on the backside.
I a lot favor Qidi’s means of integrating the display as you may’t snap it off whereas clumsily transferring the printer round your makerspace.
Coming in a black metallic and plastic end the one option to peep contained in the enclosure is thru the engaging molded, however plastic not glass, door, or perspex lid which may be absolutely eliminated.
This enclosed system means your innards can get good and toasty and permits the printing of some extra excessive filaments though we have been completely content material printing the gadgets right here in PETG, you would print carbon fiber with no downside with a hardened nozzle and the machine comes with a bimetal one fitted to get you going.
Actually a intelligent characteristic of the firmware pops up on the display in the event you ship a PLA or PETG print job to the machine telling you it could be greatest to go away the door open and take away the lid as these filaments can soften within the additional warmth. This may occasionally properly find yourself relying on the place you reside, within the UK, I tended to disregard this and depart them shut to dampen the sound and suffered no ailing results.
Should you have been someplace with the next ambient temperature nonetheless chances are you’ll want to heed the recommendation. The warning will pop up every time, however Qifdi, realizing how triggered individuals can get different nothing, has kindly given the choice to tick a field and by no means hear from it once more. Good contact.
Heated chamber
Now we talked about the insides getting toasty and the place the Q1 Professional actually shines is its heated chamber. You may pre-heat the chamber to 60 levels upfront that means ABS and ASA printing ought to be fairly painless. In a machine this value, it is a rarity and will tip the steadiness in case you are trying to print out greater than versatile dinosaurs for the children or in our case, cool stuff for our video games room.
Should you want one thing a little bit extra skilled, properly it’s proper right here on this field.
Lights, digital camera…
The Q1 Professional additionally comes with a 1080p digital camera inside that’s time-lapse succesful and in addition is simply useful for monitoring your print jobs. Will probably be fascinating to see the way it gala’s caught in a relentless 60-degree temperature however as but, we’ve seen no degradation in high quality.
Software program
The Q1 Professional runs a propriety model of Klipper which is ok, however in contrast to the Crealoty K1C, there isn’t a simple option to root it and set up Mainsail or Fluidd. Certainly, scouring Reddit for options leaves tales of wow of individuals bricking the Q1 Professionals, so we didn’t try it – whereas we simply rooted the K1C in about 5 minutes.
To be honest the Qidi model of Klipper might be stronger than the Creality model and we didn’t actually really feel a have to get the hammer out.
Out-of-the-box expertise
I do know I maintain mentioning the K1C however I really feel it will be important as each are at present sat facet by facet on my workbench. The K1C was remarkably simple to arrange however I might say the Q1 Professional is even simpler. I used to be actually printing a Benchy inside 10 minutes of opening the field which is unimaginable whenever you suppose again on a number of months.
The Q1 Professional is just about a shopper relatively than a hobbyist printer, and Qidi is to be recommended for getting there with this machine. The expertise is implausible from the off.
The construct quantity of 250×250 can also be larger than the costlier Creality, and much more superb it can solely set you again £399 whenever you purchase it direct from Qidi Tech.
Printing Fallout fashions with the Qidi Q1 Professional
All the things is all about Fallout proper now soi we thought, we’re going to up our Video games Room with some trending 3D prints and come out some Fallout gear in addition to another bits we have to add to our gaming house.
There are such a lot of Fallout fashions to select from, and whereas we wished to print a helmet and armor, time is cash so we settled on a few characters for starters.
First we did this bust of The Ghoul from the TV present which we printed in PETG for a little bit additional energy. Got here again a number of hours later and there he was, sitting on our construct plate patiently.
Subsequent up we sized up this iconic Vault Boy statue to 200% and, once more the outcomes have been just about excellent. Though nothing from these two fashions ought to actually have prompted the Q1 Professional any points.
We determined for our final check print to up the sport and print out a mannequin I’ve wished for some time however by no means actually had the braveness to go for as I figured it will take watching the machine like a hawk to keep away from potential clogs.
With my confidence boosted by the strong efficiency of the Q1 Professional, I went for this print of a Tie Fighter, suspended on “strings” flying out of the Demise Star. Now the stings are literally filament and some intelligent printing strategies enable them to convey solidly and precise droop the Tie Tigher mannequin in skinny air.
I don’t suppose I’ve ever been so happy with a 3D print as what greeted me once I obtained up the following day, my smile was beaming. The Q1 Professional simply printed this complicated object with zero fuss and I like it.
Conclusion
The Qidi Q1 Professional is a really, superb 3D printer. Its value for what you get is spectacular and if you need a Core XY relatively than one thing like a Bambu mattress slinger that is the most suitable choice for the money.
In fact, if you wish to spend extra there are Core XYs from Creality and Bambu that are additionally excellent 3D printers, however what we’ve right here is a cheap 3D printer that someone who simply fancies entering into the passion can just about decide off the shelf and get nice outcomes from inside minutes.
I can’t wait to see the place this upcoming 3D printing tech battle takes us within the subsequent 12 months. Nice job Qidi