3D Printing seems to be a pretty big rage these days. They are almost becoming a household name and affordable enough to bring into your home without breaking your wallet too much. This week I am going to review the AXIOMe 3D Printer from Airwolf3D.
Airwolf3D sent me out the AXIOMe 3D Printer to take a look at and put through a strict review process, and that’s exactly what I’ve done. I’ve had the AXIOMe for a total of around 3 months now and I have put this thing through the ringer and back. I’ve printed parts, toys, flexible materials, prints that have gone on for 30+ hours and I think a review is justified at this point.
The Pros:
- The quality. Supremely built. Quality materials. Quality Design.
- The look. The AXIOMe looks stunning for a 3D printer. Most 3D printers look very industrial, the AXIOMe has a sleek finish and takes 3D printing standards to a whole new level with their looks.
- 3D Printing – Yeah it does this and it does it amazingly well. The print quality from the Airwolf3D AXIOMe 3D Printer is definitely top of the line.
- Auto Leveling Bed – Yeah this is like easy mode for sure.
- Prints 30+ materials – I’ve only printed a few. Printing TPE(Ninjaflex Filament) is so fun!
- Large build area
The CONS:
- Does NOT have a heated bed
- Due a not heated bed printing with ABS is not recommended.
- I had a hell of a time getting my prints to stick to the bed – Let’s discuss this further because this was my biggest flaw with the printer.
Why won’t my prints stick to the bed?!
So I feel like every 3D Printer has to have something with it that isn’t going to be entirely smooth and work 100%. For the AXIOMe the print bed seemed to be my biggest issue. No matter what I used to try to get my prints to stick to the bed whenever I tried to print models with a large flat surface or multiple small models with flat surfaces they would shift, get thrown about, FAIL. I’ve tried the <a href=”http://airwolf3d.com/shop/wolfbite-prevents-3d-printed-parts-from-warping” title=”Wolfbite” target=”_NEW”>Wolfbite</a>, hairspray, glue sticks, whatever it was just didn’t seem to work for me. The only way I was able to get these types of prints to work properly was to put supports on the bottom of them so that they would properly adhere to the bed. Of course this would cause more of a hassle for me at the end because I would need to remove all of the supports, but this worked and I got by.
Is this a deal breaker? NO – It wasn’t very often that I printed models that required this degree of attention and if I absolutely needed to print something and I had to use supports that was okay with me. I personally feel like if this printer had a heated bed this wouldn’t be as big of an issue.
Final Thoughts
The <a href=”http://airwolf3d.com/shop/aw3d-axiome” title=”AXIOMe” target=”_NEW”>AXIOMe 3D Printer</a> from Airwolf 3D is outstanding. Aside from one little hiccup that I can totally get past without getting upset about because there are ways to get around this without any issues, this printer is top of the line. The quality of the prints that this produces have been amazing. Printing 0.1mm at 20mm/s the quality is so slick, smooth, and mind blowing to be quite honest. The very first print that came out of this machine was a WORKING ball-bearing and I was blown away by this. I could not believe that on the first print the AXIOMe printed a movable part without any issues at all. Every print that I have put through this machine have blown me away in one way or another.
Check out these two videos that I did on the AXIOMe for more information.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPNqyB333yM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ypjiswc3t4w