Selecting the appropriate printer

Hi Trevor,

Well the Cube Pro Trio is a shiny model but the cubify plastic is cartridge based with smart chips (think inkjet printers where they still have ink but refuse to print).  Whilst it is possible (certainly on the low-end versions) to hack it so you can use bulk filament (approx 5x cheaper!), it's a hack - http://hackaday.com/2013/04/26/cube-3d-printer-hack-lets-you-use-bulk-filament/

One other thing I would point out is that multi-extruder FDM technology is in it's infancy - I've yet to see a flawless print with dual or more extruders on FDM printers. multiple extruders allow for multi-colour and really nicely captive parts with PVA (water soluble) support but there's no PVA cartridges for cubify yet, so you have to use really awkward settings like ABS support (soluble in acetone) with PLA parts, but expect colouring of the PLA to be affected by the process.

You might want to watch for the road-test reviews that are upcoming for the robox 3d-printer, which looks really nice and I'm waiting for mine to review, it might be a better alternative.  Although it too uses chipped cartridges, it does them right, allowing the user to program them.

I'm not very up-to-speed with commercial printers being mostly on the reprap side of things so apologies that I can't offer much more alternative advice than "be careful" :-)

Hi Trevor,

Well the Cube Pro Trio is a shiny model but the cubify plastic is cartridge based with smart chips (think inkjet printers where they still have ink but refuse to print).  Whilst it is possible (certainly on the low-end versions) to hack it so you can use bulk filament (approx 5x cheaper!), it's a hack - http://hackaday.com/2013/04/26/cube-3d-printer-hack-lets-you-use-bulk-filament/

One other thing I would point out is that multi-extruder FDM technology is in it's infancy - I've yet to see a flawless print with dual or more extruders on FDM printers. multiple extruders allow for multi-colour and really nicely captive parts with PVA (water soluble) support but there's no PVA cartridges for cubify yet, so you have to use really awkward settings like ABS support (soluble in acetone) with PLA parts, but expect colouring of the PLA to be affected by the process.

You might want to watch for the road-test reviews that are upcoming for the robox 3d-printer, which looks really nice and I'm waiting for mine to review, it might be a better alternative.  Although it too uses chipped cartridges, it does them right, allowing the user to program them.

I'm not very up-to-speed with commercial printers being mostly on the reprap side of things so apologies that I can't offer much more alternative advice than "be careful" :-)