When you’re new to 3D printing then it’s possible you’ll not have heard of Sunlu earlier than. Nevertheless, for those who’ve spent a while within the 3D printing neighborhood, then you definately’ve most certainly heard of the favored filament maker.
Whereas Sunlu has already established itself as a good filament provider, the corporate has additionally begun increasing into producing its personal lineup of 3D printers. The newest addition is the Sunlu Terminator-3, which the corporate was form sufficient to offer for assessment.
Options
At first look, the Sunlu Terminator-3 bares a placing resemblance to the Ender-3 Neo from Creality, albeit with a couple of upgrades. For starters, the T3 encompasses a printing pace of as much as 250mm/s, clog detection, and filament break detection.
A few of the different customary options are additionally current, resembling a 32-bit silent motherboard, auto leveling, resume after an influence failure, an all-metal double-gear extruder, and built-in belt adjusters. Moreover, the Sunlu Terminator-3 makes use of a mattress 220 x 220 x 250mm whereas solely having an general footprint of 440 x 400 x 470mm.
The Sunlu T3 makes use of a single 0.4mm nozzle with a max temperature of 260℃ and most mattress temp of 100℃, with assist for 1.75mm PLA, PLA+, carbon fiber, ABS (low temp), PETG, HIPS, WOOD, PCL, and TPU filaments.
Lastly, the Sunlu Terminator-3 features a USB Kind-B male connector and microSD card for loading up G-code recordsdata or sending instructions to the printer. I’ve heard that Octoprint works with it, however I’ve been utilizing the included 8GB microSD card completely with the machine.
Set up
When you’ve ever put collectively a chunk of Ikea furnishings, then you definately’re already far overqualified to assemble this 3D printer. The Sunlu Terminator-3 comes packed in a box split into two main halves, together with detailed directions, a number of baggage of bolts, and each device you’ll want. In truth, there’s even an additional bag with spare elements, together with a spare nozzle.
Meeting went fast and straightforward as soon as I unboxed the T3, an skilled builder may end placing the 2 halves collectively and attaching the filament spool in beneath quarter-hour. An inexperienced consumer may nonetheless have it accomplished in lower than half an hour. Probably the most difficult half is tilting the Terminator-3 on its facet to insert the bolts, for those who can name {that a} problem.
Total, the method is so easy with little or no room for error and you ought to be up and printing very quickly. Simply don’t overlook to manually degree your mattress after you’ve completed tightening all of the bolts.
Talking of the mattress, Sunlu has opted for a magnetic construct plate that’s simple to take away and has been unbelievable for adhesion in my expertise. The one draw back I’ve encountered is that I’ve managed to place some slight indents in mine whereas eradicating some stubbornly stuck-on fashions.
One other minor criticism, is the knobs for leveling the print platform occur to make use of a twin knob system that was troublesome to get began, particularly due to how small they’re. Regardless, I’ve to commend Sunlu for utilizing massive sturdy springs.
Efficiency
One of many standouts of the Sunlu Terminator-3 is its fast 250mm/s printing pace, nonetheless, simply because it’s quick, doesn’t imply it’s good. From my expertise of printing some easy XYZ calibration cubes, the quick printing setting returns sloppy outcomes. The corners of the dice seemed tough and the areas across the letters confirmed lots of ringing. Whereas the pace itself could be very spectacular, I discovered the standard to be missing and I wouldn’t suggest printing on the T3’s max pace until you’re ready to do lots of tweaking with the settings.
As soon as I disabled the quick printing mode, which was on by default, and started printing at extra manageable speeds, resembling 30-50mm/s, the Terminator-3 actually shined. I began with an XYZ calibration dice after which moved on to the notorious benchy boat. Apart from some slight stringing on benchy, the outcomes have been unbelievable.
I then dialed within the settings and started printing extra sophisticated fashions utilizing this multicolor pack of silk Sunlu filament from Amazon and got here away very impressed with the outcomes contemplating how little I needed to tweak the T3. With 3D printing, there’ll at all times be small flaws relying on which fashions you might be printing and tweaks you can also make with the slicer or changes to the {hardware} to enhance your printing high quality. But, virtually proper out of the field, the Terminator-3 was printing fantastically.
The standard improved even additional after Sunlu launched a profile for the T3 on its web site that may be imported into Ultimaker Cura. Nevertheless, there was some gcode on the finish I needed to change as a result of the brand new profile added a 100mm retraction on the finish of printing.
Last ideas
The Sunlu Terminator-3 begins at $279 placing it in direct competitors with a number of the hottest 3D FDM printers in the marketplace. Whereas it touts an extremely quick printing pace of 250mm/s, it should take loads of tweaking if you wish to get high quality prints at these speeds.
Regardless, the Sunlu T3 is a really succesful 3D printer with some unbelievable options, resembling a built-in mattress leveler, clog detection, computerized resume after energy failures, and extra. Simply be sure to print at some extra affordable speeds and also you gained’t be upset with the outcomes.
