Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
Type A Series
in place on the Z stage between the head of
a bolt and a spring at each corner. To level it,
you simply adjust these four bolts; to remove
it, just pull it toward you to move larger slots
over the four bolts, and lift it free.
Changing filament is a breeze: pull the lever
back and slide the filament out. It's com-
pletely exposed, which leads us to believe
it'll be easy to troubleshoot.
Another benefit of the Series 1's construc-
tion: speed. The Type A crew claims their
frame design can clock in at printing speeds
of 90 mm/sec and travel speeds of 250 mm/
sec. It's also quite accurate—it will print
beautifully at a layer thickness of 0.1 mm and
will happily go all the way down to 0.05 mm
(50 microns), where the stepping of layers is
difficult to detect.
The Series 1 performed extremely well in our
test prints. The large bed let us print all the
parts of the nautilus gears in one go, the owl
came out beautifully, and achieving a per-
fect snake print was no challenge. However,
like many of the other machines, the Series
1 wasn't able to handle the extremely small
arch in our “torture test.”
Type A Machines' Series 1 is one of the largest
3D printers we reviewed. Based in San Fran-
cisco, Type A's tiny crew of Andrew Rutter
and a handful of hackers out of Noisebridge
and TechShop began constructing Series 1
prototypes in August 2011. By the time Mak-
er Faire Bay Area 2012 rolled around, the
team had several iterations of their machine
on view.
The Series 1 has a few downsides. Our demo
unit was loud, especially when moving at
high speeds—a problem that might be mini-
mized with grease and the tightening of
bolts.
The Series 1 is an open hardware product,
meaning you can download the pertinent
case and equipment files, build your own,
and make modifications at will. Like Maker-
Bot's Replicator 2, the Type A Series 1 is op-
timized to print in PLA plastic.
The machine's 9"-cubed build volume is so
big (1.2 liters) that one of the “bonus” prints
we did during our review weekend was a full-
scale, wearable hat. The jumbo volume is al-
so perfect for printing multiple parts or even
whole assemblies at once. The build plat-
form is made of laser-cut acrylic, and it's held
