Any TAZ 4 Users? Curious about reviews

I am seriously thinking of buying a TAZ 4 and wondered if anybody has first hand experience with one and what you think? Any down sides at all?

Thanks!

I have a Taz 4 I'm currently testing for a review I'll be posting soon.

I can say it's awesome and I love it. But is there something specific you wanted to know about it?

I've posted a first print and unboxing videos on YouTube.

Hello,

Yes I am a bit concerned about the fact that they used plastic linear bearings and non hardened smooth rods. I see on their own forum people have been complaining about slop between the bearing and the rod, others talk of upgrading to good linear ball bearings and hardened chrome rods to improve prints and longevity. From what I understand the plastic bearings are for light duty applications where movement is not constant. So, can you tell me if you have seen any slop in these bearings or are they still tight on the rods? How many hours would you say you have printed?

It just boggles my mind a bit that they would go to the effort to use Acme lead screw then cheap out on the bearings and rods.

Have you had any issues at all with it? How would you rate the quality of prints?

Oh, and have you used other reprap printers or is this your first?

Thanks!

I have been using the TAZ 4 for a while. The overall quality is very good. The printer is incredibly easy to set up. I like the lead screws, large printing area and robustness of the frame. The printer is fairly quick, and it uses gentle acceleration settings.

However, it is not without problems. The wire that goes to hot end heating element was broken, so I had to repair it. Repairing it was easy, though, thanks to the very modular construction of the printer. The hot end leaks between the heat block and cooling side, could probably be fixed by reassembling the hot end more tightly. The hot end gets clogged if you print PLA for a long time, this was fixed by designing and making a cooling duct with 40 mm fan for the hot end. ABS works fine out of the box.

And yes, I am also wondering why they chose to use IGUS bearings. Probably because they are more silent and cleaner. They are not able to keep the moving parts straight at all times, for example the bed first wiggles a bit sideways, and then starts movement under fast acceleration. I am going to replace them with proper linear bearings.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/16/2014 05:07PM by jkoljo.

jkoljo

Thank you that was helpful. FYI if the leaking hotend is while using PLA, I did see Lulzbot is aware and said if you remove the nozzle, wrap with pte or ptfe tape (I think that was the tape) and put the nozzle back on it stops the leaks, it's actually squeezing between the threads and coming out. But that was only an issue with PLA from what I understand.

Well, I haven't noticed any of those problems. I printed for a few hours in PLA, and didn't get any leaking. I also haven't noticed any slop caused by the bearings. Those IGUS bearings are actually more expensive than standard LM10UU ball bearings, so I imagine they did it because they think they perform better.

Personally, I haven't had any problems at all and love the thing. I've probably printed at least 100 hours so far. Print quality is good, although I've mostly been printing at fast speeds (as opposed to going for quality). I'll be aiming for quality as I do more testing.

This is the first Rep Rap derivative I've worked with, but I own a Printrbot Simple Metal and I've worked with a professional Fortus in the past.

Thank you for the information.

Quote
tmorris9
if you remove the nozzle, wrap with pte or ptfe tape (I think that was the tape) and put the nozzle back on it stops the leaks, it's actually squeezing between the threads and coming out.

Thanks for the info, I'll try it.

precsion smooth rod better then hardened chrome rod due to the fact chrome will eventually peel of

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Quote
TheSerialHobbyist
Those IGUS bearings are actually more expensive than standard LM10UU ball bearings, so I imagine they did it because they think they perform better.

IIRC jebba (Jeff Moe) confirmed on the Lulzbot forum that the reason was mainly for noise reduction, as jkoljo surmised.

I've also read on the LB forum from a TAZ user that these bearings are actually designed to be press fit into a metal casing. You could probably confirm this on the IGUS website.

If you're still looking for info, I just posted my review here:

[www.serialhobbyism.com]