Any cubic sponsored this video and sent over their new Cobra X for us to take a
look at. This is Any Cubic's new multimaterial printer with their Ace Gen
2 multifunctional system, which shortens retraction time paths and minimizes the
amount of purge you have to do. The system comes capable of printing four
different filaments at a time by default. So, you don't need to buy any
extra things off the top to get started with multifilament printing.
Ah, I wasn't sure exactly how this was going to come to us. This is a good time
to note this is a prototype, so the actual production units may vary
slightly. Quickly looking at how it's packaged, it looks like it's pretty well
assembled. I wouldn't be too concerned about things getting damaged in
shipping, though, right off the bat, there is a fair bit to assemble once you
get it out of the box compared to some of the competitors. Looks like we have
the print base first. They certainly
didn't skimp out on the packing foam on this one, which is both good and not
necessarily the best for environmental, but you know, at least the product's
probably going to make it to you in one piece. Taking a quick look through their instructions. Doesn't look too
complicated, but there are some parts that you definitely want to make sure you don't forget, especially like
unlocking the Z axis, which is fairly standard for some printers, just again
to make sure nothing gets damaged in shipping. Does look like they include
all of the tools that you need to get the build set up and probably some extra
components as well, including a needle for what I would assume is clearing out
the nozzle. Weirdly common for 3D printers. Unlike some printers I've
seen, these look like they're using plastic brackets. I've seen some other
manufacturers using metal brackets, but shouldn't be a problem one way or
another. We have what looks like some cast zinc components to assemble things
together or potentially aluminum. Looks like the mounts are pretty sturdy for
this type of printer. I'm sure it's plenty good enough. And the main axis
are coupled together with a belt for the vertical aspect,
which should again be more than adequate. As much as I love Allen keys,
screwdrivers.
And for those of you that don't like cast finished or machine parts showing,
they do include some aesthetic covers for these as well. Next up, connecting
the print head, camera, and XY motor cables.
It's pretty slick mounting in terms of uh spool holders. It's one of the
quicker ones I've assembled. And time to install a whole bunch of
teflon tubes. Looking a little bit like an octopus,
but those are all fed in now. And looks like the next step for this is power on.
Going through and putting this together. Pretty straightforward all things considered, especially for a printer at
this price point. And they do send a double-sided textured PEI plate that
they say is good for PLA, ABS, and PETG G. Interesting that the this particular
one doesn't say it's good for uh TPU,
but I'm I suspect it would probably work fine. They do have a full magnetic bed
that holds it down, which is fairly standard. Overall build construction
looks acceptable. It's a bunch of aluminum extrusion for the supports.
Some plastic couplings at the top and bottom with stickers everywhere to make
sure things don't come apart. Ah, so they do include a very short length of
PLA for a test print. Cool. You can skip the uh Wi-Fi configuration. So it looks
like you can run it just locally. And the classic download an app. One second,
please. Make an any cubic account. Can I skip this?
Yay, I can. Nice. All right. Next up, it does give you a warning to make sure
that the Zaxis mounts are off, which is good. uh if they could damage things if
they're still on. I'm glad that they included this cuz people will forget if
you don't tell them. Kind tips. Calibration is about to begin and
expected duration is 35 minutes. While
this thing is calibrating, I wouldn't recommend doing this, but let's take a look under the hood. little heat sink, a
silicone covered hotend, and it does look like their melt zone is very short,
which would help contribute to their claims about less waste and faster print
times. And part of their ACE Gen 2 system is adaptive force on the
filaments that allows you to compensate for using different types of filaments
like TPU or ABS, and you shouldn't have to adjust how firmly it's gripping it.
and they have a little tiny and relatively whiny cooling fan, which I'm
guessing will be running for the vast majority of the time you're printing. If you're sensitive to that, keep that in
mind. Other features of this printer include active bed leveling with 49
point compensation, and apparently active noise cancelling, which I'm
guessing is how the motors will function and try to minimize how much noise the
printer makes outside of the fan. We'll get the rest of this thing set up,
calibrated, and run a print. Then we can come back and talk about the experience.
Now that I've had an opportunity to take a look through this printer and get a little bit of use out of it, I do have
some thoughts right off the bat. Setting it up pretty simple, pretty
straightforward. They have a pretty nice UI and audio input for when you're
feeding in your filaments. Nice and immediate feedback and it gives
you a good indication that you've done it correctly. You can feed through all
of them individually and the UI for implementing it is pretty
straightforward. You can choose all of your colors fairly easily and choose in
which location they're going to. In terms of getting a print started, it was
pretty simple as well. The print that I chose to do was one of the default ones
on their machine, which is this multicolored dragon. It came out really
well. They have some pretty good texture details on it, and the multiolor worked
really well. One detail, as with all
single extruder multifilaments, there is a fair bit of material waste. Though,
compared to some of the other competition, it is substantially better,
but it's still quite a bit of plastic for a print this size.
So, that is a thing to take into account. A couple of other features, it
does have an RFID reader for being able to scan your spool and then load it in.
The usability of it is okay. You take one of your filament rolls, scan it on
the RFID reader, and then I believe within 5 minutes, if you feed it into a
specific location, it'll automatically load it into that spool location.
Relatively simple, but also a bit contrived when the UI for entering them
here is pretty simple. One feature that I learned about, not from my own trial,
but from researching it a little bit online, is their filament detection. Out
of most of the other printers that I've used, this one I'm actually quite
impressed by. If one of the spools runs out of filament, the head will detect it
and then spit out a very short length of filament that is the scrap. Unlike a lot
of other ones where you'd have to feed it back all the way through the tube or something like that, the design here is
actually very impressive. Other printer manufacturers could take note on on this
one. While this is getting started, a couple other features that it does have
on the back, a nozzle wiper just to help make sure that the tip's cleaned right
off. That helps it probe more consistently and have more clean prints
in general. Weird UI things on this screen. Anytime the print bed is hot, it
says the heat bed is hot. Please do dot dot dot. Please do what though? There is
a way to like exit it out, but it'll always come back whenever you start a
print, which is just a little weird. A couple of other features that I noticed
later on. There is a camera on board for, I believe, AI detection of print
failures and to enable a time-lapse of your print if you want to. They also
include a nice little privacy screen for if you just want to make sure it can't
see what you're doing for one reason or another. After going through and using
this machine, I'm pretty pleased with it, especially for the price that it's
at. With the retail price being $400 US,
it's a pretty accessible printer, especially for what it is. I do have a
bit of a question about longevity and how the hardware will stand up over
time. And as with all multifilament single extruder printers, you do end up
with a fair bit of waste if you're doing a lot of multiolor 3D printing. But
printers that solve that problem are a couple of times more expensive than
this. So for what it is, highly impressed. Thanks again to Any Cubic for
sponsoring this ShortCircuit. And get subscribed.