Hatchbox Alpha 3d printer review

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EdinKali
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3D Printer(s): Hatchbox Alpha, Makerbot Thing-o-matic

Hatchbox Alpha 3d printer review

Post by EdinKali »

The Hatchbox Alpha is a delta style printer that
boasts a large build area of 300mm in diameter by
330mm high. I purchased mine from Amazon.com and the
price was $899.00 plus tax(shipping was free via
Prime). I also purchased a spool of Hatchbox black
PLA which was reasonably priced at about $24 for a
1kg spool. The printer arrived a couple days later in
a large, sturdy, cardboard box.

From the time I started unpacking to the time of
first test print was less than an hour. I unpacked
it, assembled the spool holder, plugged it in, used
the auto leveling feature, set the Z height using a
piece of paper, fed the filament to the print head
and it was ready to go. The all metal frame
construction is impressive and the LCD screen menu is
easy to navigate.

The print quality so far is impressive using the
included slicing program(Cura is included on the 2G
SD card that comes with the printer). The machine is
also very quiet while printing with the PSU and
cooling fans being the loudest sounds emanating from
the printer.

Overall I would rate this as a solid "A" for someone
with prior 3D printing experience. I probably
wouldn't recommend this for someone just starting out
as there isn't much support out there yet for this
fairly new printer. My only nitpick so far is that
the extruder fan just sits inside the head assembly
and rattles a bit when spinning but that was easily
remedied with a small piece of servo tape in between
the fan and the mount.
IMG_1961.JPG
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LePaul
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Re: Hatchbox Alpha 3d printer review

Post by LePaul »

Hi Ed !

Thanks for posting this here!
EdinKali
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Re: Hatchbox Alpha 3d printer review

Post by EdinKali »

You're welcome!
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Dim3nsioneer
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Re: Hatchbox Alpha 3d printer review

Post by Dim3nsioneer »

Compared to a cartesian printer, where do you see the advantages / disadvantages?
It does have a heated bed, correct? (I guess the yellow sticker is the warning...)
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LePaul
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Re: Hatchbox Alpha 3d printer review

Post by LePaul »

Ed, I don't recall what your other printer was....what was it? I know this isn't your first one!
EdinKali
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Re: Hatchbox Alpha 3d printer review

Post by EdinKali »

So far the advantages appears to be how quiet and smooth the printer is compared to my old cartesian Makerbot. The other benefit is the cost to build size ratio. Anything else pre-built with a build area this large and a good reputation was roughly triple the cost. It does have a heated bed and auto-leveling which is nice.
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LePaul
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Re: Hatchbox Alpha 3d printer review

Post by LePaul »

Let's see some test prints, Mr Stark! (Ed strongly resembles him!)
EdinKali
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Re: Hatchbox Alpha 3d printer review

Post by EdinKali »

IMG_1973.JPG
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