In The Shed: Shiny! New! Ultimaker 2!

3D Printing & Imaging
In The Shed: Shiny! New! Ultimaker 2!
Ultimaker 2 - Now In-Stock at the Maker Shed!
Ultimaker 2 – Now In-Stock at the Maker Shed!

The Ultimaker 2 just arrived in the Maker Shed!

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With its shiny new look and softly glowing LED illuminated frosted panels, the Ultimaker 2 is sure to look great on your desk or workbench. It’s got a nice big build volume of 8.9″ x 8.9″ X 8.1″ with a heated glass bed that prints just pop right off of, once it cools down. Print in ABS or PLA. With the newly redesigned direct drive extruder, the retraction is quick and quiet and heats up fast; 220°C in 1 minute. Its dual duct fans cool PLA parts well and produce nicely structured overhangs. It also has a sexy new OLED screen and redesigned integrated controls for untethered printing.

Keeping It Open Source

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Ultimaker has consistently been at the forefront of the desktop 3D printing world and is still “keeping it open source.” The company has a solid track record of published open software and firmware updates and a complete release of the Ultimaker BOM. Although they have not yet released the plans for the Ultimaker 2 (the electronics have been partially released), they have pledged to do so and will post them in their GitHub repo. Watch the repo to see when the files go live.

Go Cura, Go!

CuraEngine, the slicer used by the Ultimaker 2, is crazy fast. It automatically re-slices as soon as a change is made to a model loaded into Cura, Ultimaker’s intuitive and beautiful integrated printer control and slicing software. Ultimaker consistently provides regular software updates for both their Cura and the Ultimaker firmware used to run the machine.

Getting Better All The Time

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In fact, the firmware has already been improved since MAKE’s review (we reviewed a “pre-release” version for our testing). Our 2014 Ultimate Guide to 3D Printing tester Eric Chu stated, “The Ultimaker 2’s hardware and software updates make it a real contender for the prosumer crown.”

This latest firmware update could push it into first place.

At $2,599.00, she’s pricy, but you get what you pay for. The Ultimaker 2 is a solid machine. Get yours from The Shed while they last!

See all of our Shed picks here.

2 thoughts on “In The Shed: Shiny! New! Ultimaker 2!

  1. David Evett says:

    Received my new Ultimaker 2 from Maker Shed over a week ago. I had a Makerbot Replicator 2 and parted with it out of frustration. After clearing a major hot end clog which I caused, I can easily say this printer is awesome! It is much more refined then the MB Rep2 and the output is nothing short of amazing. It is very quiet and unobtrusive. Expensive, yes, but you really do get what you pay for.
    Other printers have some catching up to do.

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Anna Kaziunas France is interested practical digital fabrication focused project documentation (anything that turns codes into things), as well as adventures in synthetic biology, biohacking, personal genomics and programmable materials.

She's currently working on the forthcoming book "Design for CNC: Practical Joinery Techniques, Projects, and Tips for CNC-routed Furniture".

She’s also the Academic Dean of the global Fab Academy program, the co-author of Getting Started with MakerBot and compiled the Make: 3D Printing book.

Formerly, she worked as an editor for Make: Books, was digital fabrication editor and skill builder section editor for Make: Magazine, and directed Make:'s 2015 and 2014 3D Printer Shootout testing events.

She likes things that are computer-controlled, parametric, and open— preferably all three.

Find her on her personal site, Twitter and Facebook.

View more articles by Anna Kaziunas France

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