Manufacturer: Mingda
URL: http://www.3dmingdaofficial.com
Price: $599
Features
The Mingda Magician Pro is aiming at the people who want to print large things with decent features, without spending the money for a massive 3D Printer. At roughly $600, this printer won’t be competing directly with the most budget minded (like it’s smaller sibling the Mingda magician X does), but rather it will be appealing to those who want to make things like helmets with space to spare.
The most outstanding feature, of course, is the 400x400x400mm build volume. That’s quite a lot of space to play with. Having automatic bed leveling is a nice feature as well.
Here are the tech specs from their website:
● Print size: 40×40×40cm (15.7″×15.7″×15.7″)
● Calibration: Self-developed Automatic Leveling, 36 Points
● Filament diameter: 1.75 mm
● Printing material: PLA / ABS / PETG & TPU
● Nozzle size: 0.4mm default, wide range of other nozzles supported
● Extuder: Direct Drive,Double Gears
● Filament run-out detection: Support
● Resume Printing: Support
● Tool Box: Yes
● Max nozzle temperature: 260 °C/500 °F
● Max heatbed temperature: 110 °C/230 °F
● Average speed: 8-10 cm/s,3.1-3.9in./s
● Control panel: 3.5 inch colorful LCD touch screen
● Print interface: SD Card,U Disk,USB-C
● Z-axis: Double threaded rod with synchronous belt
● Machine Weight: 14.5kg
● Machine Dimension: 65×58.6×67.5cm / 25.5*23.0*26.5in(X×Y×Z)
Set up
Out of the box, the setup was very simple. You basically just line up the vertical parts (the main frame and 2 braces) and drop in a few screws. After that, all that is involved is plugging in the loose wires.
The whole process took me about 10 minutes.
Printing
When it comes time to print, you can slice using pretty much any popular slicer. Cura has this machine as a predefined option. Then load onto the machine via USB , SD Card, or USB-C.
The touch screen LCD does a fine job of control, though feels a bit simple and maybe a little dated. You don’t get a visual preview of your file.
I ran the bed leveling and printed the included Gcode of an angel sculpture. The print quality on the angel was great. The only noticeable issue on mine was some Z-banding. All the overhangs and details turned out perfect. I did find that there was some stringing on one side of a more complicated print, as you can see above. While the stringing itself can be blamed on the filament settings, the fact that it was only on one side meant that the cooling could use some spreading.
Noise during printing is fairly minimal. The extruder fan is going most of the time but the steppers don’t overpower your room.
Thoughts and observations
I really have mostly positive things to say about this machine. It is sturdy as can be, really big, and at a price that is hard to complain about. Really, my complaints or issues with this machine are tiny enough that they’re almost not worth mentioning.
Firstly, it’s huge. I mean, you get that it is huge because of the 400mm bed size but since it is a bed slinger, that means you need an extra huge space to run it in. You’ll need roughly 800mm front to back. Not a problem for me, but possibly for some.
I had some frustrations loading filament as it didn’t quite go through the dual gears and hit the filament path perfectly when loading initially. This is tiny but might be something to keep in mind if you plan on using very flexible TPU filaments. Again, it works fine. It only meant I needed to pop off the tension lever thumb screw so I could see the path and line up the filament to push it through.
This does have a glass bed. I know some people love them, but personally I can’t imagine using anything without a flexible build plate. I haven’t looked yet to see if I can buy a build plate for this, but so far I’ve not had issues finding cheap flexible plates for all other printers. If you like glass beds though, then this isn’t a problem for you.
Ultimately, the main selling point of this is the huge volume. If you don’t need the volume, their Magician X will give you the same performance at a lower price.
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