Fischer - a German high-tech brand which you’d
mostly know for inventing the type of wall
plug we all know and love today. But one of
the things they’re also making is Fischertechnik,
a construction system that started out as
mechanical build blocks and has been expanded
to include kinematics, electronics, programmable
robot components and now a 3D printer. Because
they typically focus on educational, downsized
and simplified versions of industrial machines,
it feels a bit weird that they have now released
a full-scale, fully functional 3D printer.
Or have they? Let’s find out. [Intro]
So this is the Fischertechnik 3D printer - it
doesn’t actually have a specific product
name, it’s just their 3D printer. On the
first look, it resembles something like a
MendelMax, using the classic moving bed with
a vertical truss that supports the X and Z
axis. The build volume is advertised as 115mm
wide, 100mm deep and 80mm tall - however the
included software is only set to a 65mm height.
Apart from the 3D-printer-specific parts,
It’s built entirely from standard Fischertechnik
components, which means there are 890 parts
for you to assemble, all revolving around
these blocks, pins and profiles that you can
interconnect on all six sides. And assembling
all those parts in one go is not something
i enjoyed too much, since there are many parts
that are very similar to each other and you
have to pay really close attention to the
exact orientation you’re supposed to assemble
them with, which isn’t always that clear
from the manual - and while a wrong part might
fit initially,, it’s going to leave you
with a missing or wrong mounting point down
the road. And just pushing parts onto the
aluminum rails in particular was quite frustrating
and painful. Overall, the build took me a
good ten hours, which was, as usual, while
entertaining a livestream audience. I did
build a few things not exactly to spec, but
those bits don’t affect the machine’s
performance at all. I also left out the spool
holder, which is a separate part that simply
clips onto the back of the machine and can
take either the included loose filament sample
or full-size spools.
The included 3D-printer specific parts are
carried over from the discontinued German
RepRap NEO - and no, GermanRepRap are not
an official RepRap sub-brand, they’re just
using the name, and apparently somehow conveniently
forgot to mention to Fischertechnik that the
Printrboard clone they’re supplying is licensed
as Open Hardware as CreativeCommons share-alike
and the Repetier Firmware, which drives the
entire thing, is covered under the open-source-software
GPL license. This would require Fischertechnik
to publish the source code and design files
they used for these components, but as far
as i looked, there’s not the slightest hint
of open-source components used, let alone
the schematics or modified source-code shared,
which not only is a slap to the face for the
open-source community (and a license breach),
but also means that you can’t easily modify
for example the firmware to make your own
changes as you modify the printer, you’d
have to start from scratch and reconfigure
the entire thing.
So hardware-wise, we have a traditional, PEEK-based
bowden hotend with absolutely no cooling fans,
neither for the hotend itself, since that’s
not required, nor for the part you’re printing.
And we’ll get to that in a second. The extruder
is a simple, direct-drive type, which generally
just works. The printbed is simply a piece
of acrylic with some BuildTak on top, it’s
not heated, there’s no way of adjusting
it, and there’s also no sensor-based compensation
for that. Mechanically, all axis are driven
by these plastic leadscrews, which are actually
many individual segments assembled onto a
4mm steel rod. These leadscrews mate with
the matching Fischertechnik nuts, which simply
integrate like one of the regular building
block, and make up for a surprisingly low-backlash
motion system, and on the Z-axis, both sides
are synchronized and connected to the motor
with this belt, which you get to assemble
yourself from 132 individual elements. The
Z and Y axis run on the same type of 4mm rod
that’s used for the core of the leadscrews,
while the X-axis runs directly on these aluminum
profiles with plenty of silicone grease as
lubrication. Overall, mechanically, this is
one of the floppiest 3D printers out there,
just shy of the old, wooden Printrbot Simple.
Which makes sense, since all of the connecting
parts are not just made from plastic, but
also contain countless dovetail connections
that simply rely on a friction fit. Most of
these assemblies consisting of 20 or more
individual bits could be so easily replaced
by just a single custom-made or even 3D-printed
part, but i guess that would be missing the
point of this machine.
On the electronics side, you’d be hard-pressed
to find any luxury features as well: Motors,
mechanical endstops and the heater and thermistor
for the hotend - that’s literally all you
get. The Z-endstop is adjusted with the same
type of leadscrew as used for linear motion,
plus a jam nut to keep it in place, but this
adjustment is so coarse and unreliable that
getting the nozzle height perfect for the
first layer is complete guesswork. And if
you tighten the jam nut too much, remember
how these leadscrews are individual segments?
Yup, you’re going to pull those apart.
While the Printrboard used in here does have
the option of adding a heated bed, an LCD
screen and SD card slot, and basically everything
else you’d expect from a modern printer,
those options are not put to use.
So just as a 3D printer itself, how well does
it perform? Well, better than what i was expecting,
but those expectations weren’t too hard
to beat. Since the 3D printer doesn’t have
a part cooling fan and is exclusively meant
to print PLA, you’re always going to end
up with parts that show strong curling on
any sort of overhang and blobbing if you try
to print a fine detail, and because the motion
system isn’t too precise nor very rigid,
prints end up quite inconsistent, with mechanical
mates rarely fitting on the first try. Getting
a good print is often up to luck, and while
i was able to get some prints out of it that
were serviceable, the overall print quality
is still on the lower end of what is acceptable
for a 3D printer these days. There is one
print profile and one profile only in the
included, Fischertechnik-branded Repetier
host software, but of course, you’re free
to create your own profiles for the Slic3r
or Cura slicers.
One of the challenges of getting prints out
at all is the printbed. While parts stick
well to the included BuildTak sheet, the bed
is absolutely not flat. If i built the printer
completely by the manual, it would have ended
up with a bed that was even more warped, since
you’re supposed to clip the acrylic sheet
directly to the bed platform, which uses plates
that aren’t perfectly flat themselves. If
you slightly modify this and prop up the build
surface by using these gears as a shim between
the acrylic and the bed instead of as a washer
on top, it already gets much flatter, but
still is warped enough to have the nozzle
digging into the surface in the center if
you want your parts to stick at the corners
of the build volume, too. Essentially, you
need to print larger parts with a raft, which
was last popular about six years ago. And
that’s sort of the vibe I‘m getting from
this machine - in many regards, its features
and performance are quite similar to the first
attempts at making an affordable 3D printer
spawned by the RepRap project into something
like the Cupcake CNC. So by all means, as
a 3D printer, this is neither a modern nor
a well-performing machine. If you’re looking
to buy something that just 3D prints, at the
price point of 699€ MSRP for this Fischertechnik
machine, there are certainly much better options
available - for just a few bucks more, you
can get the made-in-Europe original Prusa
i3 MK2, which is a fully featured machine
that, like, just works. For about 400 bucks,
you could get an US-made Printrbot Play, which
prints much nicer than the Fischertechnik
kit, is quicker and, at least for me, much
more enjoyable to build and use and is a more
robust machine. And i don’t even have to
get into, like, the far-east imports like
the sub-200€ Turnigy Fabricator Mini, which
is probably still a better 3D printer at its
core than the Fischertechnik kit.
And at this point i was really questioning
things: What if i’m missing something? What
if this isn’t supposed to be a real 3D printer?
I mean, after all, Fischertechnik’s mission
is education first, so how does it deliver
on that front? Well, i personally always keep
recommending 3D printer kits over ready-built
machines just because of how much you learn
about the machine when you assemble it yourself.
But i feel like the build of the Fischertechnik
machine mostly taught me how to push little
plastic pieces together and the finished machine
was sort of a byproduct of the process, considering
how much time you spend with creating all
the little subassemblies vs actually creating
larger functional units. In the build manual,
you also get a basic explanation of the components
used and their functions, as well as a few
pointers towards tools and websites to create
or download more 3D-printable models. This
is great as a starting point, as a few other
machines just give you a troubleshooting guide
and tell you “ok, that’s it, have fun”,
but the included explanations aren’t super
comprehensive, either, where they would make
for a basis for school lessons. Also, the
info you’re getting isn’t exclusive to
the Fischertechnik machine and is something
you could just as well read up on the various
3D-Printing focused websites and channels.
The age recommendation 14 and up certainly
makes sense as well, considering how complex
the build is and how little the final assembled
machine improves on what even budget 3D printers
deliver as far as quality, reliability, ease
of use, and last, but not least, safety is
concerned. I mean, the hotend is completely
exposed and there’s absolutely no way of
telling whether it’s sitting at 20 or 200°C,
since there’s no fan that spins up or even
any sort of LED that would indicate it’s
heating right now. Sure, you should be careful
not to touch the hotend either way, but i
feel like this could have been implemented
a bit better.
So overall, the Fischertechnik 3D printer
feels more like an experiment of “how far
can we go” instead of an attempt of making
an actual, functional 3D printer. Things like
the mediocre motion system, the lack of an
adjustable bed and not even including a part
cooling fan make it barely usable as a 3D
printer or even as a 3D-printer-like-toy to
experiment with. Especially at the price,
i feel like there are just too many options
out there that give you a much more robust
machine and even a much more enjoyable and
educational build experience. I personally
really liked the build of the Printrbot Play,
which took me about half as long to complete.
That spare time could be used to learn about
3D printers and try out different things with
it hands-on instead.
Maybe, if you’re a huge fan of the Fischertechnik
system and want to get in on their 3D printer
because it’s sort of a cool thing for you,
then by all means, go for it, but for everyone
else, including educators, i can’t really
recommend the Fischertechnik 3D Printer kit.
So that’s my take on what is certainly an
interesting machine. If you enjoyed the review,
give it a thumbs up, if you, like really adored
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