My review of UP Box+

[SpragClutch]

First, I have been 3d printing for a few years now. I started out with a Flashforge Dreamer (Still have and use), next I bought a Prusa I3MK2S (Upgraded now to a 2.5, and still have and use). This is my 3rd printer and I bought to primary be able to print in ABS.

First what I don't like. I have gotten use to the Open source ways and having complete freedom to adjust my printer and slicer settings to however I want. So after buying the Up Box+, there was an initial disappointment of being under the restrictions of Teirtime and their "Up Studio (Slicer)" control on what I can and cannot do with this printer. Their Slicer software is pretty basic and lacks many features that would allow this printer to reach its full capacity, such as for example "infill settings", only allows the weak, alternating every layer, rectilinear infill. There is no solid infill setting unless one chooses 99% infill which uses up a lot of material. So, if you are thinking of buying this printer just consider that you will be held back by their software. You can only use their software with this printer. And it is light years behind in features when compared to Simplify 3D.

Next, the print bed heats up very slowly and realistic max bed temp is 90 C with 80-85C being the temp it will heat up to in 30 minutes.

Last thing that comes to mind on negatives is you can only adjust the cooling fan manually. You can not adjust the fan to turn on/off or fan speed by layer. It is simply on all the time and one must adjust a valve manually on how much cooling air is directed to the nozzle area.

Now with the negative out of the way, I'll move on to the neutral stuff. This printer is not a beginner printer. There is a learning curve to using it. Don't expect it to be out of the box and perfect printing with no experience. There is a method to the madness in getting the printer dialed in.

Here is my recommendations before printing. Download the Complete Up Box+ manual from Teirtime website. The printer will only come with a short quick start manual which is good for throwing away. Perform a "Fine Manual Calibration" of the bed and nozzle clearance found in the full "Up Box+ manual" (downloaded from their website). This is critical and will help you avoid a lot of headache and wasted material. This will get your bed manually level and printing from now on will be pretty much straight forward by doing the following before each print. 1) preheat the bed and make sure the nozzle is clean. 2) Run the automatic leveling (this will also do a nozzle check). 3) Print!

Its that simple and you will get good whole plate prints that will stick well and will not cause feeding problems! But only if you perform the "Fine manual calibration" check first. This is what has been working for me. For others the automatic bed leveling and nozzle check may not work as well.

Up Studio does allow custom Filament settings which allows you to use other brands of ABS and such. TeirTime ABS prints well but is extremely expensive. (40$ for 1kg). I'm currently using Paramount 3D ABS and I am having very good results. I'm printing with the same temperature as Teirtime ABS and settings but I had to adjust peel ratio and it prints beautifully and is much cheaper (20$ for 1kg).

Now for the good. If you do your part, such as properly leveling the bed and letting the printer preheat to correct temps, it will print ABS very well! I've done relatively big long objects at 65% and 80% infill settings and the prints stick perfectly to the bed and with virtually no warp. Objects are dimensionally accurate and the prints come out smooth.

Maintenance on the the nozzle assembly is easy and swapping between ABS, PLA, and TPU nozzle assemblies is simple and quick. The printer is well made.

Comes with perf boards and Flex boards. I prefer the Flex boards and with a raft I have no problem with ABS prints holding on to the Flex board.

I would buy again.

I look forward for Teirtime to update their Slicing Software to be able to compete with top of the line Slicers such as Simplify 3D. Or simply allow Simplify 3D to be used with their printer. If they ever do this then this printer will be fully unleashed! But I don't see this happening anytime soon and so I will just have to accept the limitations Teirtime sets on me.

Thanks for reading and I hope this helps give you insight!

Edited 12/02/2018. - changed Paramount 3D ABS settings above. I was always printing at 270 degrees when I thought I was adjusting the temp. Learned another thing about Up Studio. When you edit in filament customization it will not take effect unless one re-selects the filament type again in UP Studio. The raft peeled a bit harder at first, once I clicked easy peel it peeled cleanly off. So this is a Plus for Paramount ABS. It prints basically with the same settings as Teirtime ABS. The only change is I moved the Peel ratio to easy, and make sure I click Easy Peel in print settings.

[Tiertime-Joseph]

Hello,

Thank you so much for taking your time and writing your review.

Appreciate it!

Joseph

[SpragClutch]

I can no longer recommend this printer. To many mechanical and software issues that don't work. These two things make this printer more work then my other printers.

Mechanical Design Flaws,

Under design extruder that only works with a perfectly balanced Bed and nozzle height. Otherwise you will get a fail print due to the filament not extruding due to grinding it away from over pressure.

And a Auto Leveling system that does not get the perfectly balanced bed required for the under designed extruder.

Both these things can be easily address by simply designing the extruder to handle more pressure. Bondtech comes to mind. The Auto Leveling system is plenty good enough if the extruder was better designed. (Bondtech comes to mind yet again.)

Then the Software is not fully calibrated when using nozzle sizes outside of 0.4mm. I tried printing with the 0.6mm and 0.2 mm nozzles and there were so many different problems that I simple put the 0.4mm nozzle back on. Not worth taking the time to write them down here. But its simple that the Software is not Calibrated fully for those nozzles. And Yes I was using Up Filla filiment, with a perfectly level Bed, and with Up Studio Settings.

I can no longer recemend this Printer. I regret buying it.

[SpragClutch]

The last post I submitted may have been harsh.

And,

Even though I still regret buying this printer. Using the 0.4 mm nozzle and when everything is dialed in as far as bed leveling, it does print excellent parts in ABS. I just got done printing a part that turned out very well. Just wish everything else such as 0.2 mm and 0.6 mm nozzle settings worked just as well. And I wish the extruder feeding mechanism was better designed. And I wish that we could use Simplify 3D with the printer.

But this is the printer that I purchased, and I have to live with what I got.

[SpragClutch]

Hello Again!

I will give an update.

The ABS and PLA Extruders are very under design. The Extruding feeding mechanism is simply terrible. As many of you have experience, the often failure of Filament being fed from the extruder.

Well, I finally got sick of having this problem. In short, I took the much improved Feeding Mechanism from the TPU Extruder, and installed it onto the ABS Extruder.

I then had to fiddle with the Material Profile Manger to re calibrate my ABS to print a perfect 20 mm cube. Then voila, I now no longer have feeding issues. My bed no longer has to be perfectly level anymore and I can start and finish a print without failure to feed! I also dont have to take apart and clean the feeding gear every so often. Its kinda Awesome! This printer is now something I can now put to work and not hassle with to get a print.

WARNING, This is not just a simple swap. It does take some modifications to space the Hot end with the TPU feed mechanism, and then a little grinding to allow the extruder hold down screw to screw in.

But I'm happy with the results. I will keep this thread updated as I now continue my use of my Up Box+ printer.

Cheers!

[motoyoyo]

Thanks for your continued updates on this printer. I started out with, and still use my Up Plus 2 printer I bought six years ago. I have tried a couple newer printers with various other slicers. While most other printers do a great job with PLA and PTEG filaments, they just don't compare with the results I get with ABS from my Tiertime and Up slicer. The Up Box and even the Up 300 use basically the same extruder design as my old Up Plus 2. Although the extruder gear is prone to wear, it does a great job until the gear starts air printing later on in its life cycle. I do wish Tiertime would update the basic design, and what you have done with the TPU extruder sounds like exactly the update that is needed.

I still get great ABS prints from my UP PLus 2, and will continue to use it. I am considering an Up Box+ also, just for larger prints and the enclosure. I suppose, since I am very familiar with getting the most out of my Up Plus 2, the Up Box+ should be fairly straight forward to get working the same. I wish there was a better option for ABS in this price range, but so far I haven't found anything. For me, ABS is the only practical filament for anything structural. PLA is nice for detail and PTEG is ok for higher temps, but no match for anything ABS can do.