Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Multi Color 3d Prints: Lotmaxx Shark V2 3D Printer”.
Welcome back to make workshop, where we check out tools, toys and tech built for makers. Today we’re going to be looking at a dual filament 3d printer: it’s got some other tricks up its sleeve too. This is the lot max sc10 shark version two uh last year. We saw a whole bunch of videos of people that were getting version one and trying it out after a kickstarter and now they’re selling version two which has been updated.
It has a few differences and we didn’t get a chance to look at version one. So we’re happy to play with version two. Just for clarity.
Lot max did not sponsor this video. They did send the machine for us to look at, but we ultimately don’t keep most of the machines that come through the workshop. Let’S talk about specs as far as printing size goes. This has roughly 250 millimeter by 250 millimeter by about 265 millimeter work envelope. The standout features of this machine are, of course, the fact that it has two extruders that feed through this one hot end. You’Ve got an extruder right here and then you, it may be kind of hard to see, but there’s an additional extruder mounted up here.
Other features that it has are kind of the things you’ve come to expect from a modern, 3d printer things like you know. Of course, a heated bed, a removable, flexible print sheet with a nice textured surface on it. I actually really, like you, know, removable flexible sheets as you’ve probably heard me go on about many times in the past. I am very happy with removable flexible sheets and i can’t imagine working without one. They have filament run out sensors, dual gear, extruders, all kinds of wonderful stuff. I also have to commend lot max on their industrial design.
I really like kind of how everything is packaged up very nicely and neatly it feels like a quality product. You know it’s got these kind of folded, steel brackets and even the underside of the machine. Everything is encased.
Let me see if i can do this without dropping it. Everything is encased quite nicely. You can see there.
One criticism if i were to have one about the design. Is that there’s no real cable management for things like the second extruder? You kind of just have these cables dangling out here and i don’t have an easy solution to offer them. I guess i can zip tie it around this side and up there and they do supply zip ties, so you can do it nice and pretty on your own. The software that comes with it is based off of cura, and you can load in your files and print multi-color prints out of the box and that’s pretty cool. They also have an additional feature on this machine. That is the fact that you can swap out the hot end for a laser engraver, a diode-based laser engraver.
I’Ll talk a little bit more about that. In a little bit, there was a little bit of assembly required out of the box. You have to mainly mate the two big pieces of the frame together and then mount the second extruder. But aside from those simple things, it really is pretty much ready to go out of the box.
The bed was wobbly, but i have to commend lot max on this on their website. They have a list of resources and in those resources, are video tutorials and they covered a lot of things. For example, they clearly showed how to get rid of any wiggle. That may have worked into your bed during shipping, so good job lot max on that, once it’s all put together, you’re pretty much ready to go. There are test files on the card that ships with it and you can immediately throw filament on it that it, ships with and print a multi-colored object like this little dragon, holding a heart, the interface on this machine.
It’S kind of neat, it’s on this external uh. Little housing and i actually like the interface lapmax – did a pretty good job of making everything clearly labeled and making it easy to navigate around the interface. I like it a lot. There are a few things that i would like to see that i would enjoy more that are missing here. Like some printers have you know a preview of the file, and that would be kind of neat, but overall i actually like their interface.
It’S simple to use and it kind of makes sense on where the buttons are and they’re. Clearly labeled. The machine does have automatic bed leveling with a bl touch. You can go and and do the automatic bed level, but it’s separate from the actual print on some machines. You know you hit print and it levels and then it prints on this. You kind of level the bed first and then do your prints.
They’Re kind of separate no big deal just took a little bit of getting used to getting started on it as far as print quality goes well. It’S fine! It’S an acceptable level of print quality. You can see on the dragon that i printed initially that we came on the card that the layers look great, there’s no real blobbiness or stringiness between it. The the layer, separation or the layers aren’t separating or anything and the colors are not bleeding into each other or overlapping. I tried slicing one myself as well.
I found this multi-colored dice and slice that up at a different layer, height than their uh included files and it printed okay. I had some issues with the purge tower, where it cleans the nozzle in between color changes breaking loose and that i believe affected the print quality, but even so it turned out acceptable with some tinkering. You could probably get some really beautiful prints out of this machine. Did you know that make has an online store, we call it the maker shed and it’s packed full of toys, soldering educational kits books, even back issues of the magazine, we’ve got all kinds of awesome stuff. Let me give you an example.
This time of year, one of our best selling kits is the compressed air rocket launcher system. You make these cool rockets and you use compressed air to shoot them hundreds of feet in the air check down below for a link to that kit and just browse around the store and check it out. I promise you’re going to like it. Let’S talk about lasering, the previous version of the of the tiger looked like it had a way for the laser to mount next to the extruder here, so that it could kind of always be on the machine. This version you have to physically remove your extruder and mount it up here and, if you’re going to mount it here, you’re going to have to like disconnect cables and wires and stuff, and i ended up just draping it over here whenever i was playing with the Laser and not bothering mounting it here, um a a quick change would be nice or even just a little bracket or something to just clip it on to would be nice but hey. You know it’s a 3d printer i can design and and print. Maybe something that bolts on here that just holds whatever i’m not using, while i’m not using it to use the laser. You take this off. You mount your laser here and you mount an additional box down here that interfaces with the electronics and that causes everything to switch over to laser mode. The interface on the controller changes, and you then can control your laser.
I have to say my experience with the laser: wasn’t amazing, maybe i’m spoiled from playing with co2 lasers. You know they’re more powerful. Typically, their software is more robust. The software on this is extremely simple, which can be good. You know you don’t have a whole lot of things to mess with, but they’re, not necessarily clearly labeled. The videos explain a little bit like a tiny bit of how to use it.
But you know you have things like uh. Your power has a work and a dot setting and a number next to it, but you don’t know what the numbers mean and in the manual it says, lower numbers are stronger, but when i change the numbers it was really hard to tell anyway. The point is, if you’re willing to tinker with it, you can probably get some decent lasering out of it, but don’t expect this to be a workhorse laser, that’s going to give you the highest quality, it’s not marketed as that either. So you really shouldn’t be surprised.
This machine is available right now on their website for 499 dollars, not a bad price for a machine that has some decent industrial design, and you know the dual extruders built in. I think that’s quite nice. You can find a link to their website down below. Thank you for joining me today. I hope you enjoyed this be sure to give us a thumbs up and click subscribe for more videos from this channel. You .