Overview

The Zortrax M200 is one of the best desktop 3D printers on the market. It is competitively priced, reliable, and accurate. Although it’s technical specifications are rather run-of-the-mill (90 micron layer resolution, 200 x 200 x 185 mm build volume), the overall experience, and especially the surface finish, is highly consistent, even across overhangs and areas that many other 3D printers struggle with.

Pros

It’s hard to say how much of the excellent surface finish is owed to the solid construction, the slicer and it’s impeccable support generation, or the filament, but it all comes together in an extremely well-engineered piece of machinery. Setup time is minimal, and it does not need to be calibrated very often to deliver very high quality prints. Below are just a few examples of the type of print-quality you can expect:

A scale model of the head of Michelangelo’s “David”

A bearing that shows off Zortrax’s Print-In-Place (PIP) chops

A model jet engine from G.E.

A Cubic Trisection

Bird Feeder (from printednest.com)

A sweet Chevy. Anyone know what year? Looks like mid-50s to me.

 

Finally, a functional music box. If you try to print this, bear in mind that it needs a chamber to resonate on, such as an empty cardboard box. I was planning on getting a video of this in action but unfortunately one of the tines broke off and I will have to reprint. The preset song wasn’t very good anyway. Make sure to check out the customizer to create your own song.

Cons

Drawbacks are few, although the problems that occur with Zortrax are endemic to desktop FDM 3D printers in general: warping, difficulty in removing supports, and adhesion problems, where prints lift up off the bed. Iused an ABS slurry (acetone + ABS) which seems to help, although probably not for long.

The technical support seems to be somewhat lacking, which is to be expected of a company that was crowd-funded through kickstarter,  but I have faith it will become better with time.

Technical Specifications

Source: https://zortrax.com/product-details/technical-details

Technology: FFF

Price: $2199

Build Envelope: 200 x 200 x 185 mm (8”x8”x7.5”)

Build Volume: 7.4 liters

Minimum Layer Height: 90 microns

Materials: Plastic

Release Date: June 2013

Useful Resources

User Guide: Zortrax M200 User Manual

Software: Z-Suite (requires serial number)

Forum: http://forum.zortrax.com/

Filament: https://zortrax.com/product-details/materials

Support (General): http://support.zortrax.com/

Support (Request): http://support.zortrax.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

 

When all is said and done, I would very strongly recommend the Zortrax M200. Hope you enjoyed this review, please feel free to leave comments below!