Lessons Learned:
- XYZ Printing service may be slow, but they will take care of you
- Use it or lose it means thoughtful 3D printing
- XYZ Printing really is listening and improving
- Have a small project ready to fill the time
- XYZ Printing isn’t cutting corners
- Full color 3D printing isn’t cheap, but it’s more affordable than ever
- Chipped filament is bad, but its not that bad
I feel like I need to justify that last point a little. Maybe because I’ve been vocal about chipped filament in the past. Yes, from a consumer perspective chipped filament is less desirable. But it’s not “bad” in the same way that taking people’s kickstarter money and then refusing to deliver them rewards is bad. It’s not bad in the same way that iterating an open source firmware and then keeping your changes to yourself is bad. Quite frankly, I long for the days when the worst thing that we were complaining about is a company amortizing their costs with mandatory material. The biggest problem, tho, is that people who have a DaVinci printer can’t join the filament of the month club.
I kinda wish I had planned this video out a little better. If I had, I would not have put the slowness of their service at the front. Maybe lead off with the solidness of their printers. But this wasn’t told from the perspective that would make XYZ Printing look good, it was told in the narrative order. And so this story starts with the burst inks. And, no kidding, my index finger was magenta for two weeks.
But once we got past that, it’s clear that XYZ Printing is doing their level best and moving 3D printing forward in ways that no one else is. In fact, better than their best. Not only is this an amazing printer, all XYZ printers are the best engineered 3D printers on the market, and don’t forget that.
I didn’t get to talk much in this video about the DaVinci Color Mini. Partially because I don’t know much about the mini. But I have a lot of questions. I know the size is smaller and apparently it’s even slower than the full sized DaVinci Color, but otherwise it’s just as well built. Does it have the auto-level that I love so much on the DaVinci Color? Don’t know. Honestly, it’s not a feature one uses much, and it adds a ton of expense, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see it go. But, man, that’s a beautiful feature. But in general, the DaVinci Color Mini looks cheaper to own by half and cheaper to refill by 1/3rd, both of which are a very good thing. I still think the Davinci Color (!mini) is a great option for a commercial endeavor… or it will be when they get their color correction right. And compared to other color 3D printing options, the DaVinci Color line is, without a doubt, the most economical.
I also didn’t get to mention how the DaVinci Color (and mini) aren’t limited to full color printing. You can load most any of XYZ Printing’s filaments in there and it’ll print with them just fine. And they’ve got some fun filaments to play with. That’s something I’d like to do, especially if I can get the hardened nozzle upgrade.
And, I also didn’t mention how XYZ Printing really needs to work on their web site. It seems to be down or slow most of the time that I’m on it. And their model gallery, and I hate to say this, but it makes thingiverse look good. And I’m not font of thingiverse. At least they’ve added a search function recently. It didn’t used to have that. So they’re improving, and in the future it might actually be good. Here’s hoping.
Also, there’s design choices I made for the business cards. Also, there’s the fact that the Davinci Color needs to lighten up… literally. It’s putting down too much black. Sheesh, for as long as this video was, there’s a lot that was left unsaid. This video was, I kid you not, 30 minutes of raw footage that I aggressively cut down to 15 minutes. There’s a lot I cut out of this video that I’m may have to remember to mention in future videos. There was also a lot of rambling and repeating myself. See, this is why I tried using scripts. When I just have a few bullet points I I forget stuff, but when I use a script people complain because my script reading voice is different than my relaxed talking voice. Which it is. There has got to be a happy medium.
