Turnigy Fabrikator 3D Printer Review

Imagine, design, print right at your workbench

This article was originally published in RC Driver’s December 2015 issue.

3D Printing technology is here and its popularity is growing rapidly! Printers are being used to create everything from prototypes, to art pieces and of course even RC model parts, basically anything you can imagine being printed in plastic can be. Turnigy saw this rapid growth in popularity and the need to fill the void by offering a 3D printer at an affordable price. Someone can get into this new tech easily while learning from building the kit all the way to their successful first print. They did this by developing the Fabrikator. Are you ready to dive into 3D printing? This may be the machine you need to make the plunge; let’s talk details.

THE KIT
The Fabrikator arrives in a very large box that leads you to believe that you’ve been sent an assembled unit, but in fact when you pop the box top you’ll find a series of well-marked boxes with partially assembled components inside. First you’ll grab the instruction manual and flip through it to familiarize yourself with the steps and components. Then it’s time to get building! This part is actually fun and a lot of the hard parts have already been completed and packaged away in some exceptional die-cut packing foam that protects all of the Fab’s parts while in transport. The manual clearly and easily guides you through the building process and other than a few questions on where to place some zip-ties to secure wires, I did not have any issue with the Fabrikator kit assembly.

THE FEAUTRES
Turnigy went with a modern, open, visual concept with the build, meaning the walls of the printer are clear plexiglass so you can see all of the internal workings of the machine. Not only does it give the machine a cool look, you can visually inspect all working components to make certain everything is in proper working order. Some of the standout features are its heated glass bed and removable glass print plate. The deck can be tweaked to make certain the bed is sitting truly level after a short calibration process. Four guide rods give the unit precision stability as the printer goes through the motions of raising and lowering the deck during printing. On the workhorse side, NEMA class motors get the job done of accurately moving the print head to their precise locations to print your creations. Belts are used to smoothly guide the head to its locations while a lead-screw is used to control the bed height. The head uses 1.75mm ABS or PLA filament and two cooling fans keep print temperatures under control. Powering the system is a 29 amp power supply and a GUI board with LCD screen along with a simple single control knob acts as the brains for the stepper motors. What’s really cool is the GUI can be controlled by a cable to your computer or you can download the file to be printed on a Micro SD card and the printer can do its job independently from your PC. There are several other high tech features involved with this kit, but as the Fabrikator is pitched, it’s a do-all machine for anyone from basic to high tech, so be assured, you’re getting some good equipment here.

THE PRINT
Once you’ve finished building your Fabrikator as per the instruction manual, you’ll feel a little bit like you’ve been left hanging on what to do next. You’ll basically find your way over to Youtube.com where you’ll search for HobbyKing’s videos on the Fabrikator and you should set some time aside to watch them. Once you view the HK videos your next steps toward getting the Fabrikator working are clear. You’ll need to pick a program if you’re looking to design your own products. The Fabrikator is set up to use G-code so you’ll need to use and save your works in the appropriate extension.

Since I’m still in the beginning phases of learning to use design programs, I cheated to test the Fabrikator. I headed over to the website thingiverse.com and found a boat rudder to print by simply searching for it in the search bar. Once I found a rudder, I downloaded the file. It was a .stl file so I had to import the file into my Cura by Ultimaker program to convert it. Once the file type was converted I saved it to my Micro SD card and simply slipped it into the port on the Fabrikator. Once the machine recognized the card, I used the knob on the box to select my rudder file and simply hit the print command and watched the machine go to work printing my rudder with PLA plastic available from HobbyKing. I will say that the first few attempts were not as smooth as I would have liked. I did have to go and play with the temperature and feed setting to get the plastic to stop flaring as it printed, but once I got the hang of the tweaks, it was simple and easy to print out the rudder. And I didn’t stop there, I printed a few Minions for my kids, an iPhone dock and an FPV camera mount for one of the guys in the office. The Fabrikator did a great job and people were pretty impressed with the quality and speed of the prints.

WRAP-UP
Turnigy came out hard hitting in the rapidly expanding world of personal 3D printers when they developed the Fabrikator. For a machine that can print an object just shy of 6x6x4 inches for a price under $500, this puts prototyping, replacement part development and just plain creativity and the ability to turn it into reality right on your workbench. The Fabrikator works great and the rudder I made worked well. Plus my kids loved their Minions. I can’t wait to see what new parts I can make now that I have a machine to do it right there in my workshop. I see many more modelers expanding their abilities with 3D printers and I recommend turning to a hobby company like Turnigy to get you into this new technology.

Link
Turnigy, Dist. By Hobbyking, hobbyking.com