Make: Volume 52

For more reviews and testing procedures, go to makezine.com/go/3dp-comparison.

TOOLBOX

A LITTLE COMMUNITY SUPPORT COULD GO A LONG WAY

FOR THIS QUIRKY 3D PRINTER KIT WRITTEN BY MATT STULTZ

PRINT SCORES

Vertical Surface Finish

Horizontal Finish

Dimensional Accuracy

Overhangs

Bridging

Negative Space

Retraction

Support Material

(fail)

Z Wobble

(pass)

012345

opencreators.net

WHILE WALKING AROUND THE TIGHTLY

PACKED BOOTHS OF WORLD MAKER FAIRE

last fall, I ran into the OpenCreators team and

found something just quirky enough to catch

my interest: a cardboard 3D printer.

SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED

The OpenCreators Mannequin comes as a

mostly flat-pack kit and hails from South

Korea. The X/Y gantry is a pre-built H-bot

system, which drastically reduces the amount

of work it takes to assemble. The rest of

the parts are fairly intuitive to put together

with keyed rods and only a couple of plates.

OpenCreators only provides instructions in

Korean, but I was still able to assemble the

printer in about 3 hours (a record for a kit

machine), thanks to the excellent diagrams

included in the manual.

The base structure of the Mannequin is

all steel and aluminum, making for a rigid

machine. The outer shell, which is mostly

for aesthetics and to minimize drafts, is

made from cardboard. There’s even a door

with a clear plastic film for a window that’s

magnetically attached to the front of the

machine. The cardboard skins come in

multiple colors and make for a lightweight

shell that helps reduce the shipping expense

and most definitely the production costs of the

printer. If you have access to a decently sized

laser cutter you could have some fun cutting

your own custom exteriors.

BUMPS IN THE ROAD

The onboard LCD is full color and diverges

from the standard menus often found on

most printers, but is still very easy to navigate

and use. I encountered one error when the

bed-leveling probe failed to retract after the

measuring script completed — although I had

selected English as the operating language,

the alert still showed in Korean.

My test prints showed lots of problems with

the Mannequin, but many of them felt like

they could be adjusted in a better Cura profile

or by possibly using their optional Simplify3D

profile (or a custom one). Many of the issues

came from too much ooze from the hot end,

something that could be fixed by adjusting the

retraction settings.

Some problems are harder for the user to

change. The two fans attached to the hot end

blow across the heat break, helping to prevent

the machine from jamming, but there are no

fans pointing at the print to help cool it. The

extruder temperature fluctuates wildly and

seems to need a PID tuning to bring it into line.

The bed-leveling script stalls on the second

print after a power cycle, requiring a new

power cycle to continue.

CONCLUSION

A little community support could go a long

way for this machine. The Mannequin’s simple

build, decent print space, and fun cardboard

shell make it appealing, but until some of

the issues with this machine are worked out,

OpenCreators will have a hard time finding a

market here in the U.S.

MANNEQUIN

3D Printer Review

makershed.com92

MANUFACTURER OpenCreators

PRICE AS TESTED $670 USD

BUILD VOLUME 200×200×200mm

BED STYLE Non-heated textured plastic

FILAMENT SIZE 1.75mm

OPEN FILAMENT? Yes

TEMPERATURE CONTROL? Yes, tool head

PRINT UNTETHERED? Yes (SD card)

ONBOARD CONTROLS? Yes (LCD with

control wheel)

HOST/SLICER SOFTWARE Custom Cura

OS Windows only (but Cura profile can be

imported into versions on other OS’s)

FIRMWARE Marlin

OPEN SOFTWARE? Yes

OPEN HARDWARE? No

MAXIMUM DECIBELS 48.9

23

TOTAL

RESULTS

WHY TO

BUY

While this quick-

to-assemble

machine is rough

around the

edges, it has a lot

of potential for

hacking.

Matt Stultz

Matt Stultz is the

3D Printing and Digital

Fabrication lead for

Make:

.

He is also the founder and

organizer of 3DPPVD and

Ocean State Maker Mill,

where he spends his time

tinkering in Rhode Island.

PRO TIPS

Wrap the X-

carriage ribbon

cable around the

Bowden tube to

keep the printer

from crunching it

when homing.

I needed to

power cycle my

machine between

each print to keep

the bed probe

operation from

jamming.

M52_092_3DPrint_F1.indd 92 6/13/16 11:34 AM