The printer must retract the filament further and often still leaves "zits" where retractions occur. Print quality on the Kobra Max needs to be tweaked from its default settings, but you can get some great quality models from them if you're willing to do a lot of cleanup. If you want to learn about the right settings before you buy the Anycubic Kobra with this article, you are one of the praiseworthy few who do so! This printer is great for people who need to print very large objects on a budget, and who are willing to sacrifice some speed and print quality to get that. It does need some tweaking to perfect, but if you're happy to do some cleanup on your finished model then the Kobra Max is basically idiotproof. Yes, you need to play around to optimize the results, but that's a given with every consumer-grade 3D printer on the market, and the ability to print an adult-sized cosplay helmet or armor pieces like pauldrons really is incredible to see, and saves time on painstakingly matching up and gluing together a sliced-up model on a smaller machine. Performance Assembling the Anycubic Kobra Max is a straightforward process if you have previous experience using printers, and for those who don't, the instructions are well written with clear illustrations provided. The best settings for the first layer for the Anycubic Kobra in Cura: The settings you have seen in this article so far are very good guidelines for the Anycubic Kobra. I earn from qualifying purchases if you decide to make a purchase through these links at no additional cost for you! With stock settings, it came out pretty well with just some light stringing at the ears. The pattern and density of the infill determine the stability of the object. This is easy to clean up, and it's possible to reduce them with some adjustments, but it was a more prominent problem than we encountered using other FDM printers. The bed plate has six roller guides due to the size and expected weight larger prints will require. However, with a low layer height, the printing time also increases considerably. For most objects, a density of 15 to 25% is perfect. The settings for the retraction have a very large influence on print quality. However, I advise you to always calibrate the settings. There is some ringing/ghosting, which is a consequence of the moving weight and resonance. All content and graphical elements are Copyright 1997 - 2022 Julie Strietelmeier and The Gadgeteer. But the quality was good and this shows how you can print some truly gargantuan objects with the Kobra Max. All of the necessary tools come with the printer and I didn't have any trouble following the instruction manual. Scroll down, open the Custom menu and select Custom FFF printer. The calibration requires only a little time and is simplified by existing calibration objects. If you want to print huge prototype enclosures, cosplay props and suit pieces, or even small furniture proofs of concept, this is a good choice. It is even more important to calibrate these settings, as each TPU filament can behave slightly differently depending on the manufacturer. I live in the Pacific Northwest with my wife, son, and two cats. Cura often has very good standard profiles for most 3D printers on the market, but these must still be calibrated to the individual device and the filament used. And thats what this printer is for, to make big prints, and for my first big print, I chose a full-scale Mandalorian helmet that I found on Thingiverse that when printed would measure 292mm high, 293mm wide, and 293mm deep with 6-7mm thick walls. The roller wheels themselves are replaceable if they ever wear out. Although the print speeds used in practice are much lower than the theoretically possible print speeds, these are mainly intended for rough prototypes and not for fine details. But if you're going to print lots of large models, then you can still use the Kobra Max for the occasional little figurine. Reproduction in whole or in part, in any form or medium, without express written permission of The Gadgeteer, is prohibited. All the user has to do is adjust the belt tension and the roller tension for each axis, which only takes a couple of minutes. More about this later. I started my test prints on the small side with a tabletop miniature. But it implements a number of new features that the Chiron lacked. He is happy to share his experience with each new article. Lets see if the ANYCUBIC Kobra Plus can help me step up my printing game. Operational Nozzle Temperature: 500 F / 260 C Images alone can't make you fully appreciate just how large this FDM-style printer is, rocking a build volume capacity of 17.7 x 15.7 x 15.7 inches / 450 x 400 x 400 mm. These include over- and under-extrusion, stringing and other extrusion problems such as the formation of spots or blobs. The printer comes 90% assembled, but does require that the user perform final assembly. There's a lot of plastic on show, buts it's solid and clean, so the machine won't look out of place in a professional workshop or studio. To help you decide if the new Anycubic Kobra Max fits your needs, I put this printer to the test. Using a larger nozzle has a few downsides, but it has a 50% wider line width which would improve rigidity and print speed, and at a large enough size most models wouldn't see a loss in detail. Otherwise, you should start at 200 C and optimize in 5 C steps. Unlike the smaller Kobra, the Kobra Max has a Bowden-style extruder. That can cause jamming problems with flexible filaments, like TPU, and also reduces retraction performance. It would have been nice to see a 0.6mm nozzle included in the box, especially as Anycubic doesn't shy away from free accessories. Please refresh the page and try again. The concept is innovative (though not exclusive to Anycubic) and it's fascinating to see that finished prints will remove themselves after the glass cools down, but this being a large-scale machine actually means we were disappointed that the print bed is not removable like the PEI Flexplate system from the Vyper and the standard Kobra. Those printed without any issues and the quality was decent. These are affiliate advertising programs designed to enable websites to earn advertising revenue through advertising and linking to Amazon.com and others. Martin Ltkemeyer is a member of the Amazon Services LLC and other Affiliate Programs. Too large or too small a retraction distance or an inaccurate retraction speed can cause severe stringing and other printing errors. I also think that the Kobra Max would benefit from a larger nozzle. You can find out how to find the perfect temperature in the calibration section of this article below. Each set of rollers has a tension adjustment, so the user can make sure they roll smoothly without any lateral movement. However, due to the flexible nature of the filament, the print settings are important so that the filament does not get tangled. Disclaimer: Anycubic provided me with this printer free of charge, but this review is as unbiased as possible. I have only tested one type of TPU on the Anycubic Kobra, but Anycubic also recommends 60 C the same temperature at which I had very good results. There was some stringing, likely due to the Bowden extruder's retraction, but it was minor. The Anycubic Kobra Max comes with a textured glass bed. But the cardboard is sturdy and the printer is protected well with custom-cut foam. Especially for PLA and ABS these are proven standard values. Those clips do a good job of keeping the bed secure and they don't get in the way during movements. But there is also a handy plug-in in Cura, the Calibration Shapes plug-in. The Kobra sitting on the bed of the massive Kobra Max, Tabletop miniature with Bic lighter for scale, Print volume: 400 x 400 x 450 mm (15.75 x 15.75 x 17.72 inches), Machine size: 665 x 715 x 720 mm (26.18 x 28.15 x 28.35 inches), Interface: 4.3" full-color LCD touchscreen, Features: Automatic mesh bed levelling, automatic Z offset adjustment, filament runout detection. Best Cura Settings & Profile for the FLSUN Super Racer, In this article, you will find a detailed test. A density of 0% means that the object becomes hollow, a density of 100% results in a solid object. It took 80 hours and about 750 grams of filament to print. Machine size: 28.3 x 28.1 x 26.2 inches / 720 x 715 x 665 mm With the Cura settings for the Anycubic Kobra from this article, you should have very good starting values for your first test prints. The glass ensures that the bed remains flat, even with thermal expansion. This site is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. At this size, both flatness and thermal expansion are both serious concerns. That would have added some moving weight to the X axis, but the Kobra Max's print speed is already limited by the moving weight of the large bed in the Y axis. Most hobbyists do not need a printer this big and they are better off with other models including the smaller Anycubic Kobra. So naturally, the shipping box is big, too. Print Speed: 20 - 100 mm/s (recommended 80 mm/s) The bed's texture provides extremely good first layer adhesionto the point where parts, skirts, and brims can be very difficult to remove. At the top of the Cura interface, click Settings and then Printer and Add Printer. The best printing temperatures for the Anycubic Kobra in Cura: The print bed surface of the Anycubic Kobra is very good and provides very good print bed adhesion for most filaments. Links marked with * are affiliate links. To calibrate the flow rate, you use exactly the same calibration objects for the Anycubic Kobra as for other 3D printers. It even shows a flashy little animation when you turn the machine on. You can then easily recognize the correct temperature by the fact that there are no print errors on the respective floor. Should I buy? Positioning accuracy: X/Y 0.0125mm; Z 0.002mm The Anycubic Vyper is a smaller alternative from the same brand that offers a build volume of 245mm 245 260mm and costs $359 (around 255 / 300 / AU$460). You should adjust the retraction distance in small steps of 0.1 mm and the retraction speed in 5 mm/s steps. Design Disclosure: Links marked with * are Affiliate Links. Where to buy: ANYCUBICand you can find many of their printers on Amazon Source: The sample for this review was provided by ANYCUBIC. Even the smallest deviations can ruin the result. The default PLA settings for the Anycubic Kobra are listed below. However, these profiles are not yet matched to the individual filaments and the printer and will deliver suboptimal results. Print resolution: 0.05mm - 0.3mm The new Anycubic Kobra Max has the same print volume as the older Anycubic Chiron: a huge 400 x 400 x 450 mm (15.75 x 15.75 x 17.72 inches). fits your needs, I put this printer to the test. That said, this feels well priced for the Anycubic Kobra Max given its size and features will have a more niche appeal to consumers. Removed a bunch of zip ties (make sure you get the one under the build plate) and attached all the cables to their correct spots. The best printing speeds for the Anycubic Kobra in Cura: In 3D printing, the layer height is a measure of the accuracy, how smooth the surface of the object becomes and how many details remain visible. The best retraction settings for the Anycubic Kobra in Cura: Even though the infill is an important parameter in the print settings, it is independent of the 3D printer used. You need extremely high detail Offering up convenience in the form of a massive build plate, the Kobra Max is perfect for cosplayers, prop makers and small businesses looking to maximize their production output. All content and graphical elements are Copyright 1997 - 2022 Julie Strietelmeier and The Gadgeteer. It can be processed with any FDM 3D printer and forgives many a mistake. I made sure all the belts were good which were easy to adjust with external knobs, then booted it up which was pretty quick, ran the auto-leveling program, and fed in the 10M of included white filament. Extruder number: Single; Nozzle diameter: 0.4 mm You want something easy to operate In this article, you will find a detailed test. Therefore, the values given here are rough guidelines to give you a good starting point for optimization. Anycubic Kobra | Best Cura Settings & Profile Guide & List, How to Create a Profile for the Anycubic Kobra in Cura, Best Cura Settings for the Anycubic Kobra, How to Calibrate the Printing Temperature, The Anycubic Kobra is Perfect for Beginners. This printer won't wow anyone with its quality, but the output is acceptable for what I consider to be this model's use case. The bigger ANYCUBIC Kobra Max has a 400x400x450mm bed plate with a larger price to match at $569. There are big differences between different filament types and 3D printers. To keep the ambient temperature homogeneous, the Creality 3D printer enclosure is best suited for the Anycubic Kobra. If there is excess material at the opening of the nozzle when it moves over the object without extruding filament, thin hairs of filament will form between the beginning and end of the movement. With this, you're sacrificing your own space as a larger printer will dominate most of your workbench, but for some, that's a small price to pay for a machine that can print a full-sized cosplay helmet in one piece. She has been interviewed as an industry expert for the BBC, and while her educational background was in prosthetics and model-making, her true love is in tech and she has built numerous desktop computers over the last 10 years for gaming and content creation. This way you can quickly see which temperature is perfect. It does tend to make some sharp beeping noises when a print is completed, but you can adjust this directly on the control center. Jess is now a journalist at The Verge. In the next lines, I will show you the best settings for PLA, ABS and TPU. As long as the aluminum extrusion is straight and flat which was true for my machine the roller system should work just as well as hardened rods. It took 2 hours and 50 minutes to print. The sample for this review was provided by ANYCUBIC. I was happy to find that the quality was acceptable on par with budget FFF printers. If you don't need lightning-fast print speeds or fine detail, but you do need build volume on a budget, then the Anycubic Kobra Max should be at the top of your list. Your email address will not be published. The thicker the first layer, the slower it cools down. This means that the extruder motor is remote and doesn't ride on the X axis carriage. However, you need to set the correct print bed temperature to benefit from this. Built in light on the nozzle that you can turn on and off. Visit our corporate site (opens in new tab). At $281 the smaller 220x220x250mm Kobra is a capable printer but the $399 ANYCUBIC Kobra Plus for me is just right and sits in the quality/price/size sweet spot if you are looking to make some larger prints on a budget but not quickly outgrow the printers abilities and have to upgrade at some point. It is more affordable than the speedy CoreXY printers and has a much bigger build volume than most consumer models on the market. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. However, the settings must be adapted to the respective 3D printer and the filament used for this to work. It doesn't, however, show previews of the models when you browse the files on the SD card. But it does come with profiles for Cura, which is what most users will choose to use. The most popular slicer for the Kobra and also recommended by Anycubic is Cura. It works very precisely, has many useful features and forgives many a mistake in operation. If you want to approach the optimal printing speed, rough steps of 5 mm/s and then smaller steps of 2 mm/s are useful. The Anycubic Kobra Max is likely going to be the printer that folks will have on their wishlist if they're into cosplay, prop production, or simply looking to maximize their production output. To calibrate the printing temperature, you can best use a so-called temperature tower. Even seasoned professionals and experienced hobbyists can appreciate being able to get a machine ready to print with just a few button clicks. Cosplayers and prop artists will likely adore this machine though. These are the best settings for TPU with the Anycubic Kobra: In this part of the article, you will learn in detail what the individual settings do and which settings are best for the different filaments. A downside to the Kobra Max is its sheer weight, so while you can increase the print speeds in your slicer, pushing it too far could ghosting or ringing of fine details in your print due to the acceleration. Depending on the manufacturer of the filament, the perfect temperature can also be between 190 and 200 C. Jess is a former TechRadar Computing writer, where she covered all aspects of Mac and PC hardware, including PC gaming and peripherals. This tower consists of several levels, each of which uses a different printing temperature. PLA is one of the easiest filaments to use for 3D printing. Name the new 3D printer Anycubic Kobra in the menu on the right. If you set values higher than 100%, more filament will be extruded, if you set lower values, less filament will be extruded. So it is not difficult to perfect the print result with little effort. However, if all the values and calibrations have scared you off, dont shy away from 3D printing as a whole or the Anycubic Kobra. Sign up to theTechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed! Anycubic recently expanded its line of FFF (Fused-Filament Fabrication) 3D printers with the introduction of the Kobra line. There was a problem. It would be nice if you could take advantage of that nice screen to see a preview, but all you get is a list of file names. For the calibration, you need suitable objects. In addition to the pattern of the infill, the density also determines how stable the object will be in the end. For the perfect Cura profile for the Anycubic Kobra, the machine parameters have to be defined and the print settings have to be set for the respective filament used and, best of all, calibrated. To get perfect results you need to adjust and calibrate the print settings to the filament you are using. The contents are the views and opinions of the author(s) and/or associates. To help you decide if. The Anycubic Kobra Max is available in the US, UK, and Australia, as well as other regions globally, and you can purchase it either directly on the Anycubic website or via third-party retailers such as Amazon. Ambient Operating Temperature: 8C - 40C Please ensure that JavaScript is enabled in your browser to view this page. If you are looking for the perfect Cura settings for the Anycubic Kobra, you will find them in this article. Best Cura Settings & Profile for the Magician Max Tested! We didn't have to use too much brute force but there's always the risk that you can damage a print by trying to remove it too forcefully, which is less than ideal if said print is a huge, detailed model that may have taken several days to complete. Large-scale FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) is hardly a new or unique concept, but options are much more limited if you want something bigger than a traditional-sized printer, and with printing technology evolving at such a rapid pace, there are features present on the Anycubic Kobra Max that were either too expensive to include on older hardware, or simply didn't exist for consumer machines a few years ago. You can go from a sealed box to an operational printer in 20 minutes, and the operating instructions are easy to understand. This makes it quite easy to find the right settings if the default values in this article are not even perfect already. 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The best way to calibrate this value is explained later in this article. You can increase the print temperature, decrease the print speed or increase the print bed temperature. 8GB microSD card (preloaded with slicing software, e-manual, and sample prints) and USB card reader, Required bolts and washers for assembly plus spares, Printing Methods: Micro SD card, network cable, Bigger build plate without taking too much desk space, Z-axis braces to add stiffness and reduce vibration. How to do this is described further down in this article. We will then look at the calibration of the most important settings so that you can optimize the default values given here for your system. With a higher layer thickness of the first layer, you can increase the print bed adhesion. The smaller the layer height, the more accurate the print. REVIEW I have been 3D printing for a little while now and am definitely not an expert but with the help of online resources I have been able to make respectable prints on my older and smaller filament printer but I was limited on the size of prints I could make. Lifetime tinkerer and lover of all gadgets. Features For comparison's sake, the Creality Ender 5 Plus is a popular large-scale FDM printer that has a smaller print capacity (350 x 350 x 400mm) and that costs a smidge more at $579, though smaller machines will save you a good heap of cash if you have a tight budget. Its so small that you can print it within a few minutes and it shows you well if the settings are correct or still need to be optimized. Another criticism is with the nozzle. FDM printers have improved in recent years, but if you want to massively reduce print lines and improve fine detail you'll need to look at getting a resin printer instead. The benefit is that this reduces moving weight and should improve both speed and quality. A suitable enclosure for the Anycubic Kobra can be found here. They are all setup with a 0.2 mm layer height and that is what most people stick to though you can increase the dramatically if you swap in a larger nozzle. For PLA, 200 C has proven to be the best temperature for the Anycubic Kobra. This 3D printer is not only affordable, its also perfect for beginners. Remember, however, that you should only change one value at a time so that you know which parameter caused the changes. While I can't speak for Anycubic's marketing team, I believe that the target market for the Anycubic Kobra Max is the engineering crowd. If it is mainly decorative, you should of course choose a thinner layer height. Some filaments are more prone to stringing than others. Fortunately, it is quite easy to calibrate these two parameters for the retraction. There are profiles for PLA, ABS, and TPU. Because the bed is so large and heavy, the acceleration is quite slow and the Kobra Max wouldn't be able to reach speeds faster than 80 mm/s in most circumstances anyway. The touchscreen interface lets you calibrate settings, move the axes, load filament, and start prints. I like hazy IPAs and disc golf, preferably at the same time. Weight: Machine weight: ~16kg. The ANYCUBIC Kobra Plus is a mid-size filament 3D printer that slots nicely between ANYCUBICs smaller Kobra (22x22x25 cm) and larger Kobra Max (40x40x45 cm) with a maximum print size of 30x30x35 cm. Every component was secure and arrived undamaged. All products and trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Therefore, the ambient temperature should be as homogeneous as possible and higher than normal room temperature. Some other manufacturers are still using low-resolution monochrome displays with knobs, but the Anycubic Kobra Max has a nice, big, full-color touchscreen. Either way, you can get these problems under control with the right retraction settings. Fortunately, swapping to a larger nozzle is easy and affordable. If you have problems with the print bed adhesion, Magigoo can help. Unlike other Anycubic printers, the build plate on the Kobra Max is made from borosilicate glass covered in Anycubic's proprietary Ultrabase texture which becomes 'sticky' when warm, and then separates from the print itself when cool. Depending on what you're looking to print, the smaller build plate on traditionally sized FDM printers might be too restrictive for batch printing, or you might not like having to split large models into smaller sections which will require some technical skills if the file doesn't come pre-sliced. By For rough prototypes or parts that only have a mechanical purpose and dont need to look nice, you can increase the layer height in favor of a faster print time. It should only take around 20-30 minutes to get it up and running, though we would advise that you don't try and put it together alone given its sheer size. All rights reserved. I prefer to repair rather than replace so I have taken most things apart and sometimes I'm even successful at putting them back together. However, if you have problems with the layer thickness, you should first try to increase the layer thickness a little before you resort to other aids. For ABS, you need somewhat higher print bed temperatures. Even though the print bed adhesion of the Anycubic Kobra is very good, the wrong settings for the first layer can ruin the print. The Kobra Max features both automatic mesh bed levelling and automatic Z offset calibration, so setup after assembly is simple. Also, these profiles are usually only available some time after the release of the device. These make the Kobra Max an attractive option for those looking to print very large objects. It's also worth mentioning that because the bed moves backward and forward, there needs to be space behind the printer so you can't have it sat flush against the wall. This isn't the most expensive printer on the market, but it would still be wasted on you if you don't make use of its available print capacity. TechRadar is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. M420 S1 vs. G29 Leveling G-Code | When to Use Which? The 0.4mm Volcano hotend is great, but its size is restrictive and becomes a bottleneck when you put it on a printer of this scale, especially if you want to mostly print large models. New York, Anycubic did not pay for this review and these are entirely my own thoughts. You can also extend the time the filament needs to cool down by other settings. If this is too complicated for you, because you also need a script for the temperature change (can be configured within Cura via the user interface), you can also use the calibration object for the retraction. Next, I went in the opposite direction and printed something that took up almost the entire build volume. To create a new profile for the Anycubic Kobra, follow these steps: Cura then automatically creates multiple profiles for a wide range of accuracies. However, sometimes the extruder needs some calibration and the value needs to be set higher or lower. Not only do you need higher temperatures, a constant ambient temperature is also important so that the filament does not warp during cooling. To avoid leaving filaments remnants on the bed that would be difficult to remove, I recommend printing without a brim when possible. The floors are designed in such a way that errors like stringing are provoked. However, you will get the best results if you set the print bed temperature to about 60 C. If you increase the line width, you also improve the print bed adhesion. If it came stock with a 0.8mm spare nozzle and a larger capacity spool holder this would be a perfect setup right out of the box but those minor inconveniences in no way take away from the excellent capability and usability of the ANYCUBIC Kobra Plus. The accuracies range from 0.06 mm to 0.6 mm. The Anycubic auto-leveling system is dubbed 'LeviQ' and works well, sparing those without any experience in printing from having to manually level the print bed.