Turnigy X3S 3D Printer (US Plug)

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Great Product

Dec 05, 2021

Extremely well made. Very easy to assemble.

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great value for your money

May 17, 2021

My first 3D printer was also bought here at HobbyKing and was an utter disastrous disappointment. it failed irreparably after the 2nd print. this one however has exceeded my expectations. there are some details that could be improved, however, it's the best bang for the buck just as is. I have already recommended this printer to several people.

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Useless without upgrades

Mar 09, 2019

Right out of the box, the heated only heats up on one side. The heated and extruder cannot heat up enough to do ABS prints. In fact, the heat bed just shuts down as the extruder heats up. Apparently it's a lack of power. For a printer that is advertised to be able to print ABS, having to upgrade the power supply and install a MOSFET is garbage. 3D printing is very new to me, so I am either going to have to return this printer or try and find someone who knows how to upgrade the power supply and install a MOSFET, as well as figure out why the heatbed only heats up on one side.

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Nice printer after some much needed upgrades

Mar 01, 2019

The power supply that comes with the X3S simply does not cut it .. The 12 volt 20 amp power supply works to hard to heat the bed and hot end. Just those two alone pull about 18 amps not counting the stepper motors/ fans ect.. After 9 hours of printing on the X3S the power supply made a pop sound and the printer stopped working. Instead of contacting Hobby king or the manufacture that actually makes this printer " Tronxy" to get a replacement power supply and have this same problem down the road , i just bought a Meanwell brand 12V 30 amp power supply and have not had a problem since. Something i find interesting is, i also have a Tronxy X5S also sold by the Hobby King's brand name Turnigy. The X5S is a very nice 3d printer with a XY Core style print head. The X5S comes with a 12 volt 30 amp power supply, which has the same 330x330 print bed and hot end and stepper motors / fans ect. as the X3S printer does. Getting back to the X3S printer, i also added eccentric spacers to the printer's Delrin V wheels. This allowed me to adjust the wheels and get perfect spacing between the aluminum rails and wheels.

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Not good for the impatient first timer. This one takes patients!

Dec 28, 2018

Ok took a couple weeks to get this to print well. The printer itself was very easy to assemble. I did go over every factory installed screw like Eric did but none were loose like his. My belts were not loose either. It took awhile to figure out that the fiber print board for the bed was warped. Not good. This is my first printer and thank goodness for YouTube. Your gonna need it to get this thing adjusted right. I am using Cura. Not the repitier slicer that came with the printer. I cannot print via usb as for some reason it just doesn't. Cura can see it and I can move the XYZ axis via the program but no print. I use the micro usb reader instead and it prints from that. I bought a 13 x 13 piece of glass from Ace Hardware for 5 bucks and used a straight edge to check straightness.its perfect. I use Aqua net hair spray and if prints great after trial and error with resolution feed rate, extruder temp, and so on. Those with experience would figure it out much faster. I on the other hand jumped in with 2 feet. In the end i would not recomend this printer to a noob.i do enjoy it now after several prints and fails though.

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Great Value, easy to assemble.

Dec 10, 2018

I bought this for home use, and I'm very happy with it so far. At work we have 3 printers Ultimaker, PRUSA and a Super large Modix so I have experience with different additive printers and their issues and build times. The printer came double boxed and well packed. It went together in about 15 minutes, you do need some extra small zip ties to clean up the wires. I spent about 1 hour leveling the z axis making sure the z axis was perpendicular to the x,y and level across the x axis. The Z axis home contact does take some playing with to get it set correctly. I'm thinking I'm going to print something out to hold an adjuster screw fro this. It doesn't have auto bed leveling but if you take your time it will work just fine. The power supply is weak so I pre-heated the bed and extruder before I loaded the print, I let it set for about 5 minutes to stabilize before starting the print. One other issue is the spool holder for the filament is about a 1/4 inch to short for the spool (HobbyKing filament)to turn freely. Ill cut off the end and print a new cap for that. The first thing I printed was the Pill box that came on the SD card. As soon as the first line of the brim went down I knew the printer was set up correctly and when it finished I thought the quality of the print was almost as good as the PRUSA. For the Price and the Size it is worth it.

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Cheap - OctoPrint Update

Nov 06, 2018

The problem was with the USB cable included in the kit. It had a short in it. When replaced with another USB cable, OctoPrint was able to see, and manage, the printer. SD Card slot is still questionable.

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Cheap

Nov 05, 2018

Okay, here's what I see so far. I have it together, but functionally...it's crippled.
First, it was very simple to put together the pieces that came int the box. Unlike the other review, there are a total of Ten(10) screws. Four(4) on the bottom for the uprights, two(2) on each upright on the side reinforcements, and two(2) on the controller box for the Filament Holder. I had to manually elevate the Z axis to get the uprights in place, as the verticals were too narrow for the base.
Second, once it was in one piece, then came the fun part...tightening EVERY screw on the entire thing. Every single screw was loose. Then, I have to realign the Z-Axis, because there are two Z motors, they had to be manually aligned (you do have a Digital Caliper, right?). The belts are loose, so had to add washers to the tensioners to tighten them so there was no slop. Once it this was done, connecting the controller to the motors was simple, although the wire management was a nightmare. Grab your zip ties.
Powered it up, and "Auto Homed" the axis. The Z was 10 mm too high. The stop on the right side had to be removed and re-positioned after manually aligning the bed (calipers again, please). This may be the result of my having to manually reposition things to get it together...but I doubt it.
Okay, it's powered. I plug it into an OctoPi...and...NOTHING! The Pi doesn't see it. Still doesn't. Also, it took three(3) different SD Cards before it would finally read the card. I'm on the fence about returning it...if it doesn't work with the OctoPi...then I either upgrade the controller board (~$100, which means I'm in the Creality price zone), or send it back and go through the painstaking time it takes to re-assemble this thing.
Lastly, I did manage to get a 3DBenchy to print. Issues with the print --
1. The Bed took F-O-R-E-V-E-R to get to 60 deg C. It seemed to stop at 50C for 5+ minutes. Probably needs a 24v power supply.
2. About 1/2 way through the print, it looks like the print skipped about 2 mm. Have to hunt down this gremlin...again...to return or not...that's the question.
Summary -- It's a cheap, large bed printer. If you have the skills and patience to fix it...it should function adequately. If you're a newbie...don't do it, unless you like learning the hard way. And if you're dedicated to OctoPi's...I have no answer. I could have a bad controller board, or maybe it just doesn't work with OctoPi. I will update this review once the OctoPi conundrum is resolved.

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Great printer at a great price.

Oct 28, 2018

I have to say this was one of the easiest printers I’ve ever put together. 4 screws, plug in some wires level the bed and start printing. The print quality is excellent in PLA I have not tried ABS yet. The print volume is massive. The heated bed doesn’t quite heat the entire surface of the bed, the only time this would be a problem is if you where to do a very large ABS print. This printer is a great value and the print quality is outstanding. You won’t go wrong with this machine.