I’m not VERY experienced 3D printer user but I just bought this Elegoo unit and found it RIDICULOUSLY easy to setup, calibrate and get printing. I found the CURA program clumsy and cumbersome off the bat but was able to figure that out fairly quickly as well. IMO, this is a FANTASTIC printer for a beginner who is at least computer/software savvy.
The Z offset issue was fixed in the firmware and the heatbed issue can be fixed if you preheat the bed for 30 minutes and start the auto calibration after.... (Neptune 4 Max)
New to 3d printing and i just ordered this printer. looking forward to getting it and learning. I'm a handyman type of guy so i am not put off by having to tune it. i work in IT and am used to having to tune stuff to get it working. Thanks for the great video.
How did that turn out for you? I was of the identical mindset and now like a month later I still can't get it to work and am on the verge of throwing it out of the window just to see it shatter into tiny pieces - that would be the biggest satisfaction it gave me so far.
@@Drot-l3s i got it working fine. just watch alot of videos on youtub. here it is in a nutshell: heat the bed to 60 deg C. put a piece of paper in the middle and press the level button. in the z offset in the middle of the screen move the head up and down until you can pull the paper out but not push it in. then press the auxilliary button. do the same for all of the positions in there and adjust up and down using the wheels under the bed. when all done click save. for the print head settings i use 205 deg C for the head and 65 deg C for the bed for PLA. after that i got good prints. there is other calibration that can be done to get better results. i use Orca Slicer and it has calibration tool that work great. Give it a try. let me know how you make out. i do this bed leveling calibration every so often ( abt 2 wks) because use moves the wheels underneath throwing off the levelling.
I have never touched a 3d printer before in my life, and I absolutely love my neptune 4 pro, I am a big tinkerer though, and it has take a fair amount of work.
I agree.. the pro was my first printer and first prints was great then started to get not so great and updated and fix some issues. But this printer forces you to learn and dont regret it because learned a lot. With all my tuning have great and consistent prints now. My next printer it going to be bambu labs A1 when it available. The mini just to small for me. Great video 👍🏼
I had one of these for a few months. Just sold it. Tired of always having to stuff around with the Z offset as described. Yes fully firmware updated. Also found that the slicers were very problematic. But yes, once it’s printing it does a great job. Ordered a Bambu.
Im a newbie here. I personally loved the 4plus and its AMAZING. I wish i jad a Bambu labs as my friend has one but its pricey. I did research and followed the foundations of what to do and man im having a great time. I am opening my shop after having good sales from local craft shop. Maybe im in the minority but could be a major part of i domw kmow the bads from being experinced and because of that "old world tech" seems like its the norm and part of the process
thanks for the honest review as a newbie to 3d printing, been a yr since this came out , not many reviews since launch. not for begginers is what ive read. can probably handle any dyi but i want something that just works , do enough open source with my rc stuff lol
When you put the printer together you can just put the base on a table, hanging off the edge of the table 5-6 inches, and then screw the gantry onto the overhanging base. No tilting required.
Wow I got this printer, and the neptune 3 pro. Both are amazing and setup in 15-20 minutes with near perfect prints. User interface is so simple and the way you would think it should be. And give me zero issues compared to all my other printers. Even the Bamboo printers have had their share of issues. If you are thinking this hobby is like using a microwave it is not! It will require some input from you. It is a hobby.
@danielkorrmann5467 well your in the wrong market. You will pay thousands for a commercial machine. And it will still need calibration and tuning from time to time. All the printers being talked about are hobby grade. But so far my neptune printers are giving me more bang for the buck than anything else . What really gets me is the near perfect layer lines and print tolerance using stock elegoo profiles.
@@bob557 Are all tools you use in your house commercial grade ? No. Some people buy a printer because they want to print stuff. Not because they want to tinker with the maschine. Like i own a oven to bake things and not because i like to tinker with it. These user exist and should be able to buy mashines that are made as tools. I like to make my Ender 3 a frabkenstein beast, but if people want to use a printer out of the Box thats fine.
@BrainActivity1 yes I have and if the bed gets loose you tighten the nuts to they just snug and rerun bed calibration and it's good to go. I've printed a 12in by 12in organizing tool box I scaled up a little. I've printed a 58hr and 62hr airless basketballs out of pla flex. On neptune 4 plus. And I couldn't list all the prints I've printed on neptune 3 pro and I've only ran bed leveling on it twice. I just hit print a walk away with these machines, don't even watch first layer go down.
I was so close to buying this printer a few weeks ago due to needing a larger build volume than 220x220 for quite a few projects. I ended up getting a Qidi X-Plus 3 as the build volume is good for my current needs and I wanted to see what the core XY side of 3d printing was like. Hopefully the next iteration of the Neptune series will take a step forward in the dated aspects that you mentioned in this video. All in all, this was a great video all the way around and I look forward to seeing some more of your content in the future as I just hit subscribe.
Well done! Thank you for the excellent info. I've just gotten my Neptune 4 Plus assembled, but have not yet powered it up and tuned it. So far I have 5 Ender 3 Pros, 2 Bambu P1Ps, 1 Creality K1, a 300mm cubed CoreXY that I'll be converting to a multi-axis machine, and a Saturn 2 Plus resin printer. I've held off on getting into the Neptune 4 Plus to let the bugs shake out of hardware and software, as life on the bleeding edge is very time consuming. But I am encouraged by your excellent video and greatly appreciate you taking time to make it. Liked and subscribed. Have a great one!
Very good and fair review. I've got the Neptune 4 Max, more or less the same beast. I found updating the latest (.65) firmware fixed my z-offset issues. The machine definitely had a rocky launch, but the latest firmware work quite well. The print quality is very good. You are spot on, it's a good deal in terms of price, but I wouldn't call it newbie friendly -- especially now we're seeing printers with auto z-offset becoming a standard feature at lower price points. It's a good machine, if you can put up with some fiddling.
An incredibly honest review! I have this printer,and I agree with every point made. It has paper-under-the-nozzle bed leveling ... but I think this is a great addition to auto-bed-leveling. Not for the beginner, but still a good entry-level printer for a technical person on a budget.
I had considered getting this printer but ended up with the Adventurer 5M. Some of the things you mentioned plus not wanting a bed slinger. So far very happy with the 5M.
Can you print full size helmets with the 5M? I want to do helmets like Magneto, Samus, Master Chief, Nova, etc. That and cosplay armor pieces are what I’m really going for. Ik I’ll have to slice armor but could I do adult size helmets in one piece?
You should use the principle : SHOW not TELL. You make a lot of arguments, very well explained ect ect. but for a review this doesn't show anything worth for examples of your arguments. All while this is a video format review.
I have the side of gantry/base I’m fastening slightly hanging over the table so I can fasten the screws easily. The bulk of the printer is still supported by the table.
I never got this complaint about this style printer, many non technically minded consumers manage to install the feet/base on their new monitors/televisions every day. The difference is, anyone working with a 3d printer will absolutely need to acquire some basic skills in working with these machines, assembling 2 major components is the least demanding thing you'll ever do once mods service or repairs inevitably become a thing.
I think the value of the Neptunes offset any steeper learning curve you might have as long as you know how to google. If you are wanting to get into 3D printing you probably like tinkering with things anyway
Imo this is a false review. I am brand new to 3d printing. Only watched videos prior to buying this Elegoo 4 plus printer and it set up so easy and made my very first banshee in less than an hour. Saying that this is not for beginners is like pointing out that first timers are less than smart. A person can watch a video once on the printer and orca software and be good to go. Ive had mine for about a little over a month and ive printed quite a few things with no issues except for user error such as didn’t clean the bed and didn’t put glue on the bed. This printer also comes shipped with the latest update firmware now.
Glad to see needing glue isnt all that odd because an article said i shouldnt because of how the bed is but my shit kept flying off so i wondered if i did something wrong.. 1 thing that i did find out though was if i press leveling and set the z offset and let it home again, the nozzle has the same number but in reality the nozzle isnt EXACTLY on the same spot 🤔
This guy would probably suggest a creality 3 for a first time printer if he thinks the Neptune 4 is difficult to set up. I will say that I've heard that the 4 max is difficult to set up just because of the size. Someone said that their pro got almost every print successful, but the max failed 2/3 of the time.
Jeromy I think you kinda missed the mark on when you were talking about this printer at the beginning. You kept comparing it to a Core XY machine and went into detail about how a core XY is better...Well thats not really true because there is NOT a Core XY that has a big build plate and that can make big things...Like this printer can. This printers main focus is BIG PRINTS. You should have put that out there while you were talking about it not being as good as a Core XY...
I've been thinking about doing the same but K2 has its own massive list of problems that people report, one of which is a terrible or nonexistent customer support.
Normally i like this channel, but it feels like he’s talking to a bunch of idiots on this one. I am new to 3D printing (5 months) but im not a total moron. LMAO.
NO. I was so enthusiastic to buy this printer model. After a month of use all hell begun... After a blob of death everything went pear shaped. I've got the replacement print head no doubt, but the next one couple of days later... I was so angry, I've just throw it to the bin... No replacement from this company. Since the installation and re-levelling of the latest pre-assembled extruder kit I was not able to print a single usable piece. As the latest repeated fails, I've checked the bed temp and found that: it is all over the place and some parts even 10C degree lower than the set level. I wasted countless hours and countless filament reels with this junk of a printer. Not happy at all! Wouldn't ever buy another elegoo in any shape or form.
Nope not for beginners Elegoo and Anycubic are not for beginners there's too much deviation in their machines, IMO I think these machines are great for tinkerers, i made a post on reddit about the Kobra Neo...........................
I disagree. This is my first one and it's been amazing! Just two 3 videos and I got the basics down. Opened up my own shop and started selling. It's amazing
@@genises200 if you're a tinkerer yeah they're fantastic but if you don't know that you have to tinker with these to get them to print well then no they're not for beginners and usually a beginner is not a tinkerer
@NoMercyFtw A tinker could be a beginning. Not like I was an expert at first. Not much tinkering I see it if you just follow the basics and other more experienced people do but I see your point
@@genises200 of course obviously anybody could be a ******* beginner you're a beginner when you do something for the first time but the type of beginner I'm talking about is somebody who wants to turn something on and for it to work out-of-the-box and not have to do 2 to 3 weeks of setup and tweaking, either you're oblivious or you work for one of these companies either way GFY
@NoMercyFtw I see you couldn't hold a civil conversation. I even said I understand your point on some of these issues. My next go to is the Bambu Printer because of how cool the multi color print is! We'll I appreciate your input and hope you have a good day and a even better week
I’m not VERY experienced 3D printer user but I just bought this Elegoo unit and found it RIDICULOUSLY easy to setup, calibrate and get printing. I found the CURA program clumsy and cumbersome off the bat but was able to figure that out fairly quickly as well.
IMO, this is a FANTASTIC printer for a beginner who is at least computer/software savvy.
I used Orca slicer mainly because I use Ubuntu, but it is great. You should give it a try,
The Z offset issue was fixed in the firmware and the heatbed issue can be fixed if you preheat the bed for 30 minutes and start the auto calibration after.... (Neptune 4 Max)
10-15min for Plus
New to 3d printing and i just ordered this printer. looking forward to getting it and learning. I'm a handyman type of guy so i am not put off by having to tune it. i work in IT and am used to having to tune stuff to get it working. Thanks for the great video.
How did that turn out for you? I was of the identical mindset and now like a month later I still can't get it to work and am on the verge of throwing it out of the window just to see it shatter into tiny pieces - that would be the biggest satisfaction it gave me so far.
@@Drot-l3s i got it working fine. just watch alot of videos on youtub. here it is in a nutshell: heat the bed to 60 deg C. put a piece of paper in the middle and press the level button. in the z offset in the middle of the screen move the head up and down until you can pull the paper out but not push it in. then press the auxilliary button. do the same for all of the positions in there and adjust up and down using the wheels under the bed. when all done click save. for the print head settings i use 205 deg C for the head and 65 deg C for the bed for PLA. after that i got good prints. there is other calibration that can be done to get better results. i use Orca Slicer and it has calibration tool that work great. Give it a try. let me know how you make out. i do this bed leveling calibration every so often ( abt 2 wks) because use moves the wheels underneath throwing off the levelling.
I have never touched a 3d printer before in my life, and I absolutely love my neptune 4 pro, I am a big tinkerer though, and it has take a fair amount of work.
I'm going to start using the term "Helmet Class" to describe that size of printer 🤣
I agree.. the pro was my first printer and first prints was great then started to get not so great and updated and fix some issues. But this printer forces you to learn and dont regret it because learned a lot.
With all my tuning have great and consistent prints now. My next printer it going to be bambu labs A1 when it available. The mini just to small for me.
Great video 👍🏼
I had one of these for a few months. Just sold it. Tired of always having to stuff around with the Z offset as described. Yes fully firmware updated. Also found that the slicers were very problematic. But yes, once it’s printing it does a great job. Ordered a Bambu.
Im a newbie here. I personally loved the 4plus and its AMAZING. I wish i jad a Bambu labs as my friend has one but its pricey. I did research and followed the foundations of what to do and man im having a great time. I am opening my shop after having good sales from local craft shop. Maybe im in the minority but could be a major part of i domw kmow the bads from being experinced and because of that "old world tech" seems like its the norm and part of the process
thanks for the honest review as a newbie to 3d printing, been a yr since this came out , not many reviews since launch. not for begginers is what ive read. can probably handle any dyi but i want something that just works , do enough open source with my rc stuff lol
When you put the printer together you can just put the base on a table, hanging off the edge of the table 5-6 inches, and then screw the gantry onto the overhanging base. No tilting required.
Wow I got this printer, and the neptune 3 pro. Both are amazing and setup in 15-20 minutes with near perfect prints. User interface is so simple and the way you would think it should be. And give me zero issues compared to all my other printers. Even the Bamboo printers have had their share of issues. If you are thinking this hobby is like using a microwave it is not! It will require some input from you. It is a hobby.
If you want printing as a hobby, thats fine. But other might want a tool.
Did you print anything big covering the whole or most of the build plate?
@danielkorrmann5467 well your in the wrong market. You will pay thousands for a commercial machine. And it will still need calibration and tuning from time to time. All the printers being talked about are hobby grade. But so far my neptune printers are giving me more bang for the buck than anything else . What really gets me is the near perfect layer lines and print tolerance using stock elegoo profiles.
@@bob557 Are all tools you use in your house commercial grade ? No. Some people buy a printer because they want to print stuff. Not because they want to tinker with the maschine. Like i own a oven to bake things and not because i like to tinker with it. These user exist and should be able to buy mashines that are made as tools. I like to make my Ender 3 a frabkenstein beast, but if people want to use a printer out of the Box thats fine.
@BrainActivity1 yes I have and if the bed gets loose you tighten the nuts to they just snug and rerun bed calibration and it's good to go. I've printed a 12in by 12in organizing tool box I scaled up a little. I've printed a 58hr and 62hr airless basketballs out of pla flex. On neptune 4 plus. And I couldn't list all the prints I've printed on neptune 3 pro and I've only ran bed leveling on it twice. I just hit print a walk away with these machines, don't even watch first layer go down.
I was so close to buying this printer a few weeks ago due to needing a larger build volume than 220x220 for quite a few projects. I ended up getting a Qidi X-Plus 3 as the build volume is good for my current needs and I wanted to see what the core XY side of 3d printing was like. Hopefully the next iteration of the Neptune series will take a step forward in the dated aspects that you mentioned in this video. All in all, this was a great video all the way around and I look forward to seeing some more of your content in the future as I just hit subscribe.
Well done! Thank you for the excellent info. I've just gotten my Neptune 4 Plus assembled, but have not yet powered it up and tuned it. So far I have 5 Ender 3 Pros, 2 Bambu P1Ps, 1 Creality K1, a 300mm cubed CoreXY that I'll be converting to a multi-axis machine, and a Saturn 2 Plus resin printer. I've held off on getting into the Neptune 4 Plus to let the bugs shake out of hardware and software, as life on the bleeding edge is very time consuming. But I am encouraged by your excellent video and greatly appreciate you taking time to make it. Liked and subscribed. Have a great one!
Loving your videos thank you
Very good and fair review. I've got the Neptune 4 Max, more or less the same beast. I found updating the latest (.65) firmware fixed my z-offset issues. The machine definitely had a rocky launch, but the latest firmware work quite well. The print quality is very good. You are spot on, it's a good deal in terms of price, but I wouldn't call it newbie friendly -- especially now we're seeing printers with auto z-offset becoming a standard feature at lower price points. It's a good machine, if you can put up with some fiddling.
An incredibly honest review! I have this printer,and I agree with every point made. It has paper-under-the-nozzle bed leveling ... but I think this is a great addition to auto-bed-leveling. Not for the beginner, but still a good entry-level printer for a technical person on a budget.
I had considered getting this printer but ended up with the Adventurer 5M. Some of the things you mentioned plus not wanting a bed slinger. So far very happy with the 5M.
Can you print full size helmets with the 5M? I want to do helmets like Magneto, Samus, Master Chief, Nova, etc. That and cosplay armor pieces are what I’m really going for. Ik I’ll have to slice armor but could I do adult size helmets in one piece?
Thanks for sharing about the setup and teaching me about hueforge.
You're welcome!
You should use the principle : SHOW not TELL. You make a lot of arguments, very well explained ect ect. but for a review this doesn't show anything worth for examples of your arguments. All while this is a video format review.
Can you recommend a beginner 3d machine in that same size of specs?
Hey, thanks for the video.
You mentioned that there are better printers out there for beginners. What printers would you recommend?
I have the side of gantry/base I’m fastening slightly hanging over the table so I can fasten the screws easily. The bulk of the printer is still supported by the table.
I never got this complaint about this style printer, many non technically minded consumers manage to install the feet/base on their new monitors/televisions every day. The difference is, anyone working with a 3d printer will absolutely need to acquire some basic skills in working with these machines, assembling 2 major components is the least demanding thing you'll ever do once mods service or repairs inevitably become a thing.
I think the value of the Neptunes offset any steeper learning curve you might have as long as you know how to google.
If you are wanting to get into 3D printing you probably like tinkering with things anyway
is good but need to be heavily updated, that cost extra money$ .. hotten, linear rails, base plate sofar.
Had one of these and hated it. Had so many QC issues. I don't think I'll ever buy another Elegoo printer.
You don’t need the big fan. Took mine off the first week. Get’s in the way of large prints.
What retraction settings are you running ?
And what the best printer for beginers and with all 2024 perks?
For around the same price, I'd say Flashforge Adventurer 5M, Bambu Lab A1 Mini or Creality Ender 3 V3 KE.
A1Mini. It just works.
Imo this is a false review. I am brand new to 3d printing. Only watched videos prior to buying this Elegoo 4 plus printer and it set up so easy and made my very first banshee in less than an hour. Saying that this is not for beginners is like pointing out that first timers are less than smart. A person can watch a video once on the printer and orca software and be good to go. Ive had mine for about a little over a month and ive printed quite a few things with no issues except for user error such as didn’t clean the bed and didn’t put glue on the bed. This printer also comes shipped with the latest update firmware now.
You might not represent the typical beginner.
Glad to see needing glue isnt all that odd because an article said i shouldnt because of how the bed is but my shit kept flying off so i wondered if i did something wrong.. 1 thing that i did find out though was if i press leveling and set the z offset and let it home again, the nozzle has the same number but in reality the nozzle isnt EXACTLY on the same spot 🤔
This guy would probably suggest a creality 3 for a first time printer if he thinks the Neptune 4 is difficult to set up.
I will say that I've heard that the 4 max is difficult to set up just because of the size. Someone said that their pro got almost every print successful, but the max failed 2/3 of the time.
Jeromy I think you kinda missed the mark on when you were talking about this printer at the beginning. You kept comparing it to a Core XY machine and went into detail about how a core XY is better...Well thats not really true because there is NOT a Core XY that has a big build plate and that can make big things...Like this printer can. This printers main focus is BIG PRINTS. You should have put that out there while you were talking about it not being as good as a Core XY...
I sold mine. It was a total dumpster fire. I got a Kobra 2 plus instead. That printer has been money from the start.
I've been thinking about doing the same but K2 has its own massive list of problems that people report, one of which is a terrible or nonexistent customer support.
Normally i like this channel, but it feels like he’s talking to a bunch of idiots on this one. I am new to 3D printing (5 months) but im not a total moron. LMAO.
after 1+ years using 4pro and 4 plus i say NO!!!!
When did you make the video
NO. I was so enthusiastic to buy this printer model. After a month of use all hell begun... After a blob of death everything went pear shaped. I've got the replacement print head no doubt, but the next one couple of days later... I was so angry, I've just throw it to the bin... No replacement from this company. Since the installation and re-levelling of the latest pre-assembled extruder kit I was not able to print a single usable piece. As the latest repeated fails, I've checked the bed temp and found that: it is all over the place and some parts even 10C degree lower than the set level. I wasted countless hours and countless filament reels with this junk of a printer. Not happy at all! Wouldn't ever buy another elegoo in any shape or form.
good lord even if you updatw and prep machine fir two days its still a waste to buy... bambu mini it is
Nope not for beginners Elegoo and Anycubic are not for beginners there's too much deviation in their machines, IMO I think these machines are great for tinkerers, i made a post on reddit about the Kobra Neo...........................
I disagree. This is my first one and it's been amazing! Just two 3 videos and I got the basics down. Opened up my own shop and started selling. It's amazing
@@genises200 if you're a tinkerer yeah they're fantastic but if you don't know that you have to tinker with these to get them to print well then no they're not for beginners and usually a beginner is not a tinkerer
@NoMercyFtw A tinker could be a beginning. Not like I was an expert at first. Not much tinkering I see it if you just follow the basics and other more experienced people do but I see your point
@@genises200 of course obviously anybody could be a ******* beginner you're a beginner when you do something for the first time but the type of beginner I'm talking about is somebody who wants to turn something on and for it to work out-of-the-box and not have to do 2 to 3 weeks of setup and tweaking, either you're oblivious or you work for one of these companies either way GFY
@NoMercyFtw I see you couldn't hold a civil conversation. I even said I understand your point on some of these issues. My next go to is the Bambu Printer because of how cool the multi color print is! We'll I appreciate your input and hope you have a good day and a even better week
welp. 2 min in and im out. take this like and subscribe tho.