Dremel has a number of 3D printers on the market. The Idea Builder 3D20 has the performance to match its expensive price. Read our Dremel 3D 20 review to find out whether the printer is worth the high price.
Dremel Digilab 3D 20 Review
SEE ON AMAZON
Design
The Dremel printer arrives aneatly packaged and well protected.
The 3D20 has a closed installation space, i.e., the printbed and any technology are hidden inside the gray plastic housing. A plexiglass door on the front allows you to view the illuminated interior and access to the prints. The door looks neat and protects the components from dirt.
While Dremel says that the 3D 20 is significantly quieter, I did not experience this during the test.
For easy access to all components, you can remove the cover and parts of the side panel. This is very useful, for example, when cleaning the print nozzle.
The Dremel Digilab 20 3D printer has an SD card slot and USB port on the right side of the case. There is also a touch-sensitive 3.5-inch IPS display that displays the status of the printer. The display is located at the bottom right on the front.
The printhead hangs on the X-axis, and is connected to the Y-axis on both sides. The Z-axis does not move the printhead. Instead, the moving print platform moves up and down.
The entire construction is torsion-resistant, looks high-quality and very stable.
There is an additional fan on the print head. All other printers that we have tested so far, such as the Renkforce RF100 and the Wanhao i3 Mini , did not have it. This additional fan is responsible for cooling the printed parts, which is particularly useful when printing PLA. The printed filament cools down faster, which ensures better results when printing overhangs, for example.
There are three knurled screws available for calibrating the printing substrate. Adjusting the distance between the print head and the print bed manually is easy but absolutely necessary. If the distance is not set correctly, the filament will not hold on to the printing surface. The printer does not have an automatic calibration, like is the case with the Davinci Mini w+.
The Dremel Digilab 20 printer features high quality processing components.
The print bed is a solid, transparent plastic plate that is not permanently installed. Instead, it is simply fixed with plastic clips and can be easily removed. This is practical because removing finished prints from the print bed is much more convenient outside the housing.
The filament can sometimes be very firmly connected to the substrate and trying to remove the models while the printbed is still attached can damage the printer’s mechanics.
Scope of Delivery
When you buy the Dremel Digilab 20, you will recieev the printer with power and USB cables, a plastic spatula, a tool for cleaning the print nozzle, and a 250 gram roll of white PLA filament.
A memory card with 3D models and the Dremel slicing software is also included. The finished print templates include a chess figure, a dinosaur head and a vase.
When you get the printer, unpack the filament roll and place it on a plug-in holder inside the housing. After plugging in, calibrate the print bed manually and insert the filament.
Print Result
With the 3D20, it takes less than 15 minutes from opening the package to printing the first model. I printed the chess piece from the memory card. The print was not perfect but it was impressive. Only the surface structure needed to be improved since minimal gaps could be seen.
The adhesion to the print bed is also reliable. The object holds very well during printing. However, with a little force and the help of a spatula, you can easily remove it.
With the next print job, the little boat (Benchy3D) that we use as a stress test for printers, the printer does very well. The surface structure can also be improved here in places. However, that is only a matter of the settings in the software.
In our case, increasing the thickness of the top print layer helps. In case this does not work for you, check the common mistakes and their solutions here .
In the test, the printing speed of the 3D20 was impressive. Despite the high speed, the surfaces of the printout are very homogeneous and clean. Even large objects or wood filament prints work well and can easily keep up with the results of the Duplicator i3 Mini .
Functions
The 3D20 works with filaments from any manufacturer. Other printers, such as the Davinci Mini w +, only accept consumables from their own company due to an NFC tag attached to the filament roll.
Third party filaments often do not fit inside the Dremel printer due to the roll size. However, in reality, this is not a problem. You can use external brackets to hold the filaments. Print an external bracket template for use with your printer.
The in-house consumables fit perfectly into the housing. However, they are more expensive than filaments from other manufacturers. Officially, the printer is only designed for processing PLA. That is a shame as the closed installation space would have been excellent for processing ABS. However, this is not possible due to the lack of a heating bed.
Theoretically, it is possible to retrofit a heating bed. However, there are no ready-made retrofit sets. If you want to print materials such as ABS or nylon, go for the Dremel 3D45 printer. This has a heated bed and WiFi, but costs almost twice as much.
