Dremel - 3D45-01 DigiLab 3D45 Award Winning 3D Printer PLA Print Capability black

I recently purchased the Dremel 3D45 primarily because of its claim to be a 3D printer for new to advanced users. I did not want to begin with an entry level printer only having to upgrade to a more advanced one down the road.I am new 3D printing. So new that I wasn’t even aware of the fact that printing and designing software are two different things all together. That being said, this review is likely only useful to someone that is in a similar position. Dremel claimed that you could be printing out of the box in 20 minutes. Although I elected not to print the trinkets they provided gcode for. I am certain that claim is true.Set up of the printer was easy. I spent most of my efforts the first few days, obtaining design software and learning how to use it. There is a plethora of information on design software and how to use it available on the internet. I began with Tinkercad which is an amazing little program that is free to use. But that is another review. Suffice it to say I was printing what I consider to be fairly complex designs in a couple of days.To date, I have only used the Dremel brand of filament. I’ve made prints in Nylon, PETG and ECO ABS. The printer can use other brands of filament because the printer allows you to adjust settings to meet the specifications of the other brand filaments. I will continue using the brand name filament until my warranty runs out. This will allow me to get adequate run time under my belt so I am able to know what good looks. If you choose to use another brand of filament, you will have to make a minor modification to use an external spool or manually load it on to a spare Dremel spool.I am quite impressed with the ease of use of the printer and the quality of the prints. You can select the quality of prints and to date, I have only used the low and medium quality options. I was surprised at the time it takes to make prints. Which is determined by the size, complexity, and the quality of prints you are making. Some of my prints using the medium quality print option have taken over 10 hours.I am using the printer to make components that must fit and work when assembled together. This was achievable after adjusting some of the dimensions of my design to allow for clearances I need to maintain within the assembly components. For an example, if you are printing a component that has a hole that needs to be a certain diameter, you must account for the nozzle diameter of the printer and adjust for it in the dimension you specify for the hole diameter. Given that, the printer prints with enough accuracy for my needs and prints reliably consistent.Because of the duration of some print times, the built-in camera is a nice feature that provides an adequate picture quality to determine if your printing has completed or more importantly, gone awry. It would be nice if the remaining print time is provided while monitoring remotely.The printer has an option to print remotely but I have not used it and cannot comment on that only to say I am not sure if I will ever use it because based on the limited experience, it seems the most critical time in the printing process seems to be in the initial stages so I like to be there so I can abort the print if there is a problem. Plus, you have to periodically prepare the build plate.So far, I have experienced very few misprints and I attribute them to poor design of prints on my part and trying to squeeze out one more print before taking the time to clean the build plate and apply another application of glue. If you are new to 3D printing, this sounds like a hassle but it is really quite simple. When you remove the build plate and reinsert it which is really quite simple as well, you should level it. The printer walks you through it and it takes less than a minute.I cannot speak about other printers and cannot make any comparisons but this one is amazingly easy to use. I am incredibly pleased with it and would recommend it to anyone who is new to 3D printing and plans on eventually becoming an experienced printer.My only criticisms are relatively minor and do not impact the functionality of the printer but perhaps Dremel can account for these on future models.1) The front access door sags a bit when it is opened requiring you to lift up on it slightly when you close and latch it in place. No biggie but sadly it is noticeable every time you open and close the door and takes away from the otherwise nice design of the enclosure.2) The touch screen is nice except that it displays 4 files at a time which results in the file names being truncated in the display. When you are naming your files keep this in mind and avoid similarly named files.3) After time, the enclosure collects dust and printing debris so I like to wipe it out with a damp paper towel. At the point where the floor of the printer meets the front access door, there is a raised lip preventing you from easily wiping the dust out of the enclosure.As I said these are very minor criticisms. The only noteworthy complaint I have about this printer is the size of the build volume but I knew how big it was before purchasing it so I really cannot complain about it.

When the corona virus hit in March 2020, my wife, son and I were stuck at home (five months later we still are). We had never done 3D printing before, but we thought that it would be a great project while waiting for school and work to ramp back up. After a lot of reading and talking with colleagues who do a lot of 3D printing, we selected the Dremel 3D45.Being new to 3D printing, I needed a bit of help getting started, and the customer support was fantastic. Five months and countless projects later, the 3D45 is still running perfectly.If we use the "Mac versus PC" analogy, this printer is definitely on the "Mac" side of the spectrum. It is very user friendly and works great for almost all beginner and intermediate 3D printer users. And they have AMAZING customer support. Seriously, the customer support phenomenal. I think that the superior customer support is something that comes along with buying a product backed by an industry giant like Bosch, who owns Dremel.That being said, like a Mac, it is difficult to make the Dremel 3D45 do something that is outside of its comfort zone. I think that advanced and/or professional users may find that frustrating.Pros:1.) High quality components and very well built.2.) AMAZING customer service!3.) Super easy to use right out of the box.4.) Very good quality prints using the Dremel-brand filament materials.5.) Although it will likely invalidate your warranty, you can definitely print with non-OEM filaments and even some materials that Dremel will cautiously tell you "we have not been tested yet". There are sufficient advanced settings that allow you to customize the printer for other filament materials such as the very flexible TPU, or "real" ABS. I have successfully printed both on my 3d45 with no issues.Cons:1.) The Dremel DigiLab 3D Slicer software does not work on many Macs. I have been told by several customer support experts that the DigiLab software works on "some" Macs, but they have a lot of issues with getting it to work on all. The software definitely does not work on my Mac. The work around is using the Dremel print cloud and the web based Dremel 3D Idea Builder, which is easy to use and works fine for me. However, if I wanted to use some of the more advanced features of the DigiLab software, I would be out of luck on my Mac.2.) Dremel really pushes you to use their OEM filaments, which are more expensive and can be quite limiting when it comes to color and material selection. For example, their "ECO-ABS" filament is not really ABS, but a modified PLA filament. So if you want to print something out of ABS that will withstand higher temperatures and/or use an Acetone vapor bath to smooth the surface, or you want to print something out of TPU that is much more flexible and "rubber-like", you are not going to get help from customer support. You are going to have to figure that out on your own (but both are definitely doable on this printer in my experience).3.) You cannot change the print settings in the middle of a print. After five months, I am starting to see why someone might want this option, but it is simply not possible with this printer. Again, not something that a beginner or intermediate level user is likely going to care about, but advanced users will probably be frustrated by this.Bottom line is that I am very happy with this purchase. If you are new to 3D printing, this is a very high quality printer that is guaranteed to please with a minimal learning curve and great customer support. That being said, it is expensive, and the Dremel OEM filament material is much more expensive compared to other brand filaments. You absolutely can use non-OEM filaments, but you will need to set the print conditions manually and this may void your warranty (but eventually you are going to do it anyway...trust me!)Cheers,TMQ