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A part 2 video has not been posted yet because things have gotten complicated. I assure you that one will be posted in the future. But no, HartSmart Products is not selling Talos 3D printers anymore. If you'd like to discuss it feel free to shoot an email to ecostruder@hsp3d.com.

Thanks for watching! I didn't do a full review of Beyond Plastic's PHA, but I did talk about in my video here: czcams.com/video/PNyUyTBKRdY/video.htmlsi=lMQGerUsGXtjIays. Their PHA filament is the best I've tried by far. Highly recommended.

​@@ecostruder Cheers! Ill check it out

Well, thank you! Ur awesome for watching and commenting!

Thanks for watching! Perhaps if I do another video like this one in the future I'll add that to the things I'm testing for. 200mm/s is ridiculously fast for any sort of TPU--congratulations on achieving that!

@@ecostruder I was only able to achieve that on my FLSUN V400 by bypassing the filament sensor, locating the spool very close the extruder (off to the side) using a magnetically levitating spool holder that can spin with practically 0 friction. The key to fast printing soft filament is reduction of friction anywhere you can.

I believe the reason why there's more focus on PHA than PHB is that PHB tends to be more fragile and has a lower Heat Deflection Temperature, so it's not as useful. I could be wrong though--it's something I looked into briefly before doing my PHA video a while back. PHB might make an interesting support material though, assuming it will bond properly to other materials. If you could easily melt it out, or break it away because of its drawbacks as a primary material then maybe there's something in that?...

Keep in mind that the price is really good on these right now due to the fact that they have been discontinued by Creality. But yes, they're great. Enclosing them is difficult because of the size of the frame, but mostly because that's a huge bed that has to have room to travel forward and backward. Based on the measurements of my CR-6 Max I'd suggest a minimum enclosure size of 800mm tall, 1000mm wide, and 1200mm front to back. That's a big box!

Unfortunately this machine has been discontinued by Creality at this point. It's still a machine I use a lot, and it's still working great, so if you can find one it's worth picking up. But right now the best deal on a machine of this size I've seen is the Elegoo Neptune 4 Max. It's cheaper and bigger and direct drive. Hard to beat that.

I'm assuming you are referring to ColorFabb's "AllPHA" material. I struggled a lot to get good prints with that material (as I showed in the video). ColorFabb has some suggested printing advice on their product page (colorfabb.com/allpha-black). The biggest issue with this material is that it doesn't want to stick to the bed. And overhangs are a problem. Make sure the bed is cold (no heat whatsoever), use a brim, and some sort of bed adhesive. I tried several and I believe regular old glue stick seemed to work best. For what it's worth, I found Beyond Plastic's PHA to be significantly easier to print with than AllPHA. I know that's not available everywhere (yet), but it's really good.

Glad it was helpful!

I'm glad you liked it! allPHA (or any other PHA filament such as the really good stuff from Beyond Plastic) doesn't actually require any sort of special printer. The key thing is to ensure that you can print without the bed being hot. Some printers, such as my Creality CR-6 Max want to heat the bed up at the start of every print in order to home the machine when the bed is warm. This is annoying with PHA since it is better to print it on a cold bed. But direct drive, bowden, plastic-lined hotends or all-metal hotends--it's all good!

Hi, yes we still have the STLs. I don't normally share customer STLs, but these were posted on a public forum for anyone to download years ago, so I feel ok sharing them. Email ecostruder@hartsmartproducts.com and I'll get them to you.

I have to admit that I agree with you. I didn't love this title for the video. It's a bit misleading. I'll probably change it, if I can. For what it's worth, I had a local customer volunteer to print some stuff and bury it in their yard. She recently dug it up and there was absolutely nothing left of it. It's fully biodegraded without any trace!

If it still biodegrades in the same (or a similar) way and it's an easily printable material then I'm into it! I've heard of Fillamentum's NonOilen before but I've never printed with it. I should fix that. Great suggestion!

Thanks for watching, and for the compliments on the video. I appreciate the feedback on the background music. I generally try to keep it low enough that it's not going to interfere with what I'm saying, but it seems like I may have missed the mark on this one. I'll keep it in mind for future videos!

Yes, I've used a lot of different extruder and hotend combinations on my various Modix machines. The Titan Aero was a nice improvement over the standard Titan that these came with, but there are significantly better options available now. The BMG is a great extruder, though I'd suggest a Mosquito Magnum if you switch to a Bondtech BMG(-M). That's a solid combo. Good luck!

Wow, nice suggestion! I had not heard of Balena before, but I've reached out to them to see what their filament options look like. Could be another awesome addition to the eco-friendly materials lineup. Thanks!

Great tip, thanks Fred!

Why thank you! This is a custom-designed temporary wall that we had made to separate our retail space from our community area. When we first moved into the space we didn't have nearly enough products to fill up the retail area so I had this wall made so the retail area would feel smaller and less empty, then we could move it as needed when we got more products in. It was designed by a local artist, Molly Spain. Then it was laser cut from corrugated cardboard by a local shop, Notch & Nail. It is meant to emulate the HartSmart Products logo with pieces that simply slot together. Since it's all just corrugated cardboard and no glue or fasteners, it's 100% recyclable!

95A is a great place to start. Rigid enough to push through the hotend without too much drama, but soft enough to give you the benefits of a flexible material. The softer it gets the more difficult it becomes, but man, the first time you print a super squishy part it's soooo satisfying. :-) Sounds to me like it's time for you to make the leap into squishy materials!!

@@ecostruder Yeah I def have no concerns about tackling the difficulty, I just don't want to pay $60 for 500g of 60A. 😂 I found some 83A for $37 per kilo and some 75A for $45 per 500g, but dang.

@@802Garage Gotcha. Yeah, beware of cheap TPU. That stuff is hard to make, and even harder to make with good quality control. Whichever way you end up going--good luck!!

@@ecostruder Surprisingly, my Longer brand 95A for as little as $16 a roll has been fantastic. I know I can't expect prices like that for anything softer though. I'm just broke and cheap. ;) Thanks for the video! If you could do a condensed faster version of this updated for 2024, like maybe a "Top 10 flexible filaments in 2024" I bet it would take off.

The CR-6 Max is very quiet. So if your fan is loud and annoying then yes, I'd be concerned about what's going on with that. Maybe it's something simple like just some dust or a wisp of hot glue stuck in the fan bearings, or maybe there's something causing it to spin out of balance. Probably worth checking out though. Even a full replacement fan is quite cheap if that's determined to be necessary.

Brother!!!

Yeah. Fair. But proud of it! :-)

@@ecostruder Takes one to know one 😂 Life before death.

Life before Death. Strength before Weakness. Journey before Destination. Enjoy the journey of printing with PHA!

This is a great idea. While PHA won't necessarily break down when it's not in an ideal environment, having PHA pellets scattered around the woods/grass would certainly be better than PLA.

I no longer work with Modix, so I'm afraid I no longer have any insight into this. Hopefully someone else can chime in on how long it took for them.

Hi! We have a variety of printhead configurations we've tried over the years (too many to list here) for a variety of uses. The LGX is a good option for flexibles, as is the Hemera or the Omniadrop. Our general purpose printhead that we've standardized on uses a Bondtech BMG-M combined with a Takoto HE20 hotend. We like this combination so much that we've actually started offering it as an upgrade for others to use on their Modix machines as well. We call it our Premium Printhead 2, and we sell it here: hartsmartproducts.com/products/premium-printhead-v2. If you are printing with high detail or specifically with flexible materials then the Hemera could be a better way to go. We built one of those also, which is here: hartsmartproducts.com/products/revo-hemera-printhead-for-modix-printers. I hope that helps!!

Yeah...this is unfortunately a common problem with the Big-60 V2. Modix used a 3-ballscrew design which theoretically should work fine, but in practice it's hard to keep the big bed plate flat when it's only supported in 3 spots instead of 4. They changed this when they moved to V3 and the problem went away. Unfortunately there is no easy fix for this problem that I'm aware of. A thicker mic6 plate could help, or a totally different z-axis motion system (which would also require rewiring). Sorry I don't have a good option for you on this!

Thanks for watching! In reality, for someone who hasn't built a lot (or any) Modix machines before, putting one together properly, including the necessary calibration steps takes roughly 2 weeks of assembly. That assumes that 8 hours are being spent on the assembly each of those days. This is not a trivial assembly process and there are lots of things that could easily be done wrong. If it isn't done properly the machine will not operate as intended. Also, this video is showing a V3 machine but Modix is currently shipping Gen 4 machines, so your experience will be quite different. I would also add that these machines should not be run by anyone without a lot of 3D printing experience, as they can be rather difficult to operate and require a lot of ongoing TLC. There are some other machines out there which are fully assembled and calibrated from the factory (such as the HSP1-I from HartSmart Products), but those cost quite a bit more than the DIY kits from Modix. Good luck with whatever you choose to do!

Thanks@@ecostruder, that must be a long lead-time for building this printer all alone, but if we can increase the team size, and separate the steps by cluster, I think it would be faster, right? 😁

@@life_of_vin Having 2 people instead of only one will help, yes. But after that there are diminishing returns on adding more people. Most of what needs to happen with the assembly is on the machine itself. There aren't a lot of subassemblies that a separate person could knock out. In any case, I would strongly advise against rushing through it if you want a properly operating machine.

LOL, I'm not usually told that it was good that people didn't watch my videos, but I can see how that would be the case here. Hopefully the video is helpful for your NEXT flexible material selection. Though I have to admit that it's a bit outdated now. I made that video years ago and a lot of the flexible materials in the lineup have been discontinued. Maybe someday I'll have to put (a lot of) time into making an updated version. There are some cool options out there now that didn't exist back then. Welcome to the world of 3D printing, and good luck!

Wow, I'm glad that was so helpful! Congrats on getting your printer working properly, and thanks for the sub!

You're killing me, Fred. Yes, there will be more content coming on biodegradable, compostable, and generally eco-friendly filaments. Including the awesome Beyond Plastic PHA!

@@ecostruder LOL, btw nice industrial printer.

Hello there! Our shop is in Des Moines, Iowa and we'd be delighted to have you stop by. We have several Modix machines up and running in our production print farm (as well as several other brands). However, we are no longer working with Modix. We've moved on to bigger and better things (announcements coming soon)!

@@ecostruder So, which machines do u sell now? Just received my Big 120x-v4 and did the first prints. Their documentation sucks ;-)

@@MegaDraadloos Our main focus has been engineering and then building the HSP1-I industrial IDEX 3D printer. This is a high spec machine that is really not intended to compete with Modix machines in any way (it's a whole different tier of machine). hartsmartproducts.com/pages/hsp-1 The closest thing to a Modix that we sell now is the Project R3D Talos line of large format printers. They are very similar in a lot of ways to the Modix machines, but made and supported in USA, and with a lot of different design choices. Also, assembly takes just a few hours, rather than a couple of weeks. hartsmartproducts.com/pages/project-r3d

Oooh, you like to live dangerously! I respect that.

I'm sure Creality has improved the Ender-5 Plus over time, but my shop (HartSmart Products) offers printer repair services and we see a lot of Ender-5s with problems. It's the main reason why we decided not to carry them. The CR-6 SE and CR-6 Max have proven to be pretty reliable (especially with a couple of small upgrades), so I've been pleased with those models. That would be my preference, but I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who would have the exact opposite opinion. Good luck with your new printer, whichever way you end up going!

I'm glad you found this video helpful! There has been some previous discussions in the comments on this video regarding upgrades to get the machine to perform better than stock. To summarize though, I'd recommend the Bondtech LGX Lite Arrow conversion to make it a direct drive system, a PEI flex plate system, and Community firmware. That combo works very well, and is what I'm currently using on mine. I also upgraded to an all-metal hotend so I could print with more materials. Good luck with the new big machine!

@@ecostruder Thank you!

​@@ecostruder Currently I am leaning towards the CR-10 Max. Would you happen to know if it is reliable and if there are any affordable modifications that you could suggest?

​@@jimbo1058 We nearly decided to sell the CR-10 Max, but after looking around the internet and reading reviews I decided against it. It seems to have some fundamental flaws, and is a rather old machine at this point. The CR-M4 is Creality's successor to the CR-10 Max (I believe), so I'd suggest that one between the two. But Elegoo recently one-upped Creality by releasing the Neptune 3 Max at a much lower pricepoint with similar specs (if not better in some ways). We cannot keep those in stock right now and haven't had any complaints so far. In the words of my favorite tool reviewer, (@projectfarm) "Very Impressive!"

@@ecostruder Thank you!

Thanks for the sub!

Hi there! I have some slicer profiles that work for my Modix printers, but they are v3 machines which have been highly modified to make them better production printers. Modix has slicer profiles in their Customers Zone, so that's where I'd suggest getting a profile for your Gen 4. I hope that helps!

@@ecostruder i have a gen 4 idex config. Cant really get the copy mode/dual print mode to work. I would like to print 2 parts at the same time to double my production on some parts. Have you solved that?

@@jensedlund5766 That sounds like a great use for an IDEX system. I don't have any Gen 4 machines in my shop (other than the ones we have assembled for customers) so I don't have any experience with their Gen 4 IDEX system, either. In fact, we no longer work with Modix. So I'd suggest reaching out to their support team. I know they were planning to support duplication mode (as I call it), but I don't know if they've gotten that profile put together yet. Good luck!

Agreed.

Glad you found it helpful!

Not much of a change. The CR-10 Smart is not a good machine. Creality sent me the CR-10 Smart Pro to prove that it was better, and they were right--it's better. But we've still had several issues with that one as well. I still consider the CR-10 V3 (long discontinued now) to be a superior machine.

I'm delighted that you found it! PHA is a really cool material, and I have even found some additional options after publishing this video. I'm happy to see development happening with this eco-friendly filament option.

@@ecostruder would you mind sharing the additional options?

@@jutube476 I'd be delighted to! I haven't printed with it yet, but filaments.ca now offers a PHA material called Regen PHA. The material I've mostly been focused on testing out (and it's performing extremely well so far) is the PHA options from Beyond Plastic. They have a Flex PHA which is really good and a Standard PHA which is a bit closer to PLA. Both print much easier than the allPHA stuff from Colorfabb and I've got some amazing parts with very minimal effort. The trick is to print on a cold bed with some glue stick on it--it works wonders. Good luck!

@@ecostruder thanks a lot! you are a big help.

That's an odd one, but I'd suggest considering community firmware for your 6 Max. It's quite good, and I've found it to improve the operation of mine!

I agree! For materials like this I have to rely upon the research and statements from the manufacturers. This was not a video about proving anything--just bringing attention to a relatively unknown material that, according to all sources I can find, is far more eco-friendly than even typical PLA. I'd be very interested to see someone actually bury or compost these to see how that works out.

Par for the course for light-weight science videos on youtube.

I'd love to know the results of your testing!