Our Lulzbot Taz 6 Review

Updated 22 November 2018

Lulzbot taz6-reviewis constantly building upon their printer's design, incorporating the best modifications and add-ons from the community into their newer models.  In May 2016, their newest addition to the TAZ line of printers, the TAZ 6 was released. We are among the first distributers in Australia to receive TAZ 6's from Lulzbot, and so we're here to give you a rundown on what makes the TAZ 6 so great and why you would want one over other printers.

Lulzbot's design philosophy is constantly moving toward zero-tinker printing. In essence, they are allowing you to get more touch time with actual prints rather than all the calibrations other printers require. The incorporation of automatic systems to their TAZ 5 design hits this mark perfectly. We found that the setup was so close to us plugging in our TAZ 6 in and hitting print it was almost funny. Setup time was around 40 minutes from receiving our shipment to printing our first rocktopus.

If you were familiar with it, the TAZ 5 required some calibration in leveling the bed every now and then for prints. Calibration aside, it was still rated as one of the best consumer 3D printers on the market in 2015. With the inclusion of the Lulzbot Mini's auto bed levelling, the TAZ 6 looks to be bringing home that title again this year. Essentially the printer is configured to use conductive sensing on the 4 corners of the print bed prior to each print. This means the printer can adjust the G-Code of the file you are going to print to ensure it prints flat and perfect every time.

labelled-taz6

  1. SD Card Holder - Lulzbot has 3D printed an SD Card slot for their control box, making it extremely easy to insert and remove the included SD card for prints. While printing untethered directly from an SD card is not a new feature, the 3D printed slot is a mod from the Taz 5 that has been incorporated into the design of the 6.
  2. LCD Control Screen - Moving the LCD Screen from the frame on the Taz 5 to being integrated into the control box in the 6 gives a much better look. The frame of the LCD screen is also 3D printed! The printer can be controlled entirely from this interface and navigation of the SD card is also done via here.
  3. Control Wheel - Similar to the Taz 5, the control wheel allows you to navigate the menus of the LCD control screen, the only gripe here is that each click of the knob doesn't correlate to exactly one menu movement on the screen.
  4. 12mm Linear Guide rails - Used on all axis' making the movement on each axis fit for 1000s of hours of printing. 
  5. PTFE Filament guide tube - Allows for smooth filament feed into the hot end.
  6. The improved single extruder tool head is Lulzbot's reaction to community feedback. This revised tool head adds additional cooling to the extruder. The 3 fans in total are oriented toward the extruder, this allows you to cool the print and the extruder on longer more complicated prints. There are options for upgrade aswell; with dualflexy and flexy dually extruders available for printing with multiple (and flexible) filaments. Installation of each of these tool heads is essentially 1 hex screw and power harness connection too, making that process super simple.
  7. Filament Spool Holder - The Taz 6 comes with one spool holder mounted to the right-hand side of the chassis. Additional tool heads come with additional spool holders and if you aren't happy with the placement, there are printable options for top mounted spool holders available on the Lulzbot forums.
  8. Conductive pads on each corner of the heated bed are used by the self-cleaning routine for bed leveling. The TAZ 6 heats the extruder and wipes it down on a foam pad (see 10) attached to the printer base before each print. This does add a small amount of time to a print, but it is extremely worth the wait. A fantastic feature carried over from the Lulzbot Mini.
  9. A PEI covered borosilicate heated glass bed - The bed is covered in PEI which helps parts stick to the bed. A temperature of 120 degrees can be reached using this heated bed. The Bed size and subsequent print volume ( 280mm x 280mm x 250mm) is slightly different from the TAZ 5 (298mm x 275mm x 250mm).
  10. Foam Pad - Used prior to bed leveling for cleaning your tool head, a feature that is exclusive to Lulzbots for now.
  11. Physical hot end switch - This allows you to use different sized hot ends without any issues, calibrated as a part of the startup routine to the printer. Meaning if your hot end is shorter/longer than the original lulzBot hot end, the printer will adapt without your input!
  12. The inclusion of an integrated 500W Power Supply means you don't need extra desk space for your power brick. It's a small improvement overall but extremely handy having only one power cable to worry about on your desktop. 

The Taz 6 boasts 30 filament profiles out of the box. These profiles are made by the community and Lulzbot with extruder temperatures, filament diameter and bed temps already calibrated for users. All of the newest filaments on the market are included and it's as easy as selecting your type from a drop down box before saving your G-Code. There is one limitation when it comes to filaments, that being carbon fiber filaments. Lulzbot warns that these filaments can damage your extruder, causing problems with future prints. Although this is more of a limitation of the hot end.

The printer package ships with the following items:

  • LulzBot® TAZ 6 3D printer with integrated 24V power supply (Physical Dimensions: 66 cm x 52 cm x 52 cm)
  • One-year warranty and support, more info here
  • LulzBot® Hexagon Hot End Tool Head with 0.50mm Nozzle
  • Quick Setup Guide
  • 4GB SD Card
  • Filament Feed tube
  • Toolkit bag including:
  • 15 Piece Metric Hex Key Set
  • Pliers, Needle Nose
  • Tweezers
  • Standard Precision Knife
  • Dental Pick
  • Flathead Bristle Brush
  • Part Removal Knife (clam knife)
  • Metric Ruler
  • Complete documentation including a detailed manual with information for setup, downloading and using software, and starting your first print. Also includes an in depth manual on using Cura Lulzbot Edition, the recommended software for controlling your 3D printer

The TAZ 6 is a fantastic printer for beginners and intermediates alike. It streamlines the setup/calibration process so that you can be efficiently printing high quality prints as soon as you unbox and plug it in. Get in touch with us if you want to know more about the Lulzbot line of 3D printers or if you have any inquiries about 3D printing in general.

Have a question? Ask the Author of this guide today!

Please enter minimum 20 characters

Your comment will be posted (automatically) on our Support Forum which is publicly accessible. Don't enter private information, such as your phone number.

Expect a quick reply during business hours, many of us check-in over the weekend as well.

Comments


Loading...
Feedback

Please continue if you would like to leave feedback for any of these topics:

  • Website features/issues
  • Content errors/improvements
  • Missing products/categories
  • Product assignments to categories
  • Search results relevance

For all other inquiries (orders status, stock levels, etc), please contact our support team for quick assistance.

Note: click continue and a draft email will be opened to edit. If you don't have an email client on your device, then send a message via the chat icon on the bottom left of our website.

Makers love reviews as much as you do, please follow this link to review the products you have purchased.