so i did it.. i bought a brand new UJF-3042MKIIe on Dec 4th, here are my comparison after 1 month
pros:
- it prints beautifully and does a magnificent job with clear which i was rarely using on the FX because it was crap and bubly
- when it prints * its faster
- the color screen and additional info on it is appreciated
- the test ink pattern is smaller and prints the date and time which is super smart and you can print black being the white head to better see (altho i just use a UV flashlight to inspect the white and clear ink pattern)
- the white ink circulation and autoclean is nice - maintenance is at a minimum now but a daily clean of the undercarriage is still necessary
- it's ethernet and provides way more realtime stats via PICT
- you can set the bed height via the Rasterlink 7 rip instead of always changing the head height on the printer -- and you actually set the media thickness instead of the bed height - which is smart
-the fact that the bed moves instead of the whole gantry saves valuable space next to the printer
- ink bottles 250ml are cheaper than the ink cartridge 220ml so some saving here on the long run.
- i get better results at 600x900 12 pass then i did at 1200x1200 32 pass on the FX the heads are much bigger compared to the FX might explain why the max pass on the MKII is 20 not 32
- There are a lot of features of RL7 for my MKIIe that i enjoy that where non existing on RL6 for my FX. (print white at higher density, set media thickness via the app, saving jigs (instead of having to do a backup)
- I can print up to 6in thanks to it's adjustable height gantry
cons: (and or things I need to get used to)
- there is way more plastic in this build, the FX was 100% metal this one has lots of plastic
- it IS ALWAYS doing some kind of maintenance and head wipes or head heating
- * before i would send a job to print and it would print -- now you have to wait much longer before it starts printing but once it does is super smooth
- it's always Please Wait for head heater-- luckily pressing enter gets it going (oh but now it need to wipe 1:30min)
- if you don't install my 3D printed sensor plugs for the cover then it's the most annoying thing as each time you open it the whole printer does a reset routine that can take several minutes.
- it does an RGB show every 15min when it does it's white ink recycling... it took a week to get used to the constant background noise -- like i said, its ALWAYS doing something
- and finally it quite big!! about 6 in higher (i had to lower my work table to get a comfortable work height) and about 6 in wide and deeper. (i barely got it through the door)
Over hall the first few days i was like WHAT HAVE I DONE now i'm super happy and i'm really enjoying this new baby. no regrets.
I wanted to share this here in case other like me had question on the real differences between both generations of UJF-3042
Cheers
