I am looking at the TAZ-5 mostly in comparison to the Makergear M2. The TAZ5 lists an XY precision of .05mm where as the M2 lists .01. Is it correct that the TAZ5 is better for large prints with less resolution? (There were comments to that effect on some of the reviews but it may have been the TAZ4). Sometimes specs don’t tell the whole story!
Thanks!
The M2 uses fully supported linear rail bearings on the X and Y axis. The Taz uses bearing rod that is fixed at either end, but not supported in the middle. On the other hand the M2 only uses one linear rail for the Y bed support, which is offset to one side where the Taz has 2 rods. You are probably going to get some additional flex in the middle of the bed with the Taz, where the M2 is probably going to have some issues with excess play on the edge furthest from the linear rail. The Z axis on the Taz is probably slightly more stable due to the second bearing rod.
The Taz 4 is basically the same as the Taz 5, just with a different hotend.
Both printers are very nice units, and they both have some plusses and minuses. I’m a big fan of fully supported bearing rails, and I’m working on a project to add that capacity to the X and later the Y axis of the Taz. I’m not as much a fan of the way the M2 implements their rails. I get why they did it the way they did to keep costs competitive with other printers, but there were some design tradeoffs to go that route as well.
Unless you are printing with very thin layer heights, It probably doesn’t matter either way because the variance in filament based printing extruders is going to be greater than the potential XY precision difference anyways.
They use the same motors and the same controllers. The differences in part quality will be negligible.
Source: I have used both machines extensively.