Just wondering, which printer is faster? It appears that the TAZ 6 prints at 200 mm/s (or something like that), and the Mini at 275, so numerically it sounds like the Mini is faster – but are there other considerations? Somehow it seems that the bigger, more expensive printer ought to be faster …
Those numbers are worthless. You may reach such speeds on travel moves if you have enough line length for acceleration and braking, but not during printing. Fot printing, the ability of the hot end to melt enough filament per second and the quality you want to get are the limiting values. In reality, they should be absolutely equal. If you go to the max., the TAZ 5 should be able to print a little bit faster because it has a stronger extruder stepper. But without further mods, you will not hit that limit or your prints will look realy bad due to other things before…
The Mini can print faster as the bed on it is smaller and thus less mass to move during printing movements. So the heated bed speeds up and stops just a little faster. The head also has a small reduction in its mass from the Taz one. So the movement speeds can be a little higher on the Mini which can be a fair amount of time saved in the long run.
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From a purely theoretical standpoint you’re basically right, but in reality there’s not going to be a difference.
I agree. The printer will print whatever speed you want… there will be less heat from the steppers with the Mini. 
If cost is not a factor, then it really boils down to the print size. Both machines will have their quirks… and both will become easier to use after a month.
You can get them both going pretty fast if you throw some modifications at them heh.
Thanks everyone! I wish I had both the Taz 6 and Mini, and then I’d have a contest 
. Seriously, if anyone does happen to have both, I’d love to see the results of a head-to-head competition.
I have printed the same model on a Mini and a Taz both using the standard ‘default’ profiles, and the Mini did print it in less time. But I think unless you are mass producing something the time savings are nothing.
I guess it would depend on the amount of parts and size. If you have a lot of stuff to print, you could print them all on the full sized taz simultaneously but you would have to do parts individually on the mini due to size limitations.
My impression is the T6 is a little slower than the T5 too using default Cura profiles for each machine. I mean the actual printing portion and not counting the bed leveling process of the T6. I don’t have timings or data to back it up, it’s just the impression I get after having used both. I used a T5 for 2 months and just got a T6 to replace it. It just feels a bit slower. Not sure if it’s just me.
I haven’t compared the speeds and other parameters used in the Cura profiles of the 5 vs the 6. Has anyone compared them for the Mini vs T6?
The mini is overall faster. The leveling is faster and the bed heats up faster. V15 of cura had 85mm/s print speeds on the high speed quick print setting for the mini. I’m afraid to try that speed on the TAZ, the mini is flat out hauling on that setting.
Hmm… I usually print at 90mm/s on the TAZ with travel (and supports) set to 100mm/s.
Anybody looked at how fast the hexagon hot end will actually melt and extrude filament? What would be a reasonable measurement quantity for that, cubic mm/minute?
I did the test, mm3/s is the value you are looking for. It depends on the material and print temperature, but for PLA @ 205°C i would never go above 9mm3/s.
That’s only 72 mm/s for a 0.4 mm layer height, seems slow. I tried my mini last night at 120 mm/s and it wasnt having any trouble. I want to print parts as fast as possible and dont care about surface finish. So max layer height and speed.
Does it make sense then to run the nozzle temp higher than normal to help melt the plastic faster?
Yes, a higher nozzle temperature will help you for high speed. But thats limited up to some point where you burn the filament in the heat chamber, so be careful.
You can also go higher, but then it’s questionable if it will work. If you want to do your own tests and find the limit, there is no point against it.