We got our hands on the latest iteration of the Flashforge Adventurer series, and put it to the test.

Every month seems to bring new 3D printer releases now, and it is getting harder to find the differences or standout features between many of the offerings. It is even harder to sort the promises from the realities in some cases.

Flashforge have been very consistent players in the 3D printer market, and they have a reputation for doing things very well. We have four FDM 3D printers here in the workshop, and two of them are Flashforge: An original Finder, and a Guider II with over 4000 print hours that is still going strong. Maintenance on the Guider has only ever been nozzle, print bed tape, and hot-end replacement; and lubricating moving parts. So, we were pretty excited when Flashforge approached us to review the Adventurer 4. Straight away, there are some features which make the Adventurer 4 stand out.

FEATURES AND SPECIFICATIONS

Name	Polarisation
Build Area:	220mm x 200mm x 250mm (XYZ)
Max Nozzle Temperature:	240/265°C nozzle options
Max Plate Temperature:	110°C
Nozzle Sizes Available:	0.3mm, 0.4mm, 0.6mm
Quick-Release Nozzle	Yes
Flexible Build Plate:	Yes
Filament Runout Sensing:	Yes
HD Camera:	Yes
Air Filter:	HEPA13
Resume Printing:	Yes
Bed Levelling:	Software
Bed Levelling Points:	9
Interfaces:	Wireless, USB Memory, Ethernet
Power Consump[tion:	230W
Layer Thickness	0.1mm to 0.4mm
Internal Storage:	8GB

NOZZLES

The first is the quick-change nozzle. This system has the nozzle, heating element, and feed tube in one unit that snaps in and out. This means that the PTFE feed tube is replaced whenever the nozzle wears out. It also allows easy changes of temperature ability, too, as the heater is built into each. Standard nozzles are rated to 240°C, while high-temperature nozzles work to 265°C. It is also very easy to change nozzles. Unfortunately, it was much harder to find instructions on how to change nozzles. It certainly wasn't obvious from the quick-start guide, and there is nothing in the Adventurer 4's videos, either. We did find a video of the Adventurer 3, which looks like it works the same way.

In the end, we navigated to the Download page of the Support section of the website, and found the User Guide. This confirms that pinching two buttons inwards releases the nozzle. They were nearly invisible as black plastic buttons on a black plastic extruder head in a black plastic interior. Also, the nozzle change can only take place after filament has retracted. If cold filament is still in the nozzle, it will not come out. We haven't experimented yet, but at a casual glance it appears that the software can be set to retract filament from the nozzle at the end of a print, which will enable easy nozzle change when cold, and filament change too.

The nozzles are more expensive than their traditional counterparts, at $30 to $52 AU depending on the size and temperature. However, that won't seem so bad once a few PTFE tubes, heating cartridges, and supporting parts have been replaced on a regular printer. Consider also the often significant effort involved in changing those parts.

PRINT BED

The print bed on the Adventurer 4 comes factory-fitted with a magnetic flexible steel build plate - no optional extras needed here! Unless of course, you like PEI beds, in which case a genuine PEI fitment is available. The build surface on the steel liftable bed is the familiar deep textured black polymer, which as far as we can tell is not available as an accessory. Instead, the build plate with the steel, tape, and plastic handles is available to be replaced as one. This is probably good, because, in our experience, the heat-treated steel of flexible build plates eventually loses its spring enough to bend, and fatigue cracks from flexing are a realistic problem as well. The great thing about the build plate, though, is that there are two corner locating slots at the back of the plate for consistent placement and alignment in both the x- and y-axis when the plate is placed. They are tapered, so the plate is easy to insert, then aligns as it slides home.

The Adventurer 4 features nine-point software levelling. No more turning thumb screws! Unlike some brands where software levelling is completely automatic, the Flashforge Adventurer firmware allows adjustment and is initially manual. Included with the kit is a steel shim, used like the traditional piece of copy paper to level the bed. Instead of turning thumb screws, the nozzle is raised or lowered by buttons on the touchscreen for each of the nine points. This allows the user to tune the bed adhesion: We went with the default recommendation, which resulted in great adhesion but some elephant's footing. Increments are 0.1mm, so user preference can well be accommodated.

However, there is a quirk where one button push results in a 0.5mm jump, then pushing the back button results in a lesser jump. This was consistent and seemed deliberate. In fact, the jumps were often pretty close to the mark, based on use of the feeler gauge. By shuttling backward and forward, any exact number can be reached. It should be noted that this was in 'Basic Mode' for extruder calibration. There is an 'Expert Mode' which disables auto calibration and allows manual adjustment in 0.02mm increments. That is fine enough for anyone's needs.

ENCLOSURE

The overall enclosure looks impressive, but is solid as well. All sides are enclosed, which is great for noise. The four printers here at the DIYODE workshop are open, either partly or fully. They are positioned between two metres and half a metre from the computer on which this review was written. The noise gets very distracting and outright headache-inducing at times. The logistics of the room dictate that position, so we cannot move them. The Adventurer 4, however, has clear acrylic panelling over any exposed face, including the top. This makes it much, much quieter. So much so that we had it printing test prints all day on the workbench, a similar distance away as the workshop printers, and had nowhere near as much distraction and no headache.

The rest of the enclosure is metal framed with plastic panelling. There are handles moulded into the very bottom, but we would have liked to find some at the top, too, especially when trying to unbox it or get it off the floor! Inside the enclosure, similar care is taken. The floor is covered by a metal panel, with only slots for the axes to move in. This makes cleaning easy and helps keep debris ingress to the working parts to a minimum. The inside of the plastic panelling has horizontal ribs in the curved sections and hexagonal moulding for rigidity in the flat sections. None of it seems to be in a position to make cleaning difficult.

Also part of the enclosure is a fan-operated HEPA13 filter, which draws air out of the enclosure. This filters particles and some fumes from the air inside the printer enclosure (though not enough to enable ABS printing in an inhabited unventilated room).

FILAMENT

Filament is fed from a spool holder on the side of the machine. The extruder drive motor is mounted at the top of this section, the Bowden-style extruder being a departure from the direct extruder version that other Flashforge printers use. There is a filament runout sensor, but we were unable to verify anywhere if it stops the print or not. It can be turned on and off, however. Some runout sensors only sound an alarm. Our Flashforge Guider II, which is much older, does stop printing on runout. The spool holder is covered by a clear plastic door, with a magnetic catch. This helps keep filament from absorbing atmospheric moisture by limiting airflow, but is in no way a dry box. Maximum reel width is 83mm, while maximum diameter is around 230mm. Filaments supported include PLA, ABS, Polycarbonate, and PETG.

OTHER FEATURES

The Adventurer 4 has the ability to connect wirelessly to a computer, or use USB memory devices for printing. We always use the USB option, as we find it easier than dealing with our own network security. Once a file has been loaded, local memory stores it. The USB stick or network connection can be removed, and printing continues. The USB socket is in the front panel for ease of accessibility, while the ethernet port is on the bottom of the right side, toward the front of the panel. The back of the same panel is home to the power socket and switch.

However, if network connection is retained, there is a HD camera fitted for remote monitoring of work. We did not really explore this feature, but some people find it very useful. This would be particularly useful if a print had failed and you were using a network connection: The print can be stopped without wasted filament or fire risk.

Local control is achieved by a 4.3 inch touch screen, however, the interface is an improvement over the older interface we are used to on the Finder and Guider. We found no major issues with the old interface, but the new one is better anyway. It is a colour screen, and the touchscreen is accurate and easy. Small previews of the print are shown, which is very helpful for longer or ambiguous file names.

The printer features a gantry fixed y-axis, with the print bed being mounted on rails to provide y-axis movement. X-axis movement is via the gantry frame attached to the z-axis, which itself is guide-rail based with rails fixed top and bottom. Linear bearings and guide rods are the mechanism of choice for the Adventurer 4, like the other Flashforge printers we have here. The two Creality printers we have use rubber wheels on bearings running in V-slot, and we prefer the guide rail method. Although it needs cleaning and lubrication, it has less variation over time and less movement off-axis.

The printer comes with the usual array of supplies: A quickstart guide and warranty document in a bag, a bag of white grease for the guide rails, a screwdriver, nozzle unblocking tool, and set of hex keys. The hex key inclusion even comes with its own holder, a step up from regular tool inclusions which are usually a bunch of loose (and losable) hex keys. Also included are two spare Bowden tube fittings. The thing missing is a scraper or knife. We guessed that this was because of the flexible bed, but there is still material to remove after a print, particularly as most use a skirt before the print proper begins. We used a knife left over from the old LulzBot to clean the print surface of any residual extrusion before each print.

Also included with ours was a 0.4mm 265°C nozzle. This is not mentioned anywhere in the documents or online information as a standard inclusion, and seems to be optional. We're fairly sure Flashforge sent it to use as part of the review but no one has confirmed that yet. We are suggesting that it is not standard, and yours will probably come with just the default 0.4mm 240°C nozzle, which ours also came with. The good news is, whoever wins this month's competition, gets both!

EXPERIENCE

We conducted our favourite series of test prints with the Adventurer, using default settings only. We prefer out-of-the-box tests to ones where all manner of adjustments have been needed to give the results shown. The only thing we did was level the bed. The test print files are from Thingiverse, and we have links at the end of the article if you want to check them out and show their original designers some support. All prints were made with the supplied 1kg roll of red Flashforge PLA that came with the printer.

The first test print was the All In One 3D Printer Test, made by majda107. This model tests overhang, bridging, thin wall printing, embossed and engraved text, tubes, stringing, and more; all in one print. The results can be seen in the images. Some of the finer text was a bit hard to read, and there was some stringing from the vertical tower test section. Overall, however, the print was sound. In particular, the overhand section was impressive.

The next was the famous Benchy by CreativeTools. This item has become very much the standard for D printer testing, and we printed in 0.1mm (left), 0.2mm(middle), and 0.3mm(right) layer heights. Side by side comparison shows the effects of the different layer heights. It is very hard to get decent photos of these, given the way the filament interacts with light. They were shot in the workshop, and not in a studio.

We also printed our other main favourite, the GlobeLamp - Earth, by ClassyGoat. This one is more of a torture test than it looks at first glance. We printed at 0.3mm first, then 0.15mm. We increased the default shells to six, as this print is produced with no infill. The completely hollow structure relies on layer overlap and the fact that there a sphere can print without support. Note, however, that at 0.3mm layer height, the overhang is big enough to cause issues at the most unsupported section of the globe, down around Antarctica. Reducing the layer height means that there is not as much overhanging material per layer, and performance increases. The 0.15mm print was better all round, and you can see several other anomalies in the photos of the 0.3mm print.

As a slight side-note, the power failed during printing of the 0.15mm version, when it was 80% done. The print was cold before the power came back on, but the resume-print function took care of that. It's even hard to tell in person where the resume point was.

The final print we tried was our own file. It's a traffic wand for a torch, and is just a hollow truncated cone. It makes a good print to try vase mode, which is one single wall with seam hiding. The only changes to default settings was to add a brim, and remove the solid bottom layers. In a normal vase, a solid base is ok, but both ends of this print need to be open. The result is very smooth and even, and we cannot see any sagging or warping anywhere. Seeing the wand lit up also shows the print characteristics in a way we do not often see.

CONCLUSION

We are very impressed with the Flashforge Adventurer 4. From its quiet running to typical Flashforge reliability and solid build, the printer is a good deal for its asking price. There are plenty of cheaper printers, but you do get what you pay for in the 3D printer world, to a point. With the Adventurer 4, we think it's money very well spent. Its range of features are good but without features for the sake of features. It has some bells and whistles, but nothing you don't need. If we weren't giving it away, we'd be using it a lot!

3D Print Test Files:

All In One https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2656594

3DBenchy https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:763622

Globe Lamp https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2565357

Shopping List:

Flashforge Adventurer 4:
The Flashforge Adventurer 4 is available from Flashforge online store or resellers across Australia.

Buy from FLASHFORGE - flashforgeshop.com A$1088-A$1499

Buy from jaycar (not stocked in all stores) TL4431 $1299