Recently, I had a chance to speak with BEEVERYCREATIVE CEO Diogo Quental, who runs the Portuguese company behind the BEETHEFIRST 3D printer. Soon, I realized that I have been overlooking one of the most interesting ventures in consumer desktop 3D printing. The most surprising part is that they have been that venture for over three years, long before the MakerBot Mini, the Cube 3, and the Ultimaker2Go.
Now that Diogo sent me a BEETHEFIRST 3D printer to try out, it has become clear to me just how exciting his company and product really are. I feel like I was the last one to do realize it, since I have been seeing the 3D printer at 3D printing shows since 2013 and I had never fully comprehended how well-built it was. Like the saying goes, better late than never. The BTF simply does every single thing a desktop 3D printer should do and, in the best Apple style, the BTF experience starts from the very moment you take the black styrofoam package encasing the printer out of the cardboard and find every accessory neatly organized.
The build plate and blue tape, a spool of filament and the magnetic spool holder to go with it, the power cord and the tools to clean up your printed parts: everything has its little compartment, so that you know where to put each object when you aren’t using it and are out and about Making somewhere (did I mention that this is a portable system?). The best part is that all you need to do is magnetically attach the build plate and the spool holder, then you are ready to go in just a few minutes. The 3D printer was already calibrated out of the box, however if you want to be absolutely certain you can follow the calibration procedure, which requires you to use a sheet of paper. This may not be fully intuitive at first but the 3D partner’s responsive mechanics makes the process easier than most machines.
You can take your BTF and 3D print just about anywhere, since it even has a handle to carry it around. The only obstacle still standing in your way is the software. While BEESOFT is a rather complete interface that lets you manage just about every aspect of the 3D printing process, it is a somewhat less intuitive and responsive than I would have liked. After getting used to it, everything ran fairly smoothly (apart from a couple of crashes, possibly due to me clicking too many times); however, that is exactly the issue: it did take a little getting used to and, in the age of accessibility, even this tiny learning curve may set off some users. All and all, this is not a big deal, it is really a minor drawback to an overall very positive experience.
The interface window that allows you to upload a file on the virtual build plate needs a little getting used to, as well. So does the cursor, which depends upon your own perspective so that sometimes you feel like you are clicking directly on a model, but you aren’t. Apart from this, which, in Italian, we proverbially refer to as the “hair on the egg”, the bottom line is that the BTF 3D printer is definitely one of the most consumer-ready 3D printers today on the market and has been for the better part of the past three years.
Once you get the BTF going, you really get the best of it. I don’t know if, and how much, it has been improved since the very first models, but the version I got to play with prints very well, rapidly and neatly, with resolutions up to 50 microns. Its automatic support system is ideal for beginners and, if you think an object may not need supports, it’s probably true. I put the extruder to work for a few days in a row and it never gave me even the slightest problem. To make sure it stays that way, the BEESOFT interface also has automatic settings for calibration and extruder cleaning.
Loading and unloading the filament is very easy, one of most straight forward parts of BEESOFT: just click “maintenance” and follow the instructions. Then, you can watch your BTF extrude and print: you can do that for hours on end, since the 3D printer really is beautiful to look at and – even more importantly – it is one of the quietest systems I have tested.
When you are done, you just take the magnetic plate off and remove the product of your bot’s hard work. The BEETHEFIRST only prints in PLA as it does not have a heated plate, but that is all that most consumers and casual users (like myself) are going to need. Really, it was as it is in a fairytale: you look for something all around you, realizing that what you were looking for has been sitting right next to you all along. Then, you feel like it is your time to BEETHEFIRST, at last.
