FLASHFORGE Adventurer 5M PRO Review

Today we will be taking a look at the Adventurer 5M Pro 3D printer from Flashforge. It’s a fully enclosed Core XY machine with high printing speeds and awesome features such as the Quick Swap Nozzle system, built in camera for time-lapse and remote monitoring, full auto bed leveling and vibration calibration and it now also works with the newly updated Orca-Flashforge slicer.

Key Specs:

Core XY Motion
Fully Enclosed with HEPA and Active Carbon Air Filter
Auto Leveling and calibration
High Speed printing
Hinged top and front door
4.3” color touch screen
220x220x220mm build volume
USB/Wifi/Ethernet Connectivity
ORCA Flashforge Slicer
0.4mm and 0.6mm nozzle included
Nozzle temp 280c
Bed Temp 110c
PEI Build Plate
Compatible Materials: PLA, PETG, ABS, ASA, TPU, PLA-CF, PETG-CF, High Speed PLA

Specs and Design

The Adventurer 5M Pro is well built with a solid internal metal structure, and it’s enclosed with plastic side panels, a plastic top lid and a plastic front door, all combined giving it a clean and minimalist look.

The top lid is on a hinge and this allows it to be easily opened giving access to the top, and with it being connected there’s no need to worry about finding a place to put it. The front door give access to the build plate and internals and this held closed with magnets. The handles on the lid and the front door are nicely designed with an integrated cutaway that make for a neat hidden handle.

Speaking of handles there’s also two handle cutouts found on either side making it easy to pick up and move the printer.

The enclosure nicely sealed around the door and lid with foam is perfect for printing demanding materials like ASA, ABS or Nylon. Although one thing I didn’t see was a chamber temp read out displayed on the screen, which would be nice to have.

3D Printer Front

At the front we have a USB port for plugging in a USB stick with prepared sliced files, or files can be loaded directly to the machine over Wi-Fi or the rear Ethernet port. And it good to see theres also a LAN only mode for off line printing

Along with the main rear power switch this printer also has a front switch to turn it on or off, although the power supply still needs to be shut down by the rear main switch to completely turn it off.

Touch Screen

On the machine the files are accessed via the 4.3” color touch screen or controlled through the software on a PC. The user interface is easy to navigate and on the touch screen we can control the printer, start prints, adjust settings and view print progress.

When using the touch screen to start a print it’s good to see there’s a 3D model of the object displayed on the screen, which makes it easy to select the correct file for printing. It can also be used to play back time-lapse footage, and to export and transfer the footage to a PC we need to use a USB stick.

At the back of the printer there’s the removable spool holder, the power connection socket, the power switch and Ethernet port. There’s also access points for the belt tensioning.

Inside the 3D Printer

Taking a look inside the Adventurer 5M Pro we have a build volume of 220mm cubed, suitable for small to medium sized models, but it may be on the smaller side for some users looking to print large models. The print bed platform moves along the z axis with 3 lead screws, along with the front rods there’s also extra support with dual rods at the back resulting in accurate layers when printing.

On the bed we find a magnetic flexible dual sided build plate with a textured PEI surface and a built in plastic handle, which make handling the build plate easy. The flexible plate makes it easy to remove 3d printed models once they cool, simply by flexing it and removing the printed part.

This print bed has full automatic leveling, unlike older printers where you needed to make adjustments for z offsets or adjust bed levels manually, so there is nothing to touch ensuring perfect first layers.

Tool Head

Filament feeds from the back through a filament run-out sensor into the compact direct drive extruder and is melted by the hot end which is equipped with the all in one integrated heater and it comes setup with a 0.4mm steel nozzle. It reaches a maximum temperature of 280C suitable for most common filaments like PLA, TPU, PETG, or ASA

The cover on the tool head is held in place with locating pins and magnets which makes it easy to remove for maintenance.

The print head use a quick swap nozzle system, which allows us to remove and install different sized nozzle in seconds. The printer comes the 0.4mm installed and includes a 0.6mm nozzle kit. There’s also optional 0.25, and 0.8mm nozzles available.

Swapping out the nozzles is a super easy and quick process, with the machine turn off and the nozzle cooled we start off by cutting off the currently loaded filament, then press and hold the two red tabs and pull down on the nozzle. To install another nozzle we just align it and push it up until it clicks into place. That’s it and it’s ready to go! Just remember to run the auto-level for the bed before the next print.

Cooling

For cooling, a large fan on the print head with air ducts cools down the freshly printed layers, plus an additional internal auxiliary side fan adds to the cooling. Although the additional part cooling fan, and exhaust fan are a bit loud when on full speed, especially when the front door or top is open.

Internal Camera

There’s a small camera located inside the top corner. And this camera is used to capture time-lapse footage and for monitoring of prints, which can be viewed in the software or remotely.

Led Light

Inside there is also a LED light bar, this great for lighting up the internals allow us to see what’s being printed. The lights can be turned on or off when needed either from the touch screen or remotely in the software.

HEPA and Active Carbon Filter

Additionally the printer has HEPA and active carbon filtration system to minimize exposure to smells and ultra-fine particles. There’s 2 modes for the filtration system: Inner circulation filtration improving the chambers air making it suitable for ABS and other materials. Or External Filtration where the air is drawn in from the outside, filtered and circulated out, great for PLA and PETG

Unboxing

The 3D printer comes well package and 99% pre-assembled, we just need to remove the packaging around the printer, install the spool holder at the back, remove the transport screws from the bed platform and plug in the power cable.

It will then run through calibration tests for the initial setup for the bed level and vibration calibration. Whats also good is the on screen display guides you through the whole process to the first print.

First Print

For the next print we will start it directly from the touch screen. Just below the home icon is a print icon where we can find the a few pre-loaded models. For this print we will select the high speed benchy boat and we are using the cool looking burnt titanium PLA filament so we click on the green print icon.

Even after using other high speed printers it’s always impressive to see how fast these printer are when printing. The boat test print complete in 14min and turned out well for a quick print.

Filament Change

Now if you want to change filament there’s a filament spool icon on the left side of the screen. In the menu the second icon of a filament swap is selected. It shows all the instructions on how to change the filament. And if were changing to a different filament type we can select other material types or input different temperatures.

While changing filament is a manual process, it’s a similar process found on higher end printers with an automated cutting and retraction system. I find it’s actually a good way to clear out the hot end and extruder in one direction. Rather than manually pulling filament out with the possibility leaving small particles behind in the extruder gears.

Software

For the software the Adventurer 5M Pro comes with Flash Print 5 and Orca slicer (stock version) on the USB drive.

Flash Print 5 is easy to use for beginners and it makes slicing and sending files over Wi-Fi easy. There’s advanced or basic slicer setting layouts and with a file sliced it can be saved as Gcode or sent over Wi-Fi to the printer. With the file sent to the printer we can monitor the prints within the software.

For more advanced users looking for a more powerful slicing solution I’d recommend using the latest dedicated Orca FlashForge Slicer (we are testing with V1.0.2) . It has the printer profiles already setup and the Wi-Fi integration configured. Just make sure to update to the printers latest firmware before use ( Printer V2.7.2)

While it’s a more powerful slicer that allows us to prepare, send over Wi-Fi and monitor it still missing a few features like system presets for different layer heights, viewing of files stored on the printer, or accessing and downloading of time-lapse footage, so it could be a bit more polished and hopefully it will be added soon.

Rocket Print

The next print is a 2 part rocket and smoke cloud model, these files are sliced and sent from Orca Flashforge slicer and sent over Wi-Fi. Both of these parts are printed with the 0.4mm nozzle at a 0.2mm layer height using PLA filament and the default settings.

0.6mm Prints

For the next print we’re using the 0.6mm nozzle to print this interesting bowl design. In the software the nozzle setting is changed from 0.4mm to 0.6mm, and it’s sliced with a 0.3mm layer height without any infill or top layers which will use the thickness of the nozzle to create a single wall around the edges with neat looking weaved mesh finish. The finished print turned out great, it was a quick print with a really interesting finish.

The next print is of an Octopus with print in place movable tentacles. The model is enlarged to 150% in the slicer and printed with the 0.6mm nozzle.

The total print time for this model was 1hr 38mins and on the finish print we do see some layer lines as it’s printed with a 0.3mm layer height but a good looking fast print.

PETG

Now were going to switch out the PLA for PETG and print a wall hook with the 0.6mm nozzle. The print took 1hr 37mins to complete and it’s a functional item that turned out well with a good surface finish.

TPU

And for this last print were using white TPU to print a flexible cable tie.

Final Thoughts

All the prints turned out well with both of the supplied nozzles and the machine had no problem printing different types of materials using the default slicer settings. The Flash Print 5 software that comes with the printer is decent, but I would recommend updating the printer’s firmware and using the more powerful Orca Flashforge slicer for a better experience.

Some users might also find the 220mm cubed print volume to be on the smaller size so something to consider.

I enjoyed using the Quick swap nozzles and apart from replacements begin on the pricier side, they worked really well allowing them to be swapped out in seconds.

Flashforge has made a well-built 3D Printer, delivering excellent performance, that’s quick and easy to setup and work well with the latest ORCA FlashForge slicer. The speed and print quality of the Adventurer 5M PRO rivals other high speed Core XY 3d printers, making it a capable device for DIY projects and hobbyists.

Product Links

Watch the full detailed video review here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKX4xP5fA7U

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