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The Chinese manufacturer Longer 3D – founded in 2014 in cooperation with MIT scientists – produces consumer and industrial 3D printers as well as 3D printing materials for the south-eastern market. With the acquiring of the famous DIY company RepRapPro in 2016, Longer 3D set out to target the global market.

With its new 3D printer, the LK4, Longer 3D is trying to tackle the already packed budget 3D printer market, historically dominated by Creality’s Ender 3.

Can it hold up with the established players? Read on as we review the specs of this 3D printer.

Longer LK4

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Longer LK4: Review the Specs

Features

The Longer LK4 is a budget 3D printer kit. The compact build allows for an easy assembly.

Let’s see what else the LK4 brings to the table.

Sturdy Aluminum Frame

No rocking the bed with this robust frame

Having a sturdy frame on your 3D printer serves multiple purposes. For one thing, you don’t want to rock the printer while it’s printing accidentally. On the other hand, a sturdy frame reduces vibrations from the operating machine itself, therefore resulting in less Z-wobble and ensuring a smoother finish of prints.

As the Longer LK4 has to be manually leveled, a sturdy frame also rids you of the struggle to constantly re-level the bed. The Longer LK4 spots a sturdy aluminum frame with firm footing, that should minimize potential Z-wobble.

Smooth Filament Feeding

The Longer LK4 is a Bowden type 3D printer. A Bowden type extruder usually leads to less Z-axis wobble due to the extruder motor being mounted on the printer’s frame rather than on the print head. But with certain filaments, especially flexible ones, Bowden type 3D printers usually tend to struggle with. The Longer LK4 seems to somewhat forgo this problem by mounting the filament spool holder in the back. This should further lessen the weight on the vertical frame and also allow for smoother feeding of filament. Nevertheless, the success of flexible filament prints still depends on the shore hardness of the filament used.

Full-color touchscreen

Making life easier: The touchscreen and UI

Truth be told, nowadays, touchscreens on 3D printers are not a rare sight; in the medium price segment, that is. In the budget price segment – in which the LK4 competes – it is still a feature seldom found. The Longer LK4 is equipped with a 2.8″ full-color touchscreen that can be mounted on either side of the 3D printer, allowing for maximum usability. Operating the printer, such as model preview and parameter settings, should also be facilitated.

Functional Features

A potential lifesaver: The resume print function

Other features quite standard in 3D printers nowadays are the resume-print function and a filament runout sensor. Both allow for long-time prints without the constant fear of a print failing mid-print, or even worse, just before finishing. For a budget 3D printer, these features are a welcomed sight, as they usually can be found in higher priced 3D printers. Equipped with both, the Longer LK4 should be up to the task of putting that print bed size to its full capacity and having worry-free long-time prints.

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