The Centauri Carbon is the latest filiment 3D printer from Elegoo, but how does it perform compared to it’s claims of being able to print right out of the box? And as a wargamer is it worth adding to your collection? In this review we check out the printer, put it through it’s paces and see just what you can do from a tabletop gaming point of view.

Before we jump into the full review, we recently checked out the Elegoo Mars 5 Ultra resin printer and found it to be an absolutely outstanding printer capable of putting out some cracking resin prints in a relatively small form factor and with minimal setup needed. Can the Centauri Carbon offer the same for a Filament printer? Let’s check it out!

Centauri Carbon Review

I think it’s safe to say that a lot of people, myself included, had been excited about the Centauri Carbon. Elegoo had teased a beginner friendly, plug and play printer with a small form factor and an attractive price – but I don’t think anyone had any idea of just how reasonable it was going to be…

Starting at £299.99 For the Centauri Carbon, or an even cheaper £199.99 for the open form Centauri, this thing flew off the shelves and had a months long wait for the device to be shipped due to popularity. Mine turned up from Elegoo in June and I’ve been playing with it for a couple of months or so, to get a feeling for it before I wrote this review – And I’m happy to say that the Carbon holds up to every wish I had for the printer.

First up, Elegoo are not kidding when they say it is ready to print right out of the box. I’ve used some other 3D printers in the past that needed some lengthy assembly and set up, but the Centauri Carbon was ready built right out of the box. It was just a case of removing it from the box, clipping in the screen and removing some restraining bolts that are fitted for transport. This is easily done and Elegoo have included some clear stickers inside the device making it really straight forward to see what needs removing to get going.

This made life so much easier than fighting with small screws and an screwdriver while balancing the weight of a cross beam! I’ve previously built a Neptune, and that was a much trickier job to get it ready for printing. I was up and running in less that 30 mins, and that included the time clearing a space for it to live.

Talking about space, if you’ve used some other bed slinger 3d printers you’ll know that they can take a lot of space. Due to the fact that the main assembly is fixed and the bed then moves around the base, it means that you need a lot of space around the already large assembly of the printer.

With the Centauri Carbon things are a little different as it’s what is known as a CoreXY printer. In this the bed is fixed (only moving up and down) and the print head moves around inside it’s enclosure while printing. This results in an overall smaller enclosure and much less space needed around it than with a bed slinger

For something with a build volume of 256x256x256mm it doesnt take up much space at all, needing a space around 18 inches by 18 inches (including spool, screen and space for a waste chute on the back) – which is compact as far as large bed printers go!

In the past, one of the things that has put me off FDM printers is the lengthy calibration and leveling process to get things ready. I’ve tried this with a Neptune in the past, and it resulted in lots of trial and error, fiddling with wheels and adjustments to get the printer ready to use, only for the slightest movement to throw off the calibration.

For people new to 3D printing this can be quite the barrier to entry, and I think Elegoo have really kept this in mind with the Centauri Carbon. For starters, there’s no manual adjustment to do here, the machine calibrates itself and guides the user through the process on the screen. You simply press the leveling option and the machine will work its way through a 20 minute sequence to use its sensor to make sure the bed is perfectly level. Once you’ve done this you are ready to print and can happily leave the printer to it! Now, if you move the printer from room to room you’ll want to run this sequence whenever you move it, but if it’s left in the same place you’ll rarely need to do this again.

One of the things that concerned me in the past about FDM printers was the danger of the printer running out of filament mid-print. Prints (even on a fast printer) can take a long time, and the last thing you want to do is have to start again because of a failed print when you’re on the home stretch.

Thankfully, the Centauri Carbon is equipped for this too, having a really good out of filament detector. I’ve used some other printers that simply grind to a halt when the sensor detects that the filament has stopped moving through it – but the Centauri Carbon takes things a bit further by calculating the amount of filament left in the tube and printing up until that much filament has been used. Once the calculated amount has been printed, the print head will move to the corner of the device, extrude any remaining filament and go into a “ready” state for the next spool to be loaded. Once you’ve hit the confirmation button it will then take the next roll, do a test extrude to make sure everything is working ok and then will simply continue with the print once you are ready. This is brilliant and means no wasted filament and no having to worry about running out half way through. You still probably don’t want to keep it running overnight when you are low on filament, but during the day when you can keep your eye on it the device will stay in that ready state for a while, meaning you don’t have to panic about failed prints.

From a software point of view, the enclosed USB stick contains the Elegooo slicer software along with an assortment of files to print. The slicer software is what takes your STl file and “slices” it into instructions that your printer can understand. This is really easy to learn how to use, with the screen showing a virtual representation of your Build Plate

You simply load up the files and then move them around the build plate as you wish. Unlike a resin printer, the more you add to the print plate will result in a longer print, but by moving files around you can optimise the print and make sure you have everything just the way you want it. In here you can also tweak settings such as infill (the amount of material that is used to create the internal space), and supports for more complex prints and adjust the speed and finish settings. Once done you simply save the results to the USB drive and stick it into the Centauri Carbon, or simply sending the instructions via wifi! It’s really easy to use and in my experience has been more reliable that my paper printer!

All of this goes towards making the Centauri Carbon the most user friendly printer I’ve used, even more so than the Mars 5 Ultra (which itself is very user friendly for a resin printer)

Unlike the Mars however, with this being a Filament printer there is little cleaning to do once you’ve finsihed your print. No having to clean and cure parts, and no need to wear gloves while using it. You do want to take some basic safety precautions though, after all this is melting plastic and squirting that molten plastic onto the build plate, so there will of course be fumes (which does cause a bit of a smell) – so make sure to use in a well ventilated location. There’s also moving parts, some of which are heated to extreme temperatures, so you want to make sure no small hands go exploring. Thankfully, the contained structure and door does help with this compared to bed slingers.

You will get a little noise while this is printing, so keep that in mind if you plan on using it in your office while you work as depending on your settings it can cause a bit of a racket – though this can be mitigated by putting it on a padded surface to absorb the vibrations.

Like with the Mars 5 Ultra, the printer also contains a camera which can be used to check progress and to make timelapse videos – I found this more useful on the Mars as you don’t want to be sticking your head near a resin tank to check on progress, with the Centauri Carbon it’s easier to open the door or take off the top cover to see what’s happening – I will admit it is cool to be able to put together videos of your creations coming together. Sadly the lighting inside is a little poor (something I believe has already been improved on more recent units) which on the early version I have makes it a little hard to see well.

So what does the Centauri Carbon mean for Wargamers? Well, for printing terrain you can’t get any better than this – So far I’ve printed a massive recreation of Weathertop from Lord of the Rings which looks stunning, a stack of epic scale buildings along with a full modular gaming surface. For cosplayers this thing is easily big enough to print props and costumes (I’m already toying with printing some Star Wars bits) and for D&D players you could print everything from terrain to dice towers with this.

While some 3D printers in the past have had a steep learning curve, this is really something anyone can use – Just plug and play, run the auto leveling and you’ll be on your way in no time.

Excitingly, Elegoo also have some more features for this coming in the future, such as the ability to print in multiple colours with a separate multi-filament attachment coming later this year. With that you’d be able to load it with multiple different coloured spools of filament and print things that don’t even need paint afterwards!

If you’ve been toying with dipping your toe into 3D printing then I would highly recommend picking this up, especially for the introductory price of £299 – you get a lot for your money in a user friendly and easy to use package allowing you to get into the hobby without the headaches of older models.

I’ve been really impressed with what Elegoo have put together with the Centauri Carbon, and I can’t wait to see what else they have in store!

Published by Matt Crowther

View all posts by Matt Crowther