Disclaimer: Sinterit has not compensated me for this review in any way. I do not own this printer, but I have had the opportunity to use it extensively.
The Bottom Line – 7.5/10
The Sinterit Lisa Pro is an infuriating mix of excellent and terrible design. It produces gorgeous, production ready parts out of engineering materials, and it is a revolutionary leap forward for desktop 3D printing. However, with that leap forward, we also fall back to high cost, finicky print parameters, poor user experience, and lethargic print speeds. I think Sinterit has come a long way, but has an equally long way to go. Yet, the quality and capabilities of the printer push it farther than the limitations hold it back. If you have parts that need it, buy a Sinterit. You’ll hate the printer, but not as much as you’ll love the prints.
Print Quality
The print quality of the Sinterit is incredible, but you need to know what SLS prints look like. Layer lines are hidden by the grainy texture of the parts, but you’ll never get a shiny bottom layer again. Everything will look sandblasted, which I find to be quite aesthetically pleasing. The limitations on feature sizes are pretty standard, and you’ll never find a dual material SLS printer. However, the place where SLS shines brighter than any FDM printer is in the geometry you can print without supports. Any shape you want. Since unsintered powder is drawn across the entire bed, you can make a design with any overhang you want. You can also print parts on top of eachother, taking advantage of the full volume of the print area in every print. Prints take forever, but that’s the price you pay for desktop SLS (for the time being).
Software
Sinterit Studio is fine. It is not bursting with features, but not lacking them either. You can duplicate, rotate, and move, but annoyingly there is no scaling in the slicer. It’s a minor inconvenience, but a very puzzling one. Other than that, it does everything it is supposed to. There isn’t a lot of room for customization, but the prints don’t seem to need it either.
Hardware
The hardware is nice, but replacement parts (some of which you’ll need frequently) are overpriced and annoying to install. The printer is very solid, but cramped and difficult to work with. It’s got some really nice design decisions, and some really questionable ones too. Overall, it feels solid and looks nice, as long as you don’t have to work on it. But you will.
Final Thoughts
There are a thousand ways the Sinterit is inferior to my beloved Makerbot Replicator 1. It’s more expensive, both for the machine and materials. It’s less reliable. It’s even slower. But it doesn’t matter, because it can make parts that no FDM printer can. You can make a perfect, integrated ball bearing in any orientation in your part. You can finally orient your part just to maximize directional strength, not to strike the best balance between printability and layer strength. You can make nylon parts that look as beautiful after printing as they do in CAD. It’s the worst printer that makes the best parts.