Tom: a large heat bed will require power. a 12" heat bed is twice the size of a 8" I put an insulating blanket

Here is the beauty   Tom if you really wanted to you could use the FT5 manual buy all quality parts and build your own printer.

Believe me, I am also considering that option as well. Also there is the D-Bot which is similar to the FT5. I actually have about 50% of the parts printed for that one.

Tom

Required upgrades.
Ying and Yang with e exception of the common problem of one or two MISSiING  screws FT kits work with the parts provided.  But as with any import kit there is little QC and occasionally a defective part will show up.
The Import kits are low margin kits the they are keeping the price low to attract customers. The supplier makes some money and the consumer get a good to great value.
As far as required upgrades this is simply a matter of taste and opinion. Yes I chose a better extruder /hot end based on my experience. I wanted a hot end that would handle higher heat material and chose not to use th one shipped in the kit. I  used the hot end that came with the I3 for a while it worked fine at pla temps.
I may change the conector plates to aluminum  but again a choice. .
The bottom line here is if you built the kit to high standards and tried to include all the desired upgrades you would have a $1000 kit not a $500 kit.

The FT5 also uses cheap driver chips. the real deal is $ 7.50 each for the A4988 and $10.50 for the DVR8825

https://www.pololu.com/category/120/ste … or-drivers

Here is the beauty   Tom if you really wanted to you could use the FT5 manual buy all quality parts and build your own printer.

Your new printer is 12 volt I believe. Does the 300 x 300 bed heat up fairly quickly and does it stay warm easily? Also, your print bed just goes up and down. Do you find it is making a quality difference in your prints?

I am still looking at an FT-5. The bed would be large enough for what I want, I could use my E3D and Titan (I think). Also, parts are fairly close.

If only the exchange rate would come down.

Tom

I am NOT an owner  buy  being able to get shipped from a dealer in our country should be a plus.
Nice looking in many ways.
I see a flimsy frame with no structure and a large (MASS) build plate that has to move all the time.

I would place the picture next to a lulzbot and a g max and look close.  IIRC a taz 6 is a couple grand and a g max about 3 grand so for a few hundred you are getting a LARGE kit.  Plenty of budget left over fo upgrades.

Any comments?