Anet 3d printer price

Before the arrival of my 3D printer Anet A8...

I wanted to get ready. Especially after the scary stories on the Internet about burned houses and apartments, I didn’t want to get stuck in the same one. nine0005

The first thing I did was to join two popular Facebook groups of Anet A8 owners. To be honest, it was not easy to find useful information in these Facebook communities. As a result, it all came down to surfing the Internet and tons of YouTube videos. YouTube has been especially helpful for me.

I also recommend you to educate yourself. Yes, you won’t be able to avoid all mistakes, but as a result, you won’t fall for many of them.

What's in the box?

When the 3D printer arrived, I was absolutely delighted. Anet A8 arrived in a large box that weighs about 10 kg. When you open it, make sure you do it from the front so that the parts do not fall out. nine0005

Box contains 3 layers of smaller plastic boxes. These boxes contain all the parts needed for assembly. There are really a lot of details. And it was especially nice.

The manufacturer also packs a screwdriver, 4 hex keys, pliers and even an SD card with a USB adapter. There is no specific sequence in the packaging of the parts, so it doesn't matter how you mix them when you get them. Below is a list of Anet A8 parts.

Everything is packed very well. nine0005

The first thing that started to alert me was that there was no printed assembly instruction. But it turned out that it is on the MicroUSB card that comes with the kit.

Manual is written in Chinese and English. Consists of several folders on the SD card. The only printed part is an A4 sheet with a diagram of connecting electrical equipment to the control board. Everything else you will find in digital form.

Before starting assembly, you can check if all parts and assemblies are missing. Personally, I printed out a complete list of parts and checked everything. It turned out that there were even more screws and nuts than it should be. nine0005

It is also worth noting that in addition to the parts from the list, there were 10 meters of white PLA plastic in the kit. Since it's not on the parts list, I'm not sure if it comes in every box with the Anet A8. In any case, this will not last long, so you need to take care of the printing materials yourself. I'll talk more about the materials later.

Anet A8 assembly

I'll be honest with you. Seeing all the details, I was scared. How do I collect all this? In fact, it turned out that it is not as difficult as it seemed at first glance. You will need time, patience and focus. This is quite enough, even if you have never held a screwdriver in your hands. nine0005

In addition to the instructions on the flash drive, Anet has published three video instructions for assembling and getting started with the Anet A8.

• Assembly Video - Part 1 (Printer Frame Assembly)
• Assembly Video - Part 2 (Assembly of Remaining Parts and Electronics)
• Assembly Video - Part 3 - setup (this video shows the process of calibration and the first 3D printing)

The quality of the videos is quite good. According to them, it is quite possible to assemble a printer by 80%. The remaining 20% ​​must be specified in the instructions, because sometimes not everything is transparent. In general, if you are assembling from a video, I recommend checking all your steps with the instructions. nine0005

It took me 3 days to build Anet A8. Yes, 3 days. On the first day, I checked the presence of all components and parts and removed the protective films from all acrylic parts. After that, I started to assemble the frame. The process did not go as smoothly as expected. I assembled a few parts incorrectly because I ignored the instructions. After that, even despite the apparent obviousness, I still consulted the instructions. Probably, on the first day I spent 3-4 hours in total.

On the second day I wired up the electronics and added the rest of the frame. This is the hardest part. It took me 5-6 hours in total. Good thing you don't have to solder anything. All electronics and wires are connected directly to the main board. nine0005

Although I put everything together in 2 days, I turned on my 3D printer for the first time only on the third day. At the time, I hadn't watched the instructional videos, so when I turned on the printer, it put me in a slight stupor. I didn't really know what to do with him. How to calibrate it, when can I start printing? In general, if you are a beginner, be sure to watch the third video.

There are already some 3D printing files on the SD card. I recommend you start small, like Box-1.75mm PLA-A8 or something similar. I made the mistake of starting to print a large part that took a long time to print and used a lot of material. nine0005

In general, a day passed and Anet A8 was finally ready to print.

Important note. It turns out that there is a mistake in the first part of the assembly video. The metal H frame is installed incorrectly, causing the drive belts to be out of parallel. If you flip the frame, the straps will be parallel. In my experience, this has reduced the noise. Look at the photo below.

My first 3D print with Anet A8

After calibrating with the video instructions, I started the first print. In the photo below, you can see the result, which turned out to be (literally) too hot :). nine0005

I couldn't tear the result off the table. I didn't understand what happened either. In general, I turned off the 3D printer and went to Google.

So what happened? It turned out that the thermistor, a small wire that measures the temperature of the extruder, had come off. As a result, it sent incorrect data to the main board and the nozzle heated up to 230 degrees. Since the optimal temperature for printing PLA plastics is 180-220 degrees, nothing good came of it.

By the way, the thermistor is one of the dangerous components that can cause a fire. So be very careful with him. Well, "the first pancake came out lumpy", but that's all - an invaluable experience for a beginner. It is unlikely that many people have such problems, but anything can happen.

After fixing the first problem, I started 3D printing again and watched closely. The beginning was inspiring, but at some point my model started to move... Now what???

Google told me my desk was not calibrated well. He also suggested to me that this is a standard mistake for beginners. As a rule, everyone wants to type faster and does not pay much attention to such seemingly trifles. But without calibration, you won't succeed. In general, this error was not a jackpot, which is already good. nine0005

Manual table calibration is the most boring and most important part for Anet A8 to work correctly. If the first layer does not fit well, then the part may come off at any stage. It is especially sad when this happens at 70-80 percent of the press.

Well, the first time it took me about 20 minutes to calibrate. I was guided by the third video assembly instruction.

The third launch was a success! It's hard to convey my delight when I saw that 3D printing runs smoothly, without failures. The model was printed for about 7 hours (mainly due to the fact that 100% filling is set). nine0005

During printing, I realized that the plastic would not be enough and I would have to change it without interrupting the 3D printing. Again, Google helped. The solution turned out to be very simple - just pause the print, take out the old plastic and add a new one. Resuming printing.

After 7 hours of waiting/watching, the model was ready. It looks, of course, far from ideal, but it was printed!

After the first success, I realized that it is better to print something less bulky first. So I downloaded a small Pikachu model (you can download free 3D printable Pokemon models if you're interested), scaled it up, and sent it to print. It took 30 minutes.

I later realized that this undulation was due to insufficient tension on the belts.

That's it, I was ready to conquer the new, wonderful world of 3D printing. I was very inspired by the idea of ​​modernizing my new miracle. Print parts to improve yourself? The concept is good, isn't it?

These were my next experiments. I printed two upgrades - button cap and a filament guide. After that... Another problem is my extruder got clogged . The material stopped coming out of it. Want to know what I did next? Yes, the Internet is still a wonderful thing...

In general, I had to take everything apart. In the photo below you can see what happened.

Do you think I fixed it quickly? Of course not. Like a real noob who ignores guides and instructions, I only made the situation worse.

If in a few sentences: the material is stuck, I tried to use tweezers to get it out. Naturally. I broke it and somewhere inside there stuck a small piece. My next step was the most fatal: I tried to melt it with a lighter and naturally singeed a teflon tube (English - ptfe tube) . Although this tube seems like a small thing, you won't be able to print without it. I cut off the burnt part, installed it back, but there was a slippage effect during printing. All in all, things got really bad.

This little tube is important! Its task is not only to guide the material in the extruder, but also to provide the right temperature so that the material does not melt before it reaches the nozzle.

What is the solution? I had to buy a new Teflon tube. But besides her, I immediately ordered more additional parts and assemblies that belong to the "must have" category. nine0005

Parts list below. If you are going to drink Anet A8, I recommend that you order these too. Most are the things $1-2 :

• ptfe tubes (highly recommended)
• 6X different size tips (highly recommended)
• Timing belt (highly recommended)
• Printhead
• Thermistor

2 Last not necessarily. I bought it just in case and still have a basic thermistor.

What can you learn from my mistakes? nine0340

• Make sure the thermistor is connected;
• Table calibration is very important - this is what caused most of my problems during 3D printing;
• Belt tension is important. With poor tension, the model is obtained with a wavy surface;
• Buying consumables will save a lot of time and solve many problems in the future;
• Every little detail counts (eg Teflon tube). Do not consider yourself the smartest and be extremely attentive to details; nine0133
• The same material from different suppliers melts at different temperatures. So when you start using a new plastic, print this model first to check the optimum print temperature.

Anet A8 improvement

Several months have passed since the purchase of Anet A8 until this article was written. During this time, I learned a lot of information about my printer and 3D printing in general. And although I haven't done everything I wanted yet, many upgrades for the Anet A8 are already printed and in use. nine0005

After the modification, the print quality of the Anet A8 has really improved.

Below is a list of upgrades you can download for free from Thingyverse:

• Semi-Circular Anet A8 Fan Duct - improves air circulation;
• Extruder Button Anet A8 - after that you will not have to suffer from pain every time you press the metal screw of the extruder;
• Filament Guide Horizontal - guides material more precisely into the extruder;
• Filament Guide - also guides your material into the extruder more accurately;
• T Corners - adds stability and reduces vibration;
• Improved X belt tensioner - helps to adjust the tension of the belts along the X axis. Much better than the basic design;
• Improved Y belt tensioner - Helps to adjust the tension of the belts along the Y axis. Much better than the basic design;

Of all the improvements listed above, I have seen the best results after replacing the belt tensioner. The video tutorial shows that the belts should not be too tight. But it's not. The stronger the tension of the belts, the less wavy surface of the 3D model at the output. nine0005

Plans to try other types of belts, such as fiberglass belts.

3D printed quality

In the photo below, I am proud to present you the 3D printed models. All of them are printed on Anet A8, with minor modifications and upgrades. If you compare them with the first results, the difference is huge.

This fish skeleton has moving parts. At the same time, it is printed as one model. Low bow to the author of the 3D model.

Empire State building 3D model is what I'm most proud of right now.

Function models can be printed. For example, stand for Kindle Paperwhite.

Another example of functional models - a printed holder for flash drives. Well, the last experiments with print quality.

The dragon on the left is the first experiment with painting a 3D model.

Software

You don't need 3D modeling skills to use the 3D printer. I am sure that if you create a 3D model yourself and then print it, the process becomes much more pleasant. But don't worry, it's not necessary. nine0005

The process is quite simple. You go to a website with 3D models. Probably the most popular one I've used is Thingyverse. After you have found a suitable 3D model and downloaded it, you need to unzip it.

Some 3D models are printed in one setup. Others consist of separate parts, which are then assembled or glued. Your next task is to import the model or single part into the program's slicer. A slicing program is software that adjusts your model for your 3D printer. nine0005

Cura recommended for beginners. See the Anet A8 manual for information on how to set up Cura 14.07 to work with your 3D printer. I recommend starting with this version of Cura, as there is an instruction explaining how to set it up to work with Anet A8.

The first picture below shows the Cura 14.07 interface, the second one shows Cura 2.3.1.

In a slicing program, you can do a lot of things. Scale your 3D model, change print quality, speed, etc. A very useful feature - you can find out how much material you need, how much it will weigh as a result and how long it will take to 3D print. Naturally, these are approximate values. nine0005

All settings affect print quality to some extent. A very important parameter is the speed of printing. The higher the speed, the faster the part will be printed, but the quality will be worse. Here it is necessary to find the golden mean.

The photo below shows models printed at different speeds.

Can a newer version of Cura be used with the Anet A8?

Yes, you can update your software. Personally, I started with version 14.07, but when I got a little comfortable, I switched to version 2.3.1. There were no problems with this. The only thing is to update the settings. As a rule, the latest versions are better than the previous ones. Using Cura as an example, I noticed that version 2.3.1 renders objects much faster than 14.07. And the interface is nicer too. nine0005

Anet A8 display user interface

The Anet A8 is said to be suitable for beginners, but the display user interface is not as simple as one would like. Even after 2 months of relatively regular 3D printing, I can't remember all the features that are displayed on the screen. Probably, the manufacturer should pay attention to this and make the interface more intuitive.

Conclusions

My adventure with the Anet A8 can be described as a love-hate game. I really hate that I love my Anet :). There were moments when I just wanted to pull out my hair from the fact that you don’t understand what went wrong. And there was such that I literally jumped around for joy, marveling at the quality of the printed models. nine0005

But it's worth noting that most of the problems I've encountered are caused by my ignorance in the world of 3D printing and overconfidence (for example, the situation with a lighter and plastic stuck in the nozzle).

Yes, before buying, I read and tried to learn theoretically, but as always, the best learning option is solving practical problems.

I can confidently say that the Anet A8 is a 3D printer that will take some time to assemble and master, but you can achieve very good printing results. Would I recommend this model for a beginner on a budget? Definitely yes. But again, do not forget that for a good 3D printing result, you will have to spend some time and effort. You will have to slightly modify the base model and set up printing for material from a specific manufacturer. nine0005

The developers of Anet managed to overcome a very important barrier that was between the consumer and the manufacturer. Now you don't have to pay $700-2000 for a 3D printer. Apparently, 3D printing is becoming an increasingly competitive marketplace, which means that prices will fall and the number of innovations will increase every day.

Another big advantage of the Anet A8 (besides the price) is the large user community. Thanks to this, there is a lot of information on the Internet and the answers to most of your questions have already been clarified (especially in the English-speaking segment). nine0005

Some add-ons for the Anet A8 3d printer / Habr

The Anet A8 3D printer is one of the cheapest printer models from China. It is built on the basis of the famous Prusa i3 model. For the price offered by its manufacturers, you are unlikely to buy a printer in Russia. Of the advantages, one can note a low cost, a fairly large maximum size of the model and, most importantly, a heated table. There are already a lot of reviews on this printer, so I will write a short list of improvements that will make your printer print better or improve its cosmetic appearance. nine0030
The first improvement is unlikely to help the printer in any way, but it may be more convenient for you to monitor the printing process. By attaching the LED panel to the top beam of the printer, you will get a fully illuminated table, which is very convenient for monitoring the print. And since the power supply on the printer is 12v, it will not be difficult to connect the tape.

Now a tip for those who often print with ABS plastic and any other that requires a high table heating temperature (more than 90 degrees). With this heating of the table, a lot of electricity is consumed, due to which the upper part of the power supply is very hot. Solving this problem is not as difficult as it seems at first. You just need to put the cooler from the computer on the side of the block for blowing. It is best to take a cooler with a blade diameter of 80 mm or more. So there will be enough airflow to cool the internal circuits.

Now let's move on to additional parts that we can print on our own printer. nine0005

1) The quality of the model is highly dependent on the presence of a cooling mode for the plastic immediately after exiting the extruder. Unfortunately, the standard shape of the cooling nozzle doesn't do the job very well. There are many different nozzle designs on thingiverse.com, but in my opinion, one of the best nozzle designs is in the shape of a semicircle. Since it is she who provides uniform blowing of the model. The round one does not cope with its purpose due to the low power of the fan.

Model


2) Plastic fed into the extruder without problems is the key to good printing. Therefore, it should be served vertically. To do this, there are two models of guides for plastic. One is attached to the printer from above, the second - to the carriage.

1st model
2nd model

3) If the direction of the carriage changes suddenly, waves may form on the model. This is due to the wobbly frame. You can solve this problem by connecting the frame with additional corners.

---

Learn more

• 
  3D printer microfluidics
• 
  Beginner 3d printer reddit
• 
  Sugar printer 3d
• 
  Worlds first 3d printed car
• 
  3D printed cement mold
• 
  Warhammer fantasy 3d printer models
• 
  Best 3d printer for 400
• 
  Arcam 3d printers
• 
  3D printer dental resin
• 
  Hemp 3d printer
• 
  3D printing for charity