Anet A8 I3 - Where I'm at
Posted by Supermec
|
Anet A8 I3 - Where I'm at October 15, 2016 01:30PM |
Registered: 9 years ago Posts: 181 |
Hi all,
I'm relatively new to 3d printing. As a retired chartered civil engineer with plenty of practical experience in mechanical engineering and electronics the prospect of assembling my own printer kit was not a problem. When I spotted a special offer on the Anet A8 acrylic frame printer on Gearbest at $145 US or £118 including delivery from China, I couldn't resist any longer. The printer duly arrived two weeks from the date of order and the parts were sufficiently well packed to resist the obvious attempts by various carriers at destroying it. All parts were present and in pristine condition. The next two days were spent assembling it following the detailed instructions in a PDF file on the provided SD card. Having now used it for several weeks I give my observations for the benefit of any other newbies to 3d printing.
With the exception of the 12V cable from the PSU to the board and the 12V leads to the extruder heater all the cables were uniquely identifiable and provided with non-reversible plugs. It was quite literally plug and play, everything worked at switch-on and has continued to do so. The software provided was Cura 14.07 as a stand-alone and Repetier Host with both Cura and Slic3r as slicers. All the software installed first time and the only thing necessary was to set the correct baud rate for the coms.
I changed the power cable almost straight away. Two of the wires broke just clear of the clamps on the PSU before I had even had a chance to secure the mains lead with a cable tie. I put this down to damage caused at manufacture when stripping the insulation to tin the wire ends. Besides the fitted Europlug was cheap and nasty and the supplied Chinese adaptor to UK 13amp was even cheaper and nastier. It was replaced with a spare computer power lead. Computer end cut off and the insulation carefully stripped before twisting up and securing.
Proper lead screws were provided in the kit and not just threaded rods. The firmware already installed was correctly set up and calibrated and the printer produces accurate prints, other than variations that can be attributed to shrinkage on cooling.
The hot bed provided is aluminium faced and was perfectly flat, even after assembly. Setting the Z axis limit switch was easy and the sheet of paper method was used to level the bed. I started out using blue painters tape (having applied the tape PRIOR to the fine adjustment of bed level). I wasn't happy with the finish from the tape so rather than use a heavy piece of glass I obtained a flat sheet of 2 mm aluminium. This is fitted on top of the hot bed using fold-back clips with the handles removed after fitting. Suitable tape was used on the underside of the bed where the clips were fitted to prevent any chance of shorting the heater tracks to the plate. The sacrificial aluminium plate has also remained flat.
It has been easy to level the hot bed and the only times I have re-levelled it are after having bodily moved the printer off its desk and then replaced it. Just as my Myford centre lathe (set up on a metal stand on a solid floor) has never required re-levelling as it hasn't moved, I don't anticipate a frequent need to re-level as the printer sits on a solid bench. I certainly don't intend to install auto-levelling as this is simply a work round for inadequate kit and especially in the case of plate glass printing surfaces is total overkill. Besides auto-levelling seems from the correspondence to cause more troubles than it solves. My bed is visibly flat to a steel straight-edge which aught to be around about 0.02 mm or better.
I coat the bed with a couple of layers of the really cheap and nasty super-hold hair spray and have no problems with prints lifting unless the coating is getting a bit tired, at which point wipe off with surgical spirit and recoat. I run the bed at 55C for PLA prints and they are no problem, remaining securely stuck to the bed even when cold. ABS prints took a little longer to solve. My hot bed at a push will just about achieve 110C, but I have found that this temperature is not necessary. Rigidink recommend 80-110C for ABS and I am achieving excellent prints using a brim and a bed temperature of 95C with the extruder at 245C. The prints adhere perfectly to the bed right the way to the end of the print and remain attached until the bed temperature drops below 70C, after which they can simply be lifted off. (However with a bed temperature of 90C they won't stick at all from the word go). Covering the bed with a sheet of 3 mm card during heating certainly seems to speed thing up.
I don't intend to put my printer into an enclosure to enable higher bed temperatures. The spec for my printer says operating environment 10-30C and, although there is obviously some leeway in the upper temperature, I don't feel that putting high-current electronics in a heated enclosure is the best thing for its long term reliability.
Before finishing I should add that the hot bed carrier is in H shaped aluminium plate rather than acrylic, probably a good thing. No problems with any of the acrylic parts and all bolts are still tight after several weeks of fairly heavy usage. No cracking or shattering as the bolts weren't over tightened on assembly (just tightened enough). If the front bows then you have too much tension in the Y axis belt. Just tight is tight enough, further tightening will simply bow the front without any additional benefit in terms of backlash.
Having had my say I shall sit back and wait for the flack.
Adrian
I'm relatively new to 3d printing. As a retired chartered civil engineer with plenty of practical experience in mechanical engineering and electronics the prospect of assembling my own printer kit was not a problem. When I spotted a special offer on the Anet A8 acrylic frame printer on Gearbest at $145 US or £118 including delivery from China, I couldn't resist any longer. The printer duly arrived two weeks from the date of order and the parts were sufficiently well packed to resist the obvious attempts by various carriers at destroying it. All parts were present and in pristine condition. The next two days were spent assembling it following the detailed instructions in a PDF file on the provided SD card. Having now used it for several weeks I give my observations for the benefit of any other newbies to 3d printing.
With the exception of the 12V cable from the PSU to the board and the 12V leads to the extruder heater all the cables were uniquely identifiable and provided with non-reversible plugs. It was quite literally plug and play, everything worked at switch-on and has continued to do so. The software provided was Cura 14.07 as a stand-alone and Repetier Host with both Cura and Slic3r as slicers. All the software installed first time and the only thing necessary was to set the correct baud rate for the coms.
I changed the power cable almost straight away. Two of the wires broke just clear of the clamps on the PSU before I had even had a chance to secure the mains lead with a cable tie. I put this down to damage caused at manufacture when stripping the insulation to tin the wire ends. Besides the fitted Europlug was cheap and nasty and the supplied Chinese adaptor to UK 13amp was even cheaper and nastier. It was replaced with a spare computer power lead. Computer end cut off and the insulation carefully stripped before twisting up and securing.
Proper lead screws were provided in the kit and not just threaded rods. The firmware already installed was correctly set up and calibrated and the printer produces accurate prints, other than variations that can be attributed to shrinkage on cooling.
The hot bed provided is aluminium faced and was perfectly flat, even after assembly. Setting the Z axis limit switch was easy and the sheet of paper method was used to level the bed. I started out using blue painters tape (having applied the tape PRIOR to the fine adjustment of bed level). I wasn't happy with the finish from the tape so rather than use a heavy piece of glass I obtained a flat sheet of 2 mm aluminium. This is fitted on top of the hot bed using fold-back clips with the handles removed after fitting. Suitable tape was used on the underside of the bed where the clips were fitted to prevent any chance of shorting the heater tracks to the plate. The sacrificial aluminium plate has also remained flat.
It has been easy to level the hot bed and the only times I have re-levelled it are after having bodily moved the printer off its desk and then replaced it. Just as my Myford centre lathe (set up on a metal stand on a solid floor) has never required re-levelling as it hasn't moved, I don't anticipate a frequent need to re-level as the printer sits on a solid bench. I certainly don't intend to install auto-levelling as this is simply a work round for inadequate kit and especially in the case of plate glass printing surfaces is total overkill. Besides auto-levelling seems from the correspondence to cause more troubles than it solves. My bed is visibly flat to a steel straight-edge which aught to be around about 0.02 mm or better.
I coat the bed with a couple of layers of the really cheap and nasty super-hold hair spray and have no problems with prints lifting unless the coating is getting a bit tired, at which point wipe off with surgical spirit and recoat. I run the bed at 55C for PLA prints and they are no problem, remaining securely stuck to the bed even when cold. ABS prints took a little longer to solve. My hot bed at a push will just about achieve 110C, but I have found that this temperature is not necessary. Rigidink recommend 80-110C for ABS and I am achieving excellent prints using a brim and a bed temperature of 95C with the extruder at 245C. The prints adhere perfectly to the bed right the way to the end of the print and remain attached until the bed temperature drops below 70C, after which they can simply be lifted off. (However with a bed temperature of 90C they won't stick at all from the word go). Covering the bed with a sheet of 3 mm card during heating certainly seems to speed thing up.
I don't intend to put my printer into an enclosure to enable higher bed temperatures. The spec for my printer says operating environment 10-30C and, although there is obviously some leeway in the upper temperature, I don't feel that putting high-current electronics in a heated enclosure is the best thing for its long term reliability.
Before finishing I should add that the hot bed carrier is in H shaped aluminium plate rather than acrylic, probably a good thing. No problems with any of the acrylic parts and all bolts are still tight after several weeks of fairly heavy usage. No cracking or shattering as the bolts weren't over tightened on assembly (just tightened enough). If the front bows then you have too much tension in the Y axis belt. Just tight is tight enough, further tightening will simply bow the front without any additional benefit in terms of backlash.
Having had my say I shall sit back and wait for the flack.
Adrian
Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.