New guy here with an Anet A8, need some help/advice

Hope I'm posting this in the right place, was hunting for a good forum, then found this place after learning these are referred to as reprap printers. I think this is a Prusa I3 variant, but I'm not even sure about that.

New all things 3D printing. Been interested since I first heard about it, but was very low on my to do list. Well I was offered this used Anet A8 last week and at $40 I couldn't pass it up. Got most of the hardware issues sorted but need help with wiring.

Printer has the stock Anet heat bed, but apparently had connector problem in the past. Whoever fixed it hacked apart the connector and did a bad solder job, and what was left of the connector (thermistor pins) has broken loose from the bed and the solder joints look like ****. Plan to install a mosfet, run new silicone jacketed wire and be done with that part.

Will run new 12 awg from PSU to mosfet because I have it already. IMO that's too stiff for the mosfet to bed run and can get away with a smaller more flexable wire. I've heard of people upgrading the hotbed wire, but haven't seen a good consensus on how or what size. Some seem to step up a couple of sizes and call it good, others seem to like sticking with a smaller wire and doubling it up for flexability.

So 1 larger wire or two smaller wires for hotbed power, and what guage wire?

Also might have to extend a few other wires

What size would be used for the following:

Fans
Thermistor
Stepper motors

Everything is 12v for now.

Thanks!

The minimum recommended wire size is 12 to 14AWG
I use a Business Radio Power wire rated at 20amps from the Power supply to the Controller. Why, because have many left over from Installing Motorola Business Radios. (HKN4191B)

Stepper motor cables are so inexpensive on E-Bay, though the wire size for a 2amp Stepper is 24 Gauge

If its two stiff, its the wrong type of cable.. needs more smaller cores.

Looks at silicon shielded cables for RC, high current, lots of cores, very flexible

eg [www.aliexpress.com]

@Roberts_Clif I also have used this cable, as my work threw out a bunch of off cuts (after radios where install in a fleet of trucks)

Yeah, we don't have any of that where I work. That said I happen to live about 3 miles down the road from a RC hobby shop. Not sure if they are open during the day or just afternoons and weekends, but I'll swing by tomorrow and see.

The 12 awg I have is left over from an auto wiring project. It's a little stiff, but it'll be great for wiring the PSUs and from them to the board and mosfets, basically anything that isn't moving.

There's really only one stepper motor that I'm worried about wire length on. Printer did not come with extruder assembly, but it did have an E3D V6 (or clone) and a bare stepper motor so I've acquired the rest of the parts for remote extruder. This stepper motor is the type that does not have a plug it's just straight wired on the motor end and it's not long enough, not to mention it was cut and the plug for the board end is gone. I've got a short stepper motor cable in the box it was taped to a printed LED mount so I didn't notice it at first. I might be long enough to splice to the motor and reach the control board, I'll know once I finalize the extruder location.

The 40x40x10 cooling fan for the E3D V6 had the plug cut off, so almost bought a JHP-XT connector kit and wire to fix both it and the stepper motor. Realized this morning that I also needed a blower fan, so I just ordered replacements for both of them. Looking at pics in ad listing, some fans look to have long wire leads and others look short. I bought ones that looked long and were sold as replacements for 3D printer extruders, but you know how that goes. Hope they are long enough, but will find out when they arrive. Need to extend them if they ain't, but I'm not good enough to identify wire size on sight and printing on wires I have is not legible.

Yeah I'll be going overboard on wiring this thing anyway. First thing I noticed when I opened the box was something off about the power supply. There wasn't one in the box, there were three. Two 20 amps and a 30 amp.Haven't got another use for them, so they're getting used for the printer. Assuming they all work (haven't checked yet) I'll be using one to power the electronics and another will go to mosfets for the heaters. I also know I do not need a mosfet for the extruder, but it was only a couple bucks more to buy 2 instead of 1, so...

I'll see about getting some 20-24 awg for the stepper, will probably work for the fans to if needed. Some 12-14 awg silicone from the hobby shop. I only go to town once a day if possible and try to avoid it on weekends. I'd rather have the wire on hand and not use it than have to go back and get it.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/04/2018 06:44AM by Turk1604.

Thanks for the suggestion, RC shop had what I needed. Almost wasn't able to get the connections resoldered though. My soldering iron at the house is a 40w radio shack unit and it didn't get hot enough to even think about soldering the wire. Took it to work to get one of our electricians to solder it. They didn't have time but was able to borrow a 70w iron, it still wasn't hot enough to make a good connection, but at least it stuck the wires to the board. Bugged me the whole way home, so I stopped by Home Depot and picked up a 100w/140w soldering gun. That got the solder flowing. Should last a while.

Now to finish assembly and wiring.