Hi all!
I've been running my printer for about 2 months now, and I wanted to share my experience with this kit.
First off, this kit is priced very economically as it only cost me 330 USD and it comes with two free rolls of filament. Speaking of filament, I'd like to first show my experience with the included filament. The holster for the filament has an acrylic construction and looks very pleasant. However, there are not many positions you can put it so that the printer feeds well. I find myself constantly needing to give it some slack in order to feed well. Sometimes you can find the perfect spot for it so that it can print unattended, but you still may want to run it at a tad bit slower feed rate. Now, as for the filament itself I've had very minimal issues once it's been oiled up with canola. (Future link to canola oil trick to go here)
On to the hardware. The kit sports a 200x200x180mm build volume (x,y,z) and comes with an aluminum heated bed. For some reason, the PLA doesn't like to stick to the aluminum. So what I do is use the purple-glue-stick-trick (future link to purple-glue-stick-trick to go here) As I don't feel comfortable with abs yet, I haven't had a chance to test this printer's capabilities with it, but it is possible to print abs with this machine.
As for my build experience, it was slightly less optimal than I had wished. One of the acrylic pieces for the y-axis assembly had been laser cut incorrectly. The holes for the bolts and the square holes for correct line up of the y-idler were not cut to spec. So I did what any good maker would do and I brought out Mr dremel and Mrs. Hot glue gun. With a bit of engineering design compensation, I was back on the fast track to a functioning 3d printer. This was the only mechanical issue with the kit, (thank goodness) however I did end up having 2 electrical issues. When I hooked everything up and heated the extruder it started glowing red hot and with a puff of smoke, it died. Shortly afterward I hit up a very well known site among us makers. Ebay. I was able to pick up five heating cartridges for 5 dollars. While the heating cartridges were in the mail, I decided to make sure everything else was running appropriately. It wasn't. Everytime I homed the y-axis, it would make a horrible grinding sound as it tried to move the axis past it's own physical limitations. This issue occurred because in the build instructions, it had the end stop switch on the wrong side of the bed. This issue was also quickly fixed with the hot glue gun and an extra end stop switch.
Overall score:
I'd give this printer a 7/10 it performs as expected with a few hiccups in prints and in build experience. Normally everything works well though so it negates most issues that I had. You also can't argue with the superb price tag. Also shipping is free and it got to Texas from china in 3 days with standard shipping.
I've been running my printer for about 2 months now, and I wanted to share my experience with this kit.
First off, this kit is priced very economically as it only cost me 330 USD and it comes with two free rolls of filament. Speaking of filament, I'd like to first show my experience with the included filament. The holster for the filament has an acrylic construction and looks very pleasant. However, there are not many positions you can put it so that the printer feeds well. I find myself constantly needing to give it some slack in order to feed well. Sometimes you can find the perfect spot for it so that it can print unattended, but you still may want to run it at a tad bit slower feed rate. Now, as for the filament itself I've had very minimal issues once it's been oiled up with canola. (Future link to canola oil trick to go here)
On to the hardware. The kit sports a 200x200x180mm build volume (x,y,z) and comes with an aluminum heated bed. For some reason, the PLA doesn't like to stick to the aluminum. So what I do is use the purple-glue-stick-trick (future link to purple-glue-stick-trick to go here) As I don't feel comfortable with abs yet, I haven't had a chance to test this printer's capabilities with it, but it is possible to print abs with this machine.
As for my build experience, it was slightly less optimal than I had wished. One of the acrylic pieces for the y-axis assembly had been laser cut incorrectly. The holes for the bolts and the square holes for correct line up of the y-idler were not cut to spec. So I did what any good maker would do and I brought out Mr dremel and Mrs. Hot glue gun. With a bit of engineering design compensation, I was back on the fast track to a functioning 3d printer. This was the only mechanical issue with the kit, (thank goodness) however I did end up having 2 electrical issues. When I hooked everything up and heated the extruder it started glowing red hot and with a puff of smoke, it died. Shortly afterward I hit up a very well known site among us makers. Ebay. I was able to pick up five heating cartridges for 5 dollars. While the heating cartridges were in the mail, I decided to make sure everything else was running appropriately. It wasn't. Everytime I homed the y-axis, it would make a horrible grinding sound as it tried to move the axis past it's own physical limitations. This issue occurred because in the build instructions, it had the end stop switch on the wrong side of the bed. This issue was also quickly fixed with the hot glue gun and an extra end stop switch.
Overall score:
I'd give this printer a 7/10 it performs as expected with a few hiccups in prints and in build experience. Normally everything works well though so it negates most issues that I had. You also can't argue with the superb price tag. Also shipping is free and it got to Texas from china in 3 days with standard shipping.
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