ANET A8 3D Printer DIY KIT Clear Acrylic LCD Screen High Precision Desktop 3D Printer Kits i3 with SD Card Printing Size 220 * 220 * 240mm ABS/PLA/wood/nylon PVA/PP/Luminescent

This is my first real printer, having started a year ago with a turnigy pre built one.If you are mechanically and technically minded and like to tinker this is for you. Set up right it is fantastic but it takes some continuous tinkering to get it there. I've been building and flying RC craft for thirty years so the concept of building, programming and maintenance falls very much into my wish list for a 3d printer. What you get for the price is amazing

All the instructions for building this printer are on a microSD card, but I found it useful to follow them along with he very helpful Anet build videos on Youtube. The printer has run consistently well and produced some very nice prints.

To start, there is no question this printer is capable of producing some surprising quality prints. With some replacement belts and x and y belt tensioners, the quality you can get out of the machine is actually quite good. It does need a few upgrades to get started though, because out of the box the results are really not the best.You do need to do a couple things.- Belt Tenisoners- Upgrade firmware to replace safety features that have been turned off at the factory- Solder the connectors to the heat bed directly (remove the plug)The plastic plug to connect the heat bed started to melt. After a short read, the connector was rated for 10amps, but the bed itself draws 12. The plastic started to blacken, and for safety, I needed to remove it and solder the wires.Ultimately I ended up getting rid of it because it made me feel rather unsafe. I think if you're going to print shorter prints where you can spend the time in the same room as the printer then this is fine. But if you want to print overnight, I honestly don't think you want to use this printer.So I'll give it a 4. It is capapble of producing very good quality prints, but you'll have to put in some serious effort to get it there. It's also got questionable safety, so if you plan to leave it unattened at all, this is not for you in my opinon.If you found this review helpful, please let me know by clicking 'helpful' below.

Item arrived in good time.Although after all this time I thought they would have been some better upgrades added.The printer seems to be ok now that I have put upgrades on.This is not for the beginner.The worst thing is that the printer came with the main control board without the usb port so I could not use this.Had to buy new board told the supplier but not very helpful.They didn't help so would not recommend them.

Having built my own CNC router a couple of years back I was always interested in adding a 3D printer to my workshop. I scratch built my CNC machine for a fraction of the cost of a kit or pre-build machine, but I opted for this kit for the 3D printer. Basically because I couldn't source the parts cheaper individually. It has a great online following as the other reviewers have said, so if you get stuck there is always someone out there that can help you or has come across the same problem. I built this in a couple of hours, using my previous experience with the CNC machine it all made sense to me, but take your time as other reviewers have said and make everything as square and true as you possibly can. Also note, it is vital in my opinion to do the Mosfet upgrades, look these up. I did two, one for the extruder and one for the heated bed. This takes a lot of the load away from the main board, they can get very hot otherwise and burn out or cause fire, so my recommendation is the make this your first upgrade. Don't get put off by the reports that this kit is dangerous, it is no more dangerous than any other 3D printer, they all deal with high temperatures, you just need to be sensible and the Mosfet upgrades should mitigate the main danger of overheating. I ordered mine at the same time as the kit and fitted them from the start, they only cost about £10 for the pair. My first 3D print was the Mosfet holder from thinguniverse (this site has load of upgrades for this machine), this allowed me to attach the Mosfets to the existing frame, see photos. I must admit that some of the upgrades people put forward are just for the sake of upgrading and add little value in my opinion, but I have done the Mosfets (vital), a knob for the extruder to save your fingers trying to push down on an exposed screw head, and the Z axis supports. Currently printing the Bobbins for the Filament holder. Also note I deviated from the plan on my kit and made my own brackets to attach the screen at the top of the unit like some of the original kits. See photos.All in all I thought it was a fantastic kit, apart from the upgrade parts and my own optional additions absolutely everything apart from the Filament is in the box, including screwdrivers and other tools. Fantastic! I am loving it. If you want to start printing but want an out of the box solution then don't bother, but if like me you like to know how things work, tinkering around and building from scratch, modding etc.. don't hesitate to buy one and I am sure you will love it too.

AMAZING piece of kit!BUT! don't think this is an easy kit to assemble and get right first time, It's a huge learning curve and there's loads to learn.Make sure you get every axis setup as accurately as possible, the most important being the X and Z axis.Learn 3D builder that comes with Windows 10 and design your own builds.Download Cura (it's free) this is the printout software that creates your build into a printable format.make sure your filament is ultra clean because a blocked nozzle can be a pain to clear, a simple but effective way is to feed the filament through some foam to clean any dust or grit off the filament. The nozzle is .2mm (that's .2 of one millimetre or 1/5th of a millimetre so a grain of sand is enough to block it)Search youtube for setup videos, there are loads.Expect a build time of about 5 hours.join Thingiverse forum, there are thousands of free prints that people have designed.print out and attach some of the Anet A8 upgrades on thingiverse, they do make a difference.Enjoy.

Really pleased with this Anet E12. From out of the box it was printing within 40 minutes! Printing finish is good, much better than i expected.