#anet a8

[artbyrobot]

I managed to get Dinah's hand bones printed out in ABS (100% infill) on my Anet A8 3d printer the past couple days. I also cleaned up the prints, removed the supports, and sanded down high points. They are ready for attaching them together with cloth tape which will act as artificial ligaments. You'll note I fused the ulna and radius bones together to use as a rotational joint for the wrist to function like a human wrist. The actual pronation and supination of the forearm though will happen by way of the steel skeleton having a rotating pivot point unlike the human body where the radius rotates and twists over the ulna in a criss cross. Note: in this photo the middle finger is missing the distal tip which I was reprinting as the time of this photo.

[rippin-r-us1]

Creating a top 10 list of 3D printers for 2024 without including resin printers requires focusing on the variety and advancements within the Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) market and beyond. This list will cater to a range of needs, from hobbyist and educational use to professional and industrial applications. Here are the top 10 FDM 3D printers of 2024, based on their performance, features, user reviews, and innovation:

Top 10 3D Printers of 2024

1. Ultimaker S5 Pro Bundle

Ideal for: Professionals and industries

Features: Dual extrusion, air manager, material station, high reliability

2. Prusa i3 MK4

Ideal for: Hobbyists, educators, and professionals

Features: Open-source, auto-calibration, speed, noise reduction

3. Creality Ender-6

Ideal for: Hobbyists and small businesses

Features: Semi-enclosed chamber, core-XY structure, great value

4. MakerBot Method X Carbon Fiber Edition

Ideal for: Industrial applications

Features: Carbon fiber reinforcement, heated chamber, precision extruders

5. LulzBot TAZ Pro

Ideal for: Professionals seeking versatility

Features: Dual extrusion, large build volume, high print quality

6. FlashForge Creator Pro 2

Ideal for: Beginners and educators

Features: Independent dual extruders, reliability, affordability

7. BCN3D Epsilon W50

Ideal for: Professional and industrial use

Features: Large build volume, dual extrusion, industrial-grade parts

8. Anet A8 Plus

Ideal for: Budget-conscious hobbyists

Features: Large build volume, upgradable, affordable

9. Dremel DigiLab 3D45

Ideal for: Educators and professionals

Features: High reliability, easy to use, great support materials

10. Sindoh 3DWOX 1

Ideal for: Office and educational settings

Features: Enclosed build chamber, low noise, cartridge filament system

Choosing the Right 3D Printer

Selecting the right 3D printer from this list depends on several factors:

Purpose and Application: Whether for hobbyist, educational, or industrial purposes, choose a printer that aligns with your primary needs.

Build Volume: Consider the size of the prints you plan to make. Larger build volumes offer more flexibility for projects.

Material Compatibility: Depending on your projects, ensure the printer supports the materials you intend to use, including specialty filaments for industrial applications.

Ease of Use: For beginners and educational settings, user-friendly interfaces and reliable customer support are key.

Budget: Prices vary widely, from affordable models for hobbyists to more expensive, professional-grade printers. Balance cost with the features and quality you need.

Conclusion

The 3D printing landscape in 2024 is diverse, offering something for everyone, from beginners to advanced users. The top 10 FDM 3D printers listed above represent the pinnacle of current technology, showcasing the advancements that make 3D printing more accessible, versatile, and capable than ever before. Whether you're a hobbyist looking to bring your ideas to life, an educator shaping the next generation of makers, or a professional manufacturing prototypes, there's a 3D printer out there to meet your needs.

[thnks-fr-th-fndms]

This onix my brother 3d printed for me rocks! What should I name it?

[deudyscout]

Hello fellow creators!

I am here to let all the people with 3D printers know about MakerGeeks

I want to start off by saying that I am in no way being payed to tell you about this and to be completely honest I wish they would.

So back to the good stuff, I have a Creality CR-10s 3D printer and I absolutely love it. When i first got my printer I was having a hard time when printing with the supplied filament (which wasn't a lot). I needed more and something better, but i didn't have much money to spend $50 on one roll of filament so I went in search and found myself buying some Hatchbox filament on amazon. When i tried printing with it I was getting artifacts on my prints and I couldn't seem to find the right temp for it either. After deciding I needed to find something else i went searching once again. This time I found Makergeeks, luckily it was still the holiday season so i was able to get a 35% off discount and four rolls of filament for $50. I decided to go with two regular rolls and two rolls of transitional (lower quality due to color change or size being off a little). I am very glad I made that decision. Even tho the transitional roll were supposed to be lower quality they are still just as good as the regular filament for cheaper as long as you don’t care about color. This brand of 3D filament is amazing and it doesn't break the bank either and I in fact have a referral link so you can get 15% off your order.

So, if you want top quality filament for a great price and even a discount the click here 

Happy Printing 

[reaver-power]

What can a $160 3D Printer Do?

What can a $160 3D Printer Do?

3d printer review 2017

Review – Anet A8 Desktop 3D Printer Prusa i3 DIY Kit Anet A8 Desktop 3D Printer at gearbest; http://bit.ly/2pWi97v $159.99 with coupon: AADPR It’s part of their + gearbest’s Top Brand Flash…

source

[jonmjefferson]

For Need of a Tower #3dprinting

For Need of a Tower #3dprinting

For Need of a Tower As a crafter, I’m a bit wonky. Sure I can do some things and make some interesting bits but I tend to dial it in and hope for the best. I’m referring to things that take construction paper and glue and similar “projects”. In the past I have actually done some good work in building and fabricating. I mean to say, I can’t weld but I can swing a wrench and tighten some…

[thorinair-printing]

Replacing BuildTak

My current BuildTak surface has lived for long enough. By now, I have multiple tears and holes in the middle of the bed, along with an air bubble in one corner. It is time to replace it.

It is awesome how cheap BuildTak surfaces are. Here is a new one I had in reserve for when the current one dies. Now I can finally use it.

The total width of it is 240 mm, which is too much for my bed. If I want to be able to fit it, I will need to cut it down a bit. To keep it centered, I decided to trim 10 mm from both left and right sides, bringing it down to 220 mm.

I marked multiple spots and then drew a line. This is the line which needs to be cut.

Don’t be stupid like me. Cut it while looking at the line instead.

Alright, the surface is trimmed, but now we need to make clearance for the hotbed screws.

I found that marking 15 mm on both sides of the corner and then cutting the triangle out worked quite well. It provided a nice clearance for the screws, but didn’t lose too much surface.

Corners trimmed! Now comes the difficult part.

Join me, as we take the old BuildTak off. There will be much suffering.

Got a bit more...

And even more! Okay, this really is hell. And okay, it is no longer going, let’s try the other side.

Using a knife to separate it here...

AAAAAAAAAA!!!!!

After a lot of sweat, smell of the glue they used, sticky fingers and pain, I finally got it off. This one is going to the trash!

Before proceeding, I cleaned up the aluminium bed with some alcohol. Just to be sure there is no contamination which could ruin adhesion of the new BuildTak.

The essential tool for installing. Seriously, you need this. A simple card works. The thing is, while installing it, you really want to squeeze all of the air out BEFORE you glue it down. This means you need to go slowly, bit by bit, using a card to push the air out as you advance.

Behold, a fresh new BuildTak, ready for sticking!

And installed! This time, i managed to perfectly position it to cover the bed as optimal as possible.

A bit of re-leveling, just to make sure that bad stuff doesn’t happen straight off the bat.

Then, I cleaned up the surface with alcohol. I found that I can use even 96% alcohol without damaging BuildTak. Does an awesome job at cleaning it.

Aaaaaaand, insane success! Not only am I able to use the WHOLE surface now, but I was also able to double the first layer printing speed. In fact, I found that the faster first layer speed makes up for an even better bottom layer!

[josemiii03-blog]

[modestandroid]

I print lil Catbug, I make him 380% bigger and print big Catbug (Inland Gray PLA, 0.24mm layer height, 0% infill, 3 perimeters, 80mm/s) he took 12 hours to print

[makingitwithcharles]

I got an Anet A8 3D printer kit. It is a clone of the Prusa i3. It took me a while to complete and I definitely regretted starting this project during the middle of the build, but now that it is done I am pretty happy with it. The best thing about assembling your own 3D printer is feeling like you know what every part is for and that if it breaks I know how to fix it. It makes the whole 3D printer a lot more approachable when it isn’t a magic expensive box everyone is afraid to touch.

[dancro41-blog1]

Two Colt 1911 replicas printed using two different printers. The black came out of the FT-5 and the smaller white one was printed using the Anet A8. Check out the model over at Thingiverse. Colt 1911 High Quality found on #Thingiverse https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1607283

[geekuria-blog]

HELP! My wife cooked an egg on my 3D printer!

[3dprinterchat]

Top 5 3D Printers Under $300

Top 5 Printers Under $300 #$300 #3dprinter #Top5

There’s an age old question in 3D printing: What’s the best 3D Printer I can get for under $300 USD? It’s a question that makes even the most seasoned 3D printing expert shake with frustration. The worst part is that everyone has their own opinions on what 3D printers under $300 should be. Should it be a kit or complete? PLA only or multi-material capable? A Kickstarter project? I’ve compiled a…

[ed-blag]

Ultimate 3d printer upgrades

I have been operating an Anet A8 3d printer for some time and have made some major upgrades to it along the way. This blog post serves as a place to document my trials and successes with this very low cost printer.

We print a lot of parts for a customer and have been getting good results but have also been spending increasing amounts of time on maintenance and replacing worn out parts.

I printed a lot of parts to replace the worst bits of the acrylic frame, add some decent belt tensioning parts and the obligatory Z height adjustment screw. In my first week of printer run time I upgraded belt grips etc because I couldn’t get sufficient tension to stop ringing in the belts and poor print accuracy.

I bought borosilicate glass for the bed and use hairspray for bed adhesion control and easy release of the prints.

The linear rails supplied in the kit were chrome plated rods, which quickly wore out and revealed the steel under the chrome plating. The bearings ate a lot of the chrome and were ruined. I upgraded to stainless steel precision ground rods which cost nearly half the amount of the original purchase of the printer. I also replaced all the bearings at the same time.

Having the printer sitting on top of other gear I own, due to lack of table space was probably the biggest mistake I made initially. This meant that the printer wasn’t on a totally flat/level/solid surface and was noisy and difficult to square up.

I fixed this by lapping three paving slabs together until they were all making good contact with a straight edge along it’s length. These are definitely not as high quality as granite reference surfaces, but I managed to achieve flatness I was happy with at a low cost. A flat heavy surface in itself is an enormous upgrade for quiet operation, but the possibilities it provides are worth more.

I can now square the whole machine using engineers squares and other measurement/test tools that need a flat surface to sit on. I can compare heights in different locations because the surface is very flat and the equipment can be placed repeatedly with hardly any error.

I got a cheap dial test indicator from eBay, with a magnetic base and positioning arm. I ground the bottom of a heavy piece of steel flat enough to sit steadily on the surface of the slab. This serves as a base to attach the magnetic indicator stand to, and can be moved as needed on the slab.

Levelling the bed is a process that uses the indicator, and it results in the bed being level to a very close tolerance, relative to the surface the printer is sitting on. I adjust the Z height separately using the corner of the bed and paper for checking the gap between the bed and nozzle.

Because the bed is set up so flat, I know that the levelling is good before starting any Z height adjustment and can avoid the long task of checking each corner against the nozzle.

Levelling the X axis (with the two z motors disabled) is a similar process, the axis is levelled by comparing the height of the two leadscrew nuts, relative to the flat surface of the slab.

The levelling process described in most 3d printer setup guides is painfully slow compared to my method. Typically the methods described require multiple iterations of enabling steppers, homing, disabling, carefully moving the machine by hand one axis at a time to check the bed-nozzle distance at each corner of the bed. This is error prone and tedious. I now do a similar process to check but I never disable the motors and I directly issue gcode commands to move the machine to a suitable location to check the bed-nozzle gap.

I now get perfect bed adhesion and the prints are easy to release and have a consistent thickness of the brim. To avoid upsetting the relatively bendy printer frame, I remove the glass bed before pulling prints off.

Around the time I was getting really happy with the results, the X axis motor completely locked up during a print and ruined the print and messed up the squareness of the machine. I found the glass bed on the floor and completely lost two of the bulldog clips that secure it. They probably landed in a box of components and are still yet to be discovered.

I replaced the motor and carried on printing. About three prints later, there was a slight issue with X axis losing a few steps and the offset ruined the print. It probably ran into a bump in the print while making a rapid move, the small offset was enough to spoil a visible part of the print.

I decided closed loop X and Y axis control was now a must for printing this volume of parts. I ordered two of the MKS Servo42 hybrid servo-stepper motors from eBay. Investigating how I’d fit these to the existing electronics of the printer, I spotted that RAMPS boards have the stepper drivers as modules on sockets and the Servo42 units are supplied with a breakout board from this module socket. This means that with a RAMPS main board I can plug in the new Servo42 motors directly where the stepper modules would fit, and for Z and extruder drive I can use the normal stepper driver modules.

Looking around at what was available, I found an ARM based board running smoothieware, compatible with the arduino mega pinout. This means at the same time I can upgrade from the Atmega 16 bit CPU to an ARM cpu running at 100MHz.

I should be able to get higher step rates due to the faster processor, which in turn means I could use more microstepping and still reach higher speeds than before.

All the components of the new system are able to operate using up to (and in some cases, beyond) 24V supply. I have ordered a 24V supply to go with these upgrades and will post more as it happens.

[kevsprints]

It begins my hawkmoon!

[thorinair-printing]

Why You Should NOT Solder To The Hotbed

I am a member of a rather large Facebook group for the Anet printers, and people often rave about having to solder the hotbed connectors and such and blabla, and it is all absolute bull****. It is time to explain and debunk WHY one should NOT be soldering the cables to the hotbed, and what is the ACTUAL proper solution for the connectors burning out.

All of these posts and comments stem from the fact that people’s connectors burn out. They burn out for two reasons actually, related to the way how Anet cheaped out on them and the fact that they didn’t include a way to secure the cables.

The first problem is with the current rating of the connector. The connectors in question are JST VHR-6N. Notice that the rating in the official spec sheet is 10A, which is around equal to the current that the bed eats when preheating. It is important to note that this rating is PER PIN, not the whole connector.

Now, if you look at the hotbed’s pins, you will see that it has TWO plus and TWO minus connectors. Anet decided to use only one of both. If two were used, the current would be split up between the two pins and each would happily run with 5A of current.   

EDIT: The official specs state it is not a good idea to spread the load on two cables if the current exceeds the maximum rating. However, if you are doing things correctly and safely, it should not matter. The current limit is 10A, and that is generally the maxmimum amount that the bed will pull during preheating. Two cables might deliver current asymmetrically, but it should not matter as each will still be well below the current rating.

So, the first possible solution is to buy a pre-crimped connector like this one. Note that you should probably find a longer one somewhere on the internet. this one is too short.

The other solution is that you could crimp the connectors yourself. In this case, you will need the connector housing and the individual pins. Please check the links for relevant parts. You also don’t need cables as thick as everyone says you do. These pins accept a cable of maximum 0.83 mm2, and I used 0.75 mm2. For those who don’t understand the metric system, that is AWG 18. Anything bigger than that won’t be securely crimpable.

EDIT: On the image above, I crimped the connectors manually myself without using an adequate tool. I would highly suggest against this. The cables will fray no matter how much you try over time. Get a proper tool. I suggest getting the cheap SN-28B off eBay.

The other issue stems from the fact that the wires are not secured and strain relieved. This causes arcing on the contact surface between the hotbed pins and connectors in the plug each time the bed moves. We are dealing with very high currents here, so this is a real problem. The arcing slightly oxidizes the connector each time it happens, increasing the contact resistance. A higher contact resistance results in heating up, and eventually, the connector burning out. The best solution is to use a printable strain relief. You could also use a cable chain, and they are completely fine if assembled correctly. You can read more about my failure to assemble it correctly and how I fixed it in one of my previous blog posts.

So, why should you NOT solder? 

Because chances are that your soldering iron is too underpowered for the task of heating up this massive surface. Most soldering irons are too weak, and will not be able to heat up the connectors without losing all the heat to the large aluminium plate. Some people used a hair dryer to heat up the whole surface.

Because you probably don’t have enough experience with soldering to do a proper job. Just look at the image above. I am not sure if it was done satirically or not, but I’ve seen some solder jobs so bad that my head hurt.

Do you understand what will happen when these connectors snap off? You have a set of wires carrying 10A of current soldered to the bottom of your bed and all of the strain is now re-routed to both the solder joints and the copper traces. When one of them breaks off, they WILL cause a short circuit. In a best case scenario, this will result in a fried MOSFET. In the worst case scenario, with your house on fire. People who solder often believe that they suddenly don’t have to add strain relief, which is absolutely incorrect. Unlike soldered connections, when using the connector the cables are securely insulated in the connector’s housing and there is no risk of a short circuit.

What happens when you need to disassemble your hotbed? Will you unsolder again? Will you unscrew the terminals at the MOSFET and then pull the cables through the whole length of your printer just to remove the bed? This causes so many issues it is hard to even count.

I’ve also seen people wire their hotbeds like this. It does “seem” fine and it will work, but it poses a different set of risks as well. First of all, if one does it like this, using a heat shrink is absolutely necessary to insulate the crimps. Notice how exposed those crimps are. If one gets pulled off, the same happens as with the soldered hotbed. This also means that a strain relief is still a must.

Secondly, I’ve drawn a simple diagram above. This is how the connection between these crimps and the pins on the hotbed look like. The contact areas are circled with red. Does this look like enough surface contact for 5 amps to you?

I hope this post was informative enough to deter you away from soldering to your hotbed or using some weird DIY methods which are sub-optimal. Please, don’t listen to those who tell you to solder to the hotbed.