In an odd turn of events this month, my mother in law purchased this kit for me as a birthday present and it has started me on a path that challenges my skills and creativity, forcing me to think way outside the box. That being said, what was purchased was the Anet A8 Desktop 3D Printer Prusa i3 DIY Kit from GearBest.
Shipping from China was actually prompt and it arrived well ahead of my April 28th birthday. Packing was perfect for the kit, everything was packed in foam and arrived complete and intact.
The kit is constructed from laser cut acrylic plastic and is all tabbed and slotted so assembly was a breeze. I had it completely assembled in a few hours thanks to the tutorials on Youtube. There were a couple of discrepancies between the videos, parts listing, and actual process but that’s where Thingiverse came in handy. The sheer amount of parts and upgrades available on Thingiverse for this printer kit is mind blowing.
There are two serious downsides to this kit that seems to plague them all no matter who sells it, the power supply is junk and the heated bed doesn’t heat well enough to print on. Muhahahahahaha
The very first upgrade I did to this was replace the cheap Chinese power supply with a nice Thermaltake 430w ATX power supply. Talk about easy to do, just get on Youtube and you’ll find countless videos on doing this. Added bonus, one of the things this printer lacks is a power switch to turn it on and off… well, adding an ATX power supply not only upgrades the power but gives you that switch.
The heated bed was another issue altogether. My aluminum build place was an MK2 clone if I read the forums right, that being said, it was junk. It took this bed about 30 minutes to reach 75 degrees and almost an hour to reach 90 degrees. There was some pitting on the print surface so it was trash right from the get go.
Having a wild hair up my rear, I headed over to Amazon and ordered myself a sheet of 6061 T6 Aluminum, Signswise 200x200mm 12V 220W Silicone Rubber Heating Heater for 3D Printer Heated Beds, andGizmo Dorks 3M 468MP Adhesive Transfer Tape Sheets 8″ x 8″ (5-Pack). That’s right, I built my own heated bed.
First thing I did was trim down the aluminum and drill the holes. This was done simply by tracing the existing hot bed over the sheet of aluminum then hitting the shop for a few minutes to cut, drill, and sand the edges. Once that was finished I placed a piece of the double sided tape to the underside and then laid the silicone pad in place and pressed it out. This was a perfect fit so no worries about overhang or trimming ( research my friends, will save you lots of headaches lol ).
Wiring it together was simple, I opted to solder my connections from the silicone bed directly to the existing wire harness for the old bed. I snipped off the connector and soldered the wires together with no problems, covered the bare spots with heat shrink and fired it up.
Not even 5 minutes of waiting and the bed was at 100 degrees and still climbing !!! Problem solved
All said and one, I am very pleased with the end result of the printer now. It works, it’s much quieter than the DaVinci, works with Reptier right away with no fuss, and the print quality is excellent. I already have plans now to purchase at least one more of these kits to do some bashing with in order to increase the size of the print bed from 220mmx220mm up to around 400mmx400mm. I think my local hardware store has all I need and in the end I will be able to knock out some great pieces with a larger print bed.
Things I would suggest doing for anyone purchasing one of these, aside from the aforementioned upgrades:
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