3D printing for Beginners - Anet A8

Experiences from a beginner

You all have heard about that cool stuff, 3D printers. You could do basically do everything with it, from printing a Star Trek badge to even a working machine gun (which would be cheaper to buy in real) :D.

So, I got one of these, Anet A8 from China. Has been some major nitemare to import this into here, Thailand, but anyways, For some more bucks you could try to buy locally with mixed success.

My story, to be continued.

Everything came in the package and it took 2...3 days to assemble all.

You need to turn that heatbed holder (H-thing) upside down, so the middle strip points to the bottom, otherwise the belt is not movin correctly, that is wrong in the description.

Other than that, all moved together as supposed and you can find plenty of guides and info in the interwebs.

My personal additions.

install Marlin, latest version. Not difficult, but it has the major advantage to do a mesh bed leveling, 9 points, without touching any of the fu**ed up screws on the heatbed.

http://marlinfw.org/

get a glass bed, I'm using a mirror (which are fantastically flat by design) and some glue stick and water. Everybody suggest hair spray, but it's not necessary. Everybody has a glue stick, just water it down.
make sure your belts are tensioned good enough so it does not snap. You can upgrade those later and add belt tnesioners.
get a good nozzle fan. I print right now this Mistral thing.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2121279
do not try to change filament if it runs empty. Just print with enough supply ready. Screw that 10m they pack (it's enough for that x-axis tensioner)
Thingiverse is your friend.

Everything else, upgrades, whatsoever you can do later. But these are simply the basics learnt by doing.

Happy making!

Major point to add, the official installation guide says you need to tighten the screws for the heat bed so they can not move downwards anymore.

DO NOT do this. It will leave no headroom for the nozzle if this gets too low and will potentially damage itself or the heat bed.

Leave at least 15mm for the springs from the H-frame to the heat bed so they can move. That's what they were put in there for.

I have an Anet A8 too, it's a good printer for the price. I have had to change the nozzle, because my kid messed with the z axis screws and when I tried to print it drove the nozzle hard into the bed, blocking it up for good.

Tried the cable chains with Cura 3.3.1 and somehow it got too big by maybe 2...3%. Same prints sliced with Simplyfy3d worked out just fine. Both using the standard A8 profile found in the internet. Need some more fine tuning.

Another major point to add. Do not do 100% infills as most templates suggest, it will not only waste plastic but also lead to warping, corners taking off the surface, at least looking ugly if the print does not fail.

80% or 60% infills are usally fine for everything that says 100.

You should never have more than 10-30% infill in a normal part...even 80% or 60% is wasting.
I build a working humanoid robot where all parts had never more then 30% infill.

Thanks, good advise. The only effect I have noticed is warping, so corners go off with too high infill.

Yea it is definitely increased but warping has quite a few other sources as well. First of all materials...e.g. ABS tend to warp much more then PLA. Then having an heated bed with the right temp is best to prevent warping. Don’t know if a anet a8 has this. And the right bed material also can prevent warping of the edges. my best expierence I made with PEI sheets for a print bed when you print quite a lot of PLA

My 3rd print, almost perfect. 80% infill.

So this thing does not work. Well, need to learn more :)

One critical upgrade you need, learning by messing up :)
Y-Belt Tensioner.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1959208

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