My first 3D printer, the Anycubic i3 Mega Ultrabase.
Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2018 11:14 am
"It's Plug and Play!" exclaimed the reviewers, "So easy to get your first print", "The best printer for beginners."
Lies, lies and more lies!
I got it about a week ago from Amazon, i've probaly been tinkering with it for 16-20 hours (bed-levelling, bed-levelling, bed-levelling ,bed-levelling, bed-levelling, bed-levelling, bed-levelling ...).
At first it wouldn't power up, but if i rolled the bed back and forth really quickly then the screen lit up and it went into startup mode, due to the stepper motors acting like a generator and me being the prime mover. So i grabbed a spare cable and power was good.
Then it just wouldn't adhere, and one of the main selling points of this model is the Ultrabase that ensures good adherence. I tried printing the owl-pair from the SD card, other models from Cura via USB but nothing would stick.
I tried every possible temperature combination, then i put a probe on the bed and it was 47C rather than the 60C displayed on-screen, so i upped the bed temp to 80C, still nothing stuck. On the assumption that the nozzle temperature was probably off too i whacked that up, still no joy
So then i swapped out the hotend for the spare that they supply you with and i got perfect prints, but they were only perfect if they were small, once i went large i started getting corner lift so bad that the whole model then got dragged around by the nozzle.
Now it's printing really badly, making things look like they've been modelled by a monkey out of clay. I'm back in bed-levelling (bed levelling, bed levelling, bed levelling .. ARRRRGGGHH!) hell, it just won't be level all across, it's either the corners are good but the centre is too high or the centre is good but the corners are too low, or high.
When it did work (but only in the middle for small prints) it was perfect, i printed off a couple of spiral chess pieces from thingiverse and me and The Empress gazed in wonder at this marvel of modern technology.
But now i just sit here, covered in a web of thin plastic string, surrounded by gnarly, mutated, failed creations, tweezers, pliers, cutters, sheets of A4 ... all the tools in the world but very little hope.
I know it's a great printer because so many people have had great experiences with it, and the build quality is great, but i've read about it just not being put together well at the factory so some unlucky people have had to practically rebuild it after delivery.
I will soldier on and post updates.
Cheers, DC.
Lies, lies and more lies!
I got it about a week ago from Amazon, i've probaly been tinkering with it for 16-20 hours (bed-levelling, bed-levelling, bed-levelling ,bed-levelling, bed-levelling, bed-levelling, bed-levelling ...).
At first it wouldn't power up, but if i rolled the bed back and forth really quickly then the screen lit up and it went into startup mode, due to the stepper motors acting like a generator and me being the prime mover. So i grabbed a spare cable and power was good.
Then it just wouldn't adhere, and one of the main selling points of this model is the Ultrabase that ensures good adherence. I tried printing the owl-pair from the SD card, other models from Cura via USB but nothing would stick.
I tried every possible temperature combination, then i put a probe on the bed and it was 47C rather than the 60C displayed on-screen, so i upped the bed temp to 80C, still nothing stuck. On the assumption that the nozzle temperature was probably off too i whacked that up, still no joy
So then i swapped out the hotend for the spare that they supply you with and i got perfect prints, but they were only perfect if they were small, once i went large i started getting corner lift so bad that the whole model then got dragged around by the nozzle.
Now it's printing really badly, making things look like they've been modelled by a monkey out of clay. I'm back in bed-levelling (bed levelling, bed levelling, bed levelling .. ARRRRGGGHH!) hell, it just won't be level all across, it's either the corners are good but the centre is too high or the centre is good but the corners are too low, or high.
When it did work (but only in the middle for small prints) it was perfect, i printed off a couple of spiral chess pieces from thingiverse and me and The Empress gazed in wonder at this marvel of modern technology.
But now i just sit here, covered in a web of thin plastic string, surrounded by gnarly, mutated, failed creations, tweezers, pliers, cutters, sheets of A4 ... all the tools in the world but very little hope.
I know it's a great printer because so many people have had great experiences with it, and the build quality is great, but i've read about it just not being put together well at the factory so some unlucky people have had to practically rebuild it after delivery.
I will soldier on and post updates.
Cheers, DC.