Delta (Round) or Cartesian (Square) Printer - My opinion..

A while back now, I bought a Delta G2S Pro, it's actually a Geeetech badged Rostock Mini, and has the X, Y, Z on 3 verticals rods and was great fun to setup and have a tinker. It's basically a 3 dof Stewart platform

I could get some quite decent prints from the G2S Pro but it literally took hours of tweaking and setting up in the firmware (Delta Radius, Offsets, Bed levelling) Now... I love a good tinker as much as the next man, but I was spending more time getting this thing setup than I was printing.

Enter the Anet A8. I bought it on a flash sale special from Gearbest and it only cost $166 shipped (That's AU!!)

I CAN NOT RECOMMEND THIS PRINTER HIGHLY ENOUGH.

For the money, it's incredible. The prints I am getting out of this thing "out of the box" are like injection moulded quality. It is soooo simple to level the bed and once it's done, you don't need to re-tweak. I've printed more in the 5 days I've had this than I have in the 18 months I had the delta. I can fill the whole bed with parts (220mm x 220mm) and just leave it printing overnight.

Seriously. DO NO BUY A DELTA printer. Go the Cartesian Route (Prusa design)

A picture is worth a thousand words...

Left: Delta Right: Anet A8 Two different parts - granted - but the quality difference is obvious.




DELTA



ANET A8


Top views (thumbnail - click to view)

Pull the trigger @noorbeast - You won't regret it

I got mine on a 120 minutes Gearbest Flash. (I was actually looking for USB hubs at the time!!)

@ $190 that is a bargain! (and what crap that RRP is @ $895. These never go for more than $300.)

Go on... you know you want too!

That's a nice looking printer and would give me some extra print volume. $166 + $6 shipping here in the US at Gearbest: http://us.gearbest.com/3d-printers-3d-printer-kits/pp_343643.html?wid=45

Damn that's tempting with a review like yours, @Archie.

@noorbeast - You don't have a 3D printer of any kind yet? I was thinking you did?

I've been going through a lot of red and black filament but those are color choices. Maybe some colors your gal might like for stuff you print for her... Whatever you like. Other than that you might want some of the tiny drills to clear the extruder nozzle (you use them on a hot extruder), maybe some extra nozzles. Not sure what parts on this one would be good for spares otherwise. Maybe the heaters for the heated parts since those may fail more frequently depending on the quality they use. Spare stepper motor shaft coupler or two? Just guessing on that stuff though.

@noorbeast - Fair warning - it's a sickness for sure! I'd bet you go back over your sim and start looking at ways to "improve" it.

But being serious, I had no idea how handy mine would be. Just about anything I need I just draw it up and print it. On the non-sim front, printing out art that your kids do would probably drive them nuts as they get to see real life objects they drew/sculpted in VR. That would be amazing and I'm sure a real creative kick for them!

With that kind of an application, I would say definitely!

And on that, I'd recommend some of the translucent filament if they have it there. That stuff looks wicked and provides another kind of depth. The solid colors are cool and likely appropriate for all sorts of their projects, but I'd bet if they see a spool of translucent, they might want some things printed in that.

Good luck! That's a very worthy application and glad you are doing that for them!

The Anet A8 took around 4 hours to build, spread over a few nights (4 hours total)
Once built the thing just prints... no messing about. Level the bed (easy paper method) and away you go.
I've been "pimping" my printer with parts since I got it. I've removed the stock extruder and put a E3D V6 Bowden setup.
Not essential, but loading filament is easy as this way

@noorbeast - I have used ABS, but it is a pain to print and find I can do everything with PLA. (It's very strong given it's actually just re-formed sugar!!) At 100% infill you'd be hard pressed to break a 3D printed part. Stick with PLA.

Get a nice bright colour to print. Everyone prints in black, but it can look quite bland. Green or Blue are my fave colours to use and they look nicer in my opinion.

Tinker Time? Compared to the hours I have sunk into the G2S Delta, this Anet A8 is an absolute dream.

Here are the upgrade. I'm printing a self-designed Fidget spinner at the moment..

All the green parts are printed upgrades - Something awesome about printing parts on a printer to then fit them to said printer to make better parts

Close up of the hotend / print part.



Oh... @noorbeast - Get Kaptan Tape for the print bed. (Yellow bed in this pic) Parts stick to this like a limpet!

For those interested, these are the upgrades I printed and the parts I bought.

e3d Hotend

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/3D-Print...ent-Bowden-Extruder-Nozzle-0-4mm/282418444221

Kaptan Tape

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Kapton-K...g-Melbourne-stock-Fast-shipping-/321577393677

Igus Drylin Bearings (makes it quiet as a mouse)

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Genuine-...ring-x-7-Replace-LM8UU-3D-Reprap/282504056273

3D printable parts:

Fan cover
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2204228

Center Bed Helper
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1707911

E3D v6 Bowden Conversion
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2117245

Printed Part Cooler (Essential this one!)
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2086437

Isolation Feet
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2103227

Anet A8 tool holders (tools come in the box)
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1539675

Y Belt Tensioner (helps tension build plate)
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2149867

X Belt holder
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2016779

Bowden Motor Mount
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2078038

Spring bushings (stops spring bend)
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2146448

Anti Z Wobble
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1858435

Thumb saver
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1935151

T-Corner Brace
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1672959

The finished 3D print.



M12 and Bearings in place.



Thumb caps fitted.

@Archie - Agreed on black. It's great for sim parts and such but isn't attractive otherwise IMO. It hides surface detail and doesn't photograph for squat. On prints that need support material during printing, that also seems harder to remove.

Some excellent and surprising upgrades! May just print myself a nippers holder like yours. That's got to be handy.

One other thing I would add is get the Slicer "Simplify3d" It's not cheap, sadly, but I do see a marked improvement on prints with this.

It's a process driven slicer, so you can assign different fill levels to parts on the same bed/print.
You can also print to a certain height if you want to try different test prints and you can sink parts into the "bed" to ensure tricky parts start off flat. I've only scratched the surface with this slicer, but do find it's myriad of options quite easy to understand / setup. It Understands the Anet A8 as well. Select it from the "Profiles" and you are good to go.

AU users will see the price and weep. It's more than the blooming printer!

https://www.simplify3d.com/

Oh - And if you stick with the Stock Extruder, be sure to find a good matching "Print Cooling Part" The Anet A8 comes with a small 3D printed white nozzle, but Thingiverse is just full of them. Type "Radial Fan" "Radial cooler" "Part cooler" etc..etc.. to see them.

Just be sure you select one that fits your setup.
The one I have is specific to the Bowden upgrade I did as the Hotend is more centred and a little further back than the original. The Original Radial cooler is on my first set of pics above this post and is the crappy looking green one on the left.

Your prints will be awesome with this little addon.
It ensures the PLA is cooled almost the instant it's laid on the bed so your parts don't warp, and given that each layer is laid down on the previous, having a good "base" is so important to getting good prints that stick to the bed and don't curl up.

@Zed - Transparent filament is awesome! I printed a tea set for my daughter in it and she loves it. When solid my particular brand (cheap Chinese one) has a shimmer to it, like silk, so it's her "Special tea set" now.

I also printed this Alien on the old Delta G2s just so his teeth would be clear and painted him with Enamel black paint. Make's it look "damp". I'm going to re-print this on the A8 so I can make it bigger as the bed is wider and with not being a "Delta" I can use the outer edges of my bed now! You can see the heavy "layer" lines on this model. Even on 0.2mm, I don't get this on the Anet A8. 0.1 prints look stunning. I will print the Alien in 0.1mm

@Archie that printer is just the same as mine its an I3 Prusa

Had mine for 3 years now its been excellent never had an issue and I'm still using the stock parts. I just spray the bed with hairspray, I have not used tape for quite some time now.