Sale - Anet A8 for £106 only 2 days left

Thought I'd make you aware of the offer I've just found.... https://www.gearbest.com/3d-printers-3d-printer-kits/pp_337314.html?wid=21
Not sure how good the offer actually is as there's every chance you may get stung for import tax? You know what it's like, the customs lottery! There's only a couple of days remaining on the offer if you're interested.

Anyhow, I've treated myself for an early Christmas present as I had already decided a 3D printer was going on Santa's list. I just hope he thinks I've been a good boy this year.

I personally use the Anet A8 and I can really recommend it to anyone!

I ordered the printer on the 20th of November, it arrived this week on the 9th January.

I was reaching the point where I didn't think it would arrive at all, or it would arrive badly damaged having been in transit for so long (other items ordered from China have always arrived much quicker).

Well I'm very pleased to say it did arrive and completely undamaged. It's already built and in use performing very respectable prints.

The reason for my post was to let others know about my experience purchasing the Anet A8 from Gearbest. I'm not affiliated with the company at all and will not be posting any further hard sell type posts!

The first thing that really impressed me was the packaging. This thing could have gone back to China and been resent to me and I expect it would still have arrived in good condition. I didn't take any photos of the actual box contents but fortunately there's already photos on the internet...

In particular the stepper motors were going no-where and took some prising out of their protective surround.
What's more, the kit even includes all the tools to be able to assemble the printer (although I chose to use my own), but I thought this was a nice and well thought out little touch.
The manual is well made with plenty of photos similar to building a Lego set, of which I have many hours expirience!!!
Further more, there is a YouTube video to help with the bits that are not so clear on the instructions. Things such as the orientation of the stepper motors and other little details.
It took a while to build but once finished I was able to simply plug in the micro SD that was also supplied with the kit and choose from a small selection of Gcode files to start my first print. The micro SD even comes with a USB adaptor and there is a USB lead for direct connection to the PC if required.

This 3D printer is an absolute bargain, I can't get over how good it actually is. I've already upgraded to use standalone MOSFET's for the extruder and hotbed and intend to add a separate supply for powering these. Then there is the bed wiring that I will replace with silicon leads and solder directly to the bed as advised on many other posts about the Anet printers. But even with these additions, £5 for a pair of MOSFET's, £10 for wire and £15 for the PSU.

That still means that for well under £150 you can get a good sized 3D printer that is capable of producing good prints.

Now I've just got to master Fusion 360, Meshmixer and Cura. Please feel free to tell me if there are better tools out there as I'm very new to all this!

if you still have it... you can re-use the parts and build a all metal prusa (i am doing it})

fer

I'll definitely be upgrading it at some point in the future. For now I'm still getting to grips with using Meshmixer and Cura to turn my designs into something the printer can use.