Category: 3D Printing

You bought your first 3D printer, an Anet A8. It was a bit scary at first, I know. You took time to assemble it and made few mistakes along the way. Perfectly fine. You plugged it in, started printing and the end result was good, but lets make it better with several Anet a8 upgrades.

Good is just that – good. But did you know that there are things you can do to make your A8 run even better? Make better prints, be less noisy or be more secure?

There are two ways to have Anet A8 improvements:

1. 1. Printing the upgrades
   2. Buying new parts which provide better performance

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Upgrades for Anet A8 which you can print

Good thing when you already own a 3D printer is that you can use it to print the parts with your A8. Hell, if you’re a crafty fella who knows how to 3d model, you can design parts yourself. Even though I already listed most of the printable parts in my Anet A8 in-depth review, I’d like to clarify what I am using currently and why.

Before I begin, just little thank you to all the authors of the A8 upgrades who uploaded their designs for free, so that other users can improve their printers at no additional cost.

Here is a list of printable A8 upgrades which I’m using. All of these files are free to download and most of them are extremely easy to print.

A8 Duct Fan

An Anet A8 fan duct cools your prints. The original duct fan which arrives with the A8 is not that good. As a matter of fact, replacing the Anet A8 fan  is first things most owners do.

While there is a variety of duct fans and modifications available, I’ve been using the Semi-Circular Fan Duct by the user named lockster.

The only downside of this semi-duct is that you have to remove the side fan in order to mount it. This, however, gives a better seal and gives better air-flow. One more downside can occur if you’re used to removing a regular fan duct while leveling your bed. You won’t be able to see the nozzle distance properly, and removing it each time would require taking off the fan.  But if you’re using an A4 paper method to level it (which is highly recommended), it shouldn’t be a major problem.

Personally, a semi-circular duct, fixed one more problem. If I wanted to record smaller prints with a camera it would be slightly harder to catch a perfect angle if you’re using the completely circular duct. That’s why I mount my camera in the opposite direction. I must admit that the original A8 duct gave me the best angle for time-lapse recording. I’d rather have better air-flow. So semi-circular it is.

A8 Extruder Button

Pressing the hex screw in order to replace a filament is one of the worst experiences I had with A8. Especially if you’re starting out, you’ll be doing it quite a lot. The screw that needs to be pressed causes a pain in the thumb. Luckily enough, there is a solution. Extruder button is one of the simplest and fastest prints you can do.

I tried out three button designs :

• Extruder Button Anet A8 by dryas
• Extruder Hex Button Anet A8 by carnivoreci
• A8 Ergonomic Retained Release Button by danohpsp

While all three work and protect your fingers well, I found Ergonomic Button the best. It has the most comfortable pressing surface and it has a mechanism to attach it tight by using plastic tie-wraps which came with A8. Its concave shape of the top prevents slippage as well.

So, I recommend that print out the ergonomic button. It takes no more than 20-25 minutes depending on your printing speed. Your thumb won’t hurt anymore. Try it out, thank me later.

A8 [amazon fields=”B078MWXPL3″ value=”thumb” image_size=”large”][amazon fields=”B078MWXPL3″ value=”button”] Filament Guides

Guiding your filament to avoid its misguidance can be considered as a good upgrade as well. Even though it might have visible effects on your prints it reduces chafing of the filament. Also, it looks cool.

• Anet A8 Filament guide (extruder Anet A8) by jrwells
• Anet A8 Filament guide horizontal (top of the frame) by papinist

I personally tried two guides and both worked well for me. I use them both. One serves as an upper guide, the other is mounted above the extruder hole. One thing though, even though I found the extruder guide helpful it makes inserting filament slightly less comfortable. It requires me to hold the filament below the tiny space from the guide and the hole to be able to put it into the hole precisely. Still, I think it’s a good upgrade.

So my recommendation is to print them both.

I am still testing if the dust-cap really reduce vibrations. Once I am sure I’ll post more info on that.

If you are looking for an A8 extruder upgrade, you can print a Bowden extruder from Thingiverse.

I needed an A8 extruder replacement for testing reasons, and found this highly rated Anet A8 hotend DIY kit. View it here

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A8 – Anti Vibration and stability upgrades

We are all aware of the fact that acrylic frame of the A8 is not the most firm nor most stable one. There are few modifications you can do to improve the stability and reduce vibrations with printed parts.

So far I tried these.

• T corner by Electrico
• Front brace by Leo_N

T corners are one of the most printed upgrades. It’s simple and it works well. These corners will make your frameless wobbly and more firm. There are tons of front braces available, I printed the one by user Leo_N and it fitted my printer perfectly. I also noticed the reduction in vibration.

A front brace by Leo does not require too much filament opposed to the others and it fits perfectly. Gave my printer quite a lot of stiffness.

A8 Belt tensioners

Though personally my most favorite printed upgrades, I left them for the end of this part, since I still believe these upgrades can improve. I’ve been using these two belt tensioners which made my belt tightening easier and helped me improve my prints making them less wobbly.

So in my experience, these two printed upgrades had the biggest influence on my print quality when I started. This is mostly because I had no idea that the belts should be quite tight since the A8 Assembly Video did not go through that in much detail.

For now, I am using the :

• Improved X belt tensioner
• Improved Y belt tensioner

There are cons of each of these. First of all, I noticed that the X belt improved tensioner puts a bit more pressure on a steel rod and if you over-tighten it, it can move it in the opposite direction. I would rather if the tension pressure was elsewhere and not on the rod itself.

Secondly, I noticed that the Y tensioner vibrates just slightly and causes additional noise. Also when put directly the screw it uses can scratch the acrylics.

Despite the cons, both upgrades worked well for me, but I hope somebody will listen to the feedback and remix and improve them further since they are essential modifications.

Be aware that I tested these with my rubberized belt which allows much better stretching compared to the plastic belts which arrived with A8. Over-tightening the plastic belts may cause them to snap. So my the advice is to buy better belts, then try belt upgrades. I yet have to try these tensioners with a (eBay link) fiber-glass reinforced belt I ordered.

Heatbed Upgrade Printed Improvements

Update 2/15/2017

Since I moved to printing on a Anet A8 glass bed, I decided to permanently modify my heat bed. I really hate the way the bed has to be adjusted with a screw. So by printing wingnuts, you can modify it permanently. It’s much easier and faster. Furthermore, this adjustment allows me to use the full width of the glass bed 220 x 220, since I no longer need access to the screws.

Here are two heated bed upgrades to print. The second one should be printed only if you’re using a full-size glass.

• Hotbed Glass Corner Holder by thfo
• Wing Nut bed level screw by ozfunghi

Since printed wing nuts will wear and tear over the time since they are plastic, I decided to order metal thumb wheel. You can get them on this link.

Additionally, you can purchase an Anet A8 hotbed replacement here.

Anet A8 Parts you can’t print

While the upgrades you can print with Anet A8 offer a good base for improving your 3D printer, there are Anet A8 parts you need to purchase in order to enhance the performance.

Anet A8 Belts

If there is one part that I tested extensively, that has to be the belt. I tried three types of belts for A8 :

• original plastic belts (arrive with the printer)
• rubberized belts
• (eBay link) fiber-glass reinforced belts

(eBay link in photo)In my experience, rubberized belts are the most stretchy ones. Also, they are quite cost-effective, since they are 5 times less expensive compared to the (eBay link) fiberglass reinforced belts which are quite hard to find anyway.

But after finally buying a fiber-glass reinforced belt, I must admit these ones are the best I tried so far. They are quite firm. My prints simply looked better when I installed these. The only downside is that I was having trouble finding them online. You might want to hurry up and get yours on time, who knows when they will run it out of stock.

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Mosfet Anet A8

Even though I did not experience any problems with my connectors on a motherboard burning or anything similar, some people have. This is one of the preventive measures to make electronics on your A8 more secure.

By adding a mosfet you will bypass the motherboard heating and put way less “pressure” on it. I am really not an expert in electronics, but plenty of people say this is an essential upgrade which will make your 3d printer safer.

Buy a mosfet Anet A8 expansion| Amazon| BangGood

I am still waiting for mine, and once I upgrade my printer, I will write a separate article on how to connect a mosfet. Detailed instructions on and how to guide can be found on this Wiki Page created by Anet community.

After doing throughout research, we have found this Anet A8 MOSFET package to be highly rated and very affordable. For only $17 you get 2 heatbeds.

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e3D V6 Anet A8 HotEnd

According to the Anet community, you should upgrade to e3D V6 hotend, once you mastered other things. It takes a little time, but if you really want to get serious with your printing quality, replacing existing A8 hotend, with high-quality e3D V6 makes a huge difference in printing quality and speed as well as the versatility of materials you can use.

There are plenty of stories that this upgrade is too costly and that it’s not cost-effective to spend nearly half of the money you spent on a printer itself. I partly agree with this statement. That’s why I ordered both original and 7$ clone V6 hotend, to test if for you. Once both arrive, I’ll let write another article on it.

So far, there are two options :

• Buy original e3D V6
• Buy clone e3D V6

Titan Extruder – Replaces Anet A8 Extruder

Like with a hotend, E3D Titan extruder enables you to print wide variety of materials without clogging. According to people who own it, it’s an expensive, but worthy upgrade if you plan to print with different types of materials. The Titan Extruder preforms leaps and bounds better than the Anet A8 extruder.

For now, I did not try this extruder, as currently I have no need to print anything else but the PLA. Once I master my A8, I might test the Titan.

Similar to the e3D hotend, Titan also has cheaper, knock-off clones.

• Buy original Anet A8 Titan Extruder
• Buy Titan Extruder Clone

Hotbed improvements

Since this is quite a controversial topic, I’ll just list the things people use to improve their heat-bed adhesion. Currently I print with PLA on a yellow painters tape and have no problem with it, but I plan to try BuildTak and glass very soon.

• Glass (you can get it locally)
• buildtak/ Vertex cover
• Insulation cotton (for achieving temperature faster and temperature regulation)
• Blue tape (you can get it locally)

Anet A8 Glass bed

Update 2/15/2018

As promised earlier, I have upgraded my heatbed by putting 220 x 220 x 3 mm thick glass on top of it. If you intend to still level your heat bed with a screw, you should get a slightly smaller glass and these clips to hold it better. On my printer, I have 220 x 220 size glass with slightly drilled and extended holes, glass angle holders, and printed wingnuts.

Personally, I have noticed visible improvements in printing quality of the first layer. Not only is the first layer much smoother on a glass, but the glass bed is way easier to maintain. I usually clean it with acetone after few prints. While I had to replace yellow tape every now and then, the glass is here to last. In the end, glass is a more cost-effective option.

Models are slightly harder to remove from the glass than the yellow tape. Also, I have noticed an improvement in object sticking better to the glass.

I print all my larger models with brim (Brim Adhesion in Cura 2.3.1). As a result I do not use a hairspray, but people suggest it might be a good idea to use it if you can’t get your objects to stick onto a glass.

The only downside of printing on a glass opposed to a yellow tape, is that the heat-bed takes a little bit more time to heat.

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Igus DryLin Anet A8 Bearings

Anet A8 is one noisy fella. Luckily , thanks to magnificent bearings from Ignus, it can be much quieter. Check out the test here.

Wow. Just wow. I am amazed with how well these things are working on my printer. I was ignorant to buy only 4, so I replaced only under the heatbed.

I bought them here, but perhaps you can find better deals on eBay, here’s the link. You will need 7 of those.

Here is an installation video of the Anet A8 bearing upgrades. The process is fairly easy, especially if you have a ring plier tool.

YouTube Video

Spare parts

Like it or not, like most of the 3D printers A8 requires regular maintenance. Even after you’ve done upgrades, things can go wrong for various reasons. In my experience it’s always good to have few spare parts for A8, so here are my top 3.

• Anet A8 Nozzle (mix various size)
• screw + pfte tube
• Aluminum heater block

Filaments

Whereas there’s a wide variety of materials you can print with your A8, there’s no “best” one. This is because due to insane amount of modifications people do to their printers, it’s always hard to recommend a universal solution. Below list includes some of my favorites, but yet cost-effective 3D printing materials for my A8. Be aware that what might work for me, might not be the best option for you, due to differences in our setups.

• PLA 3D Printing Material (made by Anet) – link
• PETG 3D Printing Material – link
• Flexible 3D Printing Material – link
• Wooden 3D Printing Material – link

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Anet A8 Power Supply

Some users believe that the stock Anet A8 power supply unit (PSU) is underpowered and have opted to upgrade to the eTopxizu 12v 30a Anet A8 power supply. From our experience, you will see tremendous improvements if you add both a MOSFET and power supply.

Purchase the upgraded Anet A8 power supply

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Summary

As you can see, printed or bought, there are plenty of modification which will help you improve Anet A8. Once again the community behind this printer is enormous and the upgrades are evolving each day. Each and every day someone from the community prints something new designs something new. The list is not definite. It is ongoing and I’ll try to keep it updated whenever I discover something better then what I already had.

What is your favorite Anet A8 upgrade?

Due to my inability to test each and every upgrade, I would like to ask you for help. If you are using particular printed part or you bought something that works well for you – leave a comment below and help me and other readers improve our printer. Which upgrade do you find the most useful and why?

Feel free to leave a link, but it would be good if you can elaborate in which way particular upgrade helped you make better prints or secured your printer.

• All Anet 3D Printers side by side
• Read in-depth review of Anet A8
• Read in-depth review of Anet A6

Ever since I was a kid, I liked building things. My biggest passion was Lego bricks. Creating, discovering, being creative and making your own world is amazing. When I first heard of 3D Printing and 3D printers, I was fascinated with them. I thought – this must be the next big thing. The thing you can use to build everything you ever wanted.

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However a few years back the 3d printing technology was quite new and way over my budget. That’s why I was stoked when I heard that there is a $190 3d printer which works close to those in $1000 range.

This printer is called Anet A8, produced by an Anet company based in China. A8 picked up amazing reviews on the web. When given the opportunity to review it, I never had second thoughts.

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Anet A8 is a completely DIY 3D printer that you have to assemble yourself. According to communities online, when calibrated and upgraded properly it can print like those expensive printers. Moreover, it is said, that the assembly can be done by a total newbie.

In this Anet A8 review, I will test the Anet A8 from a beginners perspective. Can this cheap $170 3D printer be any good? Let’s find out.

When given an opportunity to review this 3D printer I was so scared. There were tons of “what if” insecurities. What if I burn my house? What if I am unable to build it? What if it does not print that well?

3D printing with Anet A8 printer

If you’re a complete newbie reading this review I am quite sure you have similar fears. Do not panic. I will guide you through my journey with Anet A8. Step by step. Be aware that before I assembled and started using A8, I had zero experience in 3D printing.

Anet A8 overview and specification

What is Anet A8? Anet A8 is completely do it yourself 3D printer, priced at around 170-200$. When fully assembled it enables you to print 3D objects from different kind of materials and create 3D objects of any shape. It can use different types of materials to print, though it works best with PLA and ABS.

Below is a table with Anet A8 specs.

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How does it work?

In laymen words, Anet A8 3D printer works like any 3D printer. Here is an overview of Anet A8 basic elements.

Provided that you previously calibrated the printer, here are the steps :

1. You power it on.
2. Pre-heat it depending on the material you use. (Quick Setting> Pre-heat PLA/ABS)
3. You insert a filament inside the extruder hole. This can be tricky and take a while to master.
4. You select an object from an SD card by going to SD Card > Print a file
5. Printer per-heats once again and start’s printing.
6. Extruder pulls the filament into a tiny screw which has a PTFE pipe and guides it to heat end and a nozzle where filament (material) melts at a certain point.
7. Printer moves onto X, Y and Z axis and adds melted filament layer by layer onto a heated bed.
8. Once the printing is finished, you will see 100% on the screen and printer will become idle.
9. You can remove the 3d printed object from the heat bed.

A look at the opened extruder of Anet A8 printer

Imagine a regular PC printer. It prints ink onto a piece of paper. Well, 3D printer does the same. It prints melted material onto a heated bed. The only difference is that regular printer does not move up, whereas 3D printer moves around it’s X axis, applying material one layer over another.

3D printed adds melted material one layer over another

To answer your questions first

So here are few questions that all of us have when considering to buy Anet A8.

• I am a complete novice.  Will  I be able to assemble and use it?  – Relax, you will. There is step by step instructions and huge community support. Be patient and do not be afraid to ask for help.
• I do not know how to make a 3d model – Do not worry. You do not need to know that. There are websites where you can download 3D models for free and print them out on your printer.
• Is it safe to use it indoors? – It is indeed safe to use inside with PLA. PLA material is biodegradable and does not emit toxins. It is perfectly safe to use and even though I expected a plastic smell at first, I was surprised and unable to smell anything with the PLA.
• Can it cause a fire? – Yes, like any electronic device, 3D printer can cause a fire. They are not a toy, and you have to supervise your printer while it prints, especially until you master it and learn how to use it. There are plenty of things you can do to improve its safety and you can read about them online or in Facebook groups dedicated to the printer.
• Which material should I use? – For start, start with the PLA. It’s easier to learn. Once you master your 3D printing skills, you can move on to another material.
• Does it require PC? – Even though it can be controlled it through the PC via the USB, it can work completely independently as a separate machine and does not require to be connected to a computer.
• Is it noisy? – You can certainly hear A8 while it prints. There are improvements you can do like making an enclosure to reduce the noise and adding something to prevent vibrations below the printer.
• How firm are the printed objects? This depends on the material you use and the infill of an object.
• Can I print with other materials? – Even though I have yet to test this, users of Anet A8 recommend that you upgrade to a new extruder before you begin experimenting with other materials besides PLA and ABS.

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Before my printer arrived

Before my Anet A8 printer arrived, I wanted to prepare myself. I did not want to burn my house or something since those are some of the stories I read which can happen with any 3D printer from time to time.

That’s why while my printer was dissembled in a box traveling from China, I became my research.

The first thing I did is joining two popular groups of Anet A8 owners. Once in a while, I would read things owners of printers post there. Problems they encounter, solutions, upgrades, pretty much anything that can ever happen to your printer, can be found in one of those groups on Facebook.

Due to the poor organization on the content on Facebook groups (FB is the only one to be blamed here), finding proper information in those group can be hard. That’s why I wanted to read a book about 3D printers.

I got a hold of a fantastic book on the subject of 3D printing. Getting Started with 3D Printing. Since this is not a book review, I’d just like to mention that it’s quite easy to read with plenty of information.

I’ve re-read it when my printer arrived and when I started to print. It was quite helpful and easy to follow up. So if you like reading and want to learn more about 3D printing in general, this is a very well-written piece.

Besides wondering around 3D groups and reading a book, I also watched tons of YouTube videos. There is plenty of information, and my recommendation is, if you have the time, educate yourself and learn from others mistakes before your printer arrives. Not that it will eliminate all mistakes, but it will decrease the number of things that can go wrong.

What’s inside the box?

Once my 3D printer arrived, besides horrific custom fee I had to pay for it (I live in the non-EU country) I was over the moon. Anet A8 arrives in a huge box which weights around 10kg. Prior to opening the box, make sure to open it on the front side to avoid parts falling out.

Once opened, the box contains 3 layers of smaller rectangular styrofoam boxes. Those smaller boxes are filled with all the parts that you’ll need to assemble your 3D printer. When I say all the parts, I really mean it. It contains everything to get you started. I was amazed at the number of things these guys included.

The manufacturer added tools such as a screwdriver, 4 types of a hex wrench, plastic nippers and even a USB reader with a microSD card. Parts are sorted inside the box with no particular order, so it won’t matter much if you mix something up while unpacking.

List of parts that come in Anet A8 3D printer box.

All of the parts and tools are neatly packed. Personally, my packet arrived safe and sound and no part was even scratched, let alone damaged in any way.

The first thing that got me scared is that there was no printed manual. I slowly began to panic, until I realized that all the instructions are located on a MicroSD memory card which comes in a box.

The user manual is written in Chinese and English. It consists of a couple of folders located on an SD card. The only sort of printed instruction is on an A4 paper which illustrated how to connect wiring to the mainboard of the printer, everything else is on the USB you receive.

One tip, before you start assembling the printer, make sure that all the parts are there. I’d recommend that you print out the “Parts List” file and tick each part as you find them in one of the styrofoam boxes. I counted even the tiniest parts such as screws and noticed that in my box there were few extra bolts and screws.

I would like to mention that besides things included in the “List” I also received a 10m white PLA filament, a material used for printing. It was not listed, so I really do not know if it comes in every Anet A8 box or not. Either way, you will also have to buy filament separately, since officially it’s not included. More about materials later.

Anet A8 Assembly

I will be honest with you, it was scary thinking how the heck am I going to assemble this thing? I have never built anything more complex than a Lego before, so I was quite worried. Luckily it is not as complicated as it first looks. It’s just time-consuming and requires patience and concentration.

Besides a written manual which is decent (though not perfect) Anet published three videos on how to assemble and start the A8 printer.

• Assembly video part 1 (assembling the frame of the printer)
• Assembly video part 2 (assembling the remaining parts and electronics)
• Assembly video part 3 – debugging (this video shows printer calibration and how to do your first print)

Quality of those videos is quite good. The person showing you how to build a printer does things quite slowly. However, some parts might not be entirely clear to you, so always take a look at the manual if there’s something you do not understand. Double check everything.

It took me 3 days to assemble Anet A8. Yes, 3 days. On the first day, I did the parts checklist. It took me another hour to remove acrylic protectors from parts that will be a printer’s frame once assembled. Then, I began slowly completing the frame.

It did not go smoothly since I ignored the instructions and assembled few parts incorrectly. Luckily, I decided to be calm and follow the directions no matter how obvious they seem sometimes. I believe total day one took me 3 hours in total.

On the second day, I plugged in all the electronics and added remaining parts onto a frame. This is the most complicated part. It took me 5 hours for this from what I remember, perhaps even more. What is fantastic is that there is no soldering necessary. All the electronics and wires only have to be plugged into the mainboard.

Even though I had everything set up after 2 days, the third day was the first time I turned my printer on. What was a bit confusing is that I had no idea what to do when I plugged it in. There were no instructions that a third video had to be watched in order to calibrate the printer and start printing.

In the third video, you will learn how to debug the printer, calibrate and level the hotbed and do your first print.

Onto a memory card, there are some files you can print. I recommend that you start small with Box-1.75mm PLA-A8 or something. I made a mistake and started with a bigger figure, which means more material (filament) and more time to print.

So after 3 days, I was ready to begin my first print, brace yourself, here we go.

Update 01/11/2019 Thanks to L.Woodington and D. Wilding who discovered an interesting error in the instruction video of the Anet A8 Assembly 1. The metal H frame is mounted wrongly in the video, which causes the cables of the hotbed to be curved. After mounting the H frame the opposite way, so that the middle line which sticks is facing the ground, my belts got aligned perfectly which reduced some noise in my experience. A photo says thousands of words, so take a look at the image below.

Upper photo shows how the H bed is mounted in the instruction video in a wrong way. The first photo from the left shows the results of such mounting where belts are not flat. The second photo shows results when the H frame is turned upside down, belts are flat and aligned properly.

My first prints with Anet A8

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After calibrating my printer according to the instruction video, I initialized the printing of the Baymax figure. The result was, hot – literally. My Baymax ended up completely melted.

My first attempt to 3d print a figure did not go as expected. Baymax became Firemax.

I was unable to remove it from the hotbed. I had no idea what went wrong, so I asked on one of the Facebook groups dedicated to Anet A8 printer. In the meanwhile, I stopped the printing and turned the printer off.

So what happened? The thermistor, a tiny cable which measures the temperature of the hotend, plugged out. Which meant that it was sending wrong temperature data to my printer causing it to heat over 230 degrees. Since optimal printing temperature for PLA material at 180-220 degrees, it ended up completely melted.

Securing the thermistor is important. Make sure this is always connected and also secure the extruder cables, to prevent them from moving.

It proved later that thermistor can cause serious issues even a fire. I would highly recommend that you make sure it’s adjusted well. So my first 3D print and I already managed to “catch” one of the worst things. It is quite a serious mistake to happen, and I’m sure it does not happen to people very often, but it happened to me. Can it get any worse?

After I made sure thermistor is checked, I wanted to give my Baymax figure a rebirth. I initialized the printer again and carefully watched. It all started well, but then, all of a sudden my Baymax became alive. It started to wobble and move all over the hotbed. Dear God, what now?

I asked again for the help on the Facebook support group and the solution was – my hotbed was not leveled up well. One more newbie mistake. You are excited to start printing that you never pay enough attention to such details.

Leveling the hotbed manually is one of the most boring but yet essential things to do. If the first layer goes wrong, an entire figure will end up messed up.

Okay, so I took another 20 minutes to adjust and re-level my hotbed according to instructions in the Assembly Video #3,

Third time lucky! Finally, my 3D printed Baymax began to print. I can’t explain to you how excited I was seeing that everything was according to the plan. This little fella took around 7 hours to print (mostly because whoever made it added 100% infill, which means the entire figure is filled 100% from the inside, which is absolute overkill and waste of time for such print (usually I now use 20%).

While printing it, I realized I do not have enough printing material – filament. This is because I got many pieces of multicolored 10m filament.

So it’s my first successful print and already I had to learn how to change the filament without interrupting the printer. Facebook support group here I come again. – The solution was to simply pause the print – take out the old filament and add a new one. Resume printing. TA-DA!

After 7 hours, this was the result. It looks like Baymax who survived World War II, but comparing it to my first two attempts it was great, at least it survived. It was far from perfect, but I was over the moon.

These two guys were my first successful prints. Still not perfect, but I was on a roll.

I then realized that for first few prints it’s way better to print out something smaller, so I downloaded a tiny Pikachu (link here) scaled it down a little bit into a software and printed the little fella out as well. Compared to the big fella figure, this one finished in approximately 30 minutes.

Later I discovered that this sort of wavy structure was caused because of my belts not being tight enough.

I was on fire! I was ready to conquer the 3D world. The humble community of Anet A8 owners advised me to start printing upgrades for the printer itself. Can you believe it? Printing the parts for the 3D printer to improve its performance.

This was my next move. I printed out two tiny upgrades a button cap and a filament guide. And then… another problem – my extruder (a thing which extrudes filament) – got clogged. Filament did not want to come out of it. You can guess what I did next? Yes, a Facebook group for some advice.

So I had to disassemble the whole thing. In a photo below you can see what happened.

Little things matter when it comes to 3D printers. Pay attention to details. Clogged PTFE tube.

Do you think I managed to fix it easily? Of course not, as an ignorant newbie, I only made things worse.

Quick summary: Filament got stuck, I tried to use pincer to pull it out, of course, it broke making a tiny piece stuck in there. Then I tried to melt it down with a lighter, burning a ptfe tube inside. Even though it looks unimportant without ptfe tube, you can’t print. I cut a tiny piece of a tube, put it back inside, my printed started leaking. I was unable to print out anything.

So this tiny tube is important! You need to have it in whole inside the screw. A tiny part that of ptfe that sticks out goes into a nozzle direction. Its purpose is not only to guide filament through the nozzle precisely but also to make sure filament does not melt before it reaches the nozzle.

A solution? I had to buy a new ptfe tube. But not only that, I also bought few more spare parts, which according to the 3d printing community are a must.  Those parts are sort of expendables.

[amazon fields=“B073RDFTDV” value=“thumb” image_size=“large”]

[amazon fields=“B073RDFTDV” value=“button”]

Here are the things I bought, and if you plan to buy this printer, I recommend you do that as well, most of them are like $1-2 :

• ptfe tubes  (highly recommended)
• 6X nozzles of various sizes (highly recommended)
• Rubber belt (highly recommended)
• heater block
• thermistor
• heater

The last two items, I bought just in case, still haven’t used them, since my thermistor and heater work well, for now.[amazon box=”B073RDFTDV,B078MX2FYK,B07BRKZGMS,B01G1JWKQK,B073TVBJVY,B073TVBJVY” template=”table”]

What I learned from my failures

• Make sure thermistor is connected properly
• Proper heatbed leveling is essential – this is the cause of most problems I had.
• Tightening the belts is important it reduces wobbly prints
• Buying spare parts saves plenty of time and trouble later
• Small things, such as tiny ptfe tube are there for a reason, do not try to be a smart-ass and ignore them.
• The same type of material from different manufacturers have different points of melting – print this calibration tower to test the optimal temperature of the particular filament, it helps.

Anet A8 upgrades

So here I am nearly two months after my first Anet A8 print. During that period I learned tons of stuff about my printer and 3d printing in general. While I am far being done yet, there are upgrades that I did which improved my 3D prints beyond my wildest dreams.

After improving the printer, my models look like they’re printed with those $1000 machines. But I am not done yet, I will continue to print, read and educate myself to have even better prints.

Here’s a list of upgrades that you can download for free from Thingyverse and print them on your own printer!

• Semi-Circular Anet A8 Fan Duct – improves air circulation
• Extruder Button Anet A8 – to stop your thumb from pain the metal made screw on extruder causes when pressed
• Filament Guide Horizontal – guides your filament into an extruder more precisely
• Filament Guide – guides your filament into an extruder more precisely
• T Corners – to make it more stable and reduce vibrations
• Improved X belt tensioner – helps you adjust and tension belts much better than the original design
• Improved Y belt tensioner – helps you adjust and tension belts much better than the original design

From all of the above upgrades, I’ve seen the biggest results and improvements after adding belt tensioners in combination with the rubberized belt. In the instruction video, I understood that the belts should not be that tight, where in reality they should. Tighter belts mean less wobbly prints.

I plan to test few more belt types, such as this (eBay link) fiberglass reinforced belt. One more upgrade which I plan to do is improve the safety of electronics by adding a mosfet.

There are lots of other things I intend to do with Anet A8, so make sure to check back or follow Pevly on social media for updates. (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube)

UPDATE 01/10/2019

I wrote a detailed article about upgrades on Anet A8.

Print quality

So I proudly present to you my 3D printed objects. All printed on Anet A8 with some minor improvements and 3d printed upgrades. Compare them to the first ones I made. The difference is huge.

This fish fossil is completely flexible and its parts move. It was printed in one part which show exceptional designing skills by the person who made a model.3D Printed Empire State building is one of my bigger successes so far.Printing functional things is equally possible. 3D printed stand for Kindle Paperwhite.3D printed memory card holder is another example of functional items that you can print with a 3D printer.Latest update on my printing quality with A8. Dragon on the left has been intentionally colored like this as a part of an experiment.

https://youtu.be/5_heq5ayGSY

https://youtu.be/LhIv_oclAPE

https://youtu.be/xpBHgnzlbdg

Software

You do not have to know to 3D model in order to use a 3D printer. I’m sure it makes process far more enjoyable when you print something you made yourself, but no worries it’s not obligatory.

The process is quite easy. You go to a website which has 3D models. The most popular site I used is Thingyverse. Once you find and download the model, you have to unzip the file and locate your model.

Some 3D models can be printed as a whole, in one part, others have parts that have to be printed separately and later glued or assembled, depending on the model. Your next task is to import a model or a part of it into a slicer. Slicer is a 3d modeling software which will adjust the model according to your printer.

The recommended beginners software is Cura. Inside the manual, you’ll find how to configure Cura 14.07 with your Anet A8. I highly recommend that you do your first prints with that version of Cura. Mostly because you have the manual and explanation how to configure it with Anet A8.

Cura 14.07 (above) vs Cura 2.3.1 (below)

Inside slicer, you can do tons of stuff. Scale your model, switch its printing position, printing quality, speed, etc. A good thing about Cura is that it tells you how much filament you’ll need for a specific figure, how much it will weight and how much it will take to print it out.

These are all approximate values though. All these settings influence your output one way or another. For instance, printing speed influences the quality of the print, but also the printing time. If you need to print something faster with fewer perfections, you’ll go with higher speed.

All of these settings take time to master. You will have to experiment and learn.

The above photographs illustrate the difference in print quality and printing time when printing speed is adjusted.

Can I use newer Cura version with Anet A8?

Yes, you can upgrade to newer versions. I personally started with 14.07, but when I learned how to use Cura, I switched to 2.3.1 version with no issues. I only had to re-configure it all over again. Configuration Anet A8 with latest Cura is easy when someone already made the configuration file and instructions how to do it. You can find those files in the Official A8 group on Facebook.

Newer is always better in most cases. For instance, I noticed that 2.3.1 takes far less time to render the object and its interface is more appealing.

I’d like to thank Jan Hedström and many others who helped me learn how to configure Cura among tons of other things.

User interface and navigation

If you’re a regular reader of Pevly blog, you know we’re a huge fan of user-friendly products. While Anet A8 is marketed as an affordable 3D printer, which beginners can use it’s not that user-friendly. Most of the things are not that intuitive and the user navigation is quite unclear. For instance even nearly 2 months of using it I  am still unable to recognize all the functions that printer displays on the screen.

One of the major improvements that can be made is to make the interface of the printed simpler, clearer and less clunky.

As for the third-party software which you use for slicing the 3D model are concerned, you can use basically any you want, but Anet recommends Cura 14.7 which you can find online or on a memory card. Since it’s a third-party software, there’s no point in reviewing its interface.

Summary

My journey with Anet A8 has been a love-hate game all the way. I hate that I love my Anet. There were times when I wanted to pull my hair out by trying to figure out what went wrong with the printer. Also, there was a period where I jumped around the house being amazed at the quality of my print.

Please understand that most of the problems I encountered with Anet A8 printer are because of my ignorance of 3D printing in general. This is my first 3D printer and like with any new technology you encounter, there is a huge learning curve.

Even though I had quite decent theoretical knowledge about 3D printing by reading books about it, the best way to learn to 3D print is – to print, fail and make mistakes.

One thing is sure, Anet managed to create a decent quality printer, which takes a bit of time to assemble and master. Would I recommend this to a person who is on a budget and wants to enter the 3D printing world? Absolutely, but once again, be aware that it will take time to get quality prints. It requires upgrades and getting to know the material you’re printing with.

What guys behind Anet managed to do is to remove the barriers so that you no longer need 700-2000$ for a 3D printer. The 3d printing industry is becoming more and more competitive and I’m ecstatic about that. Competition means better products, lower prices, and incremental innovations.

Perhaps the biggest advantage of A8 besides its cheap price is the wonderful and humble community of people behind it. There are tons of good people who like you and me once had problems with their printer and are willing to help you out.

Pros

• Affordable price (possibly lowest cost printer with such specs on the market)
• Huge community and support
• Excellent for entering the 3D print world
• Decent instructions video and documentation for assembling
• When calibrated and adjusted properly together with few printed improvements it prints are impressive for the price of the printer.
• It can be compared to way more expensive printers when the print quality is concerned.
• Extremely enjoyable process of learning

Cons

• Comes in parts
• Takes time to assemble it
• Acrylic frame
• Electronics is not the highest quality (according to the people who understand electronics way better than I do)
• Plastic belts
• Not easy to insert filament into an extruder
• User experience
• User navigation

If you need any technical assistance with your Anet A8, there is no better way then visiting these 2 groups on Facebook :

• OFFICIAL Anet 3D printer Support Group
• Anet A-series 3D Printer Help & Discussion
• Anet A8 Wiki page

Where to buy original Anet A8?

There have been warnings of people ordering Anet A8 and receiving something completely different, though it looks the same. That’s why you should be careful and order only from officially licensed retailers, here are some.

For any other questions, feel free to drop me a comment. If you already own an Anet A8, feel free to let me know how it works for you, I’m sure your experience will help people who are still unsure if A8 is right for them.

Read more about Anet :

• Anet A8 Best upgrades
• Anet A6 detailed review
• All Anet printers compared

Thanks for taking the time to read this whole review. I wish I could talk to you a bit more, but my Anet A8 just finished a new print, so I have to remove it and admire its beauty.