Originally Posted by Vantasstic

LOL. My i3 printer came with an SD card...in factory sealed package...and no instructions anywhere in the box. After some internet searching I finally opened the SD package and plugged the card into my PC. Wow, there was information on it...still no build instructions, but some printer 'stuff'. It's the last place I would have looked for info....being all factor sealed. I thought it was just a blank Micro SD card....

I put the card in the printer which is what anyone will do and as expected there were sample prints on it. It said nouthing about set up or first prints on the piece of paper that came with it or the fact it's all on the card. I've had a quick look at them and they are well written and cover just about everything you would need to know. Hobby King should post them in the files tab on there website

Originally Posted by James111

Mine was waiting for me when I got home from work the quality is excellent and took 30min to get printing. The Sd card has 3 prints loaded. I printed the mouse. Currently on its second print a 5h 170mm charmander

Did you have to do any calibrations to the printer beyond the bed leveling? I'm stuck between this printer and the Wanhao V2. This actually looks a bit sturdier built versus the V2 with the rolled edges.

I've had to do no calibration what so ever. the bed is a little hard to get level as the thumb screws are stiff. this is a advantage as I'm on my 7th print and the bed is still spot on. As were on about the levelling the levelling screws are counter sunk into the bed and don't move as you turn the thumb screw so they have fixed that problem. They fixed the belt rubbing problem. They also fixed the filament fan. The only thing I see different is the lcd is not tilted up but right now is printing the fix for that.

I've attached a test prints pics and it's done very well on sizes overhangs and bridging out of the box and very useable with out messing. retraction is good also on longer travel moves not so much on the little movements but with every printer they all need tweaking.

I'm impressed. the price is good it's built well and worked strait out the box with minimal messing. One big plus it's a popular known printer style so there's all the info and mods you can think of out there. If you get a problem a 5min quick search on google(other search engines available) and you'll have the fix. I would save a few £ and get one of these.

Originally Posted by James111

I've had to do no calibration what so ever. the bed is a little hard to get level as the thumb screws are stiff. this is a advantage as I'm on my 7th print and the bed is still spot on. As were on about the levelling the levelling screws are counter sunk into the bed and don't move as you turn the thumb screw so they have fixed that problem. They fixed the belt rubbing problem. They also fixed the filament fan. The only thing I see different is the lcd is not tilted up but right now is printing the fix for that.

I've attached a test prints pics and it's done very well on sizes overhangs and bridging out of the box and very useable with out messing. retraction is good also on longer travel moves not so much on the little movements but with every printer they all need tweaking.

I'm impressed. the price is good it's built well and worked strait out the box with minimal messing. One big plus it's a popular known printer style so there's all the info and mods you can think of out there. If you get a problem a 5min quick search on google(other search engines available) and you'll have the fix. I would save a few £ and get one of these.

Thanks for the info!! Glad to hear this version is a bit better and will be ordering mine soon now!

Would this printer be a good choice for a first printer?

Although I like tinkering I'm not sure I want my first printer to be a full DIY kit because the assembly and setup looks a little daunting, I like the fact that this printer is mostly pre-assembled and can be put together in an hour.

I will initially be most interested in printing mounting hardware for cameras and other FPV gear and micro-quad frames, I understand these components should be printed in ABS because PLA is not strong enough? Is the Prusa style printer an OK choice for ABS or would I better looking for something enclosed?

Thanks!
Bruce

Originally Posted by vegan

Would this printer be a good choice for a first printer?

Although I like tinkering I'm not sure I want my first printer to be a full DIY kit because the assembly and setup looks a little daunting, I like the fact that this printer is mostly pre-assembled and can be put together in an hour.

I will initially be most interested in printing mounting hardware for cameras and other FPV gear and micro-quad frames, I understand these components should be printed in ABS because PLA is not strong enough? Is the Prusa style printer an OK choice for ABS or would I better looking for something enclosed?

Thanks!
Bruce

I'm just starting off with this printing stuff myself. From what I've read, PLA is strong, but more fracture prone than ABS. ABS needs more heat and likes to warp. A fellow flier/printer uses TPU for a lot of stuff...skid pads under the motors, camera holders, etc. It's flexible and strong...even as skids it doesn't seem to want to wear out. I think I'll be doing a lot of printing in TPU.

Originally Posted by vegan

Would this printer be a good choice for a first printer?

Although I like tinkering I'm not sure I want my first printer to be a full DIY kit because the assembly and setup looks a little daunting, I like the fact that this printer is mostly pre-assembled and can be put together in an hour.

I will initially be most interested in printing mounting hardware for cameras and other FPV gear and micro-quad frames, I understand these components should be printed in ABS because PLA is not strong enough? Is the Prusa style printer an OK choice for ABS or would I better looking for something enclosed?

Thanks!
Bruce

I would buy it as a first printer on the fact there's tons of info about it alone. being its your first printer and have no printing experience thats a big plus. Don't worry to much about it not being enclosed that dose help but look at a ultimaker price compared to this. People print in abs without a heated bed just fine with build tak and that's your biggest problem getting it stuck to the bed. This has a heated bed. Just use your money you saved and get a few sheets of build tak.

I added a link to https://www.buildtak.com on the first post. It is pretty good stuff. Certainly better than messing around with hair spray etc.

Thanks for the replies! This printer is top of my shopping list, now I just have to hope it doesn't sell out before I get the money together

I was also looking at the Geeetech aluminium frame model and the Tevo Tarantula (although as an arachnophobe that had a mark against it already ) but I think I'd rather get something that is going to work out of the box first and then I can tackle a more DIY project in the future once I have more knowledge of the process.

TPU (ninjaflex?) sounds good to me if the printer will handle it.

Thanks for the BuildTak tip, that looks ideal!

[QUOTE=vegan;34499974]Thanks for the replies! This printer is top of my shopping list, now I just have to hope it doesn't sell out before I get the money together

You won't be disappointed

Oh my poor credit card! Ordered

I just got a couple of spools of PLA for a start, I'll look at more exotic filaments once I know what I'm doing

Hope you guys don't mind me joining in on this thread since I do not have this version of the printer, I have the Wanhao duplicator i3v2. For those that are wondering about buying this as a first time printer, I can absolutely recommend this printer. I have absolutely no background with 3d printing whatsoever, I didn't know any of the terms, any of the materials, or what any of the settings were for or what they did. After watching a couple of unboxing videos on youtube. I had mine set up and successfully printing the test file included on the sd card in under 30 minutes! I've now had this printer for about 3 months and have printed out multiple parts for my printer, like frame leveling pads, thumb wheels (these eliminate the difficult to use wing nuts for bed leveling) and multiple other parts with really minimal learning curve. I have not had to perform any modification to get great results on both PLA and ABS. After having excellent results printing ABS, I think that will be my go to material for printing at this time.

My setup for printing ABS as in the picture below is added glass plate coated with Elmer's purple glue stick, unplug the layer fan (the extra cooling will cause warping) I set the hot end at 245c and for larger parts like the taranis extended battery cover pictured on the build plate, I set the build plate temp to 105c. On smaller ABS parts like DJI arm extensions I can get away with build plate temps of about 90c

For those that are wondering about buying this as a first time printer, I can absolutely recommend this printer.

Thanks! It's good to know that the general design is a good one to get started with.. I've been watching 3D printing progress for a few years and now seems like a great time to make the plunge, the print quality from these low cost printers just looks amazing to me.. certainly more than good enough for the kinds of things I'm looking to print.

Another flexible material to try is poli flex. I've had great success with that than ninja flex. It's not as flexible but it prints just as easy as pla. This print was done on my fabricator mini with no heated bed

I am interested in 3d printing for some while now, and I was just about to order a sunhokey prusa i3, or the Fabrikator mini, but when I saw this printer, I had to have it. I search over the internet and didn't found much, but saw that is a re-brand of the very known wanhao duplicator i3, and I knew it is a good printer, I just order it from impulse. Waiting for it to arrive, maybe tomorrow is the big day. Will come with more details once I will put it to work.