ANYCUBIC Kobra Plus 3D Printer, Smart Auto Leveling Large 3D
ANYCUBIC Kobra Plus 3D Printer, Large 3D Printer 350 x 300 x 300mm with 25-point Precise Auto Leveling and All-Metal Geared Extruder for Smooth Filament in & Ou
From the brand
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| Dimensions: | 60.5 x 56 x 54.6 cm; 11.2 Kilograms |
| Model: | KBLA0BK-Y-O |
| Manufacture: | ANYCUBIC |
| Dimensions: | 60.5 x 56 x 54.6 cm; 11.2 Kilograms |
| Origin: | China |
This is my fourth 3D printer and by far the best so far. After the initial assembly and a few minor adjustments I printed the test file that came on the included micro SD card (an owl) and was impressed with the speed it printed at. However, if you are using Cura to splice your prints it will not find this printer as it is too new, but it is easy to resolve this by searching You Tube. Overall build quality is very good the printer is very quiet although the fan is a bit loud. The self leveling feature is a great time saver and ensures your prints come out properly. Would highly recommend as this a great piece of kit, even for a beginner.
A very good quality 3D printer easy to set up straight from the box. Auto levelling works very well. Bed adhesion took a bit of configuration in the settings but works well now. Good all round
Fantastic 3d printer!
I am new to 3d printing and after set up and a few tries at leveling the bed I am getting really good prints and I’m sure they can only get better as I improve my skills.
Setup was easy with only a few bolts and some plugs and away you go.
I have done a continuous print that lasted 16hrs and it completed without any issues.
*I can definitely recommend this product*
I LOVE IT!
This is a great 3D printer, followed the instructions to assemble which didn’t take long and was printing within 30 minutes, the test project was already on the supplied SD card which was a couple of owls, the print quality was amazing, it took 1 hour 20 minutes to print so very impressed.
Still very early days but so far it’s been pretty straight forward to use it. Takes time to learn but for my first 3D printer It’s pretty good. I suggest watching lots of videos to learn tips. First print out of box was really good.
Having owned an ender 3, which requires various upgrades in order to achieve a better quality print (glass bed, upgraded hotend, filament runout sensor). The anycubic works fantastic out of the box and took me about 10 minutes to assemble, its also very rigid which offers greater stability.
In terms of print quality; after a few goes at tweaking the bed levelling I was able to achieve near perfect prints- The spare hotend and tubing is also a nice extra touch.
Would definitely recommend
Having not done 3D printing before, I was very pleasantly surprised by how easily this assembled, setup and just worked, producing the test owl print straight away. I managed to get a design path of FreeCAD -> Cura -> gcode running pretty quickly and in the two weeks since I’ve got satisfactory prints for a dozen or more designs of increasing complexity.
I’m using Jayo PLA filament which seems fine, but haven’t yet progressed onto other plastics. I print directly from the SD card, rather than connecting an external control computer, as the inbuilt controller seems to be entirely capable of everything I’ve needed so far. I would recommend this for its ease of use and attractive price.
This is my second 3D printer having upgraded from a small-bed model.
Once you know how to properly level a bed, set extrusion speeds and infill percentages, to regularly clean the nozzle and to buy the best filament you can afford, this printer is a solid piece of kit.
Slicing is via the free Cura software, noise levels about the same as every other printer and the kit is easy to put together. Recommended.
Got my wife one of these for Xmas. Initial setup was straightforward ans got the test print running quickly. However, we found problems with al.ost every other pattern not sticking to the bed. Many recalibration seemed to make little difference. After some googling, we found this was a common 3d print problem and prit stick on the bed sorts it. After that, all was well. Recommended.
First time using a 3D printer. We were up and running very quickly with the test print. Very pleased. After a while we found prints wouldn’t stick to the print bed anymore. Wiping the print bed with isopropyl alcohol before each print has completely sorted that out. My 13 year old son is now enjoying finding print online and printing using the included Cura software. We are very pleased and would recommend this printer for any beginner.
Assembly of it was very simple as it pretty came assembled and all you need to do is add a few bits, takes no longer than an hour. I’m a beginner when it comes to 3D printers so the ease of use on this printer made life so much easier and made sure you could get going right away.
After downloading Cura which is the software used. On the SD card there is a model of an owl if you wish to test the print or you could just design your own.
Overall I think this is a very good printer and fairly easy to use. The seller is also very helpful with any problems and quick too.
Can’t fault this printer; after the setup (pretty easy following the included instructions) it has worked flawlessly ever since.
Leveling the base, keeping the base clean (get some isopropyl alcohol) and getting the base temperature and skirt sorted are key but once all that is in place I’ve had build after build with no issues.
There are heaps of 3D models to download online (Thingverse, All3dp etc.) and making your own models is easy too and good education for the kids (I use 123D and Cura)
I’ve added some photos to prove the point 🙂
In conclusion I can’t recommend this 3D printer enough as a starting point into the world of 3D printing
Such a great value product with flawless printing and zero maintenance issues since purchase. Enjoying it progressively as I learn and print more complex and interesting things. Need about a 1m area out the way somewhere as you will hear it if in the same room and prints can take over 12 hours depending on size.
I choose the Anycubic i3 Mega because I wanted a low cost 3D printer that wasn’t going to require to much setting up, but also had the flexibility to tweak things once I had got started and had a little bit of experience with how 3D printing works. Reviews I read seemed to say this was the case with the i3 Mega, so, jumping in, I went for it. You have to start somewhere or go nowhere. It arrived pdq considering I live in a remote part of Scotland. Assembling the printer was a doddle, I couldn’t find where to plug in one of the extruder cables (the red plug) at first but that was just because the socket was tucked in low down on one side and I guess I just didn’t look well enough. Once assembled and following the manual’s instructions getting the base levelled was straight forward and the ‘owls’ test print worked really well first time.
Any gripes? Not really, PLA and PLA+ printed perfectly from the off. I had a bit of trouble with getting ABS and PETG filament to stay on the base as it wanted to warp too much but then realised that was because my ambient temperature in the room was a bit on the low side (ranging between 6 and 14C) and I hadn’t got to grips with Cura, the slicing software, to up the temperatures and reduce the cooling. I did have to download an up to date version of Cura as the one provided on the included memory card had been superseded. A large cardboard box, some clingfilm, gaffer tape and a thermometer solved the ambient temperature issue (to run the printer in, not to wrap the room) so I can print what I like now, though PLA is so straight forward I tend to use that a lot.
A few months in I had a problem with a cooling fan but Anycubic have been great to deal with and a new fan duly arrived and has now been fitted, good service – seems rare these days – good comms and helpful followup. Really pleased with the printer and I would be happy to buy from Anycubic again, I’m thinking about a resin printer next, just have to save a few more pennies.
A final note, the Ultrabase that comes as standard is great, holds well and releases the print really easily once its temperature drops below about 30C.
I have been surprised how useful this printer has been. I have made prints for all sorts of things including miniature games, parts for an outboard moter, a ventilation grill for a welder, parts for board games and general bits and bobs around the house. Instead of trying to find work for it things just keep coming up that require a 3D printer.
I’ve rated it 4 stars overall for now as we haven’t had a lot of time to use this since it was assembled at Xmas. So this review is more about the build quality and initial get-going than about later use connected to a PC. When you open the box it looks daunting, a bit like assembling a desktop PC from scratch. However, the print bed and print head gantry actually require very little assembly – position the print bed, 4 bolts on each side to attach to the gantry, clip together some cables and the jobs done. A lot of the parts in the carton are spares, tools, spool holder parts etc. It’s all metal construction feels durable and well built. Downside is it’s heavy and bulky so you can’t stash it away easily, especially with it’s exposed cables/wires, which could easily snag. It comes with a large spool of white filament and 4 smaller coloured/wood/metal effect filaments. The instructions are partly in incomprehensible Chinese-English and the machine must have changed since they were first printed – there are several pages about manually levelling the print bed but the machine seems to do this itself and you cannot follow the on-screen instructions exactly as described in the manual. There’s a pre-installed test print of a couple of small owls. I feared the worst when we just could not get this going. The problem is that it’s fiddly to feed the filament through to the print head. To get it going it’s manually fed from the spool, through a grip/feed mechanism, through a tube and into the print head but you can’t see how far it’s pushed through and if it doesn’t quite reach the nozzle it won’t melt and print. It took numerous attempts to feed it through far enough as the end seems to catch somewhere in the print head. Once it got going though it was impressive to watch it building up a crisply detailed pair of owls, which took 1hr 20mins in all. My daughter dislikes the strong smell of hot plastic produced during printing. It uses PLA filament, supposedly the safest, least toxic type, but you may need to consider where you are going to use this machine given it’s weight and bulk, the need for ventilation and connection to a PC or laptop. A garage/workshop with a laptop seems best to me and I would say this is not suitable for young children as it has hot and moving parts plus exposed cables and wires.
I bought this printer almost 12 months ago and have used it a lot since with very few problems. Out of the box, it had clear instructions on how to put it together and set up, both of which were very easy. As a complete novice to 3D printing, it was perfect as it ‘just worked’. The supplied reel of PLA filament was very good too. Any printing problems I’ve had have been caused by me in the most part – it turns out that 3D printing has a fairly lengthy learning curve. The only real printer problem has been with the SD card reader which, after a few months, started to occasionally not ‘see’ the card after it was inserted. This gradually got worse so I contacted customer support who quickly replied with a link to a replacement reader on Amazon and re-imbursed the cost immediately after purchase as promised. An online video showed how to replace the reader and all has been OK since. Coming with all the necessary tools plus a spare print head makes it a really excellent package.
Well I must say not the response i was expecting
From Anycubic .com
Bought a anycubic 13 mega 16 th december 2018 from amazon run time total 103 hrs and the ultra base has started to com away from the hotbed told anycubic about problam and sent pictures only to be told not covered yet tcs say 2 years not good said i can buy a new base ??
I bought my first AnyCubic I3 Mega from Amazon and was well pleased and as I used it I found a few problems which affect most printers that I needed to address.
The first was getting to the end of the roll the spool and stand would get pulled into the printer filament out sensor, so a solution to that was to have a heavier axel up the centre of the roll and to make sure the end if the roll was cut so it could freely release from the roll at the end; problem solved, see my two solutions one where the roll is mounted behind the printer on a special holder and one where it is off the bench and side mounted giving me extra desk space and working reliably. I found that the lightly attached run out sensor could come off through catching on cables or when the head was traversing from full ‘Z’ down so I made a little bracket a can be seen a photo to mount it on . Note how close up my stuff is on the bench so it is important to mount plates to stop the cables snagging in such a situation I use Ikea polypropylene cutting boards good value at 1.50 each used on both printers.
I think the ultra base is great if you have the time to wait for it to cool as the parts just pick the job off with no effort ( temp varies per unit but is consistent 27 on one 32 on other), but this has the advantage that you do not upset your table calibration and you can go for months and months without adjustment ( but do remember to re-adjust if you have to change a nozzle).
Most of my parts are made with a 0.4mm nozzle, extrusion Speed of 60mm/s bed heat of 65C and extruder temp of 215C layer thickness of 0.4 down to 0.1 mm part size and function dependent.
Also note I increased the extruder tension with a clasp nut to help cope with more rouge filaments.
For months I had my printer fitted with heavy duty PU feet and sitting on a heavy granite bread board and ballanced on a floppy chair ( not the best but surprisingly practicable and dictated by clutter concentration). I made a very heavy enclosure for it almost 200lb weight but I still found it was quietest with 4 feet on the granite plate and 3 feet on the plate to enclosure.
My young sister commented how quite it was but my Kossel ( with bracing mods etc) is even quieter, both are in my study or tv room so not too much sound is tolerated any way.
I mostly print things I have designed myself and would have printed well over a hundred parts from 1.2 grams to 180 grams ( per part) and many used in assemblies.
You can see from the The motor cooling duct 3D prints how perfectly clear the Ducts are from stringing and sag, these would be almost impossible clean up otherwise. You can see on the Battery Cases where the magnet retaining portion is properly formed and string free. You can see one of my I3 Megas sitting rearing to go and produce great trouble free prints.
Generally I would highly recommend a good PLA such as Anycubics own offering as it will save on clean up time and potential scrap and clogging, and should yield trouble free performance.
I have added other tweaks for longer life and a wider operation envelope like extruder heat sink, feed knobs, filament guides in and out of the extruder, and a special capping strip to remove the possibility of the bowden and cable catching on the top member.
I find the run out sensor is great as I do not have to worry if there is enough filament on a roll particularly on a big job as when I come back to the printer it is patiently waiting for me to install more filament and get on with the job,
I find that both my I3s are good reliable units once initially set up and perform reliably and require the minimum of lubrication ( I use loctite superlube grease).
As a newby to 3D printing I wanted to get started as simply as possible and the Anycubic i3 Mega fit the bill. As mentioned in other reviews the thing that took the most time to set up was peeling the protective film layer from the filament spool holder! I see the never version has solved this by doing way with the standalone spool holder.
It takes about 10 minutes to set up the leveling of the base and doing this correctly makes a MASSIVE difference in the quality of your prints. Also have to mention getting the right base temp and nozzle temp is critical (I use 65 degrees C for the base and 205 degrees C for the nozzle when using the PLA supplied with the purchase).
Three further recommendations for the noods:
1. Try out Tinkercad (tinkercad.com) for your design work. It’s free, online and really easy to use.
2. Upgrade to the lastest version of Cura (4.2.1), it includes the Anycubic products in their list now and it makes a big difference in print quality and speed.
3. Checkout thingverse.com for free 3D designs to download (edit to personalise if required in Tinkercad!)
Personally I could have already made enough money (within 3 months) from my 3D prints to have paid off my machine! This was not the plan but when professional buisnesses are charging extortinate amounts of money for mock up samples and I say “well I have a 3D printer let me give it a go” and presto… and my colleagues think I am some kind of genius now.
Highly recommend this product!
I saw how good this printer was on a YouTube video and it completely lived up to the review on the video and those elsewhere I have seen of it. Set up and levelling the printer was very easy and the piece of paper supplied was all what I needed.
The test owls printed in about an hour!
It comes complete with a reel of PLA, but the colour of the reel is random, so best waiting for the printer to come before ordering any other reels for the different colours you want.
One of the things that newbies to 3D printing might worry about is the heat from the machine. But after an hour and half running the the plate and the extruder might be hot, but the metal frame at the top was still cool to touch. So it did ease my mind as I expected the heat to rise up and make the metal frame and anything above it to get very warm.
There are loads of spare parts and tools included in the package.
So far I have not encountered any problems at all with the Printer.
There must be a downside to it though?
Well in a way yes. And it’s nothing to do with the printer itself. It’s to do with designing the things you want to print. So if you wanted to print out a replacement part for something, first of all you have to find an already made design and there are some out there on the net, sometimes free items! But if there is not then you need to use software to make the the design yourself. This is not as simple as you might think. As the software has been designed around professional architects and designers and to cater for them in mind. Some of the software could drive you nuts! As it does things the opposite way around to what you might be use to. Nearly all is on a steep learning curve to use. Even if you had a 2D drawing or picture to load it, it’s very difficult to make the object even move around in the software you have to use. I found simply making a cube to precise dimensions very hard to do and gave up when it stretched it out all weird! I come from a DTP background and to simply make a square in that you just draw a box, click the box and enter the dimensions you want. That’s all. But not with 3D design software!
However there are plenty of free designs out there, but the more specialist parts and things you want that’s when it gets harder.
As for the 3D printer, ignore people saying it will take days to print out. If it’s a big object then yes it will take ages!
Ignore those who go on about quality not being good on PLA printed items. Many comments are based on much older machines than this.
So I would recommend this printer to anyone just starting out.
So it’s been a while I had this printer and all I can say is don’t think twice just buy it.
I love this printer and it’s done me good always.
I tried all filaments and all work amazing.
It’s out of the box printer.
You just need to get adapted to the settings in cura.
I do suggest this printer without a blink of an eye.
Upgrade the software to the latest version as soon as you get the machine. The default settings on the newer software give much better results than the OOTB software.
I’ve been printing on this machine for a few weeks now and got some very good results. The designs you create are limited to build material only, but supports can be included for overhangs in the software. However, these can be tricky to remove cleanly as it’s all the same material. If you are designing complicated parts, consider getting the machine with a separate support material head as well.
Take your time setting up the height of the bed. It will be worth it in the end! Don’t scratch the bed or use the large chisel they supply to remove parts off the bed. Just wait till it cools back down to room temperature and the thermal contraction of the bed against the part will release/pop the part off the bed with the minimum effort.
I’ve already built several useful items on the printer and have started on the backlog of home made projects that I’ve been meaning to build in a very long time.
I use Creo 3D software (this is not compulsory). I create the stl file and transfer it to the SIM card which is then put into the printer and away it goes – all supplied with machine apart from Creo).
I’ve added some LED lighting to the frame to improve visibility during the build and have printed several items taking 20+ hours to build without any issues yet.
Use the software settings to build a frame around the part you are building to ensure the material is flowing correctly before it starts the build, and readup on the settings explanations as there are a whole host of options to change here.
I’ve enjoyed making everything I’ve tried so far on this, and whilst the accuracy of the final parts is not perfect, they are dimensionally stable enough to build prototypes from, and strong enough to use practically (ie not just to look at).
All I can say (apart from all that), is I wish I’d bought mine before I did!
Have fun!
The i3 Mega was my first foray into the world of 3d printing and I wasn’t disappointed. A large box arrived that held the two main parts of the printer (base and frame), a comprehensive bag of tools and spares and a roll of Anycubic PLA. Assembly requires the two parts to be joined with 8 off Allen bolts using the supplied Allen keys, plugging in the colour co-ordinated plugs and turning on. A comprehensive manual guides you through the process of assembly and setting up. Within 20 minutes I was printing a model off the supplied SD card that was already modelled for testing, also on the card was some software to allow you to slice models (Cura) that offers both PC & Mac versions. Loads of other software is available if you search quickly on the internet to model, slice and tweak your models, alternatively there are models already created which you can download and print. Models stick well to the heated/coated base plate which come off when needed, printing quality is great out of the box.
There are a large number of people who tinker (improve) with their i3 to optimise their printing experience to include new bearings, extruders, stepper drivers, firmware for additional features and the integration of network communication using a Raspberry Pi. All taking the great i3 mega into a better performing machine. If you are not into tinkering don’t think you have to make these modifications, its still a superb machine that offers features the big boys struggle to supply.
For those who think the 3d printing experience is going to be fast, its not. even industrial printers costing several thousands takes hours or even days to print a large complicated model. The process is slow at best, but the i3 is no slouch and holds its head high in the terms of speed, quality and accuracy. I researched the subject thoroughly and I was confident the i3 was the correct decision, I was not disappointed.
Absolutely love this thing. Had it about 2 months and it hasn’t stopped printing. Gone through 5 rolls of filament and still going amazingly. Used isopropyl to keep the bed clean after a few prints which has kept the prints adhering nicely.
This is perfect for the beginner and experienced printer. Setup is simple. If you think you are going mad looking for one of the plugs to connect to the base it’s in the tower.
Get over that mystery and your running. I used a feeler gauge to set the bed hight while it was warm which seemed logical to me. The owls printed perfect first time . Can’t se how to add an attachment else I would post some pictures of what I have printed. But let’s say I have bought 6 rolls of pla since buying and successfully printed all of it.
Word or warning for the over enthusiastic let the print cool to room temp else factor in a new bed. Now ask how do I know, yes I was over enthusiastic
This is a really good printer. The print time is okay, the quality is really good for the price! I have had a few small issues with the printer, a fan burn out and the glass bed has an issue, however, I contacted the company and they sent a replacement fan without question and sent me some mental clips to resolve the issue with the glass bed. (Which are now included). The baby brute I printed was at 0.2 and does show a few lines, however I did not sand it first and I could have printed it at 0.1
The set up is really simple too.
All in all a good printer on a low budget.
This printer was extremely easy to use and is simple to set up. It also came with multiple spare parts in case the machine had to break. The build of the printer is extremely rugged and prints in great quality. Being the first time I have ever purchased a 3D printer I am truly glad I chose the anycubic i3 Mega
Very simple to build, just a matter of screwing in 8 screws. This is my first 3D printer but managed to get it levelled first attempt. Comes with a couple of owls on the sd card as a test print and they came out brilliantly first time.
Printing seems quite quick once you get the hang of cura. The version of cura that comes with it is very old. The latest version of cura works perfectly and has support for this printer built in.
I don’t really see any difference between normal prints and high quality prints despite high quality taking twice as long. Suspect this is because of the nozzle and the fact it isn’t a high end printer but for the price can’t complain.
There’s a bunch of printable upgrades for the printer on thingiverse. It’s well worth getting the tool holder. Seems easy enough to upgrade the nozzle too but haven’t tried yet.
Great 3D printer, easy set up. Just 4 bolts and off, leveling only took 5 minutes and great results. Only wish id payed the extra at the begining, but instead got another cheap printer and spent 3 days building with endless problems. However this is truly a great printer, just type in this 3D printer model on you tube. Easy to use for fitst time DIY hobbiest and even easier to set up. With clear instructions, and free tools and even free filliment worth the price. Only gutted i never paid extra over a week ago and saved myself alot of hassle with cheaper self build printer. Couldnt recommend this printer enough. 5 prints ive done from phone docks to signs, no exsperience in 3D printing and prints came out perfect everytime
As this was my first foray into 3D printing, I had been researching and looking at the various options and price points.
The reviews on the Anycubic were very positive, so decided to buy it as it looked to give me the best value for money, combined with great quality prints. I have only just started with basic models and hope to move onto more complex items in the future. I would recommend this printer for someone who is just starting out in 3D printing or even a more seasoned modeller.
So after a year of printing with an XYZ davinci, getting rubbish prints, poor adhesion and screwed over daily, i junked it and bought a Tronxy. Wish i hadnt, it was junk, bricked and so poorly made, i returned it.
Then i found this. I spent a week reading reviews, watching youtube vids about this printer before i bought it. Once bitten twice shy and all that. Now i RARELY give a 5 star review, and this ALMOST got 4, but its closer to 5 and only looses points because of some missing software, nothing major!
So my review is as follows.
Opening the box, you see a well packaged unit, which always is a good start. The bags are sealed up, and nothing is loose, ( read about loose screws in other reviews). The printer comes in just TWO sections, so although it says its self assembly, its literally four bolts. Easy as!
The top unit gantry bolts as said with four allen head bolts, which line up very well, good precision on placement of holes, again gives a good feeling of a quality machine. The manual is very clear, helpful and consise, plugs are colour coded (theres only three to plug in!) so basically the entire unit is ready in perhaps 15 minutes from opening.
Plug the cable into the power, and the sd card in, and the manual says how to level the bed, again this sounds daunting, and on some printers, you need a multiswivel neck, dislocated fingers and a degree in space sciences to get it level. This? Took me two minutes, and i was done. Started printing the little owls straight away.
So far so good, and cut a long story short, its printing away right now, clean, really good resoloution and not as noisy as i expected.
You get allen keys, spanners, a spare hot end, switch and a reel of filament (1kg!!) a scraper (not sure why, as i dont ever want to use it on that gorgeous bed layer!!) and an sd card adapter, all nice touches.
So whats NOT as great as it seems?
Nothing thats major, and nothing that should even prevent you from buying this, seriously.
One of the things is the SD card, supposedly comes with Cura on it, however mine had just a chinese folder, and the english folder only had a set up for Mac, nothing for windows. This isnt a problem, as i downloaded Cura from the web (just search Cura in google) and installed the latest version.
On that note, the latest version of cura allows you to select the Anycubic Mega I3 as a profile, so all the settings are done for you. You can fiddle, but it works as is, really good. (The supplied if you get it software version of cura is old, and required you to select a Prusa I3 version and change a load of printer settings for the correct ones to work)
Anything else? At this moment, i cannot think of anything i dont like to be honest. Anyone new to 3d printing would LOVE this, and any experienced 3d printers using the cheaper chinese Build It yourself ones, then this is a good upgrade.
So far happy as larry. If youre Larry, you must be really happy!!
This is my first 3D printer so it really was a learning process.
One thing I have discovered through some costly mistakes is to keep it simple at the start – the printer works well straight out of the box so don’t be tempted to immediately add in the multiple upgrades and refinements you can find on the web – some are simple and useful, such as a tool holder, but some, such as using 3rd party firmware, are best left until you have had some experience in using the printer (unless you are already familiar with such things as G-Code)
One thing I did do was fit the Mega S upgrade kit sold by Anycubic and available on Amazon to my i3 Mega; it’s basically a new extruder which pushes the filament through the print head
I would have a few recommendations:
1. Make sure the bed is level and FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS! Particularly the part about moving the print head to it’s home position before starting, otherwise you risk grinding the head into the glass base
2. Invest in some Isopropanol alcohol for cleaning – it’s available on Amazon and it’s relatively cheap. Wipe the bed down after every few prints then wipe off with a damp cloth; made all the difference to my prints which adhered a lot better
3. Read up on how to calibrate your extruder. It’s a simple process where you send instructions to the printer using Cura (the slicing software) to make sure that the filament is feeding through at the correct rate
4. If you’re on Facebook join the Anycubic i3 mega owners group – if you have a problem someone will always help
5. Check out the Thingiverse web site – tons of things to print!
6. If you want to get into some basic 3D designing take a look at the Tinkercad web site
As I said, this is my first printer so I can’t make direct comparisons with other printers from personal experience but, from using the Anycubic and from reading other comments, this printer is an ideal (relatively) low cost introduction to 3D printing which, with reasonable care, will give some really good results if treated with normal care
Just also like to mention the customer support provided by Anycubic. Had a problem with my heated bed, contacted customer support who responded within one day and resolved my issue within two working days fully to my satisfaction. The printer continues to work well and I’m having some great fun with it – thank you Anycubic
These are some of the amazing prints my 13 year old son has made with this printer
We’ve had it 7 months now the prints aren’t printing just get the base coat down then it stops any suggestions why this is happening I’d be grateful
Great value for money, After following the step by step guide was printing within 20 mins of building (the 8 screws that you need to attach and bed leveling, that’s it).
So far so good, no problems and been running for past couple of days, the heatbed is great, no tape required for prints to stick.
Get a 1kg of filament in the box aswell which was a surprise as wasn’t expecting that much and a good toolkit.
The pictures I’ve attached were printed on 0.2 mm draft setting in cura and are very good.
All in all don’t regret and would purchase again. Highly recommended
This was a first time purchase for me into an exciting new hobby. I did my research and the Anycubic was coming out tops against the competitors.
I was up and running in 30 minutes, it really was 8 screws and nothing else. I followed the easy to read manual and was making my first 3d print in no time.
Highly recommended.
Bought my son the i3 Mega for Christmas, we were printing the set owls within about 10 minutes of opening the box, absolutely amazing build quality and results from something of this price, my only possible wish would be for a 2 colour extruder upgrade. It’s been printing almost no stop for the last month, very few reject prints, and there usually down to the G-Code. Print bed is perfect, models stick while they’re printing, and come way easily once cooled. Don’t hesitate, fantastic!
+ AnyCubic warranty and customer support are incredibly supportive and will definitely find a solution to suit you
+ very easy to set up, as long as everything is working then can be up and running within 30 minutes
+ comes with a spare nozzle/extruder and also a spare sd card reader
+ comes with tools and accessories. Not a necessity if you have 3d printed before but perfect for a novice
+ amazing heated bed! Prints stick well whilst printing and literally pop right off when the plate is cool
+ high quality prints on first try
+ recommended software (cura) is extremely user friendly and intuitive
– cura recommended is actually a very old version. I updated to a new version from the cura site and found this a lot easier to use.
My product arrived with a completely detached x belt. (it’s the belt you can see at the top of the product thumbnail above the hulk’s head). I contacted the manufacturer and they sent me a series of steps which meant I could fix it myself within the day, and also sent me some filament as an apology. I was really impressed with how they handle warranty claims and I know that it means that this product will last a long time! (also a plus)
I actually had a flashforge finder printer before, which was more expensive for the printer itself and the warranty claim for it was absolutely terrible. (basically you were pretty much on your own if anything went wrong as their warranty policy is not what you would expect!! )
If you were considering anycubic vs flashforge, definitely go for this one.
The printer is cheaper, the filament seems comparable, but the manufacturer support for anycubic is outstanding. They have your back 100% and will make sure your printer is working as intended.
Really wish I had just gone with anycubic from the very beginning.
When it comes to buying a new printer, I will definitely be coming back to buy another from them. Its because I have peace of mind that my printer will work, and if it doesn’t, then I’ll get all the support I need to fix it ASAP.
After realising I made mistakes during the printing process and fixing them this thing gets an absolute flat out 5 stars!
because I use custom settings in the slicing software I had forgotten to change the material settings from the last spool of material i had been using on a separate i3 clone. The printer is now running absolutely perfectly! exactly as advertised.
A word of advice would be to always use a raft, even if you don’t have support material. it uses a bit more plastic but the reliability and the lack of warping make it worth it.
Oh and if PLA still isn’t sticking print slower, you can change the speed in the printer settings on the machine itself
Easy to set up and use. A very well made and robust device. Ive been using this for 6 months now and only levelled the bed 3 times. Ive not tried abs but the pla prints fine. A small grumble is that the bed has a slight sag (we’re talking about 50 microns) in the middle which makes it less capable of printing small parts without a raft in this area. Not a big enough issue to loose a star.
This product is superb. 10 minutes out of the box and ready to level, half an hour levelling and it’s producing some really solid prints. Everything you need is provided including a spare hot end. If you’re new to 3D printing then don’t hesitate – if you want an easy to setup printer then this is the one. Only issue is that it’s quite noisy but plenty of mods available to sort that ou
This is my first foray into 3D printing and I searched around for ages for a cheap printer to start with before eventually settling on this one after reading reviews on ALL3DP.com and it was a good decision. It’s very quick to set up once you find the infamous ‘hidden’ red connector which is tucked away inside the frame. It’s well packaged and only takes minutes to get started as it’s mostly assembled out of the box. The quality of prints are very good for the money and the ‘Ultrabase’ bed is excellent. Let it cool down to around 30 degrees and the prints pop off easily. Customer support is excellent too. I would highly recommend this, particularly as a first printer.
I bought this on a flash deal for 239 and never looked back since. It’s an amazing printer and you won’t be disappointed.
Pros,
Easy setup, by place in the two pieces together and bolting them.
Great interface, the touch panel works great and has an easy to navigate interface.
Great heated bed, within less than a minute it’s heated up to 60 c.
Prints, they are amazing the best I’ve seen yet. A lot of more prints to come.
Great customer service, see below.
Cons, haven’t found any major issues. However the filament provided kept breaking inconsistently. I messaged the aftersales team and received a warm and welcome response quickly. They have promised to send out another roll of filament for the problem.
Absolutely brilliant!! New to 3D printing so spent a lot of time researching different printers. The anycubic i3 mega experience has been straight forward and hassle free – from the quality of the packaging, simple assembly (only 8 screws) and the print results are Amazing!!!. The included tools, hot end and a 1kg filament spool is everything I needed to get started.
Having put off buying a 3d printer for 3 years now, I finally bit the bullet and after some research bought myself one of these for my birthday 3 months ago. In that time I have printed many things both for myself and friends, for the first couple of months, it was running most of the time.
Overall I have been very happy with the printer and my experience in using it. It’s solidly built, easy to set up and simple to use. There was a steep learning curve in terms of preparing models to print and the huge number of settings in slicing software (I use Cura) but that is just part of the 3d printing experience. I have mentioned to a few people that a 3d printer is more of a hobby than a tool. I spent a fair amount of time printing various test prints and dialing in settings to get an idea of what the limits of this printer and FDM printers in general are and I’m happy with the results. I’ve had no problems with printing in PLA or Wood PLA and the heated bed is wonderful for keeping your prints firmly stuck down with no additional adhesives. Some issues with ABS but those stem from the fact that this printer doesn’t have an enclosure to keep the heat in. I fashioned a temporary enclosure out of the box the printer came in and managed to get some good quality prints using a glue stick (Sainsburys own brand outperformed Pritstick here!) on the print surface.
The only real gripe I have is that the filament sensor doesn’t stay attached to the printer during printing (It’s attached by a magnet) but after a few prints of obsessively reattaching it during printing, I finally gave up and let it just hang on the filament. This does not hinder the print at all so I just ignore it.
My big worry was how much electricity it was using. I recently received a quarterly electricity bill that covered the entire time I’ve had the printer and was pleasantly surprised to discover that the printer had no real impact there.
This is one of my favorite things I’ve purchased in a very long time and would (and have) recommend this to anyone looking to get a printer at this price point. This printer is quality right out of the box and will be able to print a large range of things with little effort. Just be prepared to learn a lot about slicing software, 3d modeling and 3d printing in general if you really want to maximise your print quality/ability!
The printer was very easy to put together, just a case of fitting 8 nuts and plugging in 3 conections. Make sure you push the connecters in fully, I didn’t and I got an error message the second time I used the printer. After making sure that the connecters were correct I have had no more trouble since. Unfortunatley there was no software for windows only for the Mac. A email to support came back very very fast with the instructions to download from their site. (I had already done this).
First printer the electronics failed but was replaced no questions asked so I am happy with the customer care. Now i have had the printer a few months I am very happy. There is a learning curve with 3D printing and i am really beginning to get great prints. The Ultrabase is excellent, as long as i keep it clean it there is no need for tape or glue. it just works. If it has any faults it is a bit noisy but that is about it.
Well I wasn’t expecting much for the price so didn’t expect that much, which maybe why I was pleasantly surprised.
The machine was well packed in multiple layers of white foam with 2 parts, a bag of extras and all the tools required to put it togther. Putting it together was stupidly simple, 8 screws to hold the upright in place and then plug the green plug into the green socket, the black plug into the black socket and (See a pattern here yet?) the red plug into the red socket, although I should note that the wires with the plugs were well tucked away and took a few seconds to figure where they were hidden. (Hint: On the upright near the sockets)
All in it took my just over 30mins to put together, partly because it comes with a few spare parts that I had to work out were spares and not meant to go somewhere important (We’re not just talking extra screws, it has an entire spare hotend.) and because I spent 10mins peeling the protective film off of the filament holder. The instructions (If you need them) are of a high standard, well written with no major translation errors and enough clear colour pictures that you wont be left scratching your head about which part they are talking about.
The build quality the frame seems rock solid and the wiring is well managed and secured. One slight let down in the way there’s a limiter switch that looks like it’s just been randomly glued on top of the main box, given how well the rest looks put together it’s very out of place, but then it is a functional machine and not a work of art.
So off the bat I’ll go with 4 stars, will see how things progress once I get to level it and run a print.
Update:
So having now had the Anycubic for a few days here are some thoughts…
The instructions are surprisingly good, there’s a couple of very minor translation errors but nothing as bad as you normally expect from Chinese-to-English instruction manuals, it guides you very well through the assembly, set up and levelling of the Printer. Then it goes onto the software and it all goes a bit astray… It’s not that the instructions are bad for the software set up, as long as you’re software is over 2 years out of date. There’s also one section where it shows you how to enter one set of settings but doesn’t mention the other half of the setting on the same diagram. However a quick Google turned up everything needed so it’s not a big problem.
Levelling the bed is straight forward, the system here uses 4 screws to raise or lower each corner of the bed, much easier to work with than the crazy 3 screw set up some machines have. I did however find that my heat bed was slightly convex (Curved up in the middle) which meant it took a little longer than it should have done.
O(n the topic of the heat bed… The whole UltraBase “super adhesion, smoothly lattice bottom surface. Easier to take off model by hands, so you won’t need masking tape and glue stickers any more.”is great on large prints, it holds well and comes off when you want it to. However I found a couple of small (Under 30mm*30mm) prints that had been catapulted off the heat bed so it’s worth keeping a glue stick handy.
The touch screen menus are easy to use although a little small if you (Like me) have large fingers.
Also of all the things you may call the Anycubic quiet is not one of them, however there are a few mods that can be done to reduce the sound (Google for “Anycubic Mega 3D Mods”) and also improve a couple of features, most of these involve printing extra parts but there are a couple that suggest extra electronics. That said none of them are required so don’t let that put you off so much as give you the option of ending up with a better machine than you started with.
All that said: It prints like a dream. I honestly didn’t expect the quality from a printer at this price level, but it has very much exceeded my expectations. No it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of my real Prusa (That the design is based on) but at the same time it doesn’t really need them.
So final Pros and Cons:
Pros:
Impressive prints for the price.
Easy to put together (8 screws and 3 cables, all tools supplied) with better than average instructions.
Straight forward operation. Pop the SD card in and push print, it does the rest.
Backed by a strong online community that will help you upgrade *IF* you want.
Cons:
The really obnoxious bleeping sound it makes when you turn it on.
Couple of small quality of life issues like the touch screen size, but really not something that I’d hold against it.
I previously had a small mini 3d printer with no heated bed which was very unreliable and a struggle to get spare parts. One of the reasons I chose this printer was due to very positive reviews but mainly as there are many spare parts available at reasonable prices. The website for this company is excellent with all the software you may need and how to videos for changing any parts.
Most of the photos I’ve posted are prints at medium settings 0.2 layer height 60-70 mm/s and with the 1kg filament roll that came in the box. I was very impressed with the articulated scissors and horse which just worked striaght off the print bed without any bits to trim off. The touch screen interface is nice and easy to use and levelling was a breeze on the fantastic ultra base which gives great adhesion. I inadvertently cut the brass nozzle tip off with the super sharp cutters that came with the printer. Not a massive issue as I bought 5 spare nozzles and changing was easy, there’s a video on the website on how to do the swap. I also got a bottle of isopropyl alcohol spray to clean the print bed after every print.
I would recommend buying this printer as its sturdy, has great print quality and comes with the tools and spares that you will need to change from time to time.
My first 3D printer but with some knowledged based on grandson and friend.
This is a very capable printer and whilst I had an issue with the SD card slot not working I still believe this is great value and quality. The SD card problem was efficiently sorted but the support team at AnyCubic sending me new parts which arrived as they had indicated. This resolved the problem so that I could print from the SD card rather than via the USB. I’ve completed a number of prints including the test pair of owls which needed very little clean up. There is included a full kit of tools, a spare hotend and travel micro switch and a 1Kg reel of PLA filament. The included version of CURA for slicing the designs is 15.x.x which needs to have the AnyCubic settings added, there is a new version of Cura 3.6, yes it is a newer version even though the number is lower, and this already has the AnyCubic i3 Mega settings included.
The machine was simp,e to build, 8 screws and set, levelling etc., simple., as this has the Ultrabase it needs to be manually levelled. This requires a number of iterations going around the base to get it correct but is easy enough to do.
I’ve downloaded some free designs from Thingiverse and these have worked well, try the articulated fish amazing to see it being printed and come off the machine fully functional without and assembling.
Really recommended both the machine and customer service.
The device went beoynd my expectations (given the price tag) and so far performs really nice. Probably there are better 3D printers but then again they are more expensive and for someone who just starts this is more than good learning platform in my opinion.
It took a bit of trial and error to calibrate it but that was expected the rest is continious experementation and learning.
I’ve seen some people complaining about the product support in my case I didn’t need to contact them so I cannot comment on the support quality as for the product itself the instruction book was more than sufficient, putting the unit together took about 10 minutes for a single person, there are spare parts included, fillament and the packaging itself was quite sturdy.
Now I am thinking about getting the Anycubic photon …. and a lot of free time 😉
This is my first 3D printer and I choose this one based on lot of online reviews and video all saying this printer is easy to set up and get amazing printer and it is true from my first print to my latest all have work out amazing and still impress me how well it works the printer was very easy to set up about 10 minutes to unbox and and build and about 10 to level the print bed and then that was it started to print.
I would say that the included spool holder is great and works well but I printer a holder that mounts to the side of the printer that is much better and make the printer take up less room found a couple of them on thingiverse.
I would recommend this printer for anyone who is new to 3D printing as it is very easy to build 8 bolts to attach the top to base then connect all the cables to base that was it and lastly the installation booklet was very good and helpful for the build and use of the printe
This is an amazing machine, the accuracy for the price is spot on. The only reason I am not giving it full stars is that it is quite noisy especially the hot end fan which sounds like it’s damaged. Other than that I highly recommend this printer.
I am a complete novice when it comes to 3D printers. I did a bit of research on these and finally found that this product was about the best when compared to others in its price bracket. It was delivered swiftly within 2 days. Reading a lot of comments about setting up I thought it would take a while, in reality only about an hour and that was easy going, even levelling wasn’t as hard as I expected.
The instruction booklet was easy to understand even for me!!
I printed off the owls first and they came out really well so now I have printed off some other items by using the CURA programme and they have also been really good. For the money I think this is a really good item and cannot wait to expand my knowledge on what I can produce and how to do it. The software available to produce items seems to be vast so I will take my time on picking the correct one.
Seems very well made and was only 8 screws and 3 plugs to assemble the printer. This isn’t the most common bought printer but I went for it because its ment to be better quality and I made the right choice. Also came with a full kilo of PLA, tools and spare nozzle
After leveling the bed it printed perfectly first time
I think this manufacture is really trying to show that Chinese can make good quality items when they want to.
Having tried several 3d printers, including the jgaurora 3 and 5, I settled on the anycubic i3 mega ultra base as it gave much better reliability and the one issue I did have was promptly resolved. The print quality, once set up correctly (how I feel is correct), is consistent in all prints and filament types. Ive printed well over 500 hours and only had to change one nozzle. This was probably due to using ‘wood’ filament. Ive even got to the point where I may even buy a third unit! I can’t recommend this printer enough, to beginners or advanced printers requiring a hobby sized unit.
The printer arrived promptly and packaged well.
I had read many reviews and seen videos about the assembly so I knew exactly what to do. The assembly was simple, and the bed levelling was easy. Within 1hour of unpacking I was printing my first part.
I was amazed at the quality of the prints form this machine. Very very happy.
This printer is an excellent product, the build quality is first class and is so easy to use. I have had the printer for 3 months and haven’t had any issue so far!
The touch screen is easy to navigate and uses a standard SD card to transfer the files from my laptop.
I have printed PLA and PETG filaments easily on this printer, with minimal change in the parameters. ABS has proven at bit more difficult, but I have managed to get a few quality prints.
I thoroughly recommend this as a well-priced first 3d-printer.
I Have the printer for just over 2 months now, and in that time it has been outstanding.
It came very well packaged, with a set of tools, more than expected, and a spare hotend.
Assembly was about as easy as it gets, It comes in 2 parts, which simply bolt together with a few hex screws,
Plug in the colour coded wires, add power, follow the guide for bed leveling, insert the filament and run the test print.
I especially like the touch screen interface, and the filament in / out option which will preheat the hotend for you.
Also the resume from power failure has saved me a couple of times now.
The ultrabase works great, just clean it between prints with acetone or Isoprol and your good to go.
I have printed PLA, PLA+, PETG and ABS so far, all with good to great results.
I think the images speak for themselves.
Great service from the supplier. Fast delivery without issue. The only issue has been the filament drive started to slip. That has been resolved and the printer has now printed approximately 5kg of filament without any issues. I would recommend this printer and supplier without hesitation.
Nothing bad to say about this printer.
Does what it says on the tin and more !!
Package:
Everything you need to build and print is within the package, all safely wrapped. There is the printer 90% pre-assembled, a PLA filament spool, tools, hot end replacement (wow), spool holder and a comprehensive guide.
Build:
To build the printer you only have to fix 8 screws and plug it in power socket. That’s all. The guide book will tell you everything you need to know.
First print:
The guide will walk you through it but once you plug the filament in the extruder, the only set up is the bed levelling that must be done manually (and it’s quite easy to do). After that you can print the test model in the provided SD card and in my case the printed owls were just perfect, I could not spot anything wrong in them.
So far I have printed several other models and I am 100% satisfied by this printer. You do not need to level the bed every time, just once in a while I think. The ultrabase heated bed is really a good feature because it does not require any glue or tape and the models just stick to it (PLA at 60 celsius degrees) perfectly. Once the print is finished you can just detach the model with your hand without need of the spatula.
I use CURA as slicer software and everything works great. Sometimes prints fails because I use the wrong settings but it’s easy to change them and reprint the model. Usually it’s the speed set too high or because I need to add a Brim to make the model have more stability.
Overall a great product and quite cheap compared to expensive competitors
Very easy to assemble, 8 screws, plug in 3 cables for the printer, and 4 screws to assemble the filament spool holder. It took less than 30 minutes to put it together and tweak the bed levelling.
My first attempt at printing the owls which are supplied on the sd card failed miserably…it wasn’t printing anything! then i noticed the filament was spewing out the side of the extruder and not making it to the nozzle because I hadn’t inserted it properly. The instructions don’t tell you, but you can use the touch screen to start gobbling up the filament until you can see it coming out of the nozzle. Then you’re good to go. My second attempt went quite well until it got to the owls head, and it suddenly stopped printing. This was because the filament spool got stuck so there was no plastic for it to print with…half my fault, and half a silly design. The spool wheel has a huge cental hole, and the supplied rod it spins round is tiny, so it’s unbalanced and doesn’t spin smoothly. I span out a good few meters of filament, then loosely rolled it back on, and tried again. Third time lucky, after an hours printing I had 2 fantastically detailed owls. The print quality is really very very good for a default set up. For the price, I’m more than satisfied. I’ll easily be able to print what I need for my pi projects, and I’m looking forward to learning more about 3d modelling and printing. For me, this is fantastic piece of kit at a great price, which offers an easy introduction to 3d printing and the ability to modify it for more advanced applications as I learn more about the topic.
Im new to 3d printing and received my anycubic i3 mega yesterday and began to unbox and assemble as per the instructions. Assembly and levelling was simple. Machine felt very sturdy. I inserted SD card to run the test print and……. the results were not pleasing to the eyes or ears!!!
The hot end would not move and just made a loud clicking noise whilst making a pile of pla which looked nothing like the test owl :/
Checked over the machine to make sure it wasnt a school boy error on my part but everything seemed fine and all settings were as recommended.
Spoke with Amazon who quickly arranged for free collection but Do not stock this item so can only do a refund and not replace it.
I will be ordering another as I’m sure this will be a good little printer!!!
***Update****
Anycubic customer service has been excellent and would highly recommend them based on that alone.
New printer has arrived and all seems to be working fine.
I struggled for literally months with a GeeeTech i3 clone; construction easy, but then discovered I had to learn Arduino programming from scratch just to get it to work. Did that. Printer still useless.
The Anycubic arrived two days ago. 1 minute to build. 5 minutes levelling the bed. First 3 prints all perfect. This from someone who has never produced a single 3d print before.
Highly recommended for newbies like me, and indeed everyone else.
Note: I did not attempt to update the firmware – apparently this can cause all sorts of problems.
This 3D printer sounded perfect for my needs. When it arrived I was able to go from boxed to printing within an hour.
The manual is clear and has all needed information. The website is easy to navigate and also has an online version of the manual.
I had a need to contact customer services and they responded quickly and delt with my query efficiently and to my satisfaction. Thank you Choco.
If you’re looking for your first 3D printer, this one work out of the box with minimal settings up.
As others have noted there is a minimal amount of assembly required. You have to screw the frame to the base with four allen screws and plug in three colour-coded plugs. You are also supplied with a spool holder which has to be assembled if you wish to use it. Easy peasy. The printer comes with a 1kg reel of filament, so you are ready to go straight away.
I had a couple of teething problems unfortunately. My printer had obviously had a bump in transit as the bracket that holds the filament sensor was broken. At first I thought the bottom half was missing but it has a magnet in it and I found it sticking inside the frame, next to a motor. I was able to use the printer by putting a bit of filament in the sensor to keep it happy. Anycubic were very helpful and emailed an file of the part so I could print one myself and get up running quickly. Although this worked fine, when I tried printing the ‘owls’ test print I kept getting a filament or sensor error message. I put some filament through the sensor, held it down firmly and waggled the cables to see if it was a connector/wiring problem. It wasn’t. Anycubic responded quickly and put a new sensor in the mail. As this took about 10 days to arrive so I simply lay the faulty sensor down on the table with a bit of filament in it and got on printing. (The new sensor is a printed version of a slightly different design but it works fine and I have had no more problems.)
I’m really happy with my printer. The LCD touch-screen is convenient and easy to use. The printer doesn’t make a lot of noise. Accuracy seems good. (I printed a two-part Arduino Nano case. The parts fit together nicely and the Nano fits in properly.) Despite being a newbie I haven’t had a single duff print while using Anycubic filament in 25 or so print jobs. (I bought some wood filament from another manufacturer which printed a single item ok but made a bit of a mess of the owls so I need to work out the right slicer settings for that somewhat tricky type of filament.)
Initially I used the Cura slicer software supplied on the SD card that came with the printer but I’m now using the more recent Cura 3.4.1, which has a pre-defined printer profile for the Anycubic i3 Mega. It seems to print a little better and pushes the print bed forwards when finished, unlike the older software that leaves the print bed back behind the frame.
The Ultrabase print bed is fabulous. Nothing I have printed has come adrift. Prints are firmly stuck to the base until the temperature drops to around 30C. At about 26C and below there is virtually no adhesion at all and the prints can simply be lifted off the bed. As other have noted there is a minor dip in the middle of the bed. There are decent height adjustment knobs at each corner and you adjust the height so you can feel drag when you slide a sheet of paper between nozzle and print bed. I find that if I let the bed heat up, adjust the height fairly tightly in the corners (so the paper can move but with a lot of drag) there is still some drag on the paper when the print head is in the centre.
The PLA filament that came with the printer is brilliant too. I checked the diameter in half a dozen places and it was well withing spec, if you bend it in a U it doesn’t snap (which shows it is fresh) and the prints seem very robust. I have read that PLA is brittle, that parts can be weak between layers and also that printed parts can absorb water. I tried a couple of tests. I threw one of the printed owls as hard as I could at a concrete slab. I expected it to break apart but it just chipped an ear. I also left a small part soaking in water for three days then put it in the freezer for a day. I expected that to crack apart but nothing happened. I have seen a little (non-problematic) stringing recently so will try printing at less than the default 200C. The filament seems reasonably flexible when printed too. I made a spring clip that has to open up to clip in place, which works just fine.
Aside from the minor issues already described there is nothing I can really fault with this printer. The Bowden extruder may mean it will have difficulty with flexible filament (I wonder if it might squish up in the ptfe tube). Unlike many printers I gather the control board isn’t a standard Arduino board, so modders may find it harder work. But why bother? As far as I can see it works fine for regular use. The only change I have made is to print a spool holder and filament guide that fit on the frame as it is more convenient in my situation.
I bought this almost exclusively to print D&D miniatures. The default settings have lead to good results, and tuning has lead to even better quality prints. I thought my machine had a fault and contacted support, but it turned out just to be a problem with how I was using the machine. The support was always extremely helpful and responsive, which was very reassuring. As well as being a good printer, the machine comes with an extremely useful selection of tools. Highly recommended!
Carried out a lot of research before I jumped in and purchased this machine.
Was up and running within 20 minutes.
Solid construction, easy to set up and use, good results even as a novice.
Operating instructions in good english with plenty of full colour photographs which help tremendously.
Even with the development of printers since I purchased mine, I would still recommend this machine as ideal for a novice user and as with myself I don’t want to change machines as my skills have developed it still does everything I want it to.
We had a machine breakdown, and the service and support from the Chinese based company was very good. To get new parts sent direct from the factory was a quick and easy process, and to buy some spares just in case was inexpensive.
The printers themselves are easy to maintain and modular design so its easy to swap out bits that have gone wrong.
Can’t give this product and the Anycubic company anything less than 5*
Good:
– The printer arrived on time and was well packaged. Careful removal of the materials was easy and the parts went together easily and with no issues.
– Touch screen interface is generally intuitive and easy to use.
– Set up requires a little googling (how to level the bed accurately etc), but otherwise very straightforward.
– Test print was easy, and the SD card interface is easy to use and select filed to print.
– Quality of print is generally excellent with precision and clarity. Some stringing I haven’t yet been able to fix, but I imagine this is rather a tweaking and temperature issue than hardware.
Bad:
– Memory card (Micro SD card and adapter) that comes with the printer is rubbish. I was having all sorts of issues of prints just crashing or stalling half way through etc and multiple prints on one bed failing/corrupting. Eventually, after swearing a lot and thinking the hardware was faulty I bought a brand new SanDisk card and, hey presto, the problems were solved. I’ve not had a bad print for these reasons since.
– I cannot, despite being well within temperature guide lines, get prints to stop coming unstuck in small areas from the bed. It seems to be a little bit of uneven temperature on the bed as it’s always in specific locations. (To be fair, I’ve yet to talk to customer service about this as I’ve a few more checks to make regarding temperature settings, but I’ve heard they are excellent.)
Overall:
This is an excellent starter printer, and I’m now getting to the point of producing some really nice prints of high quality. I’ve not had any serious issues, just teething ones, but at the end of the day, these are extremely sensitive bits of kit and are going to require a basic level of understanding and trial and error to set up. For a keen amateur like myself though, this is an excellent starter package. Get your own SD card though!!
Broken out of box one motor on z axis not working caused jam unusable bought second one and returned first second ones as card reader did not work however the printer worked via USB and the prints are really good the ultrabase is brilliant. Customer support appears helpful and are sending out replacement parts for the SD card reader.
I bought this after reading lots of reviews of all makes of printers. All I can say is that I made the correct decision to purchase this one. After the initial assembly, about 10 mins and bed leveling, it has worked flawlessly. It has been in use constantly and never given any problems at all. The roll of filament supplied was good quality, that has been used up and all prints have come out OK. I’m very satisfied with my decision to buy this make, Two days after delivery I received an e-mail from Anycubics customer support giving me their e-mail address and contact details if I had any problems or required any information of them. That was not expected at all. WELL DONE “Anycubic” for its customer relations.
Took a bit to set up and work out how to print, but well worth it when it is set up
loads of 3D printers out there, bit worried about going for a cheper one, no need to, this one is awsome, completed loads of prints ans only had one or two issues that were self inflicted, not cleaning the bed wrong heat settings etc. aprt form this its been a breeze. If you want to get into 3D printing this is a good one to start with.
I then tried to print a full set of 8 pawns from a chess set but the print lifted in one corner, i can only think that that corner is too low (since the filament doesn’t touch it sometimes). Bed-levelling is an error-prone process since it’s not just ‘corner up’ or ‘corner down’. it’s ‘every adjustment affects every other corner’.
Overall i’m really happy with the machine, and the customer support has been a little slow but very helpful.
It arrived on time as described – large-ish parts neatly packed surrounded by foam in a strong box just waiting to be assembled.
After building it and a bit of faffing about setting the heated table to the correct levels and getting the supplied 1.75mm diameter black PLA fed into the print head I was ready to go.
Plugged in the memory card and started printing the owls which are supplied as a gcode file on the memory card. 1 hour and 45 minutes later I had two 50mm high black owls on the printers heated plate. I know that this gcode file has been optimised to give very good results but I really was gobsmacked by the level of detail right down to the little flowery hat that the female owl is wearing!
So far so good, so I decided to print one of my own solidworks 3D designs. This is where the problems started. The supplied Cura software is an old version and is really difficult to use. I downloaded the most up to date version only to find out it won’t run on my laptop with the windows vista platform! It needs windows 7 or above …. I borrowed a windows 7 laptop and it ran perfectly. My first print was a bit dodgy due to lack of knowledge about the temperature settings … My second one? It was outstanding!!
To sum up ….
Upside … The printer is brilliant so far.
Downside … I need a new laptop so I can run the Cura software!
Any questions feel free.
Knowledge shared is always a bonus.
Jim
P.S. the SD card supplied with the printer does not seem to be saving files correctly. However it isn’t a big deal … I have a couple of other cards that I can use.
P.P.S.
The power supply failed and had to be replaced after 5 months of fairly heavy use and I now need to buy a new nozzle for it. Any suggestions for which one to buy would be appreciated as I am now using the spare one that came with the printer.
Since then, I’ve printed hundreds of small items (I’m still using the PLA that came with the printer) and haven’t had a single problem with any print. Just let the ultrabase cool right back down to room temp and the pieces come off easily, particularly if they’ve got a bigger height to base ratio which gives you some leverage.
The on/off switch stopped working after a couple of weeks (I had to plug/unplug it to switch it on/off) but Anycubic Support sent me a link to a replacement part from Amazon and then quickly re-imbursed me for that purchase. It took me 5 minutes to change the switch. The printer comes with all the allen keys etc… to completely disassemble the machine if you were so inclined.
One of the fans sounds like it’s bearing is failing when things are heating up at the start of a print (I haven’t worked out which fan yet), but it then sounds normal by the time printing starts.
In summary, if you’re a noob to 3D printing and don’t know your Hot End from your Bowden Extruder this is good machine to start with and excellent value for money.
some of the best quality prints I have ever seen. Make sure the table or workbench you install
it on is level and solid (no wobble), this is crucial to producing top quality prints with any printer.
Anycubic customer service is absolutely amazing so not only are you buying a rock solid printer, you’re buying
peace of mind if there are any problems.
Ideal 1st 3D printer that doesn’t need lots of parts printed to make it better. Look on the Facebook group or on Thingiverse group for things to check before 1st use. Lots of advice on how to get the best out of this machine & it will get you hooked on 3D printing.
I should really give this a 4 star review due the the issues I had with my own printer but the other unit came problem free, and after fixing my issues I love it! 5 stars all day long! p.s. don’t purchase these cheap 200 diy printers, you will be in a world of hurt as I found out!
Next day – I have got a niggle with this machine! Good, I don’t want to sound like a paid reviewer. I said I still needed to investigate the bed height, although I was getting good prints (some of the settings like head temperature were wrong for the small robot, I discovered). With the bed screwed down pretty tight I found that the nozzle was still too low after homing. I know this points to some inconsistency and I suppose using microswitches is not ideal although I don’t know of an inexpensive alternative. I went to “step 8” in the setup instructions which tells you what to do in this instance. There is an M3 Nyloc nut (fiddly) on the end of a threaded stud which you screw up and down slightly to adjust the microswitch operation. The nut was already down as far as it could go without being loose. I slackened the two screws holding the little switch board and moved it up in its holes before re-tightening the screws. A couple of attempts gve me the very small extra adjustment I needed. This was easy for me being a bit techy but it is could be a slight problem for the non-technical. What I would have done here was to fit an M3 spacer on the stud perhaps 6mm long, using the Loctite or similar which would hold the spacer but allow plenty of adjustment. I will leave well alone for now. This problem hardly affects my overall opinion of this printer.
very good machine, but a few teething problems where had like the Z axis needed adjusting & X axis micro switch was not working correctly ( untill the arm had to be re profiled to make the switch work properly ) also trying to get the machine to not feed out to much filament ( but then I’m bit of a noobie to this), but apart from that its fine.
When I finally got in contact with the right person at Anycubic (took a couple of months), their customer care has been excellent. Immediately sending out a replacement main board to me today – wish I’d known sooner!!
The Mega arrived safely and well packed. Printer came with a packing note indicating a QR code and website details
for the printer but no assembly instructions. Instructions and software were located on the included SD card.
The Mega does require some assembly (joining two sections together) this was ok, a little fiddly perhaps with the electrical connectors
but it only took around 30 mins to be fully ready for printing and calibration. The Mega was supplied with toolkit (a decent one), SD card
(with USB reader, USB Cable) a roll of 1KG black PLA and spare hotend!
I can confirm that happily the Mega did print straight out of the box (with a few retraction adjustments to 3mm) and the quality was very good, especially with the test prints on the supplied 8GB SD card.
The 3.5 inch touchscreen on the Mega is an excellent addition to the printer and is intuitive and pretty user friendly.
I can adjust temperatures (both bed and extruder) as well as feed rate and fan speeds. This is a nice feature.
The Mega has a filament switch which pauses the print should your filament run out. It resumes once new filament is loaded.
This works well, although you have to make sure that you prime the hotend before pressing continue. You do not need to use the sensor in order to print however. The Mega also features a recovery option for the print if the power fails, but I have not tested this. The mega can print from the supplied SD card or tethered by USB. I use Repieter-Host with the Mega and it works perfectly.
The supplied hotend did start to misbehave after a few weeks. It produced really good prints to start with but just started to
click and pop after a while and the prints started to fail. Perhaps I was unlucky but I swapped it for a genuine E3D V6 hotend and new bowden tube as a precaution. Luckily the Mega is designed better than some so it can take some modification, hence the E3D V6 re-fit.
The Mega is a 12 volt 3D printer so make sure you fit any spares rated at 12 volts. I also added a glass bed (make sure you increase the height of the Z Axis zero to compensate for the thickness of glass) and ditched the PEI sheet. The part cooling fan is pretty pathetic however, so users may have cooling issues with certain parts being printed. The bed sensor was also not hugely useful, it still required my involvement in levelling the bed so I did not see the point of it being fitted to the Mega.
This is the frustrating thing with the Mega (as an experienced user) …it’s like they started something really good then just ran out of time and started to improvise to get it finished and out of the factory. That said the Mega is now producing excellent prints and producing them reliably.
To summarise the Mega is a very good printer for the first time user. It does offer a decent modification route for the experienced user and is reasonably priced, although I noticed a price rise recently. The printer is quiet, quick and has plenty of features to make printing easier. It can print PLA, Co-Polyesters, PETG and ABS etc so it covers most filament requirements. Print quality is very good to excellent, even “out of the box” and although I did swap the original hotend (perhaps that is why you get a spare) my first impressions still remain that the Anycubic Mega is a capable 3D printer and should be high on your shortlist. A little more design thought (in my opinion) from Anycubic would have earned it a 5 star rating.
This has to be my favourite 3D printer that I have ever owned! Setup was simple, and assembly took very little time. Instructions were easy to follow and the interface on the machine is simple to use, yet provides all of the features that I require.
Many, many prints in and I am very happy – no issues to speak of.
The large print bed is a welcome addition, and the assisted bed levelling is very handy. Prints much faster than my last printer (DaVinci Jr.) and can be sped up even further.