WEEFUN Upgraded Tina2 3D Printer, Auto Leveling DIY 3D
WEEFUN Upgraded Tina2 3D Printer, Auto Leveling DIY 3D Printers for Beginners, Fully Open Source with Resume Printing, LCD Screen and Removable Magnetic Build Plate, Work with PLA/PLA Pro/TPU Filame
| Dimensions: | 21.5 x 20 x 27 cm; 3 Kilograms |
| Manufacture: | WEEFUN |
| Dimensions: | 21.5 x 20 x 27 cm; 3 Kilograms |
| Origin: | China |
I have no experience at all, and was frightened with the idear of setting this printer up.
It was so easy, within 15 minutes, i had the filement threaded, and was printing those test pieces on the memory card (comes with it)
Then i loaded the software on the PC, went searching for FREE downloads, some of them were in a different format, but that didnt matter, i loaded them and printed them out, even worked out how to save in the same format as the printer uses.
Waw ‘
Ill be buying lots of filement, lots of spair nozzels and more. No need to be frightened with this Weefun Tina 2 S New version ‘ worked so well, i didnt think id printed those items in the photos.
What a great printer, if you buy one you will have so much fun
Great, Great
Next, take a selfie and print a figure of me and the wife, i dont know how thats done yet, bet its as easy as what we done so far ?
Update
Now the bad points
You cant view the micro usb card from a laptop, so cant transfer files to it, need to unplug the card and plug it into a card adapter, the laptop/pc
Power leads are at the top of the printer, so are dangling down, not even at an angle.
Very very tight filement loader, you have to squeese it very hard, and try and feed the filement in without it getting jammed on the black tube retainer, or the chrome nut.
Be a good idear to get a tube a little bigger than the filement to push from the top.
First 4 prints were clean, now there are cobwebs to be sanded when printer has finished.
Couldnt get the android app to do anything, when i contacted weefun, they said its my wifi (oh no its not)
Ultimaker Cura, works great, but couldnt get Wiibuilber to work at all.
I guess you can see those are just niggly things, and dont effect the overhall quality (considering the price)
Watch this space
Excellent printing results from the supplied micro SD card but an unresolved nightmare in trying to connect with my computer to print anything else. Internet has plent of videos on opening the box and setting up but have not yet found any that resolve problems. May have to seek help elsewhere.
Need help !!!!
We had some issues with the printer but reached out to the company using the QR code on the printer, they spent a long time trouble shooting the issue for us and it is resolved and the printer is running smoothly again.
My 11yo loves this 3D printer. It is very good when it works and we’ve printed lots of things but is does need to be supervised as the base of the model doesn’t stick to the printing pad every time and the cog belt has fallen off quite a few times too.
It takes a bit of getting used to but I love it, its a very handy little printer for small projects and the one thing I cannot fault is the customer service. They have been amazing at helping me with any issues I’ve had with it. Highly recommend!
Great fun. Had a few problems with the first couple of builds due to the build moving on the plate. Have messaged the customer service 3 days ago, and still waiting for them to come back to me! I have only made smaller models since which have come out great. Easy to use and already thinking of buying a bigger printer.
Yes the print bed is small so your kind of limited on what you can print , but I am fairly sure with the software that comes with the printer bigger items can be printed in parts and glued together . But for printing the 1/24 scale model parts that I want this should be perfect.
As for reliability, I can’t comment as yet as only had the printer less than a day but looks well made so hopefully there will be no issues .
If your looking for a small printer that has some of the functions of high end printers that doesn’t break the bank to purchase and that takes up very little space this seems so far the way to go.
With regards the print quality I can’t really comment as I have nothing to compare it to, but the test prints seem good with the print lines being Bearley visible, with the default print settings.
With regards operating this printer the menu on the built in lcd display is simple to understand and appears to have multiple options for manipulating the print settings.
Over all I am very pleased so far and would say for first time printers this is perfect, and just ordered a 1kg roll of filment to put the printer to a proper test . FYI, you can get a free print file for spool holder extender on line that attaches to the exsisting holder on the side of the printer so it will hold the 1kg rolls of filament. which I have printed with the filament that came with the printer.
Update:
After my review the seller contacted me to offer to send me a new printer, which I accepted. The new printer arrived very quickly and works great. I’ve changed my review score to be reflect the sellers great customer service.
So far I haven’t had much luck with more complex models (Like miniatures and snakes) but I’m sure there’s things I can tweak to make them work better. It’s a fun learning experience with a printer that does what it can to make a complex subject a bit easier.
My first one simply didn’t work and I left a fair and honest review (was just disappointed as we were so excited) that was a low score.
Then a customer focused lady, C, contacted me and sent a new one out for a (very) reduced amount. We really wanted it to work so accepted…..and its WONDERFUL..))
My son hasn’t stopped using it..lol..
Just so impressed that a young company would do that and now as long as Weefun make them,we’ll buy them.
Anyway..super easy to use, it really is plug and play as it were. Took 5 mins to start a print on the replacement. The prints take 1-2 hours so we leave it on when out and are very good for the size and price point.
Thank you very very much Christine….
I’m a technophobe who had no clue where to start with this printer (purchased for our 10 year old son). With a little help from our older child and some amazing customer service from Weedo, we are able to print all sorts, experimenting with different colour filaments also. We recently had a minor issue with a clogged nozzle (I didn’t have a clue!), and one email to Weedo was all it took. They responded with several videos and solutions on how to fix the issue and we were up and running in no time.
Replacement parts are really reasonably priced and Weedo’s video guides are simple to follow.
Any queries I’ve had about anything (simple or otherwise), have been answered quickly and simply.
I cannot fault this printer and I cannot fault this company!
After taking it out the box all that was required was placing the reel of PLA filament on the side and attaching a tube then feeding the filament in. It is supplied microSD card with all the software on that you just put in the slot and chose one of the sample prints from a list of about 10 different designs. It’s automatically levels itself and the little screen on top tells you all the heating information. Just start the print and off it goes. Simplicity itself.
After trying out a couple of the tester prints I thought I’d try printing a free STL file that I have from the internet. The software you need to use to import this is all on the microSD card and just needs installing on your PC or Mac and again seems easy enough to use. I can see the slicing software is an art by itself, but I think with a few more prints I’ll become more familiar with the apps and deducing where the optimal places going for the supporting structure. I still managed to print it reasonably well with my basic knowledge.
Very happy so far as I haven’t had any misprints yet. Early days, but I’m pleasantly surprised. The quality of the print isn’t bad. Yes, you can see the gradient lines but not as much as I thought you would at this price point. Probably best to go for a bigger model or resin printer if you want finely detailed figures or larger pieces, but this is a great little printer for scenery, bases or school projects, and I t’s fairly quick too. The build plate is small at about 10cm square, but perfect for small projects or multi part builds.
It looks neat and is compact and smart.
Perfect for beginners and children with an interest in technology. Can’t recommend this little printer highly enough. No muss, no fuss.
so after playing around with it for a week or two the heat block has worked it’s way loose and has started dropping the print nozzle lower midway through each print. This has lead to it dragging the nozzle back over what it has already printed ruining every print I’ve attempted for the last 5-6 prints. I’ve returned to back to Amazon for a refund. I will purchase another one as it was great while it lasted and hopefully and I’m hopeful that my next one will not have this problem.
Weefun actually reached out to me after reading the review below to work through the issues i was having. As it turns out it must have just been bad luck with me receiving a printer that was defective from the start. They actually sent me a replacement, free of charge! The replacement is so much quieter than the original one i had received and seems to be working a lot better.
So, as well as now being impressed with this little printer, the level of service from Weefun is on a whole new level and worth a recommendation on that alone.
At first, it worked straight out of the box. Within minutes you can be printing, so user friendly.
Thats where the good ends unfortunately. After about 6 prints (over 2 weeks), the cooling fan packed in, causing the nozzle to clog. After clearing out the filament from the nozzle and replacing the failed fan, thought it best to replace the nozzle with one of the spares that came in the box. Followed the video which makes it look easy but the nozzle was fused to the hot end and there was no way it was coming off. Purchased a replacement hot end (checked and nozzle and again it looked to be fused to the hot end with no way of removing it with the included toold should it need to be replaced), fitted it, set the z axis, loaded filament and printed off a ‘Benchy’ boat. This turned out fine. Printed another model which also turned out fine. Then, the nozzle started to clog again! Now, i was using AMZ3D PLA 1.75mm 3D Printer Filament with temperature at 200 degrees (as recommended by some 3d printer veterans). Explained in detail what was going on with this printer to some knowledable people, one of whom had also had the exact same problems with this printer.
Long story short, if you are looking to venture into the wonderful hobby of 3d printing, please look elsewhere, there are plenty of options available costing less and more than this but, you will be much better off going with something else, unless you are a tinkerer and enjoy shelling out money every week or so for spare parts to fix things that should never be going wrong as often as they do with this.
I pulled this out of the box, turned it on, and was away printing something. The default settings in the slicer (I used Cura, and haven’t tried their own slicer) worked very nicely for normal PLA and PLA+. There are some refinements you can make as you become more familiar, but there was nothing desperately needed to get some great models and print in place toys going as a first experience. I did have to go into settings to turn on the heated bed, but that was it. Auto bed levelling takes away a lot of the stress, and the compromise here is a smaller build volume, and slower print speed compared to similar priced Enders.
A complaint I have is that the spool holder only holds 250g spools, and value is found in 1kg spools. The first or second print should either be a spool holder replacement, or an extender.
So far I’ve used PLA and PLA+, and gloss, silk, and sparkle variants and it’s taken everything I’ve thrown at it. The only major issue encountered has been with the odd heating error for the bed or nozzle after I’ve moved the printer. It seems moving it about can cause the cables to come free enough to cause errors, but a quick jiggle and the issue is sorted.
For the price I couldn’t recommend this more for anyone looking to get into 3D printing with a no fuss printer.
Compact easy to use. Would be great it had a larger build plate!
I am a self confessed 3D printing addict. My first printer was an Ender 3 around 4 years ago. That has since been modded to within an inch of it’s life. I also own a Prusa MK3s clone which is my workhorse and prints everything I could ever want….so why would I buy a beginner friendly mini 3D printer?
1. Portability – This thing is tiny, I volunteer for a local maker cafe and take this to our meets to print small parts to repair household items (I would love an army of these)
2. Beginner friendly – My kids are showing an interest in their Dad’s wacky 3d printing hobby so this is perfect to teach them the basics in a safe controlled manner.
Overall I love this printer for the following reasons:
1. Plug and play – I went from unboxing to printing the first file from the SD card in 10 minutes and the file printed without issues
2. The heated bed – Amongst “mini” printers this is a stand out feature, yes it’s range is limited but opens up printing with other materials in the future e.g. PETG
3. Auto bed levelling – Like the best feature of my Prusa this has a bed levelling sensor that just works
4. Amazing quality for it’s size – I am getting prints on day 1 in a quality that took weeks or months to get to when I got my first 3D printer. I have not had a failed print yet
5. The firmware (well a community edition) has been open sourced Github weedo3d/TINA2Sfirmware
6. It’s size. I can pack this in my backpack and take it to our repair cafe – a game changer
Cons:
1. Bed size, however I rarely print files bigger than 100x100x100 so it is fine for my needs
2. The included software – I don’t like to install files from SD cards and I am used to PrusaSlicer. Luckily I used the profiles from github – WEEDO3DTECH/PrusaSlicer-Profiles I even managed to tweak them for better speed/quality
3. The filament holder is too small for 1kg spools but half the fun is you can print files to improve that
The only issue is I am not sure my kids will get a look in 😀
I purchased this item for me and my Son (7) to get him started on 3d printing for school projects and just fun. Plug and play I would say maybe 20 minutes and we had our first print started it’s very easy to use and easy to store ! Highly recommended for a starter printer or younger kids getting into 3d printing.
Very easy to set up, clear instructions for use. We were first time users and it has been great, printed perfectly straight out of the box.
Arrived quickly once ordered.
Fast forward a few years when I had a need for something specific to be 3d printed I thought I would have a look at what is out there at the minute. Didn’t want to spend a lot, but equally wanted something I thought might work!
This printer is an absolutley cracking piece of kit. I have ran through the spool of PLA that came with it within a couple of days and only had one failed print which was down to a dodgy stl file.
It is literally plug, play and print. There is enough accuracy for me to use as is but I’m sure it can be dialed down even further. Like the flexible magnetic bed, getting prints off is super easy. Prints nice and quiet, looks cool with the LED lighting and more importantly just works out of the box.
Definitley glad I purchased this- so far so good!
Great printer for beginners, easy to use and some cool pre loaded files on the sd card provided. WIFI connection was a bit troublesome however great customer service provided and issue resolved. Would definitely recommend for younger and older 3d printers alike.
It comes out of the box pretty well ready to go. One of the first things he printed was a larger spigot for holding bigger [1kg] spools of filament.
He also printed a test against one he had done at school. And the one printed on the Weefun seemed better that the school printed one!
Since then he has printed a variety of shapes and puzzles, which has certainly expanded my knowledge of 3D printing.
As a parent I see this as the ultimate educational ‘toy’!.
It is as simple as unpack the box, and then you can print from it immediately. You just need to read several lines from the manual to learn how to load the filament, that’s it.
No detail instructions for the software (of course, they are not producing the software), but it is quite easy to get the corresponding info on youtube to learn it.
I will recommend this printer to anyone who are new to 3d printing.
Bought this printer to replace one previously purchased (different model and company) as the quality was poor.
This print is a million times better , we went for the upgraded version so we could print direct from the APP so we could use it straight away.
We haven’t stopped printing since received . Love it!
Brilliant neat little printer that is great for kids . Easy to use and the quality of the prints are way beyond what I expected . My 10 year old son loves it !
I did my research and it appears that this model is capable of doing these things to a reasonable standard. I experimented and every thing I did was a misaligned unusable mess. I contacted the manufacturer and in fairness, they were Brillant. They gave me advice, instruction and guidance to amend my issues. I was reassured that things would work out. Alongside this I also did tons of my own research in the form of experimentation, watching YouTube videos and reading articles.
After several weeks my issues were not resolved. We (me and the manufacturer) concluded that there was a physical issue with my machine. They assured me that we could tweak my machine and get it where it needed to be. In all honesty after weeks of stress and frustration I was burned out. This issue meant I had wasted weeks of my life (I work fulltime to my free time is limited) doing hundreds of tweaks and using lots of material for absolutely nothing.
I bought this machine on the basis that it was ready to go and pre-configured. I did this to avoid all the tweaking of the machine so I could learn the basics as low stress as possible and get printing my miniatures ASAP. Because this was not the case I may as well have gotten a resin printer and started full on.
This is no slight or attack on the manufacturer, they were and are Brillant and come as 100% recommended. Every product line has the odd defective model so this is no attack on them or their quality control. The machine itself is small, reasonably quiet and looks nice. It also appears to be good quality. The package comes with a small amount of the wire. I would highly recommend buying a large spool of the wire ASAP, and get a good quality one. I sent this item back and got a full refund so all ended well for me. My dream of cheap miniatures is over…for now!
*EDIT THE PROBLEM WAS A BREAK IN THE FAN WIRES. NOW FIXED. This printer was one of my best purchases of 2022. The Weedo Tina 2 has been faultless. While it may not do the biggest prints it’s worth every penny.
If you are a beginner this is it, just get one. It’s really easy to use along with the Included Cura software. It’s plug and print. I love this thing over my Ender 3 V2 which I bought a few months after this. I keep going back to my Weedo Tina 2 because of the auto bed levelling. It’s a breeze to use and some prints are better than my Ender 3 V2.
– UPDATE: a day after this review the printer would stop feeding or heating filament a few minutes after the print had started. I seemed to have jinxed my self as I wrote this review. I have no idea what has happened to the printer it’s now rendered useless despite trying reset, installing a new nozzle changing filament, feed, etc.. the printer is only 6 months old, I cannot find any spare parts for this model and have no support option on Amazon either. Left in the dark in this one, such as shame as the printer was faultless up until a few weeks ago. It randomly stopped feeding the filament. I think the hot end has gone bad. Not much I can do now.
Christmas present for my creative and crafty 11yr old.
She’s loving it. Only managed to use code already on SD card.
We will find out the more it’s used.
Fantastic piece of equipme
Really happy with the 3d printer. It’s great for beginners and really easy to use! Prints are fantastic and it’s great you can extend the time to enable more precision. The software your recommended to use is also easy to work around. When my other half opened it for his birthday we sat for hours just watching it amazed at the output or such a sleek device. Overall 5 stars from me! Thank you
I really don’t think you could make 3D printing simpler.
1) Take it out the box
2) Remove packing from inside printer
3) Attach filament tube
4) Install filament
3) Plug into wall
4) Insert SD card
5) Select your language
6) Print something from the SD card!
The only assembly needed inn attaching one end of the filament tube. Pull the loose end out of the printer and shove it in the feeder. You will need to push the little black “grip ring” that hold the tube, but its simple.
The only slight problem I had was putting the magnetic bed in the wrong way around. One side is 10 cm, the other is 11. if it’s around the wrong way it hits one of the drive bars and spins around a bit. Not a biggy.
Some people say it’s loud, but I don’t think so. a TV will easily drown it out. The LCD screen on top tells you how long the print will take and how long until it’s finished.
I really like the models on the sd card thatcamewithit.. I would of liked to of downloaded an app that worked without wifi and link via cable or save to sd card.. apart from that it’s a fantastic bit of kit.. it really does teach you the art of 3d printing..
I’d been looking for a 3d printer for a while, it sounded like a fun thing to have, and I wanted to make some items for my T gauge railway. This one looked ideal – it’s small, easy to use and ideal for beginners. I had no previous experience of 3d printers at all, but was up and running within about thirty minutes with this. The only drawback I’ve found so far is that it isn’t easy to find suitable files for printing, but that’s because of what I want to use it for and nothing at all to do with the printer itself.
Bought this as a birthday present for my 11yr old who has been wanting a 3D printer for a long time. It was really simple to set up and came with a mini SD with clever designs pre-loaded. He’s been overjoyed with it and even had a go a CAD design to make his own creations.
Brilliant for making smallish items. It has a few samples to try out, these work very well. It’s so easy to set up, literally you take it out of the box, remove the cardboard protecting the heating element and nozzle, plug in and feed in the pla. Then press on what you want to print. That’s pretty much it.
The build plate has some type of tape on it to help with adhesion, this seems to be working well, you get a couple of pieces as replacements.
The build plate is magnetic so you can easily remove it from the printer to release your models, it goes back on easily. There’s no faffing about having to level the bed every 2 minutes.
It is only small but it’s very neat and mine is working like a dream. I really like it, it’s perfect if you are just wanting to have a go at 3d printing but don’t want to get bogged down with all of the technical stuff.
i am very new to 3d printing and this is so easy to set up and use. i ve made so many things already practicing. my daughters are super happy with all the things i have made for them so far. the detail in even small prints is amazing. highly recommend.
This is amazing straight out of the box quick easy setup and print I have printed over 20 things and nothing has failed to print only little downside is a 1kg roll will not fit on it but just print a bigger one and change i
Small bed perfect for n gauge models. Very suprised at the quality of finish on the prints. Self leveling is a deffinate winne
The other tip often mentioned was “try different filament if you’re having issues”. The common theme regarding filament seemed to be “get filament with a quality 3D printer brand name attached”. So I did that.
So I got it and the filament, plugged in everything thing — the entire set up was this: remove packaging, plug in, put SD card into printer, feed filament into the machine and switch on.
From there I first printed the small ring with cat ears – since it’s a quick 10 minute test. Then I printed the “Lucky Cat”. I skipped some of the others, because I figured the manufacturer wouldn’t ship with models that print badly, so it’d be an easy test. As expected those both printed fine. Much to the delight of everyone in the house.
So since that was cool I decided to download something from thingiverse and try that (to see how it copes with models NOT from the manufacturer), in particular a “Talisman” model for the board game “Talisman”. (essentially a flat triangle with lots of detail on the top surface) This printed quite delightfully, and when painted looks very in keeping with the game.
I then decided to try something more challenging – I downloaded a Babylon 5 StarFury model from thingiverse. Loaded it into Cura. Scaled it Pressed the button the generate supports. Pressed the “slice” button – which turns the 3D model into layers for printing – took the gcode, put it on the SD card and printed it. I took photos part way through printing and you’ll see that there were A LOT of supports needed, since the Star Fury isn’t designed to be built on earth but in space, and is a complex detailed structure with lots of man-made detail. Basically I wanted to challenge the printer to see how it came out.
As you can see, it printed pretty well and after it printed took some photos. As you can also see after some light cleanup, it looked pretty amazing. Size wise that’s around 3 inches/8cm wingspan, so pretty small and difficult to print.
From there it was “OK, let’s try making things for myself.” I have a Pimoroni Hyperpixel round display for a raspberry pi and I thought it would be nice to create an animal shaped enclosure/stand. I looked around and found TinkerCAD, and despite never having used TinkerCAD created what I thought was a pretty decent model. (TinkerCAD allows you to design using real world dimensions)
I have to say that due to issues with my model, things didn’t quite line up, BUT it was NEVER a problem with the printer. Anytime it looked like I had a fail, if I went back to my model, it was clear that the model was problematic, NOT the printer. The problems I’ve generally encountered have been things like making walls so thin that while they appear on screen when sliced they disappear. (And of course the printer can’t print things that aren’t supported) Similarly, when slicing I’m missed adding supports. Every time I’ve had a failed print so far this sort of thing has been the reason why.
I’ve included a couple of pictures of the 2nd or 3rd iteration of the design I’ve been working on, and I’m going to be printing a new one tomorrow. To build something of this size – which is around 80x90x80 – most of the print volume takes around 4-5 hours. (Which seems about normal). If the print volume was 2x in each dimension, the print time would be closer to 1.5-2 days – so the smaller print volume is in a way a blessing.
I’ve learnt a fair amount in this process, but that’s been largely around practicalities of 3D modelling for printing. I’ve not had to worry about the printer.
That to me is the key thing here – the printer has performed pretty much flawlessly so far and that’s really cool – which has allowed me to focus on the bits I need to learn. As a result, I think this printer is ideal for a beginner and easy to use. If there’s a problem with the printer, I’d suggest contacting the manufacturer since they seem to want to know (they messaged me after I bought the printer to see if things were going OK – I haven’t replied to them yet because I wanted to see how this learning journey went first!)
I bought this printer to replace a Monoprice Mini V2 that wasn’t working especially well to supplement my main printer. By the time a voucher was applied, it was extremely low cost. Although this is clearly aimed at beginners, sometimes I just want a small volume printer to do quick jobs; buttons, little brackets and so on. What I wasn’t expecting was just how fine a detail this small cheap printer is capable of producing, to the degree where you’d question why you’d need the hassle of a budget DLP resin printer. These can be amazing, but a lot more work and messing with resin, expiration dates, UV curing and so on.
To get started, the process is compltely hassle free, no assembly to do, just pop the SD card in and go. Although I have Cura installed, I couldn’t find the printer itself under Weedo (the parent company behind Weefun / Weebot etc) but download a Weedo variant of Cura through their own website that had the Tina2 included and profiles for different print qualities. With no adjustment at all, these settings worked instantly. There’s no levelling to do, no messing, just filament in and press go, which is revelatory compared to my main printer. I have yet to experience a single clog, something that routinely blights my other devices, although how easy these are to resolve if they do occur with much less space to work with, I don’t know. The flexible magnetic bed comes with a masking-tape-type sheet to apply over the top which, printed on the paper side, gives all the adhesion needed; no glues, hairspray, double-sided tape etc needed. The flexible plate is very easily removed and the tape supplied is quite durable, so you will easily be able to remove prints repeatedly before replacing the tape.
The only real issue, and this is really worth mentioning, the axle for the spool is only designed for 500g reels, not the more common (and better value) 1kg reels. The sample PLA is provided loose (not on a reel). There are ‘.stl’s online for larger mounts so that a regular 1kg reel can be used for spooling, but, the problem here is the routing for the filament from this reel to the extruder is terrible and tangles, so to combat this I had to design another pulley to guide the filament away from the reel, and then to take a more appropriate approach angle to the extruder. I would recommend new starters us a 500g reel instead to begin with, and those with more experience and other printers should try to device a better solution to allow the use of 1kg reels. This is the only thing that stops me giving this 5 stars…
This is a great mini 3d printer for kids and adult beginners. Although you have to replace the adhesive tape a little more regularly than expected. Printing size plate is 10L x 10W x 12H cm but it is best to print max 9 x 9 x 10cm. The printer only works with 1 filament spool colour at a time and if you use white because you want to colour your model I found acrylic paint and pens work best. All in all great machine, loads of fun, lovely compact size and really good value for money.
The printer is great. The prints are good quality and setup isn’t much more complicated than just plugging it in. Mine developed a flaw with the bed levelling, but I got in contact with the seller and their service was excellent and they helped me get a replacement. Excellent value.
I already have the Ender3v2 however being new to 3D printing it has confused me alot and I struggled heaps with bed levelling and adhesion. Anyway after months of my Ender sitting around I decided to try a small model that advertised auto bed levelling as a way for me to get around those small prints I want whilst learning the machine and software avoiding the bed levelling issues … Ordered this model and decided to get the one without Bluetooth mainly because its right next to me on my desktop and the price difference for not having to reach 30cms was not worth it so I have the non Bluetooth model and I LOVE IT!
It arrived super quick in true amazon style, well packaged and in perfect condition. Literally a plug and play model everything is included to get you up and running in minutes and is easy to set up a preteen/teen could easily set this up alone. Its super cute and compact fits lovely on the end of my crafting desk. comes with a very small amount of PLA enough to get you started with the first starter project and with this machine you get a memory card with a few different projects on much more than any other printer I have tested/tried/bought. You might squeeze two projects out of the PLA that comes with the machine but I didnt take the chance and luckily I had other PLA on hand.
This machine comes with its own version of Cura called Weebuilder or you can transfer the relevant profile over to Cura to use instead. I do prefer using the Weebuilder just because the build plate is much smaller and its all zoomed in ready to go on the weebuilder no fiddling around nice and large on the screen ready to go. Very simple to use not as many options as cura but other options are not really needed when using this small machine.
The build plate is small but for what I need and for Id say at least 60% of most projects this is enough for single prints it is 10cm square with around 1-2cm extra in height available. As I use this machine mostly for printing miniatures this is perfect size and I can get a number of items on each plate. So if your wanting to make miniatures for dollhouses or models this is perfect sized.
It comes with a nice magnetic removable bed that has a sort of masking/painters tape over the top of it which enables better bed adhesion and comes with two extra sets of tape to replace when the current one is worn however Ive had this machine for around 3-4 months now and used it alot and Im still on the first tape that came on the mat – when I run out I will replace with proper cloth gaffer tape it feels very similar and I have lots in – if you had to purchase a massive roll on amazon is around a fiver so wont break the bank.
The only niggle I could find with this machine is that it will only hold small half sized spools of filament and all my spools are the 1kg rolls so I had to purchase a spool filament holder for around a tenner – its basically two sections that your spoil sits on and it freely spins it round as its fed into the machine – I believe you can print out an arm to attach to the side of the machine but you would need a larger machine to print this out on and also for me the machine is small and Id be worried the weight of a full spool might shift the machine so for me the extra purchase of the filament holder was worth it and works well.
For me this printer works quicker than my Ender and has better outcomes than my ender, possibly because this machine is super easy and Im still tweaking and learning the ender.
The pros for this machine is that it is literally plug and play, bed levelling is the winning factor for me, bed adhesion is perfect never had a single issue, Im not worried about my son (11) using this machine it is all enclosed and has relevant information showing where is ‘hot’. Machine looks really cool not mechanical like most printers it looks cute and fits well into any craft room. Works very quick for small projects quick to load, start and finish. Settings are all ready to go no need to mess around and software with the machine is very user friendly and beginner friendly – all the many confusing options of the other software’s are not on the weebuilder one to mess around with and get lost or mess up with.
Highly recommend to new and old, beginner and advanced.
On delivery of this printer it was faulty out of the box. But I believe this was damge done in transit. The seller gave a great service to try to get it working and support and follow up. Spare parts would have taken a while to get hold of so the printer was returned and rebought. On reciving the new printer everything functioned perfectly out of the box and although print bed is small, its a great first 3d printer especially for the kids and you can get it running in no time.
Firstly, printer is, I believe not for any beginners, as instructions are very poor and is not, ‘just get out of a box and print’. My print bed was 0.5mm out of allignent, this is a very small number, but actually can stop you from getting a very good first layer. You have to manually adjust the printer not using the Auto Levelling fuction, which is not described in the instructions.
Secondly, the spool holder only holds 500g PLA reels, where they are mainly sold as 1KG reels. However, you can either printer one from Thingivese or obtain one from Amazon.
Thirdly, just don’t bother with the masking tape supplied, useless.
One good major comment regarding Weefun, they answer any questions within 24 hours as promised, unlike some other 3D printer manufactures whom you never hear from.
Would of given it 5 stars if not for above.
Being a Prusa owner I was actually quite pleasantly surprised with this little 3D printer.
As a Dad with two younger Daughters aged 11 and 10 years, in which we home school.
This is the perfect starter printer to teach them and show them the basics before moving on to the bigger ones.
It is the ideal size and not to overwhelming when learning the basics of 3d Printing.
In no time from being out the box all in one complete unit, we had the perfect little benchie printing as for a test run.
Our Daughters are amazed by it and they are now using more of my filament to 3D print alsorts of little bits and bobs but it makes them so proud to be able to copy their Dad.
The quality of the printer and the use is straight forward without any issues at all it really is worth its cost.
Out of all the FDM printers I have used, this one needed the least setup to get working.
You basically unpack it, unlock the spool holder and feed the filament into the print head, following the instructions.
This printer has the old-school MARLIN mono display. The display is much smaller than (say) my old CR-10, but it is clear enough to read.
The print bed came with a layer of masking tape on it for adhesion. The print bed is NOT heated, so you are going to be mainly limited to filaments such as PLA which do not require a heated bed.
The printer includes an inductive sensor for detecting the bed level. Out of the box, this worked perfectly.
The sensor has been correctly set up at the factory, and you just need to load the filament and select a model to print.
Everything I printed worked flawlessly, with no tweaks. The masking tape covering on the print bed started to wear after 3 or 4 prints, but it’s not the end of the world.
The printer is enclosed in a frame, but you could not enclose the printer completely as the print bed sticks out at the front or back at its extremes of travel.
I think this is a great printer overall. Its small size means that there is no problem with the precision of the print head because it does not have to cover a wide area.
The fact that this worked straight out of the box is fantastic. It would be a great printer for a beginner.
Except…
Unfortunately, the print bed size is TINY. The total volume for an FDM printer is the smallest I’ve ever seen.
If I was spending this sort of money on a printer, I might pick a Creality Ender type range – these are cheap, and have a small print area, but it’s a lot bigger than this one.
Or, if you are looking for precision and detail, pick up a resin printer like the amazing Halot One.
So, despite this being a great starter printer, I can’t really recommend it as it is just too small to be particulalry useful as an FDM printer.
Really pleased with the accuracy and sturdiness of the models produced, sellers instructions were very helpful. The customer support is excellent and I recommend emailing them if there is anything you are unsure of.
Size wise it’s absolutely tiny, so small it will fit on the print bed of my standard printers, the design is light but sturdy and less ‘industrial’ than most printers which tend to have a lot of extruded aluminium & wiring on show. The footprint is kept even smaller by having it’s little LCD screen and single control dial fitted in the roof of it’s tidy little enclosure and a fold away spool holder on the side. This is easily small enough to fit in the corner of a desk, or on a shelf (although be aware that there needs to be space behind for the print bed to fully retract) and light enough to put up out of the way when not in use. It’s even smaller than a resin printer, with the added benefit of not needing cleaning & curing equipment, which can take up the same space again. You should be aware that it’s quite noisy in use so it’s not going to be suitable for locating in a bedroom for overnight printing.
Being small does have disadvantages in a 3D printer though and this compactness is also the Tina2’s biggest limitation, the build plate is a mere 100mm by 120mm and the maximum height is 100mm, this is a very small build volume, on a par with smaller desktop resin printers, it’s normal for FDM printers to range from the low 200’s up in all three dimensions, this limits you to printing small items or those that can be broken down into many parts then assembled after printing. Miniatures, such as those used for table top gaming for example, models that can be scaled down are, or can be split into parts for printing. Many predesigned models are already split in this way for the convenience of Resin Printer owners. There will be many practical prints and projects that can be done with this printer too, but the small print bed is limiting as it’s too small for even a phone case (unless you come up with a multipart design of course!). However reviewing my earliest projects I found that a lot would fit, a replacement for a broken release lever on my food mixer, a gate hasp, various custom enclosures for break out boards. Cases for Raspberry Pi computers or laptop sized hard drives are within the build volume.
A less obvious issue with the size of the printer is it’s attached spool roll holder which is only big enough for a 1/2Kg spool of filament. While these are easily available and you’re not going to be burning through it as quickly as a larger printer (which might use more than this in a single big print) the 1Kg rolls work out better value and not all colours/types of filament may be available in smaller sizes. There are plenty of designs for spool holders to fit the larger spools and hold them next to a printer, but most of them are going to be too big to print on this printer!
As 3D printers go this is an extremely safe design, the machine is fully enclosed helping to keep small fingers away from moving parts and although it lacks the guard on some other versions of this model (not a bad thing as far as I’m concerned as that would make even the simplest maintenance somewhat akin to a Crystal Maze Challenge!)but the sole heated part, the aptly named hotend is well out of the way & withdraws to the top of the enclosure on completing a print, the flexible build plate removes the necessity to pry parts off a solid bed with a scraper, the cause of many injuries), the use of tape to provide surface adhesion saves needing to use ethyl alcohol or acetone to clean the bed surface and the machine doesn’t support materials such as PLA which can give off really nasty fumes when printing. FDM printing does have risks, primarily hot and moving parts, and the presence of melted plastic which need to be considered if buying a printer for a younger person, but when deciding whether to go for FDM or resin printing it has to be weighed up against the safe handling of resin, which by it’s nature is generally toxic by contact or usually by fume inhalation, more user friendly resins are becoming available but wearing rubber or nitrile gloves, eye protection and a mask is recommended when using resin. Printer filament is pretty benign in comparison or young children should of course be supervised.
From unboxing this has to be the easiest printer I’ve ever used, it comes assembled other than plugging in the external power supply, attaching the Bowden tube (a white PTFE tube running from the hot end to the extruder on the side of the casing, this simply pushes into a coupling) and inserting the SD card. The printer comes with a nice clear manual and a wizard guides you through loading your first filament (a small sample is supplied, I suggest buying more with the printer), then you can select one of the pre loaded models and off you go. And the model prints, no further configuration required, the printer simply prints and a a little while later (depending on which design you chose) you have your model & it’s actually good! If you’re new to 3D printing then the idea that something works being a cause for celebration might seem a little odd, especially since this first print is a design the manufacturer supplied, sliced by them to be perfect for their printer and the filament they also supplied, but the idea that a new 3D printer user can take a printer at this price point out of the box and the first print you ever print will almost certainly work is actually pretty amazing, my first few weeks of 3D printer ownership (about 18 months ago) were an exercise in frustration as I gradually learned how to correctly level the bed and set the exact correct gap between bed & nozzle manually, what types of adhesion aid worked best with what printing materials and a hundred other little tips & tricks, culminating in some big changes to my machine, before I reached the point where I can send a print to my machine & be pretty confident I can safely leave it to do it’s thing and come back to a finished print rather than a pile of plastic vermicelli, this printer is like it out of the box. The main reason for this is that this tiny printer has an automatic levelling probe, it will automatically check the gap between bed and nozzle before each print so the bed height isn’t even adjustable. Secondly, the bed surface is very good for use with the supported filament materials, the print bed comes in three parts, a metal plate on the machine itself, a flexible magnetic pad that sticks to it and a thin self adhesive surface layer stuck semi-permanently to the magnetic pad. this surface layer can be peeled off when it becomes old or damaged and replaced with a new one, a couple of spares are supplied and you can buy more from Weefun (just between the two of us- it’s painters masking tape, a great build surface for PLA & TPU).
The interface is a standard 3D printer ‘Turn-to-choose ,Press to select’ jog wheel and the printer runs a very cut down version of the regular Marlin interface, it’s pretty easy and intuitive, has pre-set wizards for loading and unloading filament and a very useful little feature that tells you how long is left on a print. The only configuration option is that you can set Z-Offset, this is the distance the nozzle is lifted when printing the first layer, it was pretty much right out of the box and while I’ve made a tiny adjustment it was fine as it was. One of my few complaints about the printer is in the interface though, if you want to manually set the hot end temperature, for example when setting the Z-Offset to ensure that there’s no set plastic on the nozzle to put your setting off, the temperature goes up a degree at a time meaning that a 200 degree setting takes a LOT of dialling!
When you want to move on to slicing your own models Weedo have included their own slicer on the SD card that contained the models, Wiibuilder is simple to use with a very simple interface and preconfigured with the settings for Weefun’s printers, as you grow in knowledge & confidence there are advanced options available to give more control over the slicing process but the pre-sets and options on the basic tab are pretty good to get you going and produce reliable results. Inspecting the resultant gcode file shows that slicing is actually performed using the Cura 3 engine, Cura is a pretty good slicer, it’s the one I’m most familiar with myself, but the current version is 5 and it has a lot of improvements since v3, a customised version of v4 is also available from Weefun’s website website if you want to use a more generic and closer to up to date slicer. However Wiibuilder is pretty good for starting out and I have to say that this is one of the easiest slicing/printing experiences you’re likely to have. The basic interface is extremely user friendly and intuitive but the advanced options are reasonably comprehensive should you choose to use them. My main complaint about it is that it doesn’t allow you to save slicer settings for different printing materials, you have PLA and TPU to choose from and that’s it, if you want to fine tune for a specific brand or try a new material you’ll have to modify one of these & then change it back or reset to default afterwards.
Maintenance on the Tina2 is minimal, replacing the bed surface is as simple as peeling off the old one and sticking on the already cut to size replacement, the only adjustment is Z Offset which is done via a wizard and very easy. The printer is supplied with a spare nozzle and when the thermistor or hot end need replacing Weefun sell the hotend as a single part, they have Youtube videos showing how to do these tasks. This is easier than replacing the hot end components individually but more wasteful, with some careful sourcing or a little cut & splicing of wires I’m sure the necessity of swapping out the whole hotend could be avoided.
Of course ease of use is pointless if the results are rubbish and at this price point and without a dedicated parts cooling fan I had my doubts about what the results would be, however my first print, a simple square from the supplied models came out nicely, good sharp corners & smooth sides, however as I’ve previously said you expect good prints from the ones the manufacturer supplies, so instead of printing more of their files I sliced and printed a ‘3DBenchy’a model deliberately designed to highlight problems, and it was pretty good, really pretty good, it’s the white one in the photos, the bow is smooth detail is excellent, there is a tiny bit of distortion on the underside of the arches, but that is literally what they are there to test & it’s really not surprising on a printer without a dedicated parts cooling fan. I’ve attached some other prints including one of a ‘Cute Cthulhu’ printed in TPU, a notoriously difficult material as it has a tendency to block the nozzle, and being flexible can jam the extruder gears or in the bowden tube. No problems at all though as you can see by the attached photo! The Silk Purple filament Benchys have some pretty severe distortion on their funnels, but I think that’s down to having been under a lamp on a very hot day as I tried to capture a time lapse. This printer is capable of really fine detail, I think a big part of this is that the print head is really small and light (as is the print bed compared to other printers) letting the motors accelerate and stop it really quickly and easily.
Quality of filament has made a big difference to output quality with a particular brand name black filament that I’d had sitting around because it gave great results but had poor bed adhesion producing beautifully detailed prints (and sticking well) while cheaper, and in some cases low quality non name brand filaments gave results ranging from excellent to meh.. But all printed which is good and no printer can make great prints with poor filament.
One thing I did want to mention is that at this stage in the development of 3D printers, modifications are quite a big thing in the consumer market with third party companies selling spares and upgrades and more technically able users creating their own modifications, my own pair of bigger machines have been extensively modified to add heated beds, better mainboards, more powerful power supplies and better cooling, the Tina2 isn’t really designed for this, it’s much more a ‘finished product’ where most printers are quite modular and there isn’t really a Tina2 modding community in part because it has been sold as for children, however one Tina2 modder is definitely worth a look if you’re interested in what might be done (be warned that many modifications to a printer will invalidate the warranty and some may be dangerous to the printer or to you, you shouldn’t attempt anything like this unless you know what you are doing)-:http://www.reppersdelight.spacymen.com/index.php/category/Printers/Weedo
I initially tested this printer with PLA which is by far the most popular printing material, and it works very well, results do vary a bit depending on the quality of PLA used, but that can be mitigated to a degree with a little experience by adjusting the slicer settings for the specific brand. The manufacturer also states it can be used with PLA Pro, this is something of a catch all term for any PLA that has had additives used to improve or change it’s characteristics enough that the company wants to market it on this fact, I didn’t have any of Weedo’s PLA Pro but I did have another manufacturer’s MPLA (Modified PLA – another catch all term for the same thing), this didn’t work, it just wouldn’t stick to the bed, a coat of gluestick might have done the job but I’d suggest avoiding any PLA Pro or MPLA that says it needs a heated bed, I’m sure Weedo’s own filament would have been fine. The third material the manufacturer recommends is TPU, as I’ve already mentioned this can be a tricky material to print but the Tina2 handled it very well indeed producing tough prints with good layer adhesion and not jamming. Finally I tested it with PETG, this isn’t a material they say the printer can handle, but it sticks well on tape, doesn’t require a heated bed and it’s popular because it’s strong and has a higher melting point than PLA and consequently stands up better to environments like cars in summer time where PLA can soften. In my initial attempts the printer kept throwing Heating Errors and I discovered that although the slicer will allow you to set a temperature of 245 degrees and the firmware will accept it the head wouldn’t reach it, 240 seems to be the maximum (and be aware that by default the first layer will be printer 15 degrees higher than the temperature you’ve set for the filament, the setting is in “Advanced>Warping Precaution”), dialling the heat down to the lower end of the heat range for my PETG, 230 degrees, I was able to print quite happily in this as well, making the printer even more practical. I have some PLA with carbon fibre on the shelf which I’ll probably give a go with it at some point, however this does have a tendency to wear extruder gears and especially brass nozzles, but I see no reason it shouldn’t print with this or other specialist PLA’s such as wood or copper.
So the big question is, what is this printer actually good for? It’s a capable little printer for printing PLA or TPU but limited by it’s build volume to making small items, however it’s ease of use and low price is undoubtedly attractive. It’s a good first printer, especially for someone young or not overly technical, and it could be a good choice for someone wanting to print models, or miniatures for tabletop gaming, this printer produces good results for an FDM printer, it won’t produce the really fine detail you can achieve with a resin printer (hence they are the favourite of miniature & model makers), however this should be balanced against the running costs being lower, it’s easier and it doesn’t involve messy & potentially hazardous resin or the requirement for eye protection, gloves and a mask. I’m also very tempted to try a smaller nozzle for this application, maybe a 0.2mm, as this will improve the detail it can produce even more. It’s also more than capable of printing small home or project parts, a lot of the items I print would fit on it’s bed or could be broken down into multiple parts to fit, but if you have an eye to larger projects this won’t be suitable.
It’s also a good introduction to 3D printing, particularly for younger people or those who don’t feel confident jumping in the deep end straight away, it really is as user friendly as I’ve found and but the opportunity is there to push yourself a bit further to get even better results and learn most, if not all the principals involved in more advanced 3D printing, be warned though that if you enjoy it and want to develope you are probably going to want to advance to something bigger pretty quickly.
At this price I’d also suggest that if you have an FDM printer and use it a lot this is a possible ‘2nd Printer’, you can set it to printing smaller parts while your main printer is busy on large ones, save power when printing low numbers of small items (the whole printer consumes less power than my bigger printers’ heat beds alone!) and use up the ends of rolls of filament without having to keep swapping them in and out of your main printer(s), this is very much the role I see this playing in my setup going forward and I have no doubt that it will have a useful role to play beside my two fulsized FDM printers and single resin printer.
In conclusion, this is a great little printer, with the emphisis on ‘little’, it produces great results and is a very easy introduction to the world of 3D Printing without spending a fortune, it’s bed size is a major limitation but if you can accept that it will get you up and running quickly and easily.
I’m new to 3d printing, however I got an experience with autocad, cnc programming and g-codes, so was very eager to start my printing experience with an entry level device. Tina 2 is of a compact size, has a dedicated Wiibuilder app (compatible with PC and Mac), which is easy to use. It basically scales and converts the 3d objects from .stl format into the .gcode files, which are digestible to the tina2 printer.
The printer has everything to get you started, a few meters of PLA filament, a micro-sd card with the manuals, and magnetic inserts to be used as a base for the printed objects.
On the sd card there are a few models which can be loaded and printed (I tried the butterfly). But also created my own ‘viking mug’ model on cad and converted it via the app into gcode, copied to the card and printed out (see the photos and a short video).
Overall, it’s a fantastic little printer which not only looks great on the table but also prints the models with unbelievable precision. It prints slow (though the speed is adjustable in the app in preferences, individually for each 3d model). It also works with a few different kinds of filaments (PLA or TPU).
update: 28 July 2022: I have tried to print the model of eiffel tower, converted the big cad file into the gcode, however the amount of microscopic details prevented from achieving the good quality print (please see the attached photos). If I would double the size then it should be better. But still absolutely happy with this printer – getting addicted.
After my first printer had problems I returned for a refund.. I was contacted by the company and was asked if I would like to try the product again. This printer is amazing for the price and so easy to use.. I have had somuch fun using it.. Excellent customer service .. I am so pleased
As a beginner who uses a few 3D pens, our son who is at the younger end of his teens, found this – his first 3D printer, to be well designed, with a surprisingly decent set of instructions and straightforward in operation, ince younger the hand of it.
There are a few warnings about sharp areas to watch out, so his first few uses with this had to be supervised. He’s quite a responsible young teen, once he got his footing, there was no stopping his newfound enthusiasm on the next-level extension to his preexisting 3D creative hobby.
He found the dextral difficulty associated with 3D pens, all but absent with the use of 3D printers. He’s now focussing more on the design of his constructions, instead of the finer 3D fine honing. Although he’s picked up a huge amount of experience from rhe pens and can appreciate the fine tuning of details now during his design stage.
The machine supports a few different filaments, TPU, PLA and PLA Pro. The printer can only take smaller reels of 500g, bearing in mind this is a printer for beginners that produces small items such as keyrings and figurines etc.
If we needed to, we could always print a spool holder that would hold larger reels of filament.
T9 concluded, this is a great little starter 3D printer for a beginner. Everything has been made as straightforward was possible, even the associated media. It offers a good footing to blossom a hobby/interest in the 3D printong realm, before you graduate onto a more advanced model that produces larger prints. Especially with its excellent user friendly smooth transition with the hardware being similar to that of more expensive advanced models.
5 stars
This arrived in a branded plain brown box with an image of the printer on the outside along with size details. Once opened you get the user manual and unpacking guide, a replacement 0.4mm nozzle, a small reel of PLA filament, hex keys, a small spanner for removing and replacing the nozzle, and the power lead and adapter. The main printer is packed between bespoke cardboard and very well protected.
First impressions: The whole package is very polished with no real construction other than fitting the filament tube. The printer is finished in grey and cream with a small LED screen on the top with a dial to move through the menu, and a push button in the centre for selection. I thought the manual very good, all in English, and being very detailed giving a good step by step walk through of the setup and functions.
Once I had unpacked everything I had a good read through the manual and then put the Wiibuilder program onto my desktop PC supplied on the micro SD card. I normally use Cura and this is a bespoke program ready set for this printer, which I thought was a good addition as Cura may be a bit overwhelming for a new user.
After getting everything ready I did a test print supplied on the micro SD card of a square. The bed auto levels and the print came out well so I moved onto printing an articulated Elephant, which I reduced the size of for printing and thought this would be a good test. I was quite impressed with the result so moved onto print various other items such as a Cat from the SD card and an articulated snake with different filaments. I really couldn’t fault the quality of the finish, and I tested the resume printing feature which worked as it should restarting from the same point and completing the print.
The printer is limited on the size it can print, and the drop down filament holder with only take small reels, which is a shame but you can either print a replacement holder from one of the free online 3D print sites or go for a ground based filament spool holder to sit next to it for under 10 if you want to use larger filament reels. The printer will connect directly to a PC with a USB AB cable (not supplied), and you can print, control and update firmware this way if or when required.
Overall this has a very polished, compact well put together look to it for a more mainstream customer. In my opinion this is ideal for a beginner with everything being made as “user friendly” as possible. I started with a mini printer which certainly helped me ease myself slowly into 3D printing without it all being overwhelming. Although this is a mini printer it does have most of the features and functions you would get on higher end printers, and although limited on size I can’t fault the finished quality of the prints. I would certainly recommend this to a brand new user. For these reasons I have given top marks.
I am extremely impressed with this printer and it has been one of the easiest things to set up that I have ever encountered.
So, lets cover the basics. The printer is actually really small! The Tina 2 3D printer could actually fit on the build plate of my Ender 3! If you have a enough spare room for a 30x30x30cm cube, you could fit this printer in it! Obviously, a small printer is limited in the size of print it can create, but even so, the stated build volume of 10x12x10cm will still give you enough room to 3D print a lot of useful objects. Its certainly enough to print things like Raspberry Pi Cases, models, phone holders, pen pods and lots of other items. I have to say that most of the things I print will happily fit in that print volume.
Getting up and running with the printer was one of the easiest experiences I have had with almost any tech product. The manufacturer claims the printer is set up ready to go, and and there would be about a five minute process to get the printer from the box and get it making your first print. Set up is as simple as connecting the Bowden tube (which is fully covered in the documentation and is really easy), connecting power, load the filament and putting the supplied micro SD card in to load some files to print.
One of the things that impressed me most with the printer is the inclusion of automatic bed leveling. If you have done 3D printing before you know that manual bed leveling can be a tricky process to get right until you have some experience with 3d printers, and is often the main reason for failed prints. When I was new to 3D printing myself, it was the part I hated the most. Fortunately, with this printer there is no need to stress because the printer takes care of it for you. Basically, what happens is that the printer has a probe that measures the position of the print bed, and starts printing at the correct height to put down the layers properly. I have been running this printer for a couple of days almost non stop, and I have not had a failed print.
The printer also features options to load and unload filament, which is a really nice touch. If you are changing filaments, the printer purges enough filament to avoid any risk of colour contamination between print jobs.
The Tina 2 does not have a heated build plate, and instead uses a replaceable surface that resembles masking tape. I was a little concerned about the lack of heated build plates, but I had no issues with print adhesion with the masking tape type surface, and this is across several filaments including ones that recommend adhesives and heat for printing. I would highly recommend getting more PLA filament with the printer. Although some is provided, it will not last long
I also tried out the WiiBuilder slicer, and it works well, and has a pretty easy to understand interface, but its worth taking your time with if you are new to printing. I was hoping that the Cura 5 would have profiles for the Tina 2, but unfortunately it did not at the time I am writing this review. That said, WiiBuilder works well and I have produced some good models while trying out the software and printer.
I did encounter a couple of minor issues. One is that the filament holding hook on the side of the printer will not take the standard 1Kg rolls of filament. The rolls are too big for the hook and the edge of the roll would hang below the base of the printer. This should not be a problem with 500g filament rolls. In using the printer, I used a separate filament holder and had no issues with that. Another issue is that the manual is great at covering the basics, but seems to spend a lot of time talking about setting up Wifi, which is something that is not a feature on the Tina 2 but is on the Tina 2 Pro.
Perhaps the one thing that impressed me more than anything on the Tina 2 is how well set up the printer is. I tried some of the “print in place” samples on the supplied memory card, and they worked first time. One of the items on the card is a ring of gears, and once the print was completed it turns and spins freely. Another sample is an articulated fish, and again the print is fully articulated once removed from the build raft. Being able to do print in place work is an indicator of a well set up printer. Even the other test prints works really well. I got a really well printed Benchy out of it, and managed to print a good looking set of facet dice out of the printer.
I have also found the printer to be surprisingly quiet too. Its currently printing some replacement game pieces as I write this review, and its making less noise than my Ender 3 is from the other side of the room. Its certainly not silent, but it is quiet enough that you pretty much carry on as normal while it prints.
Overall, this printer has really surprised me. Easy to use, almost no setup and quieter than other printers I have tried it has impressed me. I can see why it would be a great introduction to 3D printing, and after a couple of days with the printer, I can see its going to see a lot of use with me.
WEEFUN TINA2 3D printer
Ive used a bunch of 3D printer over the years and while i find them interesting useful and creative the main sticking point for people is the price point and would they be interested in the whole 3D printed world in the long term.
hopefully i can answer a few questions while also letting you know my experience and if this printer is worth your hard earned cash.
first off the bat this printer is fully assembled there is no assembly required in order to get it up and running so its very user friendly basically remove the packaging and your ready to go. in addition with the printer you get the power adapter which is 12v an SD card along with a USB, some filament only a small amount enough to print some small designs however you might want to purchase extra.
The 3D printer is small compared to my other printers although if your tight on space this would be a good option as its not big at all.
The nozzle is an M6 and 0.4mm if i stand corrected. The build volume is 100mm x 100mm x 120mm and a speed of around 40mm a second.
The filament that’s compatible with the print is PLA, PLA pro and TPU however i only tested with PLA and this is probably what most people would use to print with.
You can send your prints to the 3D printer via Micro SD or USB. The Micro SD is on top of the printer and the USB is on the right hand side. The downside of this is its not WI-FI enabled however the Pro form of this is so if your looking for a WI-FI version you might want to look at the WEEFUN Tina2 Pro it is slightly more expensive though however not by much if that’s a must feature.
Other feature this printer has is a flexible build plate its also magnetic and easily removable. The Tina2 also has a auto bed leveling and if there is a power cut there is no need to panic as there is an auto resume when power is reconnected so your print will not be ruined.
Personally these are great features if this is a new printer and your not quite advanced to understand how 3D printer work this is very easy to use its great for novices that are starting out.
Printing performance and straight out of the box i messed up completely with the first print as i didn’t use enough glue and it was a complete mess so another round the second print was alot better there is some stringing going out but this could be sanded if needed or while using the software changing some of the parameters so im actually fairly impressed by this print for the price is printed really well.
Software i believe is a version of cura which worked fairly well. The software is on the SD card if your looking to find it.
so my final thought of this 3D printer well i liked it i felt it performed very well now its not an expensive printer so don’t expect amazing quality prints although i found the details of some of the print fairly good abit of tweaking and it could possible be a little better however, out of the box experience its a novice printer that could be used by anyone literally to get an idea about the whole 3D printing world and the endless possibilities.
The negative about this printer is the fact that this is good for small projects as the the build volume is rather small. and the spool feeder only support a small amount i believe its only good for around 200g its not well documented personally so i wouldn’t think it could support a large amount like 1kg or 2kg spools unless the bracket could be changed or maybe a external holder may be needed.
Otherwise this 3D printer is very good at learning the process, seeing how the process works with the software and generally getting familiar with the whole 3D printing then if it something you find like most people in the 3D printing world additive then you could always look at something with more potential if that’s what you need later on.
for me personally a great entry-level printer.
This is a brilliant entry level 3d printer, which will get you started if 3d printing is new to you. It would also be excellent for older children so long as they are old enough to ovoid the temptation of sticking fingers into the works.
With this small 3D printer you get everything you need to start. You get an SD card with several preprogrammed, template, figures to make – there is about enough filament to make 2 items – we have made a butterfly and a cat and that has just about used it all
The instructions for set up and use are easy to follow and we had this operating within minutes of delivery. It is great fun, and once you know how to do your own designs rather than using the templates it should unleash a bust of creativity