AnkerMake M5 3D Printer, High-Speed, Speed Upgraded to 500
AnkerMake M5 3D Printer, High-Speed, Speed Upgraded to 500 mm/s, Fast Mode, Smooth Detail, Easy to Use for Beginners, Error Detection with AI Camera, Auto-Leveling, Integrated Die-Cast Aluminum Alloy
From the brand
This product is on the go 24/7 in our house! The fact that you can key an eye on it via the video link is brilliant especially when it’s taking hours to complete the job. Brilliant!
This is well worth every penny I have made so much on it the free software you get with it from AnkerMake makes it so easy to make / edit it’s easy to set up and use and thousands of free stuff to make
This 3d printer is fun to use specially for a beginner, making many things. The only issue is sometimes things don’t stick on the pad even if it’s clean and sometimes the nozzle plastic green part will catch on the thing you make and break your model.
The little toolbox I printed twice as the first one worked but had a few issues. So I just changed the nozzle temperature up and the second one was so much better.
First time venture into 3D Printing and it has been a very good experience with this M5 Printer and the Customer Service from them since, via Amazon, has been brilliant. Looking forward to them bringing on more PLA filament colours and single coils in UK as they work perfectly with the printer as they are designed by them. Thanks!
Bought for my son. Had a 3d printer before but not really good, took hours to print off anything. This kne is amazing!! Prints in much less time, very quiet and has and If you download the app to your phone it shows you how far along the point is (bit like a ring doorbell) my son loves it. Would definitely recommend!!
This is my first venture into 3 D printing. Other reviews swayed me and I have not been disappointed. I have seen other printers in action, but this one is in a class by itself. The quality of the construction is fantastic, stable and robust. The speed at which it prints is fantastic. I understand that it is more expensive than others on the market, but if you are able to purchase one of these, then it will be very worthwhile. I am not being flippant, but the niggling, slow performance of lesser machine will be a continual irritation, but the extra money spent on this machine will soon be forgotten as money well spent.
Would I recommend it ? Absolutely this printer is so much better than I expected and it’s speed and build size means I can try ideas, prototype and modify an item without wasting days. With my old printer I might leave something printing for 12 hrs only to have it fail or fall over on the build plate in the last few layers. So far the M5 has functioned perfectly, with no failures even when printing much more complex items than I have ever tried before.
I have been looking for a new 3d printer for a long time. Ive also been printing a long time. I’ve had a few printers over the years. Several different brands and done days and hours of research. The Ankermake M5 is the printer of the moment and in my opinion nothing comes close. with Auto bed levelling, wifi, camera, magnetic print bed, touch screen, app to control it or Mac/windows software and speed its an awesome bit of kit for the beginner to semi. the slicer needs work but it works fine if you don’t know to much about slicing. its incredibly sleek and very well engineered and built with quality materials. I can’t believe it’s not a 1000+ machine. only downside its quite loud compared with a Prusa. it has to powerful cooling fans and the noise is funnelled into to an outlet Shute’s at force to cool your print. overall I can handle a bit of noise for the pure speed of the machine. very happy with my new machine.
Ok update ANKERMAKE have been in touch and sorted this out for me with a very generous discount on a new unit so looking forward to getting going again printing and see if all goes well and it was simply a bad unit.. have now adjusted the star rating to reflect their support and engagement.
An impressive machine. Being a complete beginner, this was all really new to me not knowing a single thing. After watching alot of videos online, we thought we would give it ago for ourselves. Comes well packaged with a little assembly required, easy enough to do with it taking about 20 minutes, it’s self levelling so it will get it to the correct level with out you needing to worry its set right. Stable once set up. It is a fair size machine, so you need a good amount of space to have it set up and not be disturbed. It has a good sized 4.3 inch touch screen panel to control and set up, clear to read and navigate, it responds well to touch. For us, alot is trial and error untill you really know what you’re doing. Theres a built in handy feature for if the power cuts off, it saves the current layer and resumes print when its back on. It does take a while for it to “do its thing” and print, but it’s fascinating to keep coming back to and watching the progression. There is so much to learn and advance upon. Its definitely an addictive hobby to get into; once you make one thing, you want to go bigger, better, more complex next time. This printer is a great starter to use and progress on without the need to invest in another machine. Great quality and build, efficient and reliable. Just takes time to get used to.
Upon booting up the M5, it takes you through a clear step-by-step process and connecting it to your WiFi and inserting filament; from here you can download the AnkerMake app on your smart device or get the slicer for your desktop/laptop.
The app has a limited amount of models to print but is a good way of getting started; just click on the print you want and wirelessly send the command to the printer and away it goes. The app has a brilliant feature which allows you to check in on your print progress, change settings or even see it live! So I can be at my work and check in on it.
The slicer software for your desktop allows you to import ‘stl’ files from various websites and of course customise many different settings through the expert mode, alternatively stick with easy for the basic settings. I must say though, I do currently prefer Creality’s Slicer over AnkerMake’s. The M5 doesn’t have an SD card slot like many other 3D printers do, however there is a USB-C slot so you may just need to adapter; alternatively just send your print to the M5 wirelessly just like you can with the app; it saves so much time and it frees up disk space!
Printing can be SUPER FAST but that does come with some disadvantages, especially when dealing with the finer details and just overall accuracy, so pick and choose whether you want your print to be more refined or whether you want it done quickly. The printing speed can be adjusted either in the ‘Expert’ mode within the slicer or on the printer itself during the print.
One downside I need to point out is this printer is rather loud; I have this stationed in my bedroom and I think it’s going to be a bit hard to sleep whilst it’s operating in the background (Creality’s Ender 3 Max Neo I was able to deal with).
The flexi magnetic base seems to do a decent job at adhesion but also makes removing models off with little effort, though realigning it can be tricky as the magnets are very strong!
Another positive about the M5 is how easy it is to update the firmware; it tells you when there is one and you just click update (make sure this is the first thing you do after connecting it to your WiFi).
Overall though, it’s a super easy 3D printer to deal with (ideal for beginners), it has some great features and it does have the ability to print some good quality prints. Just bare in mind that like all 3D printers, the M5 will also need nozzle replacements and some maintenance overtime.
Pros:
Simple Set-up, making it also Ideal for beginner users.
The WiFi features are brilliant (wirelessly sending print orders & remote monitoring).
Print times are accurately displayed.
The magnetic flexi base provides a good level of adhesion whilst making it easy to remove prints.
Can support various filaments, not just AnkerMake’s own (unless you want to use very high-speeds).
Able to produce decent quality prints (better on the slower settings).
Easy firmware updates.
Neutral:
AnkerMake’s filament cost is not very competitive when it comes to price and at the time of review, they don’t have a wide variety of colours available. Hopefully this will change as times goes by.
No SD card slot (may bother some).
Cons:
Fastest print speed can degrade the quality of some prints and can cause a wobble effect in thinner parts.
Its quite loud when printing (especially the fans as they are high-pitched); with the Creality Ender 3 Max Neo, I was able to fall asleep with it in the room; the AnkerMake M5, not a chance.
The printer is everything it claims to be, easy to use and super fast.
The first unit I ordered stopped working after the first print, but one of the advantages of this brand is the discord community who was able to guide me on how to troubleshoot the issue. Unfortunately that didn’t work and discord users pointed me to Anker Support.
I spoke to Jack @ support and must admit I rarely have had someone so helpful, reviewed the issue, and when he saw that I wasn’t able to fix it, a replacement was sent with 2 days!
A product is only as good as the backing from its company and in that case, I have to say well done Anker.
I have been 3D printing for several years now and I was quite happy with my two Ender 3 Pro printers and my CR10s for printing larger items, that was until I received this and started to have a play.
This printer is truly amazing, it is so fast that items that would take overnight for me to print on my old machines this printer does them in a few hours. Add the speed along with the great looks, terrific build quality, touch screen, built in camera and self levelling already fitted makes this simply the best printer I have ever used.
For a change with my reviews I’m going to start with the pro’s and con’s to save people reading the whole thing should they want to grab one of these beauties quickly and at the time of writing this is selling for just 629.00 which is over 100 off and in my mind an absolute bargain. My wife has just brewed me a lovely hot cup of tea so I’ll get on with it, lol.
Firstly the Con’s:-
1/ When building this up, there is only two pieces to put together but I did have some trouble in locating the bolts at the same time as trying to hold the base and upright at the correct angle, having two people would help with this task but I did manage it on my own.
2/ I was very surprised to see that they have used POM wheels for the X axis to run the hot end, a machine running at this sort of speed would I think be better with linear rails instead of the wheels. There might be a legitimate reason for this but not one that I can think of. I also had to tighten the wheels as this came with the wheels very loose and wobbly. Just be sure to use the eccentric can on the lower wheel for tightening and do not over tighten, bit should be just tight enough to stop any play on the axis rail.
3/ This isn’t really a downside but this can only print one colour at a time and there is no option to fit a dual extruder. That said, looking online a six spool colour changer is in the works which will be out midsummer this year, this is one item that is most definitely on my shopping list.
As far as I can tell the Y axis ands the Z axis use linear motion but without stripping the whole printer down I can’t see what is there as everything is hidden behind solidly built covers.
They are really the only negatives that I can think off, so onwards I go.
Now the Pro’s:-
1/ The speed of this printer is absolutely incredible, there is a normal speed of 250ms and a high speed of 500ms this is ten times as fast as any of my older printers can run even with upgraded hardware.
2/ This printer is very well built, it has covers over pretty much everything which are held securely in place making this look like a masterpiece of engineering.
3/ Before each print this machine does a self levelling of the bed making sure that the print will be as straight as it should be and that it will adhere to the build plate properly.
4/ As standard this comes with a touch screen controller which can alter settings as well as start prints and even has a helpful filament change function that makes that task very simple to do.
5/ The hot end and bed heat up very quickly meaning that the print can start with the minimum time wasted on waiting for the correct levels to be reached especially for the bed which many printers can be very slow at.
6/ The Y axis uses dual belts for the motion keeping the build plate running forwards and backwards incredibly smoothly and consistently.
7/ The Z axis uses dual Z screws which keep the height at each side of the printer totally even which is also checked and changed automatically at the start of each print.
8/ A small tool kit is included to give a beginner the necessary items needed to create a good looking print and to help maintain the printer.
9/ The detail on the finished prints is really quite amazing in comparison to my other printers, as can be seen in my photos I printed a Jaws Benchy as a test and later I printed a Hellraiser Cube which has a lot of detail on all six sides, both models came out perfectly even on the quick and easy slicer settings but with some tweaking on the more advanced settings in the slicer they can be even more smooth and detailed.
I’m sure that this printer has many more great attributes that have skipped my mind for the moment as I just want to get back to printing on this gorgeous machine and drinking my cup of Tea while it’s still warm, haha.
Ok, I’m back again so here’s some more information from my experience with this printer.
To give a better idea of the speed that this unit can print at, the cube in my photos would have taken sixteen hours according to the slicer I use for my older printers and they have been majorly upgraded to run at 70ms, this printer did the same print but in a much better quality in just five hours which to me is amazing. The larger and longer the print the more time that will be saved as it only has to do the levelling once and the first few layers are slower.
This machine comes with its own slicer program which will run on PC or Mac and also an app for IOS and Android, these programs will not only do the slicing ready for printing but will also enable you to keep an eye on the print itself and has a built in AI system that watches for problems such as poor adhesion and as we call it spaghetti. If you prefer to use a different slicer such as Cura then this will print the files however the built in AI will not be active with any files not sliced using the supplied slicer.
The build plate isn’t massive but at 225mm square and with a build height of 250mm this is the same build size as the majority of home 3D printers out there and will do most prints that an amateur user would ever want to print.
I can’t tell what stepper drivers this machine uses without stripping the base of the printer down which isn’t something I wanted to do but on a regular speed the noise level is reasonably quiet, on the very high speed this does get a fair bit noisier however it is still not so bad that I can’t watch the TV or listen to some music at the same time, I just wouldn’t want to try to sleep in the same room, lol.
Being as the majority of the working parts are covered very well, this printer is easy to maintain as any dust doesn’t get into the moving parts very easily so it’s mainly just a case of giving the build plate a clean between prints.
Finally, the build plate that comes with this printer has double sided textured PEI surfaces and holds in place magnetically with a very forceful magnet holding extremely firmly, PEI is something that I have used on my other printers for quite a while now and it really is the best build plate surface I have ever used and won’t easily let go of the print while heated. As soon as the print is ready to be removed, all you need to do is to flex the build plate and the print pops right off leaving no marks or damage, all so simple.
I could go on and on talking about this printer but I’m pretty sure that you must be fed up of reading this by now, lol, so I will leave it here and ask my wife for another one of her lovely hot cups of tea while you go back to the listing and order one of these after which you will never look back.
Whole heartedly recommended for home use and even small businesses.
Assembling the printer was straightforward and took less than half an hour. After assembling, I followed the on-screen instructions to auto-level the printer and loaded the PLA filament. I then downloaded the AnkerMake app, created an account, and added the printer using its built-in Bluetooth feature. Once added, I followed the in-app instructions to connect the printer to my wifi network and added a test model, which I downloaded via the app.
The model I chose to print was the Benchy, and I used its maximum speed to print it. The print result was acceptable, but I did notice a few strings and curled corners. However, I expected this to happen on the first print, given the speed rate. The print took precisely 17:42 minutes, as advertised, and I was very impressed with the printer’s performance. One feature that particularly stood out to me was the built-in camera, which allowed me to capture a few moments of the printing process and record it on my phone.
Overall, there are many features to explore and tweak on this 3D printer, making it a fantastic choice for anyone interested in this technology. I’m looking forward to experimenting more with it in the future.
I recently purchased the M5 machine and I am blown away by its design and performance. It is without a doubt the best-looking 3D printer on the market with an impressive speed that I cannot fault. The team at M5 has done an incredible job in creating a top-of-the-line product.
While I did encounter a few minor issues, such as some confusion with the time-lapse function in the app software and the wireless transfer function being unreliable, these were easily resolved and did not detract from my overall experience with the machine.
One thing that particularly impressed me was the spool holder. While it was initially too small for my needs, I was able to easily print a larger one to better hold standard filament spools.
Overall, I am extremely satisfied with my purchase and would highly recommend the M5 machine to anyone in the market for a top-quality 3D printer. I look forward to any future developments or improvements from the M5 team.
The box is quite big and heavy, and inside you get the bed and frame in 2 parts, toolkit, Allen bolts, instructions, mains leads (UK & EUR) and the filament holder. Setup takes around 15 minutes and only requires 16 bolts to be done up. They even show how the hard foam packaging can be used to support the frame while you’re putting it together. Ingenious.
Once the frame is installed and the 4 leads attached, a cover goes on and it’s all smooth and hidden away. It doesn’t look industrial at all. All you need to then do is turn it on, connect to Wi-Fi and pair up to your phone (the app is quite good).
Filament loading is very simple and quick. Levelling is an absolute joy – it detects 49 points but also adjusts itself, there’s nothing for you to do, no knobs to turn, etc. Within 10 minutes of turning it on I was ready to print a sample file from the options on my phone. 35 minutes later and at an alarmingly quick speed was an egg cup that would have taken a good few hours at this density on my TronXY.
The magnetic plate is really very, very good, staying in place firmly and having a textured surface that means the first layer grips incredibly well – the bane of most 3D printers. It makes a bit of a noise (fan, motors and something that’s got a bit of a high-pitched screech) and you wouldn’t want to be watching TV with it on in the background, but it sounds impressive.
First print was as shown, and not at all bad for 250mm/s print speed. I’d be going at 40mm/s with my TronXY for this detail, even though it’s not perfect.
The software slicer and on the phone/printer sets a lot of defaults up based on the material, which is quite nice and seems pretty spot-on. The camera is great for viewing the print progress from another room and is at the print head level, on the right. It can be used to detect if the first layer stuck well (although wasn’t great with black filament on a black plate). It works on lighter filament though, and also can record time lapse video, stills, real-time video, etc.
In all it’s a very tidy machine that works out of the box and has vastly simplified 3D printing. It’s reliable, has plenty of features and is incredibly fast. The downside is the price and noise. It gets Wi-Fi updates so although early on in it’s production life, can only get better.
EDIT : After about 20 prints I’ve found that you can get problems with the filament jamming if you don’t extrude perfectly. It needs to have a really hot nozzle and use the Extrude function, and even then may still have a minute bit left in the extruder. You need to remove the small cover (2 screws) then undo the sprung tensioner lever screw (from the back) where the whole lot flops open and allows you to get the 5mm jammed bit out. Usually shows as the filament not going through and clicking and when you pull it out the end is bent round a little.