Finished building my Anet A8 kit 3d printer Printing some upgrades now Added some LED lights fo...

[G+_Steven Dunn]

Finished building my Anet A8 kit 3d printer. Printing some upgrades now. Added some LED lights for fun and utility.

[G+_David Peach]

What is the utility part of the LEDs? To make the neighbors out the front window think you are being raided by the police?

 

Congratulations on the printer build.

[G+_Black Merc]

David Peach no... Mad scientists effect lighting. 'It's alive' and all that.

[G+_Jeff Gros]

Congratulations! Is this your first printer?

 

I built my Prusa i3 mk2 in April, which was my first printer. I've been having a blast learning and troubleshooting. I'm learning through failure and osmosis.

 

I just experimented with ABS this weekend for the first time. A bit stinky (open some windows), but prints were good quality. Warping is an issue though, I'm going to try printing some calibration cubes again this weekend with a box ontop of the printer. I just need to buy a light so the octoprint camera can see inside the box! If it improves in the box, then I'll eventually make an enclosure.

 

Speaking of troubleshooting, I had some wicked problems during the week. I kept on getting spool tangles (probably because I wasn't careful with the free end, I now know better). In addition, I had a grub screw come loose in the extruder (which I almost lost). Worst of all I completely jammed the heating block and had to do a cold pull to get it free. It was jammed with dust/lint on the filament as it feeds in.

 

I would recommend the following prints to avoid these issues if you're new:

 

thingiverse.com - THE Clip by NeatherBot

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:492067

 

The filter requires foam/sponge/etc to wipe the filament as it loads into the extruder.

 

Once I'm done playing with different materials I'll be putting together my Prusa multimaterial upgrade! :)