anet a8 lcd panel pricelist

The short answer: something like $200, if your time is worth $0/hour. How is this possible? Cheap kit printers, with laser-cut acrylic frames, but otherwise reasonably solid components. In particular, for this review, an Anet A8. If you’re willing to add a little sweat equity and fix up some of the bugs, an A8 can be turned into a good 3D printer on a shoestring budget.

That said, the A8 is a printer kit, not a printer. You’re going to be responsible for assembly of every last M3 screw, and there are many. Building the thing took me eight or ten hours over three evenings. It’s not rocket surgery, though. There are very accessible videos available online, and a community of people dedicated to turning this box of parts into a great machine. You can do it if you want to.

This article is half how-to guide and half review, and while the fun of a how-to is in the details, the review part is easy enough to sum up: if you want the experience of building a 3D printer, and don’t mind tweaking to get things just right, you should absolutely look into the A8. If you want a backup printer that can print well enough right after assembly, the A8 is a good deal as well; most of the work I’ve put into mine is in chasing perfection. But there are a couple reasons that I’d hesitate to recommend it to a rank beginner, and one of them is fire.

Still, I’ve put 1,615 m (1.0035 miles) of filament through my A8 over 330 hours of run-time spread across the last three months — it’s been actively running for 15% of its lifetime! Some parts have broken, and some have “needed” improving, but basically, it’s been a very functional machine with only three or four hours of unintentional downtime. My expectations going in were naturally fairly low, but the A8 has turned out to be not just a workhorse but also a decent performer, with a little TLC. In short, it’s a hacker’s printer, and I love it.

The Anet A8 itself is a kit, and you’re looking at a few nights of assembly before it even resembles a 3D printer. Some of this is educational and fun, but other parts of the build are pure tedium. Just peeling the protective film off of the many, many laser-cut acrylic frame parts took me two and a half hours one evening. And if that doesn’t sound like fun, just wait until you start fiddling the myriad M3 nuts into those cursed acrylic T-shaped bolt slots. Ugh. But you grit your teeth, take your time, and you get through it. Do follow the excellent videos, especially the part near the end on bundling up the wiring harness. It’s worth it.

The A8 is noisy. I replaced the shipped LM8UU bearings with Igus Drylin bushings because the former rattled, so that’s another $10 I sunk into the printer that’s optional but pleasant. And then I bought a 50 cm square cement paving tile from the hardware store for $3 to use as a base. It’s rock solid and the mass helps stabilize the printer and absorb vibration. Putting this on top of a $10 rubber washer/dryer isolation mat keeps it from coupling into the table below. It’s not exactly quiet now either, but we can sleep at night with it running.

The next biggest complaint with the A8, from nearly everyone who owns one, is the frame. While billed as a “Prusa i3” clone, it’s a little bit like selling a Ford Pinto as a Lamborghini Countach clone — after all, it uses a similar steering wheel and four tires. If you owned a RepRap Mendel or first-gen Printerbot, you’ve probably seen the ringing that a wobbly X-axis causes in a print. Fixing X-axis wobble was one of the main goals of the Mendel 90 and Prusa i3. The A8’s X-axis, in contrast, wiggles like a bowl full of jelly.

The good news is that a Y-axis, frame-induced backlash fix is easy. If the first virtue of the A8 is that it’s cheap, the second is that there’s a large community of people working on improving it. [Leo N], in particular, has built both front and rear Y-axis braces that work marvelously, and have been tested by many A8 owners. Measured with an XY backlash test print, my Y-axis backlash went from 0.2 mm to 0.06 mm with the front brace, and down to unmeasurable with the addition of the rear brace. Problem solved.

Older versions of the A8 also had a connector on the motherboard that was insufficiently specced for the current it had to carry, and this printer got the deserved reputation as a firestarter. My August 2017 A8 had swapped these out for screw terminals, a welcome change. My heated bed failed after around 150 hours anyway.

My last complaint about the A8 is changing filament. The filament path is blocked by a fan and heatsink that keep the top of the hot end cool. Inserting new filament without completely unscrewing these is a pain. Various solutions range from forgoing the heatsink entirely to designing a hinge or basket for it.

If you’d like to walk down the A8 path, get ready for a fair amount of work that can eventually be rewarded with proximity to printing Nirvana, if not absolute bliss.

Would I recommend the Anet A8? First, you have to be sure that you want a kit. A lot of labor goes into turning a pile of parts into a working printer, and a bit more goes into making it a good printer. If you think you’d enjoy that kind of hands-on experience, just order one — you won’t be out that much money anyway. I love mine, and it’s proven very reliable in the grand scheme of things, but the gears needed to be adequately greased with my blood, sweat, and tears.

At the price, I’m sure that many of you have at least toyed around with an A8. Post up in the comments with your favorite mods, workarounds, and fixes. What’s the right solution for the hot end and heated bed connectors? Do you have a better solution to the filament loader issue? Good experiences or bad?

Hi everyone. Here are tuesday’s three top deals for makers: Anet A8 3D printer, X-Tronic soldering station, and prototyping accessories. Check these items below.

TheAnet A8 3D printer is a great one for the price. It has almost 5-star from costumer reviews on GearBest.  This printer is perfect for those who want their own 3D prints, but don’t want to spend a lot of money. The printer doesn’t come assembled, you receive the parts and have to build it on your own – so, you’ll actually learn how the mechanical parts work.

This printer is called Anet A8, produced by an Anet company based in China. A8 picked up amazing reviews on the web. When given the opportunity to review it, I never had second thoughts.

No products found.Anet A8 is a completely DIY 3D printer that you have to assemble yourself. According to communities online, when calibrated and upgraded properly it can print like those expensive printers. Moreover, it is said, that the assembly can be done by a total newbie.

If you’re a complete newbie reading this review I am quite sure you have similar fears. Do not panic. I will guide you through my journey with Anet A8. Step by step. Be aware that before I assembled and started using A8, I had zero experience in 3D printing.

What is Anet A8? Anet A8 is completely do it yourself 3D printer, priced at around 170-200$. When fully assembled it enables you to print 3D objects from different kind of materials and create 3D objects of any shape. It can use different types of materials to print, though it works best with PLA and ABS.

Is it noisy? – You can certainly hear A8 while it prints. There are improvements you can do like making an enclosure to reduce the noise and adding something to prevent vibrations below the printer.

Can I print with other materials? – Even though I have yet to test this, users of Anet A8 recommend that you upgrade to a new extruder before you begin experimenting with other materials besides PLA and ABS.

Before my Anet A8 printer arrived, I wanted to prepare myself. I did not want to burn my house or something since those are some of the stories I read which can happen with any 3D printer from time to time.

The first thing I did is joining two popular groups of Anet A8 owners. Once in a while, I would read things owners of printers post there. Problems they encounter, solutions, upgrades, pretty much anything that can ever happen to your printer, can be found in one of those groups on Facebook.

Once my 3D printer arrived, besides horrific custom fee I had to pay for it (I live in the non-EU country) I was over the moon. Anet A8 arrives in a huge box which weights around 10kg. Prior to opening the box, make sure to open it on the front side to avoid parts falling out.

I would like to mention that besides things included in the “List” I also received a 10m white PLA filament, a material used for printing. It was not listed, so I really do not know if it comes in every Anet A8 box or not. Either way, you will also have to buy filament separately, since officially it’s not included. More about materials later.

It took me 3 days to assemble Anet A8. Yes, 3 days. On the first day, I did the parts checklist. It took me another hour to remove acrylic protectors from parts that will be a printer’s frame once assembled. Then, I began slowly completing the frame.

Onto a memory card, there are some files you can print. I recommend that you start small with Box-1.75mm PLA-A8 or something. I made a mistake and started with a bigger figure, which means more material (filament) and more time to print.

Update 01/11/2019 Thanks to L.Woodington and D. Wilding who discovered an interesting error in the instruction video of the Anet A8 Assembly 1. The metal H frame is mounted wrongly in the video, which causes the cables of the hotbed to be curved. After mounting the H frame the opposite way, so that the middle line which sticks is facing the ground, my belts got aligned perfectly which reduced some noise in my experience. A photo says thousands of words, so take a look at the image below.

I was unable to remove it from the hotbed. I had no idea what went wrong, so I asked on one of the Facebook groups dedicated to Anet A8 printer. In the meanwhile, I stopped the printing and turned the printer off.

I was on fire! I was ready to conquer the 3D world. The humble community of Anet A8 owners advised me to start printing upgrades for the printer itself. Can you believe it? Printing the parts for the 3D printer to improve its performance.

So here I am nearly two months after my first Anet A8 print. During that period I learned tons of stuff about my printer and 3d printing in general. While I am far being done yet, there are upgrades that I did which improved my 3D prints beyond my wildest dreams.

There are lots of other things I intend to do with Anet A8, so make sure to check back or follow Pevly on social media for updates. (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube)

So I proudly present to you my 3D printed objects. All printed on Anet A8 with some minor improvements and 3d printed upgrades. Compare them to the first ones I made. The difference is huge.

The recommended beginners software is Cura. Inside the manual, you’ll find how to configure Cura 14.07 with your Anet A8. I highly recommend that you do your first prints with that version of Cura. Mostly because you have the manual and explanation how to configure it with Anet A8.

Yes, you can upgrade to newer versions. I personally started with 14.07, but when I learned how to use Cura, I switched to 2.3.1 version with no issues. I only had to re-configure it all over again. Configuration Anet A8 with latest Cura is easy when someone already made the configuration file and instructions how to do it. You can find those files in the Official A8 group on Facebook.

If you’re a regular reader of Pevly blog, you know we’re a huge fan of user-friendly products. While Anet A8 is marketed as an affordable 3D printer, which beginners can use it’s not that user-friendly. Most of the things are not that intuitive and the user navigation is quite unclear. For instance even nearly 2 months of using it I  am still unable to recognize all the functions that printer displays on the screen.

As for the third-party software which you use for slicing the 3D model are concerned, you can use basically any you want, but Anet recommends Cura 14.7 which you can find online or on a memory card. Since it’s a third-party software, there’s no point in reviewing its interface.

My journey with Anet A8 has been a love-hate game all the way. I hate that I love my Anet. There were times when I wanted to pull my hair out by trying to figure out what went wrong with the printer. Also, there was a period where I jumped around the house being amazed at the quality of my print.

Please understand that most of the problems I encountered with Anet A8 printer are because of my ignorance of 3D printing in general. This is my first 3D printer and like with any new technology you encounter, there is a huge learning curve.

One thing is sure, Anet managed to create a decent quality printer, which takes a bit of time to assemble and master. Would I recommend this to a person who is on a budget and wants to enter the 3D printing world? Absolutely, but once again, be aware that it will take time to get quality prints. It requires upgrades and getting to know the material you’re printing with.

What guys behind Anet managed to do is to remove the barriers so that you no longer need 700-2000$ for a 3D printer. The 3d printing industry is becoming more and more competitive and I’m ecstatic about that. Competition means better products, lower prices, and incremental innovations.

Perhaps the biggest advantage of A8 besides its cheap price is the wonderful and humble community of people behind it. There are tons of good people who like you and me once had problems with their printer and are willing to help you out.

There have been warnings of people ordering Anet A8 and receiving something completely different, though it looks the same. That’s why you should be careful and order only from officially licensed retailers, here are some.

For any other questions, feel free to drop me a comment. If you already own an Anet A8, feel free to let me know how it works for you, I’m sure your experience will help people who are still unsure if A8 is right for them.

Thanks for taking the time to read this whole review. I wish I could talk to you a bit more, but my Anet A8 just finished a new print, so I have to remove it and admire its beauty.

Not so many years ago, the idea of having a 3D printer in your home would have been a luxury. As with most modern technology, prices soon start to drop and now it is perfectly reasonable to have one in your home. 3D printers open the door to a world of creativity. Today, we will be going over the features and specifics of the Anet A6 vs Anet A8. There will be quite a few technical numbers, so we will put all of the information in a comparison chart.

The Anet A6 and the Anet A8 have LCD screens. With these screens, you can see the status of your printing and make slight adjustments, even during the printing process. There is a slight difference in the controls in that the A6 has a turn knob while the A8 has a keypad.

If you are new to 3D printing, the layer thickness is the thickness of the filament in each layer of printing. To add to the Anet A6 and Anet A8’s ability to capture detail, the layer thickness is as little as 0.1mm, and a material diameter of 1.75mm.

You will receive the same accessories when you buy either the Anet A6 or the Anet A8. They come with an SD card that contains the installation instructions, a card reader, 4 hex wrenches, an open spanner, a nipper, a screwdriver, one filament of 10m, and an Aibecy cleaning cloth.

It is considered the big sister/brother of the Anet A8 and therefore it is slightly larger. The assembled dimensions are 18.9 x 15.7 x 7.1 inches. It weighs 18.3 pounds. The maximum printer size is 220 x 220 x 250mm.

Both the Anet A6 and the Anet A8 are excellent value for money. They work extremely well and very accurate 3D printing. Neither will require a lot of follow up work to tidy up your projects. Although the Aent A6 is slightly more expensive, in this case, we decided that it was worth it. Anet has made various upgrades to A6’s LCD screen, the motherboard and the mainboard.

If you aren’t inclined to spend the extra money or you are just beginning in the world of 3D printing, you might be better off wth the Anet A8. For everybody else, the A6 will make a brilliant addition to your technology projects.