Anet A8 3D Printer High Precision Reprap i3 DIY Kit & LCD2004 & 8G SD CARD
May 08, 2018
Great DIY printer - upgrade needed to reduce fire risk
This is a really cool unit and my first trip into 3D printing. It took me about 6 hours to get set up and running, and it makes some really nice prints assuming you took time assembling it. I immediately started printing upgrades and, now maybe 500 grams of filament and about $100 in upgrades later (drylin bearings, fiber reinforced belt, BLtouch, RaspPi for Octoprint) it is pretty solid. Next upgrade would be to an all metal 80/20 frame, the acrylic frame works but it doesn't sit evenly and I'm finding more and more cracks.
This does get 4 stars instead of 5 because of the fire hazard issues. I upgraded to MOSFETs for the hot end and bed right off the bat and I'm glad I did. The connections on the board are very flimsy. The very bad is that the stock firmware shipped without any sort of thermal run-away protection. I verified this by holding a cold hairdryer on the hot end for 2 minutes and kept the temp about 40 degrees lower than it was set to, but it never shut off as it would with protection.
This means if you keep the stock firmware and your thermister falls out or malfunctions, your hot end will keep heating until it melts and potentially burns your house down. Not good. A simple upgrade to Marlin fixes this, but it really should ship with Marlin installed.