NASA Open Source Build-It-Yourself Robot

@codecage

I really want that Anet A8 Plus. I just don't have the room until I can get rid of one of the ones I have now

I've had to swap bearings in mine maybe 3 times over 2 years. I guess it depends on how much you use it. It's possible to only swap out the bearing mech alone, and keep the housings, but, it's a real pain. On the other hand, it's much cheaper than buying new housings when there's really nothing wrong with them

Also, I see a belt tensioner for the bed, but I don't see one for the print head, Although the specs say "easier belt tensioning for x and y" (you might also look into steel belts, as rubber tends to stretch over time)

Tip on oiling the bearings: don't shoot oil directly into them. I spray some PB Blaster on a paper towel and just rub down the rods

It also looks like they're using the same design for "bed contact". It doesn't have a proper bed leveling system tho, and height adjustment is critical. I had to design my own bed contact thingy by printing a screw holder that touches the bed instead of having to loosen the brackets every time I needed to make an adjustment. It doesn't look like the thing I designed would work on this new printer, and since the height adjustment is literally the thickness of a piece of paper, adjusting height by loosening a bracket is problematic at best

I posted some helpful stl files on my github for you to practice with. The temp blocks are in there, and Benchy and some keychain type trinkets. The keychain trinkets are good for testing infill and thickness. I printed these at .4 layer height

(thickest setting is also the quickest with the lowest detail) Mine prints up to a .06 layer height, but the specs on this one only say .1. You should check that. You can probably exceed manufacturer specs

Oh, the files...

https://github.com/Spyder19/3D-STL.git

the Anet A8 Plus looks really sexy. i didnt think the price came down that much. its now in my cart (when i have the money is another story)

@spyder

Many, many thanks!  I'll keep all posted on how I'm making out.  And I may have some question as well.

@pakabol

When I looked today trying to see if there were any links to further technical details, I was surprised to see that the price seemed to have gone up.  Yesterday there was also a "coupon" that gave a $65 credit to my order.

Good luck!

@codecage

try looking again in incognito mode might be like the airlines that stores cookies for items you've looked at and raise the price had to do that last time i booked a flight saved me almost $200 might not work but its worth a try  

@pakabol

Thanks for the tip.  Seems that the model that was higher priced was the non-kit A8 Plus.  The kit version was still at the same price with the $65 discount coupon.

Maybe this should be in the 3D printer thread, but since announcing the other day that I had ordered the A8 Plus I thought I might post this last reply on this thread.

A8 Plus arrived today.  Have opened the box and taken a good look around.  Also tried to match the parts I found with the "Parts List" in the Users Manual.  Even that was a challenge!  The pictures of the parts in the manual were very small, so identifying them by their Chinese to English translated nomenclature was a chore.

Here is a quote from the "warnings" page that had me rolling on the floor:

From the Anet A8 Plus Users Manual...

Children under 14 years old or people above 60 years old, please use this machine under the adult people to avoid personal injury. 

Guess I'm going to have to have one of my grown children supervise my use of the printer.  Doesn't say anything about old folks shouldn't assemble it, so I guess I OK there.  Will get started with assembly tomorrow and may post on my gh-pages blog some of my progress.

Wish me luck!

I've actually never considered myself an adult

I tried being responsible once... It was too much work

Posted by: @JohnCougar

Growing up leads to growing old and then to dieing

And dieing to me don't sound like all that much fun

@codecage

Oh, and good luck

At least you got a manual with yours

All I got was a piece of paper with a link to a youtube video of a guy that didn't speak a single word of English

That was an interesting 12 hours