Cooling fan cover

Cooling fan cover addon is only for looks. Printed it with blue PLA. You can get many different styles of fan covers on internet. I put some designs below with download links.

Download

I printed this one; Download

Download

Download

Filament guide and filament holder upgrade

My filament holder is usually next to the printer. I printed filament guide using 3d model from Thingverse. The guide clips to upper frame. Without guide filament is all over the place. I used PLA filament. I recommend it. It's a good upgrade. Link for filament guide 3d model: Click here


The filament holder which came with Anet A8 is a little bit sketchy. Filament roll center hole is much bigger than the threaded rod diameter. Filament roll hangs on the threaded rod and because that filament can't move smoothly. There are many different ways to fix it. You can print new filament holder parts or make it from other materials like I did. At first I thought about printing new parts, but it would take long time to do it and I didn't have enough filament. Then I found a piece of aluminum which fitted inside filament roll center hole. Then I glued some rubber pieces on it to prevent slipping. Filament moves now smoothly, but make it even better you can use some bearings too.

Filament holder without mods

 

Modded

3D printed upgrades  

Download 3D model

Download 3D model

Extruder Button

Extuder button is little upgrade which makes no differents on print quality, but it makes changing filament easier and more finger friendly. This button goes on the extruder screw which you have to press when changing filament. Sometimes filament changing takes time and you have to press it for a long time and it makes finger hurt. But with this upgrade you don't have problem with that. I printed it with 100% infill and used blue PLA filament. I downloaded 3D files from this site: Click here

Threaded Rods Fittings

The threaded rods for Z-axis is little bit too short to reach thru the upper frame. Because of that the z-axis wobbles. It's not a big wobble, but it affects print quality. I downloaded 3d model for fittings from Thingverse (links below). The fittings are very simple. One end goes thru upper frame and other on to the threaded rod. I glued upper end to frame to make it more secure.

3D Files Link: Click here

New belt and adding belt tensioners

The original belt is too stiff and feels like piece of plastic. When belt is too stiff you can't get it tight. I ordered my new belt from Gearbest. (Order here) The package includes 10m of rubber belt, which feels much softer and stronger.  

Anet A8 have no belt tensioners and it's hard to get it tight, but there are solution: you can print belt tensioners and belt block to attach x-axis belt. I downloaded 3d files from Thingverse and printed tensioners. Then you need some nuts and bolts. I used white PLA, which was included in Anet A8 box to print Y-axis tensioner. The tensioner is printed in two separated parts which you have to put together. I used two m3 bolt and m3 nut which came with 3D printer and you need on longer m4 bolt and nut. Y-axis tensioner 3d files: Click Here!














For X-axis I printed belt block and tensioner. Belt block link: Here and tensioner Here . For tensioner you need two m4 bolt and two m4 nut. The installion is easy. After belt upgrades bed and head moves smoother and when belt stretches, you can turn the tensioner bolts little bit and its tight again. Now you don't need to change belts. The print quality went better. This upgrade is highly recommended. You don't have to use the same tensioners I use. There are many diffrent designed parts for Anet A8.
 

Used diffrent color for belt block(not my pic)

Heatbed leveling

Bed levelling is very important. It's a part of succssful printing. When bed isn't leveled right, your prints are not sticking or layers may be too thin. When your printer is running smoothly, filament is being extruded at an even rate because of pressure from the filament behind pushing it forward. The resistance to this plastic being pushed is referred to as “back pressure”. When the space between the nozzle and print bed vary from different places, the space the filament has to flow into changes which varies the resistance of filament flow. This variance in pressure can cause extruder jams, inconsistent extrusion, and gaps in your layers.

The process of levelling is mostly same for 3D printers. I will discribe Anet A8 bed levelling. You will need one A4 paper sheet and screwdriver. If you use painters tape or other heatbed covers, you need install them first. I use painters tape, but I have thought replacing it with glass plate. You need to heat up your heatbed to printing temperature, because aluminum plate will expand and contract when they are heated and cooled so if you want your bed to be accurately level, it’s best practice to do it when the bed is in the same state that it will be when you print. 

Then you have to loosen four butterfly nuts in every corner. Move your print head to the centre of the plate and place the paper sheet under the nozzel. Loosen Z-axis endstop screws. The endstop switch keeps the nozzel touching the hotbed. Lower the print head by turning both couplers at the same time. Adjust the end stop of the Z-axis until you feel a slight resistance when you try to move the paper sheet underneath the nozzle. This means you can still move the paper front and back, but the nozzle is causing some resistance. If you can move the paper too easily and there isn’t any resistance then the nozzle is too far away from the build plate. If the paper isn’t moving at all, then the nozzle is too close and you should adjust the build plate slightly lower.  

Move your paper and nozzle head to all corners of your printer and make sure that there is no resistance underneath. Adjust the bed height with the screws on the corners of the bed.  Start in one corner and get your print head as close as possible to the bolt and put the paper underneath the nozzle. Use screwdriver to adjust the bed until there is slight resistance on the paper from the nozzle. Repeat this step in all the corners of your bed. You don't need screwdriver when you drill through the heatbed holes. Then you adjust height by turning butterfly nuts. 
  
Once you’ve levelled all the corners, repeat this process again. When you make the adjustments in the corners, it also affects the other corners so it may take a few times to get it just right. 




The levelling takes time and you should do it often. If you are tired of it and are willing to spend some money, you can buy auto levelling sensor. There are many different type of sensors. Some of them are optical and others are touch sensor. Auto levelling makes it easier. I bought sn04-N sensor. I installed it with Skynet firmware. It works great, but I had some problems too. You can get it at these sites: Site1 and Site2  

First prints, First problems

First thing I wanted to print was better nozzel air duct. I got the stl file from Thingverse (link below). Stl file is 3d model which you need for printing. First thing to do is getting 3d file or make your own 3d model and open it with slicing software. I use mostly Cura and sometimes I use Simplify3D. In these programs you can change printing settings like size, layer height, printing speed, temperatures, fill percent and more. After slicing you can print it directly using USB cabel connected to your printer or save a gcode file to your SD memory card which was in the package. I saved gcode file to my SD card and then I put it in the SD card slot which is located on mainboard.

I plugged in the power cable and heated up heatbed and extruder. Then the First Problem occured. I didn't find print from SD option in menu. It took me long time to figure it out. The SD card which was in the package is not working with Anet A8. I tried another SD card and it worked.




Printing started and filament was coming out the nozzel and then the Second Problem occured. The filament did't stick on the heatbed and nozzel dragged it along and made a mess. That was because nozzel distance from heatbed was to big. Before printing I manually leveled heatbed, but somehow I did it wrong. I leveled it once more and I got filament to stick. The bed leveling is what you need to do before printing. I will write more about it in my next post. Now I use auto leveling.


Back to the printing. It started printing fine but after some layers the printed detail came off the bed. Third Problem. The cap between the nozzel and bed was correct, but the heatbed temperature was too low. I change heatbed temp to 60°C and tried again. It worked. My first print finished and it was amazing. It was difficult to successfully print my first 3D model, but it was worth it. 


 MY FIRST 3D PRINTS 

 

Buying my first 3D printer

Few years ago I saw a 3D printer in TV and it looked so awesome. Then I tought that someday I will have my own 3D printer. At that time the prices were to much for me and stopped thinking about that. In 2017, I was looking some tech sites and I noticed a 3D printer with a good discount. Then I watched some videos and read some reviews about this printer. I consider along time before buying it, but when I notice that this discount was closing in 2 hours, I instantly clicked add to cart. After two weeks August 2017, a package was behind my door. I was so excited.

The 3D printer I bought is called Anet A8. I bought it at Gearbest . If you want your own, this site has good prices and there are often big discounts. This printer comes in diy kit, it means that you have to build it yourself. You get a box full of stuff. I think it's good to build it yourself because then you learn how things work. This picture at the right side is not taken by me. I used this picture, because I not have a picture after putting it together. I have taken new picture, but I have modded it and it don't look like after assembly. But I have a one picture of all the parts you have to put together. You can see all parts list HERE.  

It has piano-black laser-cut acrylic frame. Anet A8 supports multiple materials like ABS/PLA/wood/PVA/PP and luminescent. The diameter of filament is 1.75 mm. You can get more details about A8 at link above. This diy kit comes with Micro SD card and USB card reader. The instructions for assembly is on the SD card and you will find some good videos about it from Youtube. This assembly took me about one evening. Now it's about one year I had my own 3d printer. During this year I have modded it to make it better and some things have failed too, but I managed to fix it. Next post will be talking about first prints and first problems. And sorry for my bad english and writing mistakes, english it's not my main language. If you have any questions you can comment or you can get my email at contact page.