MP Select Mini 3D Printer V2 VS Maker Select Plus 3D Printer.

I am having trouble deciding on whether to buy the MP Select Mini V2, or the Maker Select Plus.

It would be my first 3D printer, and I am fairly confident I would be serious when getting into 3D printing. But I face the dilemma of buying too little with my starter and then having upgrade later. Or I can spend some more and get something a lot more beefy, but it is double the price.

If I can get some other weigh-ins from some more experienced 3D printers, I'd appreciate it.

My primary qualm is that the Mini only has a 120x120x120mm Build volumn, and in contrast the Maker Select Plus is almost double that. I plan to be printing a lot of miniatures and setting pieces for table top RPG games. DnD, Pathfinder, and the like. Printing wall pieces and little chests and monster miniatures is guaranteed to be one of my main things I print. But I am also interested larger prints like masks and props and so on.

Hello. I have a friend who recently got a monoprice mini v2 for doing just this. He makes little battleships for a starwars/star trek style rpg game he is playing. He is having great success with his. I have the original monoprice mini and it has been a workhorse. it prints awesome and there is no assembly required. open the box plug it in and get printing. There is just one drawback aside from build size and that is the limited upgradeability Printing smaller things will eventually leave you wanting a smaller nozzle and then finer resolution stepper motors or different pulley or threaded rod sizes to get more steps per mm of travel so you can print the finer things finer. The monoprice mini is what it is. You might find a different nozzle but you will not be chasing 0.9 degree stepper motors or any other meaningful upgrade to improve on build quality. Not that the mini doesn't print awesome because it does. I am just talking about very fine detail on very small items.

So my vote is for the full size printer. because of the freedom to chase better performance down the road. Both will do you well.

the maker select plus is a wanhao i3 duplicator, good machines, huge user base and many mods and addons available on thingiverse and user groups.

120x120x120 is very small.

Best advice, start with the maker plus and if you need something larger (you will) buy a kit or build your own. But start with a ready built machine.

I've been tinkering with the idea of making my own from scratch, probably not buy a kit and if I do guy a very modular one. Something I can work on over time to make it better. I've had situations where if I buy individual parts I come out better than buying the individual product by itself post production. I am just unsure if that would be the case. And the assembly itself wouldn't be a problem for me. I come from a technical family and background, so no issues there.

I am feeling that the hardware wouldn't be the issue really, it's the firmware I would have to source and I don't know where to get it.

most 3d printer motherboards come with marlin or similiar already installed.
Not an issue :-)

Most of the mks boards do anyway.

Imho you should have bought and assembled a kit and have a good working printer before you set off on making your own for several reasons. First off you will have a good model to look at to get an idea of all the pieces and parts needed to make such a thing. Second you will already have the experience of assembling a known good model so you will know what to be chasing when you try to create your own. You will also find that having a working printer to design and make parts for your creation also really helps out. I think it is a wild and crazy idea to say that you have never had a 3d printer and have no experience with a 3d printer and you are just going to step up and build one. Don't you? I mean when you read this it has to sound a little ambitious, no?

If you want to build your own the start with something like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/2017-Latest-....c100505.m3226

Assemble it, and by the time you work out all the bugs and have a decent printing machine you should have a good idea of the parts you would want to use in building your own 3d printer from scratch. But right now the 3d printer that you would build surely would be less that the cheap ebay kit in performance and most probably for more money.

I wondered why you'd made a fan duct for an a8.
so you bought one of those as well eh ?

shame you can't add the touchscreen to the a8's. Well i suppose you could if you also changed the board. The one it comes with only has the 2 10 pin connectors. Not the 8 pin touchscreen connector.

Hows the auto levelling on those work ?

the micro switch on z was, is, and always will be problematic. if your x carriage is in the air and you home it you get a different height than if you are already home and you home it. And if you let it sit homed overnight and then home it you will get a different height. For this reason alone z axis micro switches are a loosing proposition. The inductive probe is the best method because of cost but it requires an aluminum bed as it will not read the glass. The BLtouch will read any surface just fine but it is expensive. I have both of these and have nothing but good things to say about either. There is also a capacitive sensor that is supposed to read anything as well but it is every bit as unreliable and inconsistent as the micro switch.

oh I am all about the technical. and let me tell you that wear vs. non wear is an argument for a very long time ago. Sensors that are optical or do not touch anything will never wear or loose their adjustment on their own. The mechanical part sees wear each and every time it is operated so it will never stop changing its position because it will never stop wearing, however slow it might be under the best of circumstances. I am a mechanic and let me tell you, I have funded and entire life and raised a family off of mechanical shit wearing down. That is the downfall to all things mechanical. Optical and inductive sensors are not subject to this or any kind of wear and 1,000,000 cycles and 50 years from now they will still perform to the same spec as when they were setup if not disturbed.

And just because you saw something on youtube doesn't make it right. I can post up youtube videos that teach the earth is flat.

Ya the electronics that drive the sensor will break down. you're right. nothing but death and taxes. lol but in theory I mean.

I did see someone that removed the metal lever from the micro switch and got better performance out of it. I think that lever is what causes the problems with homing from a height vs. homing from home.