Just to set out the stall a bit here ....

This is my first ever 3D printer. I had done a bit of research, but as far as practical experience goes, I had none. I did not have a huge budget either.

So, I did my research. A LOT of research. I worked out what I wanted to print and what features wre importantr to me. I wanted to be able to print in a variety of plastics and I also wanted to be able to print a reasonable quaslity. My last 'must have' was to buy from a UK supplier ( I live in the UK ) boith for customs issues and also for after-care. Buying from a UK supplier meant I would be covered under UK law if hte goods wer enot fit for purpose. Buying direct from China would give me none of that.

So I ended up buying this printer. Metal frame, available from UK sellers ( it is made in China....but most of them are at this price point ) and with a reasonable print bed size. Heated bed too, so that covered my bases. Paid £295 through an Amazon seller and got it delivered next day.

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Came VERY well packed. In a nice thick box, in a sealed large plastic bag, surrounded by plenty of foam. It is not a kit...you just have to bolt the upper part to the base section. Teh control box is wired up to the base, so you have to be a bit careful unboxing, as it's all joined.
The wires need to be connected to the gantry part, but they are all labelled clearly, and if you can't clip wire A into socket A without help, the manual is now full colour with plenty of pictures. The quick start got me ...started.

There were instructions to level the bed which I didn;t read carefully enough. It wouldn;t level...but a bit of googling and some sensible re-reading of the manual told me I should manually rotate the right hand 'Z' motor to level the horizontal. Then the bed levelled fairly well. I don't think it's perfectly flat...but near enough.

The SD card supplied comes with CURA to install, and you get some tools, a scraper for lifting the prints off the bed, and some bits and bobs.

You get a length of PLA filament ( it takes standard 1.75mm ) and you get enough to print the example model. Following the quick start 'print' guide, I found it actually VERY easy to print off the example model ( a hand.. ) first time with no problems at asll. Took a while, but then...I didn't have any real idea how long 3d printing took!

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The quality actually impressed me quite a bit. It was never going to be 'perfect' but I was genuinely impressed with how good it looked and felt.

I had also bought a kilo roll of filament, as you only get a small amout of free stuff with the printer.

PROJECT 1 ..... Warhammer Dreadnought from Thingiverse.

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I ran out of the free white filament halfway trhough this, then had to switch to the new stuff. Which is black.

FIRST LESSON:
The way you lay out the part for printing really matters when it comes to print quality. The final arm on the Dreadnought weas printed with teh round barrel part of the arm facing upwards. When I laid it flat...it looked like THIS:

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The lesson being tht my printer can draw lovely circles ....but print a tube on it's side and it gets messy. I also learnt about supports. The fewer you can get away with, the better.

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So when it came to printing the bolter, I made sure the barrels pointed straight up. Needless to say...they printed lovely!

SECOND LESSON :

When printing, not all models are equal. Badly thought out or poorlyt made meshes do not print well. Spend some time fixing the file if the maker did not. I printed a set of gun barrels that were not joined. I also had issues with incomplete ammo belts etc.
They printed OK, but the mesh had issues, and just didn't print well.

THIRD LESSON:

My 1Kg roll of filament does not fit on the supplied spool holder. If you are coping with this issue...make sure the filament does not get caught up, as when this happens, the plastic just stops flowing. It's not hte end of the world to re-prime the extruder, but your model becomes scrap. I will be printing a longer spool holder so I can properly support the 1kg filament spool.

I have also been printing with a 'raft' as it is easier to get started and it takes up the slack if your print bed is not perfectly level. That, and my initial blunders, has resulted in a pile of scrap plastic: