How good is a sub ?100 3d printer ?

[curious aardvark]

I'm not like you :-)
I don't 'chase quality'.
I don't really care how smooth a thing looks and I am almost never going to print anything below 0.2 layer height.
As long as it's fairly dimensionally accurate it'll do.
I've been making pc's too long to enjoy tinkering with them any more.
3d printers similiar approach. if it doesn't absolutely need to be done - I'm not going to do it :-)

It's not for collecting dust. This will be a machine I use.
Might have picked up a little regular job this week it would be idea for.

Finally got the box after discovering that where I have always picked up parcels from in the past - sorting office - is not where this parcel ended up. So had to go back the following day to the actual post office - in a different building in swad.

Frame doesn't look too bad.
But once you start looking you can see where the money has gone and not gone.
Plastic hobbed gears, fairly ropey looking belt assemblies - they do have built in tensioning though. Screen doesn't have card reader that appears to be on the board.
The extruder is interesting - I've had it apart this morning.
No tension or spring loading, just a wheel and a hobbed bolt (only metal one on the machine).
Curious to see if it actualy will grab filament.
On the plus side I can't see any gaps, if it works, then it's already good for flexibles.

Oh yeah and the z-axis screw rod attachment is hilarious. there are clear plastic tubes stuck over the small thread at the end of the rod - haven't watched the assembly video yet - but presumably you just push the tubes over the motor shafts.
That's getting upgraded to a proper seated shaft attachment as soon as I can work out what to call it on ebay :-)
That said I had a quick play and it should work.
Ingenious and cheap as chips !

The rods, screw shafts and motors are robust and very solid.

I have to say, looking at it in bits. Most of the upgrades won't be frame related. The belts need better anchor points and gears. Once it's all squared up and bolted together, that and the passive extruder are my current main issues.

Came with a long power cable with uk plug, so I've fitted the switch at the psu end.

Right going to have some lunch, watch the assembly video and start assembling later this afternoon.Also
going to find out if my aluminium mates can punch small square holes in 3mm sheet. In which case I might get the two end plates for the bed made out of that as they are not terrible straight or flat. Failing that might just get a couple aluminium strips and bolt them on to make it a lot more rigid and flat.

The reason the end plates were bent is because when they bolted it together in the factory - they did so off kilter. I've adjusted and made it as straight and square as I can and it slides okay. But in the long run, probably needs fettling.