Selecting your 3D Printer Base

There are many 3D printers out there to select from. Our criteria is to select the most open source, easily adaptable and the cheapest one. According to these criteria we will suggest the "Anet A8" do it yourself 3D printer. You will need to assemble this 3D printer by yourself. It is fun and educating to assemble it. However if you don't want to assemble in detail you can also purchase "Creality Cr10" which is another great 3D printer. In this project we will use Anet A8 as our base 3D printer. 

 

Shopping list

These two 3D printers will make great job as our base 3D printer. Again, we will be using Anet A8 as our base 3D printer. Down below you can see how to assemble Anet A8 and make it operational. 

 

Here are other parts that you need to purchase to complete 3D Printer setup (Anet A8 option)

 

How to setup Anet A8

After you get your 3D printer it is time to assemble it into one piece. Here are the two important videos that I prepared for Anet A8 assembly. It is important to first make the electronics check and than start to assemble your 3D printer. Please follow the video order.

1) Electronics check:

2) All assembly steps:

After you follow this videos your 3D printer will be ready to operate. However, there is one thing to notice, when you are assembling the Anet A8 don't assemble its extruder! Since we are going to attach our silicone extruder there is no need to assemble its original extruder. 

anet a8

Here is the picture of Anet A8 at the end of our assembly steps. You will see a 3D printed piece for extruder placement in this picture. Don't worry about it for now, we will show you how to attach that in the following sections. As of now your 3D printer base must be ready for operation. As final step you need to attach the glass plate on top of heated bed with binder clips from 4 corners. See the picture below. And don't forget to remove the handles of binder clips :)

 

glassbed_binderclip

 

Anet A8 Support

If you experience any problems with your 3D printer base at this assembly step you can reach me out over my youtube channel or basically you can comment below the videos. My youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/osdoyi

If can't reach me or if you need any other support there is a really nice support community of Anet A8 in facebook. You can ask your assembly questions into that facebook group as well. Anet A8 facebook support group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1068531466501015/

I assume it will be very smooth assembly and you won't experience any problems :)