Anet A8

Hi all,

I recently purchased and assembled an Anet A8 (Prusa I3 based design) and thought I'd share some of the good / bad points of this printer.

THE GOOD - First up has to be the kit's price. Mine was $159 US dollars shipped, which to be honest was the only reason I even tried it. I had always wanted to attempt to build a kit printer. Maximum print size is very respectable at 220 x 220 x 240 mm. It comes with a heated aluminum bed, layer fan and a MK8 extruder / hotend clone.

The kit had all the "tools" needed for assembly that are shown used in it's YouTube assembly video's except the metric ruler. It had "extra's" on it's nuts / bolts / screws for all the smaller easily lost items. They even tossed in a small amount of PLA, the USB printer cable, a 8BG Micro SD card and it's USB writing adapter. They had some masking tape already on the aluminum bed, and included a printed layer fan "tube".

The A8 has a LCD panel and is perfectly capable of printing with no computer connected, which is a major feature on a printer this low end.

To be honest, the "value" on this printer for what I paid for it was just ridiculously high.

THE BAD - I'll have to go with the laser cut acrylic frame as the worst "feature" of this printer. I know better than to crank down bolts going into plastic, so I've had no issue's so far, but a metal or even plywood frame is superior to acrylic.

Next up has to be the YouTube video assembly instructions. Anet went to a lot of effort here, but some of what your shown is WRONG for the model they are currently selling, the worst of the wrong instruction is it has you wiring up the main board power polarity backwards. Fortunately this didn't ruin anything in my case. They also have you mount the HBP "slide" upside down. My injection molded parts are also "newer" than the video had which changed some of the way things assembled there as well. My other issue from an assembly viewpoint is that the Anet "site" your guided to is on Facebook. Not very handy if your trying to find information that a forum search would give you in seconds.

The part quality is of course at the kit's price somewhat questionable, but it all fit together just fine. The only major design flaw I've noticed so far is the pulley bearings for the belts. These have a smooth side touching the toothed belt, when it should have a gear that is identical to the drive gear, so that the belt would run smoothly.

While this criticism is partly applicable to any Prusa I3 design, it is unmistakable on the Anet A8... namely without a lot of work for cable chains, the wiring is always going to just be dangling everywhere. The wire wrapping and management items they include make it better, but the machine still looks poor from a wire management viewpoint. The Anet A8 also comes with zero plan for it's filament path. One of my early prints on the thing has been a spool holder that mounts on the top of the printer (from Thingiverse by DeAtHfOrToLd). That at least solved most of it's filament path issues.

Anet gives you a printed layer fan tube. It is functional, but until I took a file to it's insides it made a noise exactly like the whistle it resembles (and is twice as loud as...). While I'm on that subject, there is little guidance given to the length of the hotend when you assemble the MK8 extruder so you have to ensure that the hotend is lower than the layer fan tube is before you do a test print or attempt to level the HBP.

The firmware which is apparently replaceable with Skynet is pretty rudimentary. There is no filament "load / unload" command, you just use the preheat and push the filament in by hand. After doing this the first time, you will print a "button top" for the screw that you pushed down on while attempting to get the filament into the hotend because your thumb will be hurting by the time you manage it. I have been unable to find a "pause" once you start printing from the LCD panel controls, which is another downside. I'm printing off the micro SD Card after slicing with Simplify3d, which is working out well, so I can't comment on the included slicing software.

RANDOM COMMENTS - I'm very glad I bought this printer as my first "kit". From both it's price to the fact that I was easily able to "make it work" made it a very satisfying purchase. There is a large collection of upgrade parts that can be printed available on Thingiverse. The A8's PLA print quality is good, even if the printer is very slow. Shipping was a lot faster than expected, since oddly mine shipped out of California from Anet directly, even though the seller (Gearbest) had given the impression of a China shipped item.

Considering all the people with problems with the kits they have purchased for other printers on this and other forums, I feel that the Anet A8 would be a good starter printer for anyone who wanted to try a kit. As to difficulty of assembly, I'd rate this project no higher than a 3. There was no cutting of smooth or threaded rods, the only parts you actually have to cut and potentially botch is the printer belts and the plastic wrap that covers the wires. It took me slightly longer to assemble the printer than it took me to peel the protective paper off all the acrylic parts. Wiring was mostly all plug in connectors and even the few that weren't were at least labeled.