A new cheapo printer

[-steves-]

As most of you know I have a 3D printer. The model I have is a Creality Ender 5 Pro and it has proved itself to be a very good and reliable workhorse for me.

The problem I have is that some of my prints are 12 hours or more and when I want a small part printing I find myself waiting a long time. My solution, of course, get another printer. I have no room to put another printer the same size as the Creality one, so something much smaller was required.

I have put an order in for one of these as my very kind wife said I could have one for Christmas.

cheapo printer.jpg (19.25 KiB) Viewed 5535 times

It's an "MP Select Mini Pro 3D Printer - Auto Level Heated Bed Touch Screen Wifi". Now I know some people really don't rate these, but like Marmite, some people love them and I figured for £149.99 posted it was worth a shot. I can use this to print off buffer, couplings, wheels etc while the Ender does all the bigger stuff. It only has a 12cm x 12cm x 12cm print area, but not much of my prints are much bigger than that anyway.

Does anyone have any experience with these? Please don't be too harsh on me, I know it's not a high end machine

[philipy]

Does anyone have any experience with these? Please don't be too harsh on me,

Can't say I've ever heard of it, so I can't help I'm afraid. Like you I do sometimes get frustrated having to wait, but I try to print the small bits during the day and leave the bigger stuff to overnight.

[-steves-]

but I try to print the small bits during the day and leave the bigger stuff to overnight.

That's exactly what I do at the moment, it's the only way to make use of the printer over night

This new one should alleviate some of that as I am hoping it will just sit on the edge of my build desk, unless it's really noisy

[ge_rik]

I don't tend to leave things printing overnight - partly for security reasons (I can't put the alarm on in the workshop if there are hot things moving about) and partly because I like to keep checking how the print is going every hour or so having had a couple of print disasters.

I certainly find having two printers a great help. I tend to use my cheapo printer for smaller jobs or those requiring a less than perfect finish and the better printer for larger parts or those requiring a smoother and/or more detailed finish.

Rik

[-steves-]

Well as and when it arrives, I shall test it out and if it works, I shall post up the results.

[-steves-]

OK, well firstly this is a highly recommended 3D printer and "apparently" gives great results, says lots of people on the internet, including best buy reviews.

Not for me, the first one I got wouldn't auto level properly, well, it didn't auto level at all and frequently crashed the head into the build plate.

Customer support is great directly from Monoprice, all be it a little slow in the pandemic and they sent a new printer saying I could keep the first one.

Second printer, also wouldn't auto level and kept crashing the head into the build plate.

Not happy at all so, sent it back, got a refund, now looking for a mini printer to sit on my desk

[BorisSpencer]

Sorry to hear about your experience, I have the MonoPrice mini Delta, and I have to say it has been flawless.

It's not that quiet, but I can stand to be working in the same room while it's running.
It's also very portable, even having a carry handle on the top!

I suppose you've given up now, but I found a website dedicated to the Delta with lots of tips and tricks including some improved starting gcode to add to your slicer profile. There is also a thriving facebook community for the Delta, and I would imagine similar exists for the select.

[-steves-]

Sorry to hear about your experience, I have the MonoPrice mini Delta, and I have to say it has been flawless.

It's not that quiet, but I can stand to be working in the same room while it's running.
It's also very portable, even having a carry handle on the top!

I suppose you've given up now, but I found a website dedicated to the Delta with lots of tips and tricks including some improved starting gcode to add to your slicer profile. There is also a thriving facebook community for the Delta, and I would imagine similar exists for the select.

Hi Boris

I purchased the printer in November last year and I got a refund on this last Monday which should clear in two days time, I just got fed up with having paid for a printer for over two months and not being able to use it. The only issue was the auto levelling, other than that it wasn't too bad, I actually stuck some paper underneath the corners of the magnets to help manually level it and I got some workable prints off it, but that's not what I paid for, lol. There are a couple of really good sites for the Select V2 and the Delta, again, both highly rated, unfortunately the V3 or "Pro" as they call it has no such site only lots of people complaining that the auto levelling either doesn't work or has broke. I did "copy" some starting g code which helped out, but not with the levelling. Strangely enough it you print the "cat" that comes with it it prints reasonably well, but mainly because it's small and all in the middle of the bed, it also uses a raft which helps with the unlevel bed. I tried a print which was nearly full size of the build plate and it was about 5mm in mid air in one corner and and scraped a hole through the paper bed in the opposite corner.

I still have one of the units here as Monoprice said I could keep it, I mean it's brand new with a couple of test prints only done on it. As it stands it's no good to print with but there are some suggestions that you can "manually" level the bed using g codes, I have yet to try to work out how to even start that, maybe it's beyond me, I don't know

[BorisSpencer]

From what you've described the bed levelling on the Select is completely different from the bed levelling on the Delta.
On the Delta the bed is fixed and the hot end 'Probes' it's position in various places, the correction then all takes place in the software.
This means the process takes place before every print, and there is no adjustment required if you change the bed surface. e.g. you could switch between a magnetic bed and a glass bed between prints with no adjustment required.

I would recommend a Delta as a good "print straight out of the box" solution, bearing in mind the restrictions I mentioned in an earlier thread (https://gardenrails.org/forum/viewtopic ... 54&t=13145), although I would understand a reluctance to try another MonoPrice after your own experience.

[-steves-]

From what you've described the bed levelling on the Select is completely different from the bed levelling on the Delta.
On the Delta the bed is fixed and the hot end 'Probes' it's position in various places, the correction then all takes place in the software.
This means the process takes place before every print, and there is no adjustment required if you change the bed surface. e.g. you could switch between a magnetic bed and a glass bed between prints with no adjustment required.

I would recommend a Delta as a good "print straight out of the box" solution, bearing in mind the restrictions I mentioned in an earlier thread (https://gardenrails.org/forum/viewtopic ... 54&t=13145), although I would understand a reluctance to try another MonoPrice after your own experience.

The Mini Select Pro uses the same auto levelling as the Delta, the only thing is that little sensor on the hotend are notorious for not working or breaking. You can't get hold of replacements for love nor money. I have found a possible solution which involves sending G codes to the printer from a pc, disconnecting the sensor and creating your own mesh. The downside with that is if the bed goes on with any changes after removing it, I guess it will mess up the mesh you create for it. But at least it might print better for a while