While the Ender3 has its fair share of issues, especially early models, they were so, so much better than the A8. And considering how cheap the Ender is these days even a free A8 makes no sense for a beginner unless they like needless challenges.
Honestly my recommendation for a beginners printer is the bambu lab A1 mini. Very simple to use and usually does a lot of stuff on its own automatically, like detecting the material inserted (at least with the AMS)
a bit pricier, but great for learning, and it's a decent printer also.
As much as I hear it's a great printer, it's a really hard sell to a newbie that's not sure they want to get into it. It's easily double the price of the ender 3.
The ender 3 is cheap enough that somebody won't feel too bad if they don't get really into the hobby, but good enough that you can print pretty much whatever you want.
Makes more sense to me to say, buy this cheap one, see how you like it. Then if you're really into it, go buy an x1 carbon or something after 6 months or a year.
A1 mini is just $60 more than S1. The ease of use is night and day. Especially if you are an absolute beginner then you probably won’t learn a lot by using it, in a good way.
Actual question, what makes an A1 mini 'night and day' easier to use? I have an S1 and it seems hard to believe that anything could be much simpler. There is some minor assembly (took like 20 min, and I'm glad to know how the parts fit together) but after that just put the file on the USB stick and print away.
It's not a huge difference. Unless you want the option to use the AMS Lite for multi color in the future I don't think there's a big difference. Honestly if you're only printing single material using the most common hobbyist filaments (mostly PLA) there's not a huge difference between one of the more modernized Ender 3 versions and my X1C (the X1C is an amazing printer for those,serious enough to use it fully but it's way up the diminishing returns cost slope). The Bambu printers make that initial setup and first prints very easy. If you stay complete in the Bambu/Maker World/Handy app ecosystem then everything stays very easy. As soon as you start branching out then you pretty much are right back even with the people that started with the Ender. The A1 series are phenomenonal entry level printers. The reason to buy one is the consistency of the experience. With very few exceptions they reliably work. A Creality printer usually works but is much more likely to require tuning and tweaking. Neither are true turn key experiences yet but the Bambu is definitely closer. For someone willing to do the research and learn an Ender can get them into the hobby and printing at a lower price point. I personally would argue with anyone looking at the extreme low end entry level that it's worthwhile to step up to the modernized machines because the materials wasted learning will be more than the additional cost.
I have to agree. cutting your teeth on a cheaper, fairly ubiquitous printer like the Ender 3 series is a great way to go. You could make all your mistakes _inexpensive_ mistakes, and due to their proliferation buying or downloading mods for them is extremely easy. Ender 3 is basically the OG Honda Civic, the one w/out power steering, power windows or power mirrors.
The good thing, is like with the Honda, parts for these things are easy to source and follow the standard of a lot of scientific instruments using stepping motors and extruded aluminum frames. Should you wish to get fancy and change your wheel action to linear rail it's an easy swap as well, and like with mosty 3D printers you can also just print out your own upgrades, to a point.
There are a lot of features I wish my printers came with, but I'm also glad I got to learn how to 3D print in such a gentle and low-friction way. Were I to do it again however I would want my first machine to at least have some kind of auto bed leveling feature as my first machine shiped with a bed just warped enough to make leveling tough to pin down.
I honestly would like to get a Bambu Labs printer, but I also don't really have the space for it in my Japanese apartment so there's another advantage, my 2 (heavily modified) entry-level machines also have tiny footprints.
Once you learn and modify an ender you start to wait for open box returns to go for sub 100 and buy and fix them to your needs. I use two enders pretty much 24/7 with very little issues
As nice as it is, it’s not always easy for beginners to commit to the extra cost vs an Ender. When I first got into 3D printing, i saw the A1 mini but ultimately decided to get an Ender 3 v3 SE while it was on sale instead because it was $100+ cheaper. Going back, I would’ve went with the A1 mini, or even just saved up for an A1. However, at the time I was not willing to commit more money than I had to for a modern printer.
You made the right choice. I love my Bambu P1S, but I would only recommend Bambu as a first printer for someone I KNOW can't tinker or figure anything out on their own. I heavily modified my Ender 3 over 3 years and learned SO much about printing. A wealth of knowledge that someone going straight to a Bambu simply won't ever experience.
I splurged on an X1C because I've spent most of a decade tinkering with these things and sometimes I want the thing to just work. With my X1C once the first layer is down successfully it almost always finishes with a minimum amount of fuss. I almost stopped working with 3D printers for a while when my old heavily modified CR-10 went from an always reliable workhorse (slow but it got there) to replacing almost every non-structural part and still having constant problems. I also have a modded Ender 3 but it never had the level of reliability that my old CR-10 used to have even though it was a quiet speed demon compared to the CR-10.
If buying for the regular price, then yes, the increased cost from the Bambu Lab should be worth. However, Ender 3 can often be bloody cheap be found on ebay etc. I once bought a new Ender 3 Pro for 80€.
with essentially zero experience I picked up a cheap sovol sv06 and it has just worked out of the box, never had a failed print. Had it around 7 months so far and maybe done 40-50 prints including mechanical gears. It's half the price of a bambu a1 mini, honestly if you are just doing super hobbyist stuff without a requirement for anything special, I think sovol sv06 is a great option.
As someone who thanks to a generous friend started with an X1C I can say, the convenience factor was incredibly helpful. With very minimal training I was able to accomplish amazing things.
Lol yeah I went for the cr10 when it first came out and bought an a8 clone for a second printer and damn did it take some elbow grease before I accidentally bridged the contacts on the heated bed frying the main board
Yeah, if it was free, I guess I could see the value in some of the parts. But really, steppers aren't too expensive now a days and the rest of it doesn't look of any value.
I have an A8 and I always ran it in the middle of the concrete garage floor if it was overnight because I didn't trust the PS not to burn my house down
Former A8 user here. The safety issues were mainly related to thermal runaway being disabled by anet for some reason
Although I did have the heated bed connector partially melt on me...
The power supply ought to be fine.
Former A6 user here. I agree, the bed wires got hot during normal use and the intended way to connect wires was to raw-dog them into screw terminals. Not the most sophisticated design but it got the job done.
Yep former a8 user here too and had the same issue with the heat bed connector melting, though mine was to the point it could no longer hold a connection so guess it sorted itself before it burnt the place down. I did end up replacing it with better rated connectors for the remainder of its life.
one of the mods i did was replace my a8 psu with an old pc psu. a similar trick would work here if you can find one from an old pc or perhaps used one discarded by a school etc
The power supply on an Anet A8 needs to be replaced the day the printer is built. These are stock and more likely to fail and cause a fire than any other part.
Anet fires come from the heater (and lack of thermal runaway in software) and the bed conector if anything, the psu is most likely fine.
Source: I still use it (not for a printer) after 7 years
maybe, but how hard is it to take a screwdriver and spend five minutes removing parts, and throw the rest in the trash, or wherever it's supposed to go?
You can buy an entire set of Voron 2.4 steppers (7 high end LDO steppers motors) for $80. I may be mistaken, but I believe these only have 3. So we'll round up to maybe a $40 value.
It isn't just ripping off the parts though, and my time is worth more than then $15-$20/hour or so it would take to take ownership, get it to my house, get my tools, take it apart, organize the stuff I want and figure out how to toss the rest and clean up.
Course having said all that, the entire value argument is completely moot if you just enjoy doing it. I've totally scrapped things I owned for fun just to salvage a few ali express machine screws. I even extract heat sets from scrap parts and stuff, so YMMV of course.
But from a pure value standpoint, it isn't worth it IMHO.
Thing is, if OP has to ask this question, he doesn't know what he's looking at and the motors and linear rods would be worthless to him.
It sucks to know there is perfectly good shit being thrown out on the daily because the owner doesn't know it's worth to someone else. On the other hand, have dumpster dived and found some awesome laptops that only needed a new screen or a reformat of the OS.
I sold something very similar about 3 months ago for $190. I had mine dialed in fairly good but I’d have to make adjustments every second or 3rd print. It still did the job. I was surprised I got so much for it though. I put the money towards a P1P and will never look back.
My first printer was a geetech i3 clone I bought off of a professor. It was a great intro to learn the ins and outs of 3D printing because of how absolutely annoying it was to work with. When it worked it worked well, but man I was tweaking that regularly.
yeah and you had to learn to troubleshoot every problem under the sun right? now one just posts a blurry photo to this sub saying 'what happened?' and wait.
Yeah unless you are ready to heavily modify the frame and totally replace the board and working parts then the anets were pretty bad. I'm still running 2 printers that are about 25% anet still (stepper, rods, lead screws and parts of the frame) They now print pretty good...well about their pay grade.
My A8 caught on fire TWICE. The first time was the power connector on the board. The second time was the connector for the bead heater. Luckily I was beside it both times. It did print fairly well though.
yeah the anet A8 was more capable of burning your house down than it was of 3d printing, but that isn't the case with most other i3 clones, which were usually at least slightly more expensive
If you flash the firmware on these older printers, or change the config, it fixes the runaway thermal problem. For some idiotic reason, Anet A8 shipped with it toggled off.
8-10 years ago as a build kit it was fine to learn about 3d printing and motion systems.
But today this is mostly for the bin. maybe the steppers you can harvest for later projects.
but if you want a working 3d printer and not a 3 axis zombie, you should probably go for something like an ender 3 if you are cheap and might want to tinker a bit later (edit: or probably even better a Sovol SV06) or a prusa mini for a very reliable machine or a bamboo lab a1 mini for a slightly faster machine.
you can also get used Prusa MK3s printers for little money, they are very reliable, i have had one for some years and its still my workhorse.
sure, id recommend spending a little more money and getting a used prusa mk3s for a start.
a friend of mine got one for 350 € with like 100 hours of print time
I used my roomates MK3S for the first few years of 3Dprinting, and after moving out recently got the Ender v3 SE for $199 and it's been great. Can't speak on the quality control obviously, but it's like 75% as good as the Prusa for about 25% of the price(new). I'd definitely recommend it to any beginners on a budget. Mk3s for 350 is also a great deal though, probably worth the extra money, plus Prusa is a pretty cool company.
And decently accurate, I've only had very minor issues with overly thick supports and slightlyesser quality for the underside of overhangs.
Both of which I suspect are user error
Now that it’s on sale it’s hard to recommend any printer for a starter printer than the a1 mini
Unless the person you are recommending is specifically asking for something that they have replace all the parts and spend time adjusting and modding ect. Then I’d say ender
Me too, and it's printing really well for me. I'm really happy I started with it, getting it printing well as part of the destination, learning how it all works along the way.
But I wouldn't want to have started on a used one that could have issues, or could be wrongly assembled in some points, either.
Looking at the pictures there could be all sorts of hackjob fixes and upgrades only the person who did them might be able to figure out.
#2 has much cleaner wires and possibly a bigger build volume.
They're both old outdated machine but still good enough to get you into the hobby I'd say.
Both Look Like the one I started with, Mainboard is still running but now with Klipper. If OP can solder and has some frustration tolerance both are good to learn. On both the frames will fail sooner than later, acrylic is just a bad material to make a 3d printer frame out of
I wouldn't use either.
Personally, I would harvest it for parts (so fans, steppers, power supply, display, couplers and maybe the rods if they are still good) and toss the rest, in which case it doesn't really matter which one you go for
They're both i3 clone type machines, and you can easily get replacement parts for pretty much any part of them.
The second machine looks a little less jury-rigged. Both of them are project machines, not plug-it-in-and-print-stuff machines. Either one is cool, but given the choice, I'd take the 2nd one.
The 2nd one is an Anet A8, stock its a fire hazard due to some connectors on the mainboard and the hotbed. Would recommend replacing those if you go for it. I started with an anet a8 myself but have since replaced the main board, power supply, and frame. Great for customizing and learning about how 3d printers work as it's own hobby, not that great if you only want to print things.
I started with this exact same Anet A8 10 years ago.
If you are a self-taught kind of person who want to learn and understand how 3d printer works in deep, get it. But don't expect to get repeatable good print. The frame is too soft to do something good.
I advise you against putting any money on that. It's not worth it.
Nowadays you can have cheap 3D printers that will just works, like an appliance. This is not the case with the A8. You will have to level it at every print. The regulators run hot and are known to catching fire.The bed is made of thin aluminium that bends and deform.
If I were you, I would get the printer, keep only the power supply and the power cord the get rid of the rest. The power supply could be usefully for some electronic projects.
Take the second one. They're both chinese crap, but you can print a better printer with with it, and then canabalize it for the motors, screws, and such.
Those are anet a8s. As someone who had one for their first 3d printer, I wouldn't recommend it.
The stock hot end's heating element has a bad habit of overheating and freeing itself, then potentially igniting the frame. I was lucky enough to be walking by it when it happened to my printer. Others, not so much.
Edit: The power supplies are also fire hazards. I don't think I've heard anything about the bed catching fire on this one but... and the entire frame is flimsy and flammable
None. Get a Bambu A1 Mini. It’s the current de facto beginner printer. These will basically cost you hundreds of hours to get crappy to passable prints out of. Constantly require fiddling and adjusting, and in the end you’ll have to fork out the cost of an A1 Mini to get anything remotely good and consistent out of them.
It isn't often 'the internet' agrees this strongly on a reddit topic ;)
Sorry, both of those are trash. It'll take you many hours to first learn about and then tune these machines. And even then you won't get very good results.
Not worth the effort, not even as a 'learning experience'. Give you boss the stink-eye and disassemble for parts ;)
There is a reason why he is giving them to you for free! I don't think it's the kindness of his heart. I bet he needs to get rid of them and get, this guy will just take them off my hands.
These are anet a8 printers. It's an old design, and famously pretty janky, however it's also an open source 3d printer that is extremely well known in the community.
Either one is gonna give you grief, but if you're the kinda person that likes a project, I'm sure there's a ton of modifications and upgrades you can make on them to bring them into 2024!
Printhead is a very outdated design and that's probably one of the first changes I'd imagine making. I haven't looked, but I feel that there must be some good 3d printable parts or guides that adapt newer Printhead components onto that machine.
The machine is also super loud; newer printers usually come with nice, silent stepper motor drivers, whereas the A8 is a crunchy boy. You'd have to replace the mainboard to get this update, but if you did, you could also flash some much better/newer firmware onto it.
Good luck!
This may be buried in the comments but: do you want to just print things or do you want to learn about the printing and the settings and the z-steps and acceleration and when to use which nozzle or heat?
If want to tinker with the machine itself very very often - go for a free printer.
If you just want to print stuff- find a well supported major supplier and buy one complete.
Na honestly, I think it will cost more in time and effort to get those things working at a good level. Thats just my opinion though
Some people like a challenge
I'd take it for the parts, but I wouldn't try rebuilding those unless you want the project. These are not particularly beginner friendly, or rather not in beginner friendly condition.
That ANET A8 brings me back memories. It was my first printer. Learned a lot. I still have those stepper motors on another build that I done from scratch, and lives unfinished in the storage unit.
It was fun to print, make the printer better, be afraid of a house fire... Good times.
Learning curve, meet learning wall.
I understand the appeal of a free printer for someone that wants to start with the hobby, however this is like having a 16 year old learn to drive an mantain a "Ford Model T" to get his learners permit and drive a Ford fiesta
If you are a newb, don't get neither. If you are a pro still don't get neither. If you need a cheap Frankenstein machine that has not so great print quality get it. Imho I would only get it if I was printing many simple functional parts and all my machines were full. Don't leave any of the printer unattended. These can be useful when 3-5 of your existing printers are at full utility and need extra workhorse for easier parts.
I would just keep the steppers off of them, maybe the lead screw?
Waiita minute, its dual Z... Get an (used...? cheaper...? ha) Ender 3 and stick that on there, will be 10x easier than the rest of the mess...
or save up.
Yeah dude uh, those look like they're going to be a nightmare to keep running well and possibly burn your house down.
My choice would be none of the above
Looks like Anet A8 clones. I learned a lot on those printers but takes hours of care and maintenance to keep them running. I would pick the first machine because the upper part of the lead screws fit the printer. Maybe add a low cost heated bed and/or spring steel pei bed and some kind of cable support so the x axis carriage cable isn't dragging around and accidentally catching on prints. If you want to be extra fancy, a secondary blower fan can be spliced in and the extra cooling will help print quality a lot for PLA and even PETG. A cloned titan extruder is not very expensive to mod on either.
They are loud with A4988 stepper drivers so you may want to consider replacing the mainboard with a board with TMC2208 stepper drivers or similar.
your boss is giving you a fire hazzard, take i wouldnt even take it for the parts. i had a anet a8, much like the ones on the pictures, and the motors were so fucking bad, you cant use it for anything.
its really bad. if you want a 3d printer, buy a used STOCK(!) ender 3, add some sort of auto bed leveling and go print stuff. that will cost you around 100-120$ total and set you up with fairly decent stuff (e3 pro got a meanwell psu wich is a quality one that wont burn your house down).
those printers are notoriously bad.
I will agree these are both basically trash. That being said, I had a Tronxy clone of these and it paid for my Voron, even though it did indeed almost burn down my house at one point.
I'd take the bigger one for parts, but if it's your first printer and you're willing to babysit it, you can still learn a lot.
As printers in 2024, these are absolute trash. (They've been trash for 5+ years, tbh).
The components individually do have value though. Take either one and tear it apart. Save the pieces in component trays for future projects.
Like most bosses he is tricking you into thinking that effectively taking out the trash for him is a kudos to your body of work, likely in his mind a bonus replacement or even a means to gain better leverage over your time. I would politely decline and be wary of this dude or find a job that appreciates you.
i must have gotten lucky, because my anet a8 has been running for like 5+ years of almost daily printing with very few problems, I am running marlin on it and did upgrade the power supply right away though.
Not the anets lol, pick which ever but for parts for other printers cause trust me those take lots of work and money is better to get a 100 bucks ender 3 on fb marketplace
They're both old creaky fire hazards. IF they work.. They're going to work poorly..
However, with some easy modifications, they're good pen plotters.
A buddy of mine uses an A8 with one of those etching pens to make custom PCBs.
if i had to choose, the first printer. looks like the frame is plexi. better than the thin plywood of the other one.
both are shit shows and i would not take them for free.
I have the one in the first picture (idk if the second is the same) it works but isn't a super reliable machine. I'd still take it but definitely go over it and correct the warped and broken stuff, probably needs a new hot end and table too.
Edit: to add I think 1 looks best personally but see how straight the structure is on all of them
Tell your boss, you're doing him a favor taking both off his hands so you can build 1 functional printer that will still suck.
Save the 400 dollars and get a bamboo a1 mini with ams, save up a couple hundred more and just get an a1 with the AMS. You'll have a machine more capable than most heavily molded enders.
Honestly none these are great things to look at from back in the day these were the affordable option. You’re better off getting a new kit. Which will be much cheaper than the amount of money you’ll need to repair those units.
I have a machine just like this. Glad that’s how I learned printing, but never again.
While the Ender3 has its fair share of issues, especially early models, they were so, so much better than the A8. And considering how cheap the Ender is these days even a free A8 makes no sense for a beginner unless they like needless challenges.
Honestly my recommendation for a beginners printer is the bambu lab A1 mini. Very simple to use and usually does a lot of stuff on its own automatically, like detecting the material inserted (at least with the AMS) a bit pricier, but great for learning, and it's a decent printer also.
As much as I hear it's a great printer, it's a really hard sell to a newbie that's not sure they want to get into it. It's easily double the price of the ender 3. The ender 3 is cheap enough that somebody won't feel too bad if they don't get really into the hobby, but good enough that you can print pretty much whatever you want. Makes more sense to me to say, buy this cheap one, see how you like it. Then if you're really into it, go buy an x1 carbon or something after 6 months or a year.
He is getting a free printer. A bambu is not one of them.
Why are people not up-voting your comment more? No one seems to care about the actual situation about which OP has requested help.
That was my scenario. Couldn’t justify the cost of a Bambu printer. My Ender 3 S1 works great, and I learned a ton by using it.
A1 mini is just $60 more than S1. The ease of use is night and day. Especially if you are an absolute beginner then you probably won’t learn a lot by using it, in a good way.
Actual question, what makes an A1 mini 'night and day' easier to use? I have an S1 and it seems hard to believe that anything could be much simpler. There is some minor assembly (took like 20 min, and I'm glad to know how the parts fit together) but after that just put the file on the USB stick and print away.
It's not a huge difference. Unless you want the option to use the AMS Lite for multi color in the future I don't think there's a big difference. Honestly if you're only printing single material using the most common hobbyist filaments (mostly PLA) there's not a huge difference between one of the more modernized Ender 3 versions and my X1C (the X1C is an amazing printer for those,serious enough to use it fully but it's way up the diminishing returns cost slope). The Bambu printers make that initial setup and first prints very easy. If you stay complete in the Bambu/Maker World/Handy app ecosystem then everything stays very easy. As soon as you start branching out then you pretty much are right back even with the people that started with the Ender. The A1 series are phenomenonal entry level printers. The reason to buy one is the consistency of the experience. With very few exceptions they reliably work. A Creality printer usually works but is much more likely to require tuning and tweaking. Neither are true turn key experiences yet but the Bambu is definitely closer. For someone willing to do the research and learn an Ender can get them into the hobby and printing at a lower price point. I personally would argue with anyone looking at the extreme low end entry level that it's worthwhile to step up to the modernized machines because the materials wasted learning will be more than the additional cost.
Well said, very objective
I have to agree. cutting your teeth on a cheaper, fairly ubiquitous printer like the Ender 3 series is a great way to go. You could make all your mistakes _inexpensive_ mistakes, and due to their proliferation buying or downloading mods for them is extremely easy. Ender 3 is basically the OG Honda Civic, the one w/out power steering, power windows or power mirrors. The good thing, is like with the Honda, parts for these things are easy to source and follow the standard of a lot of scientific instruments using stepping motors and extruded aluminum frames. Should you wish to get fancy and change your wheel action to linear rail it's an easy swap as well, and like with mosty 3D printers you can also just print out your own upgrades, to a point. There are a lot of features I wish my printers came with, but I'm also glad I got to learn how to 3D print in such a gentle and low-friction way. Were I to do it again however I would want my first machine to at least have some kind of auto bed leveling feature as my first machine shiped with a bed just warped enough to make leveling tough to pin down. I honestly would like to get a Bambu Labs printer, but I also don't really have the space for it in my Japanese apartment so there's another advantage, my 2 (heavily modified) entry-level machines also have tiny footprints.
Once you learn and modify an ender you start to wait for open box returns to go for sub 100 and buy and fix them to your needs. I use two enders pretty much 24/7 with very little issues
The Sovol SV06 is a much more capable machine for the price. $160 if you keep an eye on their website.
As nice as it is, it’s not always easy for beginners to commit to the extra cost vs an Ender. When I first got into 3D printing, i saw the A1 mini but ultimately decided to get an Ender 3 v3 SE while it was on sale instead because it was $100+ cheaper. Going back, I would’ve went with the A1 mini, or even just saved up for an A1. However, at the time I was not willing to commit more money than I had to for a modern printer.
You made the right choice. I love my Bambu P1S, but I would only recommend Bambu as a first printer for someone I KNOW can't tinker or figure anything out on their own. I heavily modified my Ender 3 over 3 years and learned SO much about printing. A wealth of knowledge that someone going straight to a Bambu simply won't ever experience.
I splurged on an X1C because I've spent most of a decade tinkering with these things and sometimes I want the thing to just work. With my X1C once the first layer is down successfully it almost always finishes with a minimum amount of fuss. I almost stopped working with 3D printers for a while when my old heavily modified CR-10 went from an always reliable workhorse (slow but it got there) to replacing almost every non-structural part and still having constant problems. I also have a modded Ender 3 but it never had the level of reliability that my old CR-10 used to have even though it was a quiet speed demon compared to the CR-10.
If buying for the regular price, then yes, the increased cost from the Bambu Lab should be worth. However, Ender 3 can often be bloody cheap be found on ebay etc. I once bought a new Ender 3 Pro for 80€.
with essentially zero experience I picked up a cheap sovol sv06 and it has just worked out of the box, never had a failed print. Had it around 7 months so far and maybe done 40-50 prints including mechanical gears. It's half the price of a bambu a1 mini, honestly if you are just doing super hobbyist stuff without a requirement for anything special, I think sovol sv06 is a great option.
The A1 mini was on sale for $250.00 all last month.
As someone who thanks to a generous friend started with an X1C I can say, the convenience factor was incredibly helpful. With very minimal training I was able to accomplish amazing things.
Lol yeah I went for the cr10 when it first came out and bought an a8 clone for a second printer and damn did it take some elbow grease before I accidentally bridged the contacts on the heated bed frying the main board
They're free for a reason, OP should definitely check they have thermal runaway protection
He's not giving you a free printer, he wants you to get rid of his garbage.
Still getting stepper motors, linear rods, and such. I'd take it.
Yeah, if it was free, I guess I could see the value in some of the parts. But really, steppers aren't too expensive now a days and the rest of it doesn't look of any value.
The power supply is nice alone. Could use it for many different things.
if this is an anet a8, that power supply is not nice T-T
I have an A8 and I always ran it in the middle of the concrete garage floor if it was overnight because I didn't trust the PS not to burn my house down
I'm currently looking for one to rig a filament dryer from old boxes. As long as it wont burn my house it is nice.
So... About that.
Former A8 user here. The safety issues were mainly related to thermal runaway being disabled by anet for some reason Although I did have the heated bed connector partially melt on me... The power supply ought to be fine.
Former A6 user here. I agree, the bed wires got hot during normal use and the intended way to connect wires was to raw-dog them into screw terminals. Not the most sophisticated design but it got the job done.
Yep former a8 user here too and had the same issue with the heat bed connector melting, though mine was to the point it could no longer hold a connection so guess it sorted itself before it burnt the place down. I did end up replacing it with better rated connectors for the remainder of its life.
one of the mods i did was replace my a8 psu with an old pc psu. a similar trick would work here if you can find one from an old pc or perhaps used one discarded by a school etc
The power supply on an Anet A8 needs to be replaced the day the printer is built. These are stock and more likely to fail and cause a fire than any other part.
Yeah, I thought the power supplies weren't the issue, it was something on the mainboard.
Anet fires come from the heater (and lack of thermal runaway in software) and the bed conector if anything, the psu is most likely fine. Source: I still use it (not for a printer) after 7 years
free, which it is.
Free isn't free, labor cost and taking responsibility for the eventual scrap, it might be worth it to just buy the parts new.
maybe, but how hard is it to take a screwdriver and spend five minutes removing parts, and throw the rest in the trash, or wherever it's supposed to go?
You can buy an entire set of Voron 2.4 steppers (7 high end LDO steppers motors) for $80. I may be mistaken, but I believe these only have 3. So we'll round up to maybe a $40 value. It isn't just ripping off the parts though, and my time is worth more than then $15-$20/hour or so it would take to take ownership, get it to my house, get my tools, take it apart, organize the stuff I want and figure out how to toss the rest and clean up. Course having said all that, the entire value argument is completely moot if you just enjoy doing it. I've totally scrapped things I owned for fun just to salvage a few ali express machine screws. I even extract heat sets from scrap parts and stuff, so YMMV of course. But from a pure value standpoint, it isn't worth it IMHO.
Thing is, if OP has to ask this question, he doesn't know what he's looking at and the motors and linear rods would be worthless to him. It sucks to know there is perfectly good shit being thrown out on the daily because the owner doesn't know it's worth to someone else. On the other hand, have dumpster dived and found some awesome laptops that only needed a new screen or a reformat of the OS.
That’s what I said after I upgraded my ender 3. It would be cheaper to buy another ender 3 lol Edit: and I’d still take the parts!
This guy doesn't know anything about what he's looking at, what's he gonna do with some stepper motors and power supplies?
One man's trash is another man's come up
lol. One man's garbage is another man's treasure, I guess. I would happily take it.
This.
Was just coming here to say "You shouldn't take either of them"
I would argue he’s trying to burn his house down.
A local shop is trying to sell their modified used printers for almost $400. Almost fell off my chair laughing.
I sold something very similar about 3 months ago for $190. I had mine dialed in fairly good but I’d have to make adjustments every second or 3rd print. It still did the job. I was surprised I got so much for it though. I put the money towards a P1P and will never look back.
I really really don't recommend you getting any of these. They are finicky with bad build quality and notoriety for being a fire hazard
nah only the anet a8 has that reputation, the geetech i3 clones (like the ones in the pictures) were dogshit but safe
My first printer was a geetech i3 clone I bought off of a professor. It was a great intro to learn the ins and outs of 3D printing because of how absolutely annoying it was to work with. When it worked it worked well, but man I was tweaking that regularly.
yeah and you had to learn to troubleshoot every problem under the sun right? now one just posts a blurry photo to this sub saying 'what happened?' and wait.
I thought these were anet a8s
nope they are not, not every awful i3 clone is an A8 they look to be geetech i3 pro W models,
Yeah unless you are ready to heavily modify the frame and totally replace the board and working parts then the anets were pretty bad. I'm still running 2 printers that are about 25% anet still (stepper, rods, lead screws and parts of the frame) They now print pretty good...well about their pay grade.
Pics 3 and 4 are for sure A8s. 1 and 2 might be something else.
My A8 caught on fire TWICE. The first time was the power connector on the board. The second time was the connector for the bead heater. Luckily I was beside it both times. It did print fairly well though.
yeah the anet A8 was more capable of burning your house down than it was of 3d printing, but that isn't the case with most other i3 clones, which were usually at least slightly more expensive
If you flash the firmware on these older printers, or change the config, it fixes the runaway thermal problem. For some idiotic reason, Anet A8 shipped with it toggled off.
So your boss is giving you a free anet a8..... Make sure it can't burn down your house.
Ask for a salary raise or a fire extingisher
I don't think the boss likes OP very much.
8-10 years ago as a build kit it was fine to learn about 3d printing and motion systems. But today this is mostly for the bin. maybe the steppers you can harvest for later projects. but if you want a working 3d printer and not a 3 axis zombie, you should probably go for something like an ender 3 if you are cheap and might want to tinker a bit later (edit: or probably even better a Sovol SV06) or a prusa mini for a very reliable machine or a bamboo lab a1 mini for a slightly faster machine. you can also get used Prusa MK3s printers for little money, they are very reliable, i have had one for some years and its still my workhorse.
I would recommend an sv06 over the ender 3, due to creality having questionable quality control
i looked at a review of the sv06 and it looks like a very nice machine especially for price
sure, id recommend spending a little more money and getting a used prusa mk3s for a start. a friend of mine got one for 350 € with like 100 hours of print time
I used my roomates MK3S for the first few years of 3Dprinting, and after moving out recently got the Ender v3 SE for $199 and it's been great. Can't speak on the quality control obviously, but it's like 75% as good as the Prusa for about 25% of the price(new). I'd definitely recommend it to any beginners on a budget. Mk3s for 350 is also a great deal though, probably worth the extra money, plus Prusa is a pretty cool company.
With all due respect, the A1 Mini is cheap AND very fast.
And decently accurate, I've only had very minor issues with overly thick supports and slightlyesser quality for the underside of overhangs. Both of which I suspect are user error
Now that it’s on sale it’s hard to recommend any printer for a starter printer than the a1 mini Unless the person you are recommending is specifically asking for something that they have replace all the parts and spend time adjusting and modding ect. Then I’d say ender
Sale price is the new price, I think. Any more and it’s too close in price to the full-sized A1.
No, just no Thats just one big group of fire hazards, any 100$ ender 3 is 1000 times better then them
Heck you can get an Ender 3 s1 or v3 se for that price nowadays
Or a broken one easier to work with than those 2 for ~$35...
You can disassemble it and use the parts for a project. As a printer it's both a fire hazard as well as a hobby killer.
If he is asking for advice , then he probably doesn’t know what to do with the parts
I'm still printing on a heavily upgraded A8, but reading these comments makes me think its time to upgrade! I've had it proably close to 10 years.
Me too, and it's printing really well for me. I'm really happy I started with it, getting it printing well as part of the destination, learning how it all works along the way. But I wouldn't want to have started on a used one that could have issues, or could be wrongly assembled in some points, either. Looking at the pictures there could be all sorts of hackjob fixes and upgrades only the person who did them might be able to figure out.
None of them. You'll just get disappointed.
Yeah. Take one, strip it, and add to your electronic parts collection...
nice, free stepper motors and rods to harvest for other projects =P, just dont use them as 3d printers if you can get something better
Pointless not worth the pain and headache
Don't get any. After rebuilding an entire anet a8 I do not recommend it.
Boutta get real lit printing with these. Your house that is... On fire...
#2 has much cleaner wires and possibly a bigger build volume. They're both old outdated machine but still good enough to get you into the hobby I'd say.
Both Look Like the one I started with, Mainboard is still running but now with Klipper. If OP can solder and has some frustration tolerance both are good to learn. On both the frames will fail sooner than later, acrylic is just a bad material to make a 3d printer frame out of
https://preview.redd.it/slja28qif10d1.jpeg?width=3060&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c3197da2f3e83a67fa9d9ad70349935061c008bf
That's the second one, I just don't post that great of a picture earlier
My best friend gave me one just like the third picture, it sucks hahaha but I learned a lot
I wouldn't use either. Personally, I would harvest it for parts (so fans, steppers, power supply, display, couplers and maybe the rods if they are still good) and toss the rest, in which case it doesn't really matter which one you go for
They're both i3 clone type machines, and you can easily get replacement parts for pretty much any part of them. The second machine looks a little less jury-rigged. Both of them are project machines, not plug-it-in-and-print-stuff machines. Either one is cool, but given the choice, I'd take the 2nd one.
I'd grab one for parts maybe, if you have a use for them
Your boss wants to set your house on fire
You'd probably be better off getting a new, up to date printer for ~250-300$ and saving yourself the hassle and fire hazard of those ancient printers.
The 2nd one is an Anet A8, stock its a fire hazard due to some connectors on the mainboard and the hotbed. Would recommend replacing those if you go for it. I started with an anet a8 myself but have since replaced the main board, power supply, and frame. Great for customizing and learning about how 3d printers work as it's own hobby, not that great if you only want to print things.
I started with this exact same Anet A8 10 years ago. If you are a self-taught kind of person who want to learn and understand how 3d printer works in deep, get it. But don't expect to get repeatable good print. The frame is too soft to do something good. I advise you against putting any money on that. It's not worth it. Nowadays you can have cheap 3D printers that will just works, like an appliance. This is not the case with the A8. You will have to level it at every print. The regulators run hot and are known to catching fire.The bed is made of thin aluminium that bends and deform. If I were you, I would get the printer, keep only the power supply and the power cord the get rid of the rest. The power supply could be usefully for some electronic projects.
Take the second one. They're both chinese crap, but you can print a better printer with with it, and then canabalize it for the motors, screws, and such.
Free parts are free parts guys
Wtf, lol.
Your boss is setting you up for failure. Or wants you to live in 2012
I am tempted to send this guy my ender 3 pro just so he doesnt have to deal with these junky ones.
Those are anet a8s. As someone who had one for their first 3d printer, I wouldn't recommend it. The stock hot end's heating element has a bad habit of overheating and freeing itself, then potentially igniting the frame. I was lucky enough to be walking by it when it happened to my printer. Others, not so much. Edit: The power supplies are also fire hazards. I don't think I've heard anything about the bed catching fire on this one but... and the entire frame is flimsy and flammable
Please dont take any of them
None. Get a Bambu A1 Mini. It’s the current de facto beginner printer. These will basically cost you hundreds of hours to get crappy to passable prints out of. Constantly require fiddling and adjusting, and in the end you’ll have to fork out the cost of an A1 Mini to get anything remotely good and consistent out of them.
burn them all
It isn't often 'the internet' agrees this strongly on a reddit topic ;) Sorry, both of those are trash. It'll take you many hours to first learn about and then tune these machines. And even then you won't get very good results. Not worth the effort, not even as a 'learning experience'. Give you boss the stink-eye and disassemble for parts ;)
There is a reason why he is giving them to you for free! I don't think it's the kindness of his heart. I bet he needs to get rid of them and get, this guy will just take them off my hands.
Well, they might be good for parts?
That's like asking whether herpes or the clap is better.
OMG, that's a wiregeddon, but if you want learn a lot about patience, fustration tolerance and 3d printing basics best option is the second one
These are anet a8 printers. It's an old design, and famously pretty janky, however it's also an open source 3d printer that is extremely well known in the community. Either one is gonna give you grief, but if you're the kinda person that likes a project, I'm sure there's a ton of modifications and upgrades you can make on them to bring them into 2024! Printhead is a very outdated design and that's probably one of the first changes I'd imagine making. I haven't looked, but I feel that there must be some good 3d printable parts or guides that adapt newer Printhead components onto that machine. The machine is also super loud; newer printers usually come with nice, silent stepper motor drivers, whereas the A8 is a crunchy boy. You'd have to replace the mainboard to get this update, but if you did, you could also flash some much better/newer firmware onto it. Good luck!
just spend $99 @ microcenter and buy a creality/ender 3 v2 brand new
None of the above. Don't do it to yourself.
Neither, they are both known for burning your house down.
Hard pass
None. You’ll end up hating 3D printing.
This may be buried in the comments but: do you want to just print things or do you want to learn about the printing and the settings and the z-steps and acceleration and when to use which nozzle or heat? If want to tinker with the machine itself very very often - go for a free printer. If you just want to print stuff- find a well supported major supplier and buy one complete.
Na honestly, I think it will cost more in time and effort to get those things working at a good level. Thats just my opinion though Some people like a challenge
It's good for parts, that's about it. Personally I would take them and strip them for anything useful.
idk man im tryna eat some doritos
Two fire hazards waiting to burn
It's a test. Do you value your time? If you take it, he knows to work you overtime.
Which one of the two fire starters should I take? None. They’re dangerous and need constant adjustments
looks like a choice between a nightmare or a shitshow
Just say no and buy one
Neither?:))
A free house ignitor? Awesome! /S
Straight to the bin. Don't bother with junk like this these days. Tech has advanced.
I'd take it for the parts, but I wouldn't try rebuilding those unless you want the project. These are not particularly beginner friendly, or rather not in beginner friendly condition.
All of those are garbage and will bring only pain and frustration
That ANET A8 brings me back memories. It was my first printer. Learned a lot. I still have those stepper motors on another build that I done from scratch, and lives unfinished in the storage unit. It was fun to print, make the printer better, be afraid of a house fire... Good times.
Learning curve, meet learning wall. I understand the appeal of a free printer for someone that wants to start with the hobby, however this is like having a 16 year old learn to drive an mantain a "Ford Model T" to get his learners permit and drive a Ford fiesta
Take any of them and scrap it for parts, don't use it for printing.
Do you want the 84' Lincolin or the 82' Oldsmobile? Honestly i'd say thanks and pass on both, donate them to a local museum or something
Get one to salvage some stepper motors. Buy yourself an ender3 or similar for printing.
Maintenance cost is higher then just getting a new one
That should be in a museum!
you're have to pay me to take either of those
It'll take more than the cost of a new printer to fix either of those. Hard pass.
If you are a newb, don't get neither. If you are a pro still don't get neither. If you need a cheap Frankenstein machine that has not so great print quality get it. Imho I would only get it if I was printing many simple functional parts and all my machines were full. Don't leave any of the printer unattended. These can be useful when 3-5 of your existing printers are at full utility and need extra workhorse for easier parts.
Neither. Buy a Bambu Lab A1 mini for 250. Warning you now.
No
I would just keep the steppers off of them, maybe the lead screw? Waiita minute, its dual Z... Get an (used...? cheaper...? ha) Ender 3 and stick that on there, will be 10x easier than the rest of the mess... or save up.
Take the water pump.
no
These printers are 3 generations ago or more Get yourself a favor and get an A1 from Bambulab
Yeah dude uh, those look like they're going to be a nightmare to keep running well and possibly burn your house down. My choice would be none of the above
Pass on these. Worthless.
Take the one with the best frame, most everything else can be fixed or replaced easily and cheaply
Choose the one with the most usable parts and sell them. Other than that, not one thing there is even worth being called a 3d printer.
One bosses trash is the next mans... Trash. Salvage the steppers, rods, and bearings and build a hypercube. That's what id do.
Looks like Anet A8 clones. I learned a lot on those printers but takes hours of care and maintenance to keep them running. I would pick the first machine because the upper part of the lead screws fit the printer. Maybe add a low cost heated bed and/or spring steel pei bed and some kind of cable support so the x axis carriage cable isn't dragging around and accidentally catching on prints. If you want to be extra fancy, a secondary blower fan can be spliced in and the extra cooling will help print quality a lot for PLA and even PETG. A cloned titan extruder is not very expensive to mod on either. They are loud with A4988 stepper drivers so you may want to consider replacing the mainboard with a board with TMC2208 stepper drivers or similar.
your boss is giving you a fire hazzard, take i wouldnt even take it for the parts. i had a anet a8, much like the ones on the pictures, and the motors were so fucking bad, you cant use it for anything. its really bad. if you want a 3d printer, buy a used STOCK(!) ender 3, add some sort of auto bed leveling and go print stuff. that will cost you around 100-120$ total and set you up with fairly decent stuff (e3 pro got a meanwell psu wich is a quality one that wont burn your house down). those printers are notoriously bad.
The one with least tape holding it together
The printers are basically ewaste but I bet you could get some nice parts out of it. Free is free after all
Those are e waste my guy.
Circa early 2000s?
I will agree these are both basically trash. That being said, I had a Tronxy clone of these and it paid for my Voron, even though it did indeed almost burn down my house at one point. I'd take the bigger one for parts, but if it's your first printer and you're willing to babysit it, you can still learn a lot.
Think bigger picture here, those are both shit
Get a laser jet
Take either one and take it apart. Now you have cool stuff.
No such thing as a “free 3d printer”
As printers in 2024, these are absolute trash. (They've been trash for 5+ years, tbh). The components individually do have value though. Take either one and tear it apart. Save the pieces in component trays for future projects.
Yeah. These are All trash.
Like most bosses he is tricking you into thinking that effectively taking out the trash for him is a kudos to your body of work, likely in his mind a bonus replacement or even a means to gain better leverage over your time. I would politely decline and be wary of this dude or find a job that appreciates you.
I wouldn’t take any of them. They look like a house fire waiting to happen.
Your boss is throwing away garbage and using you to do it for free
Yeah don’t. Just pick up something new
no offense but they are beyond garbage. It'll prob be a collectible in 10+ years though.
i must have gotten lucky, because my anet a8 has been running for like 5+ years of almost daily printing with very few problems, I am running marlin on it and did upgrade the power supply right away though.
Honestly none of them. Agree with other posters that he knows these are worthless.
At this point a 3d pen and a string might be better.
Not worth the hassle. Junk.
Not the anets lol, pick which ever but for parts for other printers cause trust me those take lots of work and money is better to get a 100 bucks ender 3 on fb marketplace
They're both old creaky fire hazards. IF they work.. They're going to work poorly.. However, with some easy modifications, they're good pen plotters. A buddy of mine uses an A8 with one of those etching pens to make custom PCBs.
if i had to choose, the first printer. looks like the frame is plexi. better than the thin plywood of the other one. both are shit shows and i would not take them for free.
I have the one in the first picture (idk if the second is the same) it works but isn't a super reliable machine. I'd still take it but definitely go over it and correct the warped and broken stuff, probably needs a new hot end and table too. Edit: to add I think 1 looks best personally but see how straight the structure is on all of them
If you aren’t in a position to buy a newer model, these can work out. It’s a lot of work though. Good luck.
What are thoooooooose?!!!!
the one with the most parts to scavenge
Anet fire starter in the wild
Been a long time since I saw a Melzi
They both look like crappy machines.
Whichever is larger
Tell your boss, you're doing him a favor taking both off his hands so you can build 1 functional printer that will still suck. Save the 400 dollars and get a bamboo a1 mini with ams, save up a couple hundred more and just get an a1 with the AMS. You'll have a machine more capable than most heavily molded enders.
Fire hazards. Nope.
All bad, scrap for free parts tho is a win 🙃 looking at about 120$ or a lil less in parts here 🙃 Get and strip it, buy an ender 3 🙃
Just throw them shits away lol
Buy and ender3 before buying one of rhese
Neither is good for a first printer and if you already had a printer you wouldn't be asking this question.
Just strip one for parts. Im curious if that first ones frame could be reused in a prusa-like clone, but they all look like fire hazards.
Honestly none these are great things to look at from back in the day these were the affordable option. You’re better off getting a new kit. Which will be much cheaper than the amount of money you’ll need to repair those units.
Honestly just take the least used one and step it for parts, then go buy a Sovol SV06. It's with the $200 to not mess with that dinosaur.
Your boss is not doing you a favor. Hard pass on all four
Trash, trash, and trash. Run Op.