My first 3D printer, the Anycubic i3 Mega Ultrabase.

[deepcut]

"It's Plug and Play!" exclaimed the reviewers, "So easy to get your first print", "The best printer for beginners."

Lies, lies and more lies!

I got it about a week ago from Amazon, i've probaly been tinkering with it for 16-20 hours (bed-levelling, bed-levelling, bed-levelling ,bed-levelling, bed-levelling, bed-levelling, bed-levelling ...).

At first it wouldn't power up, but if i rolled the bed back and forth really quickly then the screen lit up and it went into startup mode, due to the stepper motors acting like a generator and me being the prime mover. So i grabbed a spare cable and power was good.

Then it just wouldn't adhere, and one of the main selling points of this model is the Ultrabase that ensures good adherence. I tried printing the owl-pair from the SD card, other models from Cura via USB but nothing would stick.

I tried every possible temperature combination, then i put a probe on the bed and it was 47C rather than the 60C displayed on-screen, so i upped the bed temp to 80C, still nothing stuck. On the assumption that the nozzle temperature was probably off too i whacked that up, still no joy

So then i swapped out the hotend for the spare that they supply you with and i got perfect prints, but they were only perfect if they were small, once i went large i started getting corner lift so bad that the whole model then got dragged around by the nozzle.

Now it's printing really badly, making things look like they've been modelled by a monkey out of clay. I'm back in bed-levelling (bed levelling, bed levelling, bed levelling .. ARRRRGGGHH!) hell, it just won't be level all across, it's either the corners are good but the centre is too high or the centre is good but the corners are too low, or high.

When it did work (but only in the middle for small prints) it was perfect, i printed off a couple of spiral chess pieces from thingiverse and me and The Empress gazed in wonder at this marvel of modern technology.

But now i just sit here, covered in a web of thin plastic string, surrounded by gnarly, mutated, failed creations, tweezers, pliers, cutters, sheets of A4 ... all the tools in the world but very little hope.

I know it's a great printer because so many people have had great experiences with it, and the build quality is great, but i've read about it just not being put together well at the factory so some unlucky people have had to practically rebuild it after delivery.

I will soldier on and post updates.


Cheers, DC.

[iDig3Dprinting]

What material are you using to print with?

The commonest cause of poor bed adhesion is not having a level bed and also having a too large a gap between the nozzle and the bed. Unless this is correct it doesn't matter what the temperatures are your model is never going to really stick.
If possible I would try and level the bed manually first ( I don't know what system it uses ) then adjust your nozzle height, moving the print head around the bed and checking the nozzle-bed distance to 1 paper thickness.

[deepcut]

Hi Dig, thanks for the reply.

I'm using the PLA that comes with the machine (190 - 230 centigrade temp range).

I printed off an extrusion test that should look like this (two printed so that you can see if they fit together ) :

https://ibb.co/dD8P07

but mine looked like this!

https://ibb.co/bOteYS

It adheres fine in small areas so there's obviously something else going on since mine looks really misshapen.


Cheers, DC.

[iDig3Dprinting]

Yes, concur, yours looks rubbish.
I think that you may be massively over extruding, this is also why the nozzle is getting caught on the model, its laying out more plastic than the layer height requires.

here are some start and end gcode settings : https://www.thingiverse.com/groups/anyc ... opic:18340

I am not too sure what software you have on the board or what board it is, this is probably where you need to make settings. I think if you use G92 you MAY, I mean MAy be able to change the steps/mm but it will depend on the board on the printer.

[steveprinters29]

I am sorry to contradict your opinion but I too worked with an Anycubic I3 Mega Ultrabase which I purchased from ‘3D Printers Online Store’ and found this really effective for printing 3D objects.
I think you did not consider the 3D printer settings before printing the object or your 3D printing materials was not appropriate.