I’ll admit, when I bought the Monoprice Mini Select 3D printer, I knew almost nothing about 3D printing. That won’t get you very far after you unbox the printer. There are some basics you need to learn to get good prints.
Once you have a 3D model in a print file format like STL you still need to put it in a program to tweak for your printer settings that has a slicer that creates a file usable by your printer. Beyond that, many prints require extra work to determine the thickness of walls that will look nice, supports for prints that have large overhangs, and more. It’s not rocket science; you just need to learn how the process works.
Thankfully, this printer has a lot of online help from owners on G+, Facebook, and especially YouTube.
Here’s a print session for a Pi Zero W case I found on thingiverse.com.
Tuning PID for Better Temp Control
Apparently, the out of the box temperatures for printing for this printer can fluctuate a lot. Most control systems use a PID controller to constantly measure the target values and use specific values for this (specified by the letters PID in the acronym). The good news is that you can tweak this printer’s values to get better results. I did this before my first print. Resources below:
While you can probably put these commands in a.gcode file and print them, I used this software to set the values. http://www.pronterface.com/
Printing Hints I’ve Discovered
- Skip using the SD card and printing from the printer menu. Sometimes prints hang if you don’t upgrade the firmware (wanted to stay out of the box initially). Print from a computer with Pronterface (above) or even better, use Octopi (what I do now). Don’t use Cura on Mac to print; it just pauses every 10 seconds.
- Use a good “slicer” application to create your print files. I do like Cura, and it’s available on Mac and Windows. If longer items can fit sideways, they’ll print faster. Have an item too large for the bed? You might be able to rotate it slightly to fit diagonally.
- Print the first layer SLOW-half speed-on anything long or with quick angle changes.
- Watch the printer. It can go bad. Octopi supports a camera!
- Prints don’t stick without some help. Use a “raft” with your print if it doesn’t cover much surface area, and generally always use a light layer of glue stick on the tape on the bed.
The Octopi interface is great and works from any device anywhere. Why be tethered when you can watch remotely?
My Impressions
While I got some great prints with a little tweaking, I’m a bit concerned that this printer could be a black hole of my time doing mods. Apparently, Monoprice has a new model coming out in a few weeks that has many of these community mods built in, and most importantly, a replaceable hotend. I can already tell I’ll need to reroute the cables under the print bed (not attached correctly), install a stabilizer, and a couple other items. I may take advantage of Monoprice’s 30 day satisfaction guarantee and wait for the upgraded version to save me some time (and money in the long run).
Good luck!