My Experience With The Anet AM8 3d Printer Conversion
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ก.ค. 2021
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In todays video we are going finally go over the long awaited AM8 project. This is something that I started back in 2018 and and due to various reasons never completed until recently. I will go over the delays, what parts I ended up using in the complete build, and my thoughts on the project. I have had a few people reach out over the years asking about this so I am happy to finally say it is completed. (Sort of haha)
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Just want to say, thanks to this video - I finally got a flex plate for my AM8 running Klipper. Still finding a few more things I can upgrade on this printer. It might not be the fastest like my other printers, but I have more tinkering history with this guy - and that's why I love it.
I think I bought the last A8, just for my own curiosity and the history of it. I modified it with all the rigidizing and new circular bearings, as the ones that came with it were full of slop. It prints very well but I only used it for some standard parts and the fact that it was much slower than even the Enders. The parts came out very nice. But it was just because I make most of my living now using 3D printers from 200 mm to 1620 mm x 1020 x 1020 mm. The changes in 3D printing has been amazing. I looked into 3D printers a long time ago and they were just "not good enough". Now I make parts that are strong and can do hard work.
You made me cry, I have a wooden A8 and would have LOVED to get that acrylic frame from you! LOL
No acrylic pls 😅, i change to 2040 aluminium frame instead .. if rigid
@@AJayTheStageArtist Acrylic HAS to be better than plywood!
haha I dont know that it is actually bettery than plywood. Sorry though it was year ago :(
The Anet A8 with the acrylic frame was my first ever 3D printer, it thought me a lot on how to assemble and how each parts works.
I feel that it was the entry point for many people.
I still have 6 of them in my print farm. My first one I will leave as it is for nostalgic reasons, and the 2nd one I got was used as a core xy conversion and runs Klipper, carbon rails for lower moving weight, and stock electronics.
I am actually about to start a Voron Legacy build using Anet A8 parts just because I would love to see what it can do. I built the Voron 2.4 and love how it prints and am keen to see what a $100 upgrade can do to a printer like this.
I still own one that I've done some upgrades on, tuned and works like a champ, been thinking of doing the AM8 conversion
Built 2 AM 8.
Twice. Had a great time. Still using both. These are the same printer in different configurations.
Yep, still have one the acrylic frame and a ramps main board. But for some reason it died last night after I powered it off and reversed a stepper motor plug. Now I’m going to use the parts to build a mini core xy printer that fits in the enclosed shelf it was living in for ABS prints. I’ve also had an AC heater for it so that will get upgraded as well to match its big brother which is my D-Bot
A few years ago I got an A8 basically in a pile for free. The connector on the bed had burned up (common on the old dangerous A8s) and my friend disassembled but lost interest. I threw out the acrylic and went for the AM8 conversion. Over the years, it has been an exceptionally reliable machine. I added FETs, a custom extruder/hotend E3d clone by cobbling together a couple designs off Thingiverse. Soldered the bed leads directly to the bed, and swapped out the power supply. Flashed the board to Marlin 2, and tweaked all the settings. Except for changing out a couple bearings here and there, it has remained as the last of my "old school" 12v printers and still finds plenty of uptime printing. Is it the fastest? No. But I know exactly what to expect from it. One thing that never ceases to amaze me, as long as I don't fuss with it too much, I can go months between bed levels. It is rock solid. Fun to hear others' experiences with it.
A8 was my first 3d printer 5 years ago. I have upgraded A8 to AM8 and now I'm slowly converting AM8 to BLV mgn12 3D Printer mod. I have tested every possible component on this printer, all bed surfaces from Kapton tape, glass, Chinese builtak, ultrabase to magnetic PEI. I had also stepper dampers, which luckily didn't install. All firmwares from repetier, marlin, smoothieware to today's klipper. All types of bearings from bronze sleeve busing to mgn12. Motors have a Closed Loop Driver board. Power supply from HP server, outside of Enclosure. It's a great, reliable printer, but most of my prints lately are from Prusa MINI. I also plan to build voron v0, just looking for v0.1 kit shipped from Europe.
Builtak? I know next to nothing except simple sugar is a great solution.
I went all the way to the BLV AM8 with linear rails. Its one of my most reliable printers. I also updated to a SKR 1.4. I love this little thing. It has its quirks but its a tank.
A tank has shown its weakness to ukrainian farmers. So watch out pal!
This was an entry printer for most of the guys out there. When all metal frame came out it was very good.
Thanks to community i managed to build a beast out of this and still running it for the past 3 years… lubed rails every first weekend in month. Im using skr 1.3 and 2209 drivers, v6 with a bmg direct drive… back then was really a good printer for me and printed around 7k hrs out of it… printed parts for my next 4 printers… and still prints very good
still running an A8 slightly modified. I mounted it to a board with some steel angle, and clamped some MDF to the uprights to make them more rigid and it prints OK.I also had to replace the power supply (it died ) and re-wire the bed (it was thinking about setting my house on fire)
Nice! I remember unboxing the Anet A8. First printer. I had no clue and remember thinking it just looked like a load of parts from a hardware store. There weren't even any instructions. It is still going on the original frame (with braces, firmware and an Arduino smoke and temperature nanny lol). It has hundreds of hours on it and has printed another 3d printer and a CNC machine for PCB etching (that I gave up on lol). It is still on the original nozzle and is one of the better machines I have for TPU. I bought a Tatara A8 steel frame but ended up building a whole new printer and leaving the A8 alone. 🤣
I bought a ctc printer just to make another printer which is an Anet A8. Then I upgrade it to 300x300 heatbed with BTT skr1.4 board and screen . Now i'm debaiting on core xy or core xz conversion. I however working on the Enderwire conversion.
I picked up an AM8 early in my journey a few years ago, it did already have external mosets for hotend and bed, which was nice. From there I put in an SKR 1.4 Turbo, Gulfcoast All metal Creality style hot end, dual drive titan style extruder, pei flex plate, PINDA probe, and Fystec 1.2 LCD, Meanwell PSU and yea.... works awesome :)
Care to share your firmware, Paul?
Still rocking my A8 on the original frame and solid bed mounts. I did convert it to ramps with a mosfet board, and also running an E3D-V6 with ABL using the custom carriage a friend and I developed when I first got into printing. To this day it is still enclosed and is my go to ABS printer. I did get an AC heated bed for it but never bothered to put it on. The A8 is the printer I used to print all the parts to originally build my D-Bot 4 or so years ago, which has since been upgraded to a duet main board and has run an AC heated bed since almost day one. The only modern printer I have purchased is the Sovol SV01
Ever since we developed the X carriage that converts it to a bowden setup, the Z wobble went away without adding any bracing. The only braces I have on it are on the front and back to stiffen the acrylic parts when you tension the Y belt.
the original frame is easy to deal with. Take a half inch threaded rod and use washers and nuts to secure it horizontally in the back through the 2 holes that are supposed to be used for wires. Add the hulk braces to the frame as well and its solid as a work.
I still have an Anet AM8 and intend to use it for many more years 😅
I got the Anet A8 for around 180€ and the motherboard failed after around 2 weeks and then i started upgrading pretty much everything. Now with the AM8 frame, Ramps 1.4, mosfets, e3d v6 clone (direct drive) inside the Bear MK3S extruder assembly with bondtech gears and what not, 2 TMC2130 drivers and a RPI3 with OctoPrint. The 24v conversion is yet to come but the thing prints almost as well as the original Prusa i3 MK3S (just the bed is annoying AF) with a pricetag of around half of that.. so its still a great platform :)
(If you have a LOT of time 😅)
I still have my A6 with acrylic frame and right now i'm considering to upgrade to AM8 with SKR 1.3 ,E3D v6 and adding build touch
i now have 3d printed my own AM8 frame haha. Its pretty solid.
I've got the upgraded A8M (Mod with double extrusion and some other parts "upgraded"), not really using it due to issues with the periodic de-leveling.. but it had one positive aspect! thanks to that horror of acrylic frame I've learned how the 3d printer works and what goes where..
now thinking of moving on to prusa or buying something in between of 400-500€ to print nylon/asa/abs
Mount it on a stable platform and set your z stop, make sure your belts are tight and rock on.
So I just put the lerdge-z on my anet a8 I also changed out the bairings to whatever them gray ones are that don't have slop and all the printed upgrades and put a e3d v6 on it as well. The print quality it decent but would the metal frame make it any better? I'm currently getting jerking in my x I can't figure out at high speeds but low speeds its ok.
I still print with my Anet A8 and it is the only printer I have but I am thinking about getting a added printer. I am serching your videos reviews to buy a printer to add to my A8.
Thank you.
2024 and i still use my anet a8, of course it have a lot, a ton of mods, it is like the Theseus ship.
I have two A8s in pieces and am struggling with the fact that converting both of them and replacing the boards with an skr mini e3 v2 plus all the other stuff is nearly the price of an Ender 3. I just don't want the motors, rods and screws to go to waste. I've looked for other projects to do with them but it's just cheaper to buy an assembled printer.
Would you say it's worth the effort at this point or just get something new?
I need to upgrade my 8 bit board on my A8 plus because the extruder driver popped. It blew the heat sink off and shorted some other stuff on the board. I was going to get an SKR 1.4 turbo but was wondering if the lerge was worth the extra money? Thanks for your video and I especially appreciate you talking about your soldering experiences. Many TH-camrs behave like they are perfect and it is refreshing to watch and listen to a human being.😄
Great video, I need to finish my AM8/MGN mod; I decided to go with the MK52 bed and 24v with an SKR 1.4 turbo and reprap firmware to make it more of a prusa clone.
Thank you! That sounds like a great mod. I wish I had converted to 24V.
Yes it is worth it, as least for me, after putting in a skr1.4 (cheaper now 2023)& tmc2009.. marlin 2.0 it become so Silent & prints awesome for a machine more than 7yrs. All other hardware same old just tightened and duck tape it down onto a desk, cable tied the Z&Y rods..to its acrylic frame, adjusted the x-slider bearing to cut the plays of the 3 slider bearings.that’s it. Love it now😂. Bought 300mm bed, 500mm rods for x, the original x goes to the Y, maybe will frame up the base with steel hollow or heavy rigid Bakelite board. Looking for a simple klipperizing method to see how well it could do😊.
Memory lane. Ditched AM8 ~ 2 years ago. never looked back. My A8 was also upgraded w only the original lead screws, stepper motors, a few screws and wire remaining. Good learning experience, Chinese printers suck. Now I get to do the 3d printing that I actually want to do w Ultimaker , Taz, and Prusa. +1 for mentioning Voron.
Sounds like quite an upgrade. By todays standards it definitely is a poor printer. But back when it released everyone was so excited for it :)
Using stepper dampers is not overkill, it is just wrong. You don't want additional flex in the kinematics.
@Lassi Kinnunen 81 I know that. Damping the vibrations introduces flex into the system. If you want to eliminate vibrations then use Klipper firmware and input_shaper.
Very Cool Projekt
Can you cover why you wanna upgrade different components. I’m new here.
My first printer was an Anet A6. Recently I decided to replace it since it was falling apart (psu died, fans died, frame was is bas shape...). So I bought an Ender 3 v2 and it's been great.
Now I'm thinking of recycling de old anet but the only parts worth using are the motors I think. So I would pretty much be buying (and building) a new printer.
Yeah looking at the Anet printers there is not much worth salvaging. Motors really would be the main thing I would keep. Plenty of projects they can be used for.
I still have the CTC i3, which is nearly the same on my workshop laying around. I still like the design of the frame, but it's really fragile. I maybe upgrade it to the Cube A8, which seems really interesting to me
I think I did see that one. It is a Corexy design right? It looked good if it is the one I am thinking.
On a different note since the Neptune 2 is becoming available and popular and is a good budget printer and I know you have one can you do a video on a BL Touch installation on this printer seems like a good upgrade for it and would probably be a popular video
I bought a half built Anet A8 and I’m slowly, very slowly, converting it to an aluminum framed core xy machine.
i still have an anet a 8 in stock form and an anet a8 plus in stock form. it still run great
That is crazy. I hardly ran it stock. I mean I did, but I did add frame braces and belt tensioners pretty much right away if I remember correctly.
I have a CTC i3 pro B that I'm thinking of converting to a stand alone laser engraver (minus all the wood).
Definitely a great use of one of these.
My first printer was Anet A8 .. it was such a pain to use
Haha if you saw your way through that mess you must be successful now!
@@ModBotArmy two years later and I'm building my own printers.. I learned a lot from my Anet
I started with the CTC Anet A8... now it is more like a Prusa i3 MK2 clone
I am going to pick one uo for 30 euros tomorrow, already have 2 enders but couldn't resist the price🤣
Congratulations, like and + 1 subscribe!
Wait.... I can use computer PSUs for printer PSUs..... can you dive into that a bit more please ? Im sure there are other videos and what not, but you can do it with pizazz !!!
Why can't the manufacturers provide a fully assembled & factory factory tested printer for the first time user?
They do, Prusa sells their MK3S fully assembled & tested for the mere price of a $1,000.
I think most videos miss the point of these upgrades which is either reduced noise, better prints or both. This video really covers neither in an objective way. IYes the mods are interesting but completely meaningless without before and after shots showing the improvements if any. Thanks for telling us a story about your printer though.
Rip AM8 🙏🏻
Still using my Anet a8 in 2024
why not ditch everything and go all metal. extrusions, lead screws, lerdge main board, 24v.. un- anet a8 it.....
Discord told me you had a new video! I'm here #3!!!!!
Woohoo! Happy Saturday 😬
Tell me that you have ADHD without telling me that you have ADHD 😂😂. Me to bro. I’m about to pic up an A8 off of OfferUp that someone is giving up on for cheap. And I have not finished the Sunlu S8 project i have been working on.
Friend, could you pass on the firmware and component so I can do it on my machine?