Transcript:
Over the last couple of weeks. I have become obsessed now. I always thought 3d printing was pretty cool, but I really didn’t have an interest in making, you know, trinkets and miss shape and cats and animals and stuff like that, so I didn’t really have that much of an interest in it, and I especially didn’t want to spend $1000 on a machine to do it, but as I’ve been working on the Fusion 360 course for hobbyists and woodworkers link in the description. If you want to get on the email list for that, I decided I wanted to get at least a cheap 3d printer to throw on the shelf that I could print out what we’re designing in the course and use them as a visual aid. I really didn’t care about quality. I just wanted to say, you know, Here’s a battery organizer that we’re designing in fusion and here’s what it looks like printed out, So I went on Amazon and just looked up something with decent reviews and to my surprise, 3d printers cost a lot less than I was expecting. At least this one right here. This is the monoprice mini select and know this video is not sponsored at all. This is one! I just picked off of Amazon and decided to order it and I have just been blown away with the quality of prints that I’ve gotten out of it. It was so good, in fact that I decided I wanted to make a video reviewing this thing and to share with you guys, What’s possible with a 200 dollar printer 180 dollars if you know where to look link in the description with a coupon code, so my very first print was a ring for Lauren and it was this guy right here, and as you can see, it’s about what you would expect out of a 200 dollar 3d printer. Its kind of flaking, in fact. I just cracked it and that’s when I found out that more important than the quality of your 3d printer is the settings that you use when you’re printing, so I did a little research on settings and I found this link which I’ll leave in the description below of someone who suggested some settings and it absolutely worked for me. Because from then on, I’ve had just phenomenal prints. So this was that same ring again this time, but with the settings that were suggested on that website. And then this one is the one that changed it all for me. This is my third print that I ever printed on this printer and look at this. You ready not only? Is it awesome? It’s a little trinket. You know exactly what I said. I didn’t want to print with a 3d printer. Useless landfill stuff. But this was printed all in one part, that’s it. I set it up to print overnight and when I came back in the morning, it had printed it out all of the hinges. The screw the nut! The bolt! Everything that you see here was just sitting on my printer bed. Just like that you have to remember. Inkjet printers are still going for $200 or more and that’s why. I say that 3d printing is now affordable for everyone, because obviously everyone doesn’t have $200 laying around, but no one would say that, you know, printing computer paper is prohibitively expensive, And now you can say that’s the same thing about 3d printing again. I did not design these things. In fact, a lot of the things you’re gonna see here. I did not design. I just been learning 3d printing as I went along And so there’s a website called thingiversecom where you can design download models. Other people have made and one of them. Was this thing it’s called a Venus box? Look at the finish here on this part. These are super smooth. It works really, really well. This was a game changer for me because this is something that I could not make with wood out in the shop with power tools. This is something new. This is something that I could not make with wood out in the shop. So enough with the trinkets. I thought, let’s make something that’s actually useful. So this was my fourth print, and this is just a little part that I made for our stroller. So one of our strollers for Hudson has a cup holder, and it’s got this little hook that the cup holder is removable. Our jogging stroller did not have such a little hook, so I went into fusion 360 made this little part, and it snapped on the very first try. It snapped on like it was made from the factory. I could not believe what’s possible. Hudson’s birthday rolled around, and we got, you know, a couple cash gifts from friends and family for him, so I went on Amazon to go buy a piggy bank for him, and then I realized, like a design and print a piggy bank, so I designed this completely from scratch, and I’m very happy with the way that turned out all the details on that, and it’s got all of his gifts in their hearing. Hudson’s first birthday party. The dogs were put away, so we wanted a little to keep the play Gates open so people could just walk to the living room so literally, while everyone was eating lunch at the dining room table. I went into fusion and designed this little part here and it snapped right onto the gate perfectly. Actually, this is version 2 I had to print two of these, but then held a gate open so solving. Just, you know, day-to-day little problems that aren’t really problems, but you know, you would never buy or find this part easy to make, then. I wanted to make my own internal hinges being inspired by this. I wanted to figure out how to print hinges within a design and so that I came up with this. And this was my first or second attempt at this. I just wanted to get the hinge action down. You can kind of see, it’s just incredible that you’re able to print internal parts that are functioning So as I was editing that video, I noticed two things a. I got much sweaty. Er, which was disgusting to watch, and I also started just rambling, and I never got to the review of this printer that I really wanted to get to, so ironically, the power supply on my printer that I showed in that video went out and monoprice was kind enough to send me a brand new unit and my question to you is first of all. Would you be interested in a video series about the modifications that I plan on making to this to make it a more capable machine? So you’re probably asking? Why would you Mod this cheap machine rather than just buying a more capable one to begin with? And now that you’ve researched 3d printers? Do you still recommend this machine versus other ones that are available and the answer is a resounding yes. Yes, you can buy a more capable machine with a bigger platform for about the same price, You can buy the Reprap or the i3 knockoffs and their kits that you can get for between two and three hundred dollars. The problem is their DIY machines, Whereas this one don’t drop it. It’s fully assembled, almost ready to go right out of the box for $200 Ready to print. I recommend this machine a hundred times over anything else that I have found available in the market again. I’ve only been researching about a month because you’re ready to get up and start printing. You have an idea in your head. You can go in the computer. You can design it and you can print it. You don’t have to mess around with settings or calibration or building the thing for months at a time and never actually getting to experience building something now. A lot of people might say the four by four point seven by four point seven foot print of this machine as a limitation. I do not think so I have been able to print nearly everything that I’ve wanted to for me. I wanted something that could sit literally on my desk. This is the size this is it. This is the whole printer. Ironically now. I want to build a DIY, not 3d printer, but a CNC having this tiny little high quality machine, the build quality. This is just amazing. They have to lose money on this. They just have to, but the high quality small foot print has inspired me to make a high quality small footprint. CNC machine. I want something that sits on my desk top, probably in the workshop, though, but that can cut aluminum, so lets. Wrap this up. Why did I bother even making this video? I made it because I think this is a big deal. I know there’s a lot of people who want to get into the making scene and they either can’t. Afford a bunch of power tools. Don’t have the space or they live in an apartment where you know, cutting wood out in your hallway just isn’t realistic, and this fills a huge gap for people that want to see their ideas Come to life into physical objects. You get to satisfy that creative urge to solve problems and make things happen and you can do it in a machine that fits on your desk quite literally next to your monitor, so do. I recommend this machine Absolutely. There’s plenty of videos on Youtube, How-to videos of how to use this machine. So I just thought I would give it my two thumbs up review and say if you’re thinking about 3d printing and you’re a little unsure, check it out and let me know by commenting or liking this video. If you want to see a video about both the modifications, I plan to make to this and a really sturdy, high quality compact CNC machine build. Thanks for watching bye.