Anycubic I3 Mega

[Matt]

What are people’s experiences with the Anycubic I3 Mega? We’re looking to see if people recommend or any tips and tricks you have for printing Printable Scenery models.

[car_tag]

All of my terrain has been done on it. The biggest piece of advice I can give for it is to do the sheet of paper alignment when the extruder and heat bed are cold, it seems to factor in expansion due to heat automatically.

Most of mine has been print in .2mm layer height, 10% Cubic Subdivision infill. I’ve had some bad luck with horns or teeth on buildings breaking, but that’s only due to a fall off of a table landing in the worst possible way.

[Matt]

We might look at doing some print testing on these one day. DO you know how they compare to the Prusa I3 mk3 or the Creality Ender 3?

[car_tag]

I wish I could be of more assistance, but I really am not sure.

[DeVoice]

Old post I know, but for those who are curious, I have 2 megas going now, both the new and old versions. These are cheap and really effective!

The printer has a bowden extruder, has a printing dimension of 210, 210, 205mm, a printing head that moves in the X and Z direction, with the bed moving in the Y, heated bed etc.

I have been using them to print many a tile and are robust (I can move these printers without needing to relevel or setup without issue).
The prints are solid however the printers lack features like being wifi enabled (unless you set up with octoprint in a raspberry pi which is super simple) and auto levelling.

The printers can wear out quick though if you use them for long prints, like those which take days to complete, however a quick £10 fix can solve this (install a MOSFET chip for the heatbed, which is super easy and tons of tutorials out there) which will extend the lifespan, even for other printers of the same price range. The board is a Trigorilla 1.1 board (I have at least) with options for upgrades like more fans.

These printers can also print ABS as well if that takes your fancy but I stick to PLA as I would like to avoid headaches of warping (which can happen on any printer).

The printer can print at 0.05 mm layers, however you’d need a seriously level bed to do this (this is the same for any printer). But as the printer is cheap, the ultrabase that is supplied can sometimes be convex or concave in the middle, however you can return the unit or buy a new base for cheap. My original Mega is fine, but the new printer is slightly convex so causing squishes of prints in the middle, hopefully I can wear the bed in.

I will argue that the printer can perform at a level similar to the more expensive printers out there if you have the know how. However, the I3 Mega is really useful for people at any level, even for a beginner (if you are willing to make mistakes!).

You can use most slicers, but I mostly use Cura, and I have not had any issues.

I hope this is of some help to people out there, although I cannot help in any printer comparisons.

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[Zoltan]

I’ve been using my Anycubic i3 Mega for just over a year now. Here’s my take on the printer:

I’ve upgraded from an M3D micro, which I have used since it came out via their kickstarter. I mainly wanted the bigger build volume.
It worked straight out of the box (minimal assembly required).

After a few months, I’ve started tinkering. First thing to eliminate is the noise. It’s noisy. Like, ridiculously noisy.
Couple of new fans + new stepper motor drivers (~£40 on top of the £250 printer) and the thing is whisper quiet! (main culprit: stepper motor drivers)

Printed a new, circular attachment for the print cooling fan and a new hotend cover to further reduce noise.
I am seriously impressed by what a sub-£300 printer can do.

10/10 would recommend!

[Author]

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