monoprice select mini V2 review

[Warforge]

For those who are new to 3d printing terrain or considering buying a new printer, it’ll be useful to share experiences with the different printers and settings. I’m happy to kick this off! Would love to hear from the rest of you.

My Printer: MonoPrice Select Mini V2
Length of time with printer: 1.5 years
Review: This was my first 3D printer, and I bought it mainly to print what I bought from printable scenery. I chose it because it was affordable and at the time had the best reviews for a budget printer and wasn’t too expensive to ship to Australia. The good – handled moderately complex prints without issue, e.g. rooftops, tavern with excellent detail, very few artifacts and print lines were not visible after coating with polyurethane varnish and priming. For the first year, reliability was great, and the compact size meant I could have it in the house without too many complaints from the family. The bad – the heated bed wiring broke after 14 months of irregular use, a known issue which happens to ALL of these printers unless you do a minor rewire before, or a major rewire after it breaks. The print bed was 120mm x 120mm x 120mm which is pretty compact but can handle all printable scenery stuff that I tried to print. Some of the large files however will not have space on the bed to print a skirt, brim or raft.
Overall rating: 2.5/5. Was a great printer for a beginner at the time, but there are better budget printers now like the Ender 3 with larger build plates. The suicidal wiring of the heated bed is also not ideal. Would have recommended this a year ago with the recent fixes but I don’t think it’s worth it at the moment.

• This topic was modified 5 years, 7 months ago by Matt Barker. Reason: Moved to new forum

[Matt]

Nice review. Good to see experiences with other printers printing our stuff. We’ve had Wanhao and Davincis in the past and are currently using Prusa I3 mk3.

[Warforge]

How did you find the Prusa MK3? I’ve been told they rarely fail, even on complicated prints, is that your experience too?

[Matt]

Yes, the Prusa Mk3 just keeps going and going and going. Maintenance and troubleshooting faults is easy and quick. Best value for money. We have 5 Prusa mk3s going 24/7 now.

[Matt Barker]

Great review

[deaconkc]

Thank you for such an honest review, building the hobby fund back up, hope to order an Ender 3 in April.

[Brian Etty]

I still use my Monoprice Mini V1. Its a great little printer that can do surprising quality. I can even print minis on it that look decent.

[Warforge]

Yeah its great for minis! I printed a couple of tortles from fat dragon games. After polyurethane coating + primer the print lines were not visible on the top surfaces. Was very surprised with the quality.

[Author]

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