Monoprice Maker Select Review In Few Words (Mini Review)
Monoprice Maker Select is a good & affordable 3D printer that produce good prints, and while it can many things out of the box. It can do even more by modding & upgrading it. Tinkering with it may be time-consuming and the learning curve may be a bit high, but if you are willing to spend the time for that, the final result is totally worth it.
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Pros Of Monoprice Maker Select
- Has a lot of room for mods & upgrades. Which makes it a good 3D printer to use on the long-run.
Cons Of Monoprice Maker Select
- Takes some time to get used to, though the end result is worth it.
Technical Specifications
- Easy to set up for a 3D printer that requires assembling.
- Including sample PLA filament.
- Comes with 2 GB a microSD card with sample 3D model files.
- Works with Windows, Mac OS X & Linux operating systems.
- Compatible with many 3D printing software, like Cura, Repetier, or Simplify 3D, MAKER SELECT 3D Printer is compatible with Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.
- Has a large 8 inches x 8 inches build plate and generous 7 inches vertical spacing means that you can print larger, more complex models.
- The heated build plate allows for high-reliability printing of slow cooling materials, such as ABS.
Monoprice Maker Select:- Overview
Monoprice Maker Select is a rebranded Wanaho Duplicator i3 3D printer. In essence, the two printers are identical, so all the resources for the Wanhao printer apply to Monoprice Maker Select as well. And since they are both based on the Prusa i3 design, it is very easy to find parts for them on the market. Monoprice Maker Select comes in a metal frame, which tends to last longer & withstand more temperature.
Monoprice Maker Select allows you to print files from both USB & micro SD-card. It comes with a 2 GB micro-SD card that contains sample prints to test your model. The quality of that card is not very good, but it does the job of getting the files to you.
On the side of Monoprice Maker Select, there is a blue LCD screen where you could do standard things, like preheating the printing bed or homing the axis, the screen is not angled like the Wanhao Duplicator i3 V2. There is a knob at the bottom of the LCD screen that allows you to browse around the menus.
Setting Up
Monoprice Maker Select is not a fully assembled 3D printer. at the same time, it is not a 3D printing kit, so some assembling is required before you could start using it. There is a simple picture manual that tells you how to do the assembly & do the other calibrations as well, you can download the manual by clicking here.
To set your Monoprice Maker Select, you will need to remove some of the packaging parts that are holding the components. Then tighten some screws to put the parts together, as well as connect these parts by plugging each cable in its corresponding place. After that, you install the filament spool holder. The process is simple & is unlikely going to take much time from you. Especially if you are a handy man.
Once you are done assembling your printer, you calibrate the printing bed, this calibration is done manually, and it includes moving the extruder head manually & passing a sheet of paper & make sure it pass with some friction. Once that is done, you load the filament into the extruder.
After doing all that, you will be ready to create your first print. If you done everything above correctly, the print will come out fine. But it is expected that you will run into some problems until you get to this point.
Printing
Monoprice Maker Select is capable of printing to a resolution up to 0.1 mm, or 100 micron. The printing resolution, which is also known as the layer height. Determines how good & smooth the printed object will be. The lower the number, the higher the quality of the object will be, but the longer it will take to finish the print. Using lower resolution is good for testing out prints or creating prototypes.
You can print large objects using the 8 inches x 8 inches build plate and the 7 inches vertical spacing. And out of the box, Monoprice Maker Select comes with a sample PLA filament, which you can use for your test print. But you will likely run out of it fast. So I pretty much recommend you to get some filament along with your 3D printer (whether it is Monoprice Maker Select or another 3D printer). Giving its price, the quality of the prints Monoprice Maker Select produces is very good.
Out of the box, Monoprice Maker Select is capable of printing in both PLA & ABS filaments. These two are the most common types of 3D filaments. For give you an idea about that, PLA is environmentally-friendly filament that is made of corn starch, which makes it smell nice when heated & melt. It melts in lower temperature than ABS, which makes it unsuitable to printing objects to place outdoor. ABS filament, on the other hand, is capable to withstand that, as it melts on higher temperature. But that also require 3D printers to be equipped with a heated printing bed to be able to print with it (Monoprice Maker Select has a heated printed bed).
There is much more about filament types that what I just mentioned. But this hopefully served as a good introduction for you :>
Since Monoprice Maker Select is based on open design, you can upgrade it to be able to print other kinds of materials, to do that, you buy a metal hot end, which can withstand higher temperatures. And thus allowing you to print with said materials.
And speaking of openness, there is many good ways to modify this printer by printing additional parts to make it better. like rings to help stabilizing the printing bed, so you won’t have to calibrate it as often. Or an alternative spool mount, and even y-axis NEMA motor mount replacement. And so on. You can find all the parts I am talking about, as well as many others in this link.
While I can’t mention every mod you can do with this 3D printer, you may be interested to know that you could add another extruder to Monoprice Maker Select. Having two extruders means that you can print objects in two colors, as well as printing objects using more than one filament type as well.
Software
Monoprice Maker Select is compatible with many 3D printing software, like Cura, Repetier, or Simplify 3D. Monoprice recommends you use Cura with Monoprice Maker Select. Cura is a free 3D printing software that offers a lot. It has a Quick Print mode, which is easy to use mode which you could use until you get used to 3D printing. As well as full settings mode gives you more control over your printing, it is where you can change the layer high, infill, add support & many other options.
And Finally
Despite its low price, Monoprice Maker Select proved to be a good choice for a 3D printer. While it requires more tinkering to work with, and lacks some of the nifty features in the more expensive 3D printers, like the auto-leveling bed. It still offers a lot for the money, giving how you can upgrade it to do much more things. Monoprice Maker Select is a printer that can last you a long while.
I hope you liked my Monoprice Maker Select review, and see you again in another review. ^^
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