First Impressions review of the M3D #3DPrinter – a $350 small 3D printer for hobbyists and schools. NOTE: THIS IS AN OLD REVIEW FROM MAY 2015 – Lots more printers now exist…. do more research including this newer review from SEPT 2016: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyJt2xMZ6yc
This is the video version of the review which was written at: http://www.mkrclub.com/2015/05/tiny-349-3d-printer-first-impressions.html
Summary: I like this printer for #makerspaces and #education applications mostly because of the price / size.
More #3DPrinting and other Maker Projects at
http://www.MkrClub.com
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http://www.bbb.org/greater-maryland/business-reviews/printers-glass-metal-plastic-3d-printing/m3d-in-fulton-md-90270381/complaints
I have a Mac. Your info made the difference. Wish it was Mac compatible.
A great and honest review, thank you. Especially for the honesty, always skeptical when a review is all great news.
I guess this is Kinda cool.. but I wanna be able to make a big enough Pixar lamp for my desk
Just a heads up to anyone looking to get one of these. Don’t use the internal filament feed. It can straight up brick the printer the first time you try to remove the filament. I know this because I just tried to change filaments and now I no longer have a 3d printer.
FILAMENT INTERNAL DONT WORK, STOP IN 50%
this printer is trash and the company has the wooooorst customer service ever!!! total waste of money……. please do not make the mistake of buying, buy anything else.
Hi! 1 Question what Software use to Print in your Micro? I Will use the Software Of M3D but really dont like the results. Si you use Cura? Sorry for my Bad English, Hello from Mexico.
You need to test durability before endorsing a product. I purchased this printer for my son’s 12th birthday and it was a huge mistake. The first one we got did two prints then the filament got jammed and, after some very unhelpful advice from their terrible customer service we had to send it back. We just got the second one and it also failed after two prints. I asked for a refund this time and they said it had been too long. So, if I would have asked for a refund the very second the first one failed I would have got a refund. Right? NO! They also said I wasn’t eligible for a refund because my unit was refurbished. That’s news to me because I ordered a mine brand spankin new! So basically they just admitted to defrauding their customers by selling refurbished units as new. Absolutely do not purchase this terrible product from these terrible people.
True is M3D is one of the worst 3D printer out there, sorry
You sound like a snob about the OS. It very distracting from the goal of the video.
I strongly advise MAC users to not buy this printer. I am guessing M3D is highly invested in the Windows OS since the software that supports a MAC is pretty much worthless. So buggy. I was using ‘Lion’ and found out their software didn’t support that version of OS. So I was told to update to ElCapitan and then found out the current version of ElCapitan wasn’t supported and was told to downgrade (which is quite a difficult thing to do on a MAC without finding an older version someplace other than Apples app store).
Using the current version of ElCapitan re-starts my machine, needs a force quit once the software is ‘functioning’, makes the extruder crawl slowly, simply doesn’t do much.
Because I gave the printer the benefit of the doubt, I spent a month trying to get it to work before they told me it was the OS version I was using. And then it was too late to return (they give 30 days to return). I guess I have to either sell it to a Windows user or wait until they support the current OS (their last update was January 2016)
Use a glue stick on the bed, and then you don’t need a raft anymore, even with big models, use 2-3 layers
Get a drink of water dude
i was going to get it but its too small
is there a mac version? and can you download other people work?
Oh look.. an elitist over windows… isn’t that new…
Unfortunately I own the M3D Micro. I was even a backer on Kickstarter.
I am sorry to say I am utterly disappointed by this printer.
They brag about this being “the first truly consumer 3d printer”.
They claim the auto-leveling feature.
Well…. consumer my ass!
This 3d printer is basically just a glorified piece of sh.. !
It is completely unreliable. A print can succeed once and then, without changing ANY setting at all fail the 2nd time.
The bed leveling just does not work. You will still need to do it manually and that is a huge pain in the ass.
So stay clear. I am sure there are better printers out there for the same amount of money.
Great review! Great voice! – Please Checkout 3DKitbash.com for complex models that are sized to print on an M3D. – We have big hopes for this little printer.
I hope it works with blender, i dont want to use their noobish dumbed down software, and pre made objects that everyone has….
What is the software called?
If your going to spend 350 get the wanhao duplicator i3 plus
One thing i found if after having it fore 4 months THE THING IS SO PICKY! Imagine a baby, it if a bad idea to leave it alone and has some issues because one time I left it alone and the spool was PULLED into the printer space jamming it and damaging it and screwing everything up. I actually had not gotten many prints successfully done at first. NOW once I managed to sit all day with it I printer some upgrades, such as a spool holder, filament guide, and other things and that greatly improved but I wish that was the first thing I did so it wasn’t damaged. All in all I recommend printing upgrades as the first thing, and the software is not great but it preforms well for something at its price but it is not a replacement for something like and Ultimaker or Makerbot. But as he said it is a great starter printer but you need to watch it like a hawk!
Do you have a recommendation for wanting to produce tabletop miniatures on a consumer basis?
Like for the normal small sizes with a 20 mm base and are usually fairly small?
Mostly concerned with the idea that many miniatures have small details like small swords/items and such.
Have you reviewed the Da Vinci Jr.? Seems similar (plug-and-play-ish), same price, but with larger build volume.
it is a piece of crap. do NOT buy it. I get a huge X or Y axis shift in my prints. It’s garbage. I totally wasted my money.
Apple hipster.
sucks to be you bro, mac sucks.
but good review.
do not buy this printer. this is a common problem i got,. the gear always fall off the rack so the x axis is not moving. check here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj3T4fpgJX4&feature=youtu.be
One way to get good adhesion is to print a brim and then tape the edges of the brim down after it starts printing the next layers. Brims come off the part much easier than a raft, in fact I’ve never used a raft successfully in my year of having a printer. A heated bed is also nice. However, an acrylic sheet will adhere to PLA very well without any heat whatsoever.