In this post I will share my impressions of Monoprice Maker Select V2 3D printer, otherwise known as Wanhao Duplicator i3. I got one in June of 2016 and have been using it for more than 10 months, printing hundreds upon hundreds of various 3D models.
This printer costs around $300 on Amazon (also available on Monoprice website, possibly cheaper) and so far has been well worth the money. It comes in 2 large pieces, needs very little assembly (4 screws), and is ready to work few minutes after you open the box.
The print quality is very high, even without any mods or upgrades to the printer. You can print one of the four test models stored on MicroSD card that comes with the printer to get a sense of resolution and speed of the printer. The included roll of PLA is only enough for a couple test models, so you’d need to order some more filament as soon as you can.
After printing about three dozen models, the heated bed covering (build tack) was all scratched up by the removal tool, and needed to be replaced. I decided to replace it with a piece of glass instead. Upgrading to a glass bed has a few benefits:
– It is much easier to remove the prints without scratching the surface
– Room temperature changes have less of an effect on the bed leveling
– Consistent adhesion of the initial print layer when the glass is covered with hairspray such as AquaNet (I got mine at Target for about $2.50)
Without glass bed, fluctuations in room temperatures required me to re-level the bed at least once a week. With the glass bed upgrade, I leveled the bed five months ago without touching the leveling screws ever again.
Borosilicate glass and silicone pads make for a great print bed upgrade!
The glass bed upgrade required getting a piece of glass, thermal layer and removing the Buildtak Make sure you heat up the bed to 100 degrees before trying to remove the Buildtak sheet, a crucial step that I missed and wasted a lot of time because of that.
Here are the materials necessary for the upgrade:
- Signstek 3D Printer MK2 MK3 Heated Bed Tempered Borosilicate Glass Plate, available on Amazon here
- 400mm x 205mm x 0.5mm Silicone Thermal Pad for CPU GPU Heatsink, available on Amazon here
Even though the printer worked almost flawlessly without any other mods or upgrades, simply having a 3D printer means you can 3D print the upgrades yourself, so I did. Similar to website optimization paranoia, 3D printer upgrade paranoia kicked in and all that I was printing for a good month were upgrades for the 3D printer. Here are the common mods that people print for Maker Select V2:
– Fan upgrade (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1025471)
– Z Brace upgrade (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:921948)
– microSD card slot (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1383950)
I have printed all of these and with such a small investment have been able to upgrade my printer significantly. Because this printer is very popular, there are a lot of resources available online on Facebook Groups, Forums and on various Wikis.
Here’s a little taste of what I was able to print with Monoprice Maker Select V2:
I highly recommend this printer if you are looking for an affordable machine that can be very useful for printing toys, home goods, cases, prototypes, and much more!
And of course, check out related products on Amazon:
UPDATE:
I used Maker Select V2 a lot when I needed to print plastic parts for Neosegment modules. In fact I used it so much that I wanted to double the capacity of my home production line:
To keep the production running smoothly, I bought second printer and within couple hours I was up and running, capable of printing hundreds more parts:
With both printers working almost constantly, I printed over 1000 parts by now and not going to stop any time soon!
