EasyThreed X1 Mini FDM Portable 3D Printer Orange (UK Plug)

• Overall
• Quality
• Value

Great fun printer and a great price.

Jan 20, 2021

I've been looking for an affordable printer for some time, and just by chance this came up on my weekly email.
Obviously this was the week before Christmas and the impending UK lockdown iii was on its way, but I put my faith in the team and placed an order.
As usual no fuss with the order and I received the printer on the 4th of January.
Unusually for me, I didn't assemble it straight away and then read the manual, I actually read the info included on the SD card and cleared my workbench.
Set up was easy with nothing extra needed.
You even get a screw driver and a usb adapter for the inclosed SD card and ten metres of filament.
I had some filament that I'd got with a kit printer (that's still in bits because there is no manual) couple of years ago so,
Firstly leveled the bed, again easy, then I loaded the print head, copied the "Calicat" GCode onto the card, power off, insert card, power on and then pressed the "play" button
About an hour and half later I had a printed cat.
It's a great bit of kit of you follow the instructions and included video.
If your print doesn't stick properly, check the bed is clean, and you could use a PVA glue stick.
It works.
So far I'm using this printer to learn, and it's definitely worth the price.
It's not had a day's rest and nothing has failed yet, apart from the stuff that I get wrong like the height.
If you are new to printing and don't want to spend a fortune to learn, get one.
Many thanks to the team.

• Overall
• Quality
• Value

Well it didn't last...

Jan 07, 2021

After a few days of use the nozzle started clogging. Tried every permutation of nozzle-to-bed gap, printing temperature etc but it would always stop extruding after the first few layers.
Tried raising this with the support desk but I'm just getting the runaround, so I'll go for a paypal refund and/or small claims court action.

• Overall
• Quality
• Value

Surprisingly good for the price

Dec 26, 2020

My Better Third bought me this for Xmas as a "toy", but I'm actually rather impressed with it. It takes a whole 30 seconds to assemble and have ready for use, and it's small enough to sit on the desk in my study. Keep in mind that this is a very cheap machine. The reviews elsewhere make much of the things it lacks - it has no heated bed, limited printing volume and needs to be limited to slow speeds to avoid losing its place (I'm running at 30mm/sec for now, and I'll rack that up until it starts jumping again). The reviews talk about modifications to add a missing part-cooling fan (quite important), but mine came with the fan and ducting already fitted, so I guess they've upgraded it. I have bought an aftermarket heated bed for it, but as yet I haven't needed to use it.
I couldn't get the software on the SD card to run, but that doesn't matter because I wanted to use PruSlicer as it gives more options with finer control. Provided you limit the speed (as above), add a tile to the bottom (a tick-box in PruSlicer) and turn the nozzle temp down to 180-190C to stop it stringing it can do a remarkably good print. In fact the only really annoying feature is filament reel holder which needs tiny spools, but this is easily fixed by making a taller one (loads on thingiverse) or just knocking something up from a couple of pieces of ply and a dowel.
So while this will never rival the £1,000 printers and is pretty well limited to PLA filament (although I'm looking to see if there's an aftermarket hotter extruder for it) I would say it's surprisingly good and capable of making real parts.