I was disappointed with my kit, and I decided to purchase a Monoprice Select Plus. I liked that it had the electronics built in rather than being in a separate box, and the touch screen was a nice piece. Unfortunately, my unit's heat bed would never heat up, but that was actually a good thing as the Plus is just not worth it. The software build for the Plus is just so limited in compared to other units. I couldn't even find an option to choose custom temperatures -- I had to use the built-in Preheat PLA or Preheat ABS option. I ended up returning that unit to Amazon, and I purchased the Select V2. To note, it's actually the V2.1, which contains a fix for a potential fire hazard and has the knurled knobs for bed leveling.
Although, speaking of bed leveling... ugh... I hate it. I don't know if I'm just bad at it, but I've had a hell of a time trying to do it. I'm trying to print out the
Z-brace mod, but even a small piece like the front corner is slightly off level. (It'll rock side to side a slight bit.) I even purchased the thicker
heat bed carriage upgrade, but it hasn't helped much in leveling. (My Select Plus had a noticeably bent heat bed carriage that made it impossible to level.) I think part of it is the whole subjective nature of leveling where they say to take a piece of printer paper and slide it under the extruder and raise/lower the bed until you feel a slight bit of resistance when pulling on the paper. The problem for me is... what constitutes a "slight bit of resistance"? Although, maybe my issue could be with the Z-Axis being off on one side and not the bed? I've tested the Z-Axis a few times, and it seems fine though.
I've performed a few other upgrades to the unit so far. I have the
all-metal hotend as well as an
upgraded extruder lever + extruder plate. While I still cannot get properly level prints, I did see a noticeable improvement in print quality after these upgrades. I see a
lot less stringing between gaps and there are far less bumps. In the past, I needed to sand/file my parts a bit, but now, I barely have to do it at all. To be fair, I did also switch from Cura to Splic3r, which could have affected it too.
I've got a few upgrades in the pipeline too. My next one is going to be a replacement of the Melzi board with a RADDS v1.5 setup. The biggest reason why I want to do that is that the Melzi board lacks any open pins, and I'd like to use a BLTouch. With the BLTouch, I can have the 3D printer test multiple points on the bed for its height variation and adjust the Z-axis accordingly during the print process. During this upgrade, I decided to replace a few other parts. I'm going to an aluminum bed + silicon heater setup, and also upgrading the V2 to 24V. I'll be using a Mean Well EPP-400-24 PSU, which unlike most 3D printer PSUs, it's an open bench setup. So, I can provide my own
far quieter fan.
The biggest change that I'm looking to make is to get rid of the annoying tethered nature of the Select V2. I'm still thinking about using a separate box, but I'd like to use some connectors so I can disconnect it when necessary. The hardest choice so far has been trying to determine what to use as a good power plug as I want to ensure that the plug can handle enough amperage to not be dangerous. (Undersized connectors and/or wires can and have caused fires with 3D printers!) Right now, I'm looking at using this
Anderson PowerpolePak connector. It'll let me handle both the heated bed and heat cartridge over the same connection. The current plan is to build something similar to the original box, so while it sounds a bit tacky, I was considering using a medium-ish sized toolbox!
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