(Updated!) M3D Micro (retail edition): User Review

[This review has been updated. I left the main-body of the review in tact and added the update on to the end so that you could compare my initial reactions (after a couple of dozen prints and over 150 hours of printing) to those experienced a little later in the game. Both stories are important I think, if you are trying to get a feel for what you are getting into.]

Original Post

For those of you that have been scared off of 3D printing because you thought that the field wasn’t ready for the average consumer, well, I think your time has come. If my first few weeks with M3D’s Micro is any indication of  the current state of consumer printers, you can now move forward with little to fear.

At this stage of the game, manufactures are producing printers that can do a solid job without requiring the end user to be able to assemble them from scratch (or kit–wanna see just how “easy” that can be, watch this). For somewhere south of 500 USD, you can currently obtain a printer and filament, download the necessary software and be ready to print.

Of course, you will first need to know what it is you want to print and you will need to get a model of it in .stl format but there are several easy ways to do that as well…

• Model it yourself in something like Rhino 5 (premium) or 123D Design (free)
• Download an item already modeled from somewhere like Tinkercad or Thingiverse
• Contract someone to model it for you through a service like You3dit.

Once you have what you want to print in the right format, you shouldn’t have any trouble loading it into most of these software packages, tinkering with the settings, and hitting “print.”

So yeah, in sum, currently (that’s right now), with no experience (armed only with the ability to follow some pretty simple directions), you are capable of imagining and producing things. The size, quality, and composition of these things  to a great extent will determine how good (expensive) a printer you may need but, if you are just getting started and are not sure about a lot of things, don’t be afraid to start here. You won’t be out a ton of money, you will learn a lot and you are going to have a lot of fun doing it.

A Quick Review

My experience with the Micro, so far, has been mostly trouble free. I ordered the machine directly from the manufacturer (though I would probably recommend ordering from Amazon in the future), it came in a reasonable amount of time and arrived unscathed. The Packaging was well thought-out, the manual was easy to follow, and I was up and printing within minutes of unpacking my printer.

Because I already had an idea for my first print (I needed a new dimmer knob for one of my light-switches), I had an .stl file waiting from a model I had created in Rhino 5. It was easy to import and the settings on M3D’s Micro are very easy to understand and adjust–at least at the basic level–and are more than adequate to get started.

Loading the filament was straight-forward and my first print was done in a few hours. There were a couple of things I didn’t like about the print and I had to play around with the software a bit so that I could figure out the likely results of varying combinations of the different settings.

Within the basic settings you are looking at few options and most of these are a simple check-box…

• How fine you want to print (print quality–3 settings)
• How much infill (5 settings, though you really can’t print a solid piece, so maybe only 4)
• Raft (yes or no) — almost always yes
• Support Material (yes or no)
• Model on model support (yes or no) — support for over-model overhangs
• Wave bonding (yes or no) — better bed adhesion w/ wave bonding

After a dozen or so iterations, I had a better understanding of the printer’s capabilities and I had my part printed just as I wanted–my first project was done.

Why so many iterations? Well, one issue did present itself very early in the process and it took me a minute to figure out what was causing a problem with my cylindrical object; the printer’s backlash settings were not dialed in properly. I would imagine that this is probably a pretty common issue, especially so with the less expensive printers. Unless they are calibrated at the factory before they are shipped, I would think that these settings would be off in some way on almost every printer and, depending on how far off they are, it can (and did) have a marked effect on the quality of the prints. While adjusting these settings does go a little beyond what I would expect from a “turn-key” experience, it shouldn’t put you off as it really is quite easy to accomplish.

I also downloaded Cura Slicing Software and printed a few parts with it to see if that might add anything. It did, I had quite a bit more control with a slicer like Cura, but it also added a layer or two of complexity, and while I was fine with that, in the end, the part I finally settled on was printed with M3D’s own software. While Cura did give me the ability to print a solid part, it just wasn’t necessary for this particular part. It was nice to know, however, that using another slicer with the Micro was really no more complicated than understanding that particular slicer–I just downloaded Cura, used it to generate the g-code I needed, and imported it as a job into M3D’s advanced settings; It was that simple.

So, overall my early experiences have been very positive. I have printed a lot and had my prints come out mostly how I expected them to. When they haven’t, it hasn’t really been the fault of the printer and I have been able to note the issues in the settings and retry with success. In fact, the printer has yet to truly fail–though there was one horrendous incident where the print came completely free of the bed (picture a pile of silly string).

Pros and cons? Here are a few bullets…

Some of the Stuff I really Liked!

1. Value! It’s not just that this printer comes in at $449, it’s that it is as solid as it is for $449. A printer like this is the perfect printer if you are just starting out and are incapable of (or not interested in) building a printer from a kit.
2. Ease of use.
3. Auto bed-leveling
4. Size. This printer fits right on the corner of my desk, taking up very little space.
5. Its quiet.
6. Dependability.

Some of the Stuff I’m Not Thrilled With…

My “cons” are really more of a list of the things I will want in my next (more expensive) printer. Also, considering the price of the Micro and the lack of issues that seem to arise, they are understandable. My experiences here have helped me better understand what facets of printing are important to me…

1. I really don’t like that the printer has to be tethered to a computer via USB cable. I would much rather load a micro SD card or thumb-drive, walk away and let the printer work (sometimes for more than a full day) on its own. Of course, I have a feeling that the inclusion of any internal device capable of running the printer would surely increase both the size and cost of the printer.
2. Lack of heated bed. Getting your print to adhere to the print bed and not warp is one of the biggest challenges you will face early on. Of course, a heated bed would be a big help.
3. It’s slow. Now, I know what you are thinking, “surely it’s not that slow.” Yes, it is that slow; watching this print is only slightly more enjoyable than watching paint dry. It’s slow.
4. How simple it is to use. Unfortunately, this comes with a lack of control. Of course, you can always use another slicer to generated the g-code and import it into M3D’s package. This comes with it’s own set of challenges but does seem to be a viable solution.
5. M3D’s customer service is pretty poor. I have had a couple of chances to engage with them (on my printer and on an additional order) and have experienced less than stellar responses. It is not that they seem like they don’t want to help, they just seem overwhelmed. They are young and growing very quickly and so here’s hoping they can catch up–a strong customer service department is going to be vital if their customer base is heavily weighted with printing novices (like me).
6. Small print area–not a great big deal but I am noticing that I would like to print some stuff that is just a little bigger than will fit.

Conclusions

So that’s it. It is important to note that my expectations for this printer’s results were tempered by my understanding that this is a very inexpensive printer. I didn’t expect really high quality prints and so was pleasantly surprised at the results. Though I think that the quality of the prints is pretty good, I do expect that other, more expensive printers will produce vastly superior parts and my opinion on the Micro’s value will vary with the degree to which this turns out to be the case. My initial thought that this might be a great way to get started in 3D printing was, I believe, justified and I encourage you to look into this printer (and others like it) if you are just beginning to try to find your place here.

The purchase of a printer like this can be a matter of experimentation. One of the best ways to begin to find your place in the 3D printing world is really just to start printing. You will learn just as much about your wants and needs from what you won’t be able to do with a printer like this as you will from what you can do. I advise you to see what you will print, how you will take to it, and how important you find the size and quality of the prints to be. With the M3D Micro, you know it isn’t going to give you the best quality, the largest print volume, nor probably the best reliability but “pound-for-pound,” this may be one of the best selections you can make… especially if, like I was, you are just starting out and do not have a clear idea yet what it is you will need.

Update

About a day after publishing this review, some of my printer’s limitations were exposed. In particular, the mechanism for feeding the filament into the hot-end is not very robust. While loading was never a really a problem, removal was always a little difficult whenever I went to change color or type of filament. I didn’t think too much of it–it really didn’t seem to be that big of a deal–until I tried to go from PLA to ABS.

At this point the printer nozzle jammed fast and the filament wasn’t going forward or back. Now, for me, this was probably great, I bought a sub-$500 printer so that I could learn without the risk of damaging something that I couldn’t afford to replace. For me, this is all part of the experience. But this printer is pitched to common consumers who just want to print stuff (See their website where they tout, “the first truly consumer 3D printer”). For this purpose, and if my experience is common, I am afraid that this printer does fall a little short.

Lucky for me, I had already ordered M3D’s spare parts kit and so I had a nozzle ready in case it needed to be replaced. Armed with the necessary tools (a small phillips screwdriver and a small socket) I proceeded to tear into the print-head. This went fairly smoothly (see video), I removed the nozzle, extended and cut the filament, and removed it. I then installed the new nozzle and filament and felt like I was off to the races.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t quite done yet. I had changed the bed to one of the new ones that came with he spare parts kit and, even though I recalibrated the printer, the printer was unable to get more than a centimeter or so into any print without experiencing massive failure. Once I went back to the old bed, the printer printed as it once had and so I think (if I am going to use the newer bed) more calibration/leveling will be in order. It is important to note that the tools for the calibration work I am talking about are accessed in the advanced or “expert” settings of the printer’s software–do I need to say anything else about the printer being appropriate for the average “consumer?”

Another big issue seems to be M3D’s customer support. I wrote earlier that I thought that they seemed to be “overwhelmed.” Well, this sentiment has been expounded upon by others contacting me via Instagram (path_2_3d). Dina, a woman with what appear to be phenomenal baking skills and, who “wants to simply pull in a pre-made file and click print,” found that while “the concept is great,” what she has found was the “exact opposite.” Worse still was M3D’s “(in)ability to relate to (her) as a user.” She felt that M3D’s support overwhelmed her with complicated terminology and tried to make her feel stupid when all she was doing was reaching out for a little assistance. Another user, Fritz, remarked that “(he) can’t even get a response from their support.”

All told, I would say that the Micro has been a great first experience for me– someone that really wants to learn about 3d printing and is okay getting into the printer and the software a little–but obviously I want to do more in this space than most people. So, if you are just looking for an inexpensive, reliable printer, I’m afraid that I am going to have to advise you to look elsewhere for now; I’m just not confident that you are likely to have a good experience.