Review on 🖨️ Fully Assembled Monoprice Select Mini Printer by James Lesley

I'm new to 3D printing and didn't want to spend a lot of money on my first printer. I wasn't expecting much from the printer so my expectations weren't high. I've watched as many YouTube videos on how to set up the printer as I can. As soon as I got the printer I flashed the screen and rom and also changed the settings to match the video. I didn't use the filament that came with the printer as there was very little of it. I bought some Inland PLA filament here at Revain and downloaded this one instead. I started printing the included cat model and it came out great. I started downloading .stl files from Thingiverse and printing them (using Cura for slicing) with no problems. Everything was fine, and then my prints went in the trash. I've been watching more 3D printing videos and apparently my bed wasn't up to scratch. Here's the fun, NO! I figured I'd have to send the car back because no matter what technique I used to level the bed, my casts were still garbage. Finally, I watched a video that suggested using a business card for each of the four corners (I used a piece of paper). That helped. After practicing, I can level the bed in no time. Watch the pumping video again. I also had to clear a filament jam, which was interesting. again, another video to watch. I started playing with different bed temperatures as well as filament temperatures. I bought other types of filament to see what worked best. Let me warn you if you are going to be using ABS. Not. This is a headache. doable but still a headache with all the things you need to do to make it work properly. I did some ABS prints and they came out great, but then again. Headache. I also found that about half the temperature worked for me depending on the needs of the filament. For PLA 60c (Edit: 40c is enough after the first layer) it was perfect, and for ABS I sliced everything I printed by setting the layer temperature to 60. Once the print started I increased the layer temperature to 80c. The bed will only be around 78c. To make the ABS work I also used Elmer's glue stick on my bed covered with blue 3m tape to hold it in place. Stick with PLA again. Oh I didn't mention that if the original tape comes off the bed you can re-cover it with blue 3M tape, the same one you use when painting. Since I've been playing I can pretty much say what I'm typing, what settings I should be using. All I can suggest is that you play and watch lots of videos. At this price point and for a spool of thread, you should be having fun and learning. I've since moved away from using Cura and now use Simplify3d, which is quite expensive but I really like it. A small build platform is a problem as many of the models you want to print will be much larger. Scaling has its own problems. Attempting to remove the supports when the part of the model they are connected to can be difficult. I've attached a picture of my latest print (not sure why it's showing sideways on Revain). This was to be greatly reduced from the original, and some detail regarding the Terminator hydraulics around the mouth and neck was lost. But if you want to print more, you will spend significantly more on a printer. I'm pushing this thing to the limit and getting some great prints. I also bought another 3D printer with a larger build platform, but I wouldn't mind that for my smaller projects.