Printer Upgrade Log - Monoprice Maker Select v2

[lhamilton1807]

I picked up a Monoprice Maker Select v2 (clone of Wanhao Duplicator i3) for $45 in April '24 and have slowly been upgrading it and the associated gear. I have a lot of paintpall projects in mind that would do best with ABS or Nylon printed parts. Since this had an all-metal hotend already, I Just needed a few more upgrades... (I know, famous last words)


Upgrades already installed when I bought it:

1. MicroSwiss All-metal hotend - worth the price I paid for the entire printer!
2. Gantry braces (I'll probably replace these - looks like they were printed in PLA, so the longevity in a hot environment is short)
3. Borosilicate glass plate - I eventually got tired of glue sticks and, after a PETG print pulled pieces of glass off the surface I had to replace it, anyway

Here's what I've upgraded/printed so far:

1. Bought some tools - side cutters, precision knife set, needle file kit from Harbor Freight
2. CiiiCooler (printed) - print fan nozzle that cools the print around the entire nozzle. One was already installed, but the PLA it was printed in was crumbling
3. Printed bed leveling wheels (printed) - lighter than the metal ones, and nylock nuts keep them from adjusting during a print
4. WhamBam Double Wham kit (purchase) - why would anyone print on glass after this?
5. Maker Select v2 Spring cups (printed) - to keep the bed leveling springs from walking & throwing off the bed leveling
6. OctoPrint
   1. Installed Lubuntu on an Intel Compute Stick that I had lying around
   2. Installed OctoPrint using the octoprint_deploy.sh script - super simple!
7. Dragon filament clips - (printed) for clipping filament to the side of spools
8. Prusa Lack v2 Enclosure
   1. 2x IKEA Lack tables - purchased locally
   2. Various screws & magnets - found them at Alibaba/Amazon/Ace hardware
   3. TUSH (The Ultimate Spool Holder) - (printed) found a remix that's adjustable & fits on the top of the enclosure. Can't find link
   4. Filament guide - (printed) will eventually replace with a slot to support taller prints. Not a problem right now
   5. 92mm PSU fan adapter - (printed) my own remix. Replaces noisy 40mm case fan with 92mm silent fan
   6. Undermount brackets - (printed) to put the PSU under the enclosure
   7. Filament Dust Filter clip - (printed) cleans dust off the filament as it enters the enclosure
9. Used food dehydrator with 5 trays (this one) - clipped out the floor of 4 of them to make a filament dryer.

[lhamilton1807]

***Reserved for 32-bit board, stepper driver, and touchscreen TFT, and upgrades***

1. BigTreeTech SKR1.4 with TMC2209 drivers - I got the non-turbo version somewhere else w/drivers for almost 1/2 the price
   1. Download latest Marlin firmware here
   2. Download latest example configurations here (I used Wanhao Duplicator i3 files since it's the same printer, just rebranded)
   3. Watch Part1 and Part2 for general config instructions
   4. I'm using a 3DTouch (BLtouch knockoff) - watch this video for how to configure Marlin for it. Another reference video
   5. Watch this video for flashing instructions using a SDcard - I couldn't get it to work over USB
   6. DONE
2. TFT35 E3 v3.0.1 - touchscreen display - learned that there are no special motherboard settings for this!
   1. Firmware update & setup - video
   2. DONE

[lhamilton1807]

Printed and wired up. Have yet to test

1. BentoBox v2 - printed in PETG. HEPA filter & activated charcoal filter out toxins from ABS, ASA, Nylon, etc
   1. 40C normally open thermal switch - keeps the fans off until the enclosure gets up to temperature
   2. magnets, brass inserts, 4028 fans from Amazon (see BentoBox documentation)

[lhamilton1807]

***Reserved for vibration/noise reduction project***
Parts:

1. X&Y Axis belt tensioners - removing the spring clips & installing these helped reduce ringing/ghosting. Get 'em as tight as you can! - DONE
2. Igus Drylin bearings - The stock bearings are noisy during fast printing. INSTALLED
3. 1/2" thick interlocking 12" foam squares. Free from a yard sale - DONE

[SignOfZeta]

The enthusiasm for 3D printing is unlike anything else. Instead of spending everything one has on the best tool they can possibly afford to last them as long as possible and produce the best work possible (ie: mechanic tools, machinery, sporting goods, photography, musical instruments, college, whatever) everything being super super impossible cheap is the norm. Then, before printing a single thing the “upgrade” train leaves the station meaning that at no point will the machine ever be something set in stone that can be mastered (like a knife or a mill or guitar or a potters wheel) but rather it is a constantly moving target that receives as much time and energy as any part.

My question: why are 3D printers sold as junk to be upgraded and how is that anything but kryptonite to hobbyists? You have a huge path to endless upgrading literally mapped out in posts you haven’t made yet. To me that looks like planned self-harm. Nobody does that with a miter saw. You just buy a miter saw and start sawing with it. You don’t cut little pieces of ply wood out to attach to the corners so it will cut straight. Any miter saw sold America in 2024 will make laser straight cuts for hundreds of hours leaving the user with no math to upgrade at all…because it’s done.

I think the guy selling this to you got the upgrade. Now he’s freed from the kaizen death spiral of endless upgrades and “tweaking”.

[lhamilton1807]

Sounds a lot like what ballers on this forum post about every day 😉

I had no idea what I was buying when I picked this up. None. But I’ve learned a lot and the tinkering is almost as fun as getting successful prints. At some point I’ll be done w big upgrades and it’ll just be a workhorse. When it dies, its replacement will probably be some fancy Bambu printer with all the options I’ve built into this one, but out of the box.

I suppose it’s like buying an old cocker body at a yard sale and slowly swapping pieces until it does just what you want. Sure I could just buy a CS3 and be done with it, but where’s the fun in that?

[pghp8ntballer]

SignOfZeta I understand your thinking. This is very much the same situation as the paintball world. We buy things that are supposed to just work. But somebody figures out “how to make it do a thing better”. And since these are hobbies, community is a big part. So the upgrade train rolls along.

The miter saw reference is more of an apples to oranges situation. You’re not wrong, but it’s not cut and dry. Same thing with my paintball to 3D printing reference but on the other end of the scale…

Miter saws and the like are tools. They are sold as tools and the people that buy them expect tools to just work. Sometimes you need better or new bits,blades, etc. but that’s it. No one buys a tool they have to tinker with. There is a huge divide between 3D printers that are tools and ones that are hobby gizmos. Even the Bambu Lab X1 series and the Prusa XL are on the hobby end of the spectrum. Just being able to change out nozzles and beds puts them in the hobby area. They can build functional high level prototypes and finished goods, but that’s not the major target. The next step to an actual 3D printer as a tool is something like $5-$10k more than an XL. When you get there, the people buying those expect a tool. No bed changes or nozzle changes so they can make this neat little trinket. It needs to make the things they make everyday to earn a living. If it’s down or needs tinkered with that’s lost money. The average printer user may never actually see a real tool printer.

Now for the paintball to printing comparison. Paintball was, is, and always will be a hobby. The professionals don’t even buy (or get given) tools. They still customize, upgrade, tinker, etc because it’s a game. With printing, there is a step in there that bridges hobby and tool and it’s a wide step. My $460 A1 Mini just prints beautifully. I can change out nozzles and beds, but it can print trinkets or functional parts. No tinkering needed. I also have 2 delta printers and an Ender if I want to tinker. It’s a hobby for me. It will always be a hobby for me. Let the people burn money and time on hobbies as they wish to do to learn lessons both good and bad (or no lessons as all). No need to beat people down on decisions you wouldn’t make. If you want to have logical discussions like this, just post up a thread with questions/thoughts instead of ranting.

[SignOfZeta]

The problem with saying that comparing a 3D printed to…any other tool in human history…is apples to oranges is…so is the work produced. Nearly everything ever 3D printed is in the landfill right now…and it took endless tinkering to get there. I guess my issue is that I’ve been arts and crafty my entire life but I never once set out to buy garbage tools and use them to produce more garbage just…not caring what a huge waste it all is.

Somehow there are people who don’t care if anything ever works as long as they get to mess around with it forever…I guess? Could they get less wasteful hobbies please? There have to be a million little white plastic bags filled with 3D printer crap on the way to the USA from China right now. A wave of products that will be landfill bulk in a year.

[lhamilton1807]

Most power tools are made in China. 😉 Consider the sport we all love, too: markers require lubricants that get shot out and have to be constantly replaced. O-rings wear out. And of course paint gets thrown about and can’t be re-used. Are you going to give up paintball because it’s so wasteful?

I do agree that there’s a lot of plastic/non-biodegradable waste with 3d printing and that’s troublesome. Thankfully most people I know just stick with PLA,, which is biodegradable.

I imagine that as 3d printing technology matures, it’ll be more efficient and smarter and won’t have nearly the waste that current processes do. Any new technology tends to be wasteful and inefficient at first and becomes refined over time. Plus these are designed for prototyping, which means when the design isn’t right it has to be re-done. Every tool went through that process. It’s not like our first factories or tools were precision-made in their first iteration. Your saws have been refined over millennia. Do you think the first saws that were made cut well or didn’t ruin wood along the way, creating wasted time and materials? Solar panels (another tool, in a sense) were hugely inefficient and manufacturing them polluted a lot when they were new tech. Refinement has brought manufacturing and recycling capabilities that reduce or eliminate waste and need for raw materials.

Expecting something as complex as printing to be efficient, refined, without waste, and tinker-free out of the gate when it’s only been around a few decades is just unreasonable. Give it time.

Regardless, I think you've hijacked this thread for long enough. If you want to complain about 3D printing, go ahead and make your own thread on the topic. I'm sure there'll be a rousing discussion about it there. This thread is for discussions about the projects I have for my printer and how those might be useful to others. Let's keep this on topic.

[lhamilton1807]

finally moved the enclosure to the work table next to my tech mat and installed the foam flooring for noise & vibration dampening. HUGE difference in printer vibration. The ikea lack tables are just so flimsy that even with printed braces it wobbles all over when printing.

Post #4 updated w some pics

I’ve got most everything else in the mail, just haven’t made time to install it.

[lhamilton1807]

Well dang… the magnetic base & build sheets I bought won’t work - the build surfaces are magnetic while the base is not. Just the opposite of my current setup. New kit inbound…

[lhamilton1807]

New magnetic base came in and is installed. Had to replace the thermistor in the new heated bed - Marlin didn’t have a profile for it that would read accurate temps.

After about 16hrs of fiddling with the firmware settings, I have Marlin 2.1.2.4 working perfectly on the new board. It’s soooooo much quieter! No bearing rattle, no motor screams, and the fans are near silent. I hadn’t planned on Z motor alignment as a capability, but when I found it I was glad I’d bought an extra motor driver. My dual z motors now work independently of each other, so I can use the BLTouch probe to run a leveling program that gets the motors within 0.01mm in height. Auto bed leveling also works like it should.

Problem is the new touch screen won’t fit the old case like I thought it would so it’s all a mess of wires right now. No matter! I’ll just print a new case.

[boarder2k7]

The enthusiasm for 3D printing is unlike anything else. Instead of spending everything one has on the best tool they can possibly afford to last them as long as possible and produce the best work possible (ie: mechanic tools, machinery, sporting goods, photography, musical instruments, college, whatever) everything being super super impossible cheap is the norm. Then, before printing a single thing the “upgrade” train leaves the station meaning that at no point will the machine ever be something set in stone that can be mastered (like a knife or a mill or guitar or a potters wheel) but rather it is a constantly moving target that receives as much time and energy as any part.

My question: why are 3D printers sold as junk to be upgraded and how is that anything but kryptonite to hobbyists? You have a huge path to endless upgrading literally mapped out in posts you haven’t made yet. To me that looks like planned self-harm. Nobody does that with a miter saw. You just buy a miter saw and start sawing with it. You don’t cut little pieces of ply wood out to attach to the corners so it will cut straight. Any miter saw sold America in 2024 will make laser straight cuts for hundreds of hours leaving the user with no math to upgrade at all…because it’s done.

I think the guy selling this to you got the upgrade. Now he’s freed from the kaizen death spiral of endless upgrades and “tweaking”.

This resonates with me deeply, as this Maker Select V2 was my first printer and I did put time and effort into upgrading it. Then came the second printer because it was better for different things, and then the third.... oh and add in a resin printer because those mechanics and use cases are totally different too.

I however decided last month to get off of the upgrade treadmill and get rid of all the claptrap and buy ONE machine that will actually just work all the time with no questions. All 3 of my existing machines are on the chopping block, and my new Prusa Core One gets delivered sometime in January.

The answer to your question of "why are 3D printers sold as junk to be upgraded?" is that some are and some aren't. The Wanhao i3 (Maker Select V2 is a rebadge) was released back in 2016. In its day it was a competent entry level machine, in my opinion today it doesn't hold up. Now in 2024 (nearly 2025!) you have the option to drop $500 on a Bambulab P1P that is 10x the printer of a Maker Select and will just work out of the box. On the other hand you can pick up an 8 year old printer for under $50 (or a brand new machine like the Creality Ender 3 that sometimes goes on sale as low as $99) and put time and effort into making it better.

For me the perpetual upgrade cycle was a case of the sunk cost fallacy. "Well I already have this machine and it's only $X to get it to do the next thing I want" and then I did that repeatedly and kept adding on. Now that I'm out of college and have an "adult" job, I value my time differently, and the idea of buying a machine that will let me print engineering materials like PA6 nylon and polycarbonate NOW, rather than after some hypothetical amount of additional modifications, won out over saving the money.

Yes the build volume of the Core One is smaller than that of the Ender 5 Plus I was just getting into modifying with the goal of having that become my "one printer to rule them all" but for me that was a trade off I was wiling to make.

In the end, it doesn't matter as long as you're having fun I suppose. Building up a low quality printer into a great printer is a lot of work, but it teaches you a LOT of valuable things along the way. You'll touch on mechanics, programming, and even dabble in high level mathematics if you try to do your own work on motion control systems. I've just gotten to a place in life where I want my printer to be a tool that I use to DO projects, rather than the printer continuing to BE the project.

Your buildup is looking really cool though lhamilton1807, I'm looking forward to seeing where you take this machine. I'd also be very curious to know if you've kept a running total of hours and dollars spent in your upgrade journey. One thing that helped my MS V2 that I don't see you having done, was swapping to stiffer bed leveling springs. Perhaps the cup modification is helping that somewhat, that is something I didn't do to mine.

[lhamilton1807]

I keep track of total time, but I do know I’ve spent about 18hrs or so getting Marlin firmware running. That was a huge learning curve. I know I can go back and log what $ I’ve spent on it. Probably around $150 total.

The bed springs in mine are pretty stiff already. Coupled with the cups and printed thumb wheels that have unlock nuts in them, I’ve not needed to muck around with leveling the bed for a long time - only when I’ve replaced parts or moved the printer. But after it’s set up, once and it’s level for a long time. That was the case even before I had the BLtouch sensor and firmware that would auto-level.

I think I’ve taken this printer about as far as I’d want to go. I definitely COULD have just gone for a Rolls Royce, but tuition (for the kids, not me) came first. I got to learn a lot and I’m happy for that. Now that it’s working well I’m glad I can move on to printing for fun and paintball projects rather than the upgrade/mod train being the project itself.