A couple of months ago i was i discovered 3D-printing and fell in love with it instantly. After looking at _alot_ of youtube videos i finally ordered my (first) 3D-printer. Due to the lack of space in my apartment in Stockholm i needed a smal desktop printer. I found a printer called PrimaCreator P120 which is a re-branded version of the Monoprice select Mini. It’s an smal 200 dollar printer that’s just pure awesomeness.

The printer came asambled, so i pretty much bough some filament (PLA) and started printing the same day. After printing som random stuff from thingiverse i found out the pro’s and con’s of this printer.

Pro:
Pre-assambled
Ready to print directly
BIG community (forums, wikis, facebook groups) for support

Cons:
Tiny
Manual bed leveling
Some mods is necceary (like bed-rewiring)

For 200 dollars it’s totaly worth it. As i’m writing this blasogpost i just read about a v3 where Monoprice has adressed some of this cons. So maybe in a couple of months it’s an v3 out where all of this is fixed.

However, after been printing i started to mess around with the printer and today i’ve made some hefty modifications to the printer:

Re-wired the bed-cables
Replaced the control knob
Added Z-axis stabilization
Removed the X-axis gantry
Changed the side panels to custom printed panels
Added a X-axis stabilisatior
Removed some heavy panels from the printer
Added vibration dampeners
Added a glass bed
Replaced the mainboard fan
Change the hotend fan
Changed the hotend thermistor and heating
Changed hotend fan shroud
Oil’d up the machine with sewing machine oil
Added a filament guide
Replaced the filament holder
Added a filament spinner
Added a X-axis bracket
Added some silicon rings for wires
Added a fan guard
Mounted a Raspberry Pi with Octopie
Updated the firmware to the latest version
Replaced all screws to metal m3-screws
Mounted a smoke alarm
Mounted a thumbwheel Leveling System
Added a camera
Added a Plaque for ”Magic numbers” (layer heights)
Added a filament sensor
Added an LED-light
Added some creepy feets

After all of theese mods this is how my printer now looks:

The mod’s i’ve done are somewhat overkill but it also has helped making this 200 dollar printer to an 500 dollar printer. The fun part is that you can easily download mods from thingiverse and print them yourselfe, like a 3D-printer that’s upgrading itselfe.

If you are looking for a new hobby i can strongly recommend 3D-printing. It’s extremly frustrating and fun. Welcome to the rabbit hole.

Update:

It’s been a while since i’ve update this post. I’ve now added some the following upgrades to the printer:

E3D Clone Hotend
E3D hotend shroud
Bigger bed (4th dimension)
Metal Extruder