That will work fine. The Aquila is essentially an Ender 3 V2 clone.
I purchased an Ender 3 v2 on Prime Day. And wouldn’t you know it - the z-axis goes up but doesn’t go down. Spent two days going over every detail, upgrading firmware, checking all wires connected to system board. So I could have waited for a part to be shipped in 2-3 weeks and hope that part fixes it. If not, they ship the wire and if that doesn’t work then a new system board. I took one look at all the wires connected to the system board and decided - nope not happening. Started the return with amazon, frustrated I was losing the prime day deal. Went to another site and found it was offered at a lower price so bought it. Now, let’s hope this one works. Argh!
1 Like
Just received and set up a Sovol SV05 (with some very nice help from @dJOS on printer selection and initial setup questions.
So far I've printed two Hubitat mounts by @snell, and am currently printing some additional optional optional cable management/trim pieces for the printer just to make it a little bit prettier. 
Very happy w/it so far, $269 from Amazon, includes auto bed leveling, running on Marlin 2.x. Fun stuff...
9 Likes
Been wanting one but can't justify it lol. So jelly!
1 Like
Neither can I!! Luckily my wife did not ask for an ROI...which would be entirely negative.
1 Like
This got me thinking. I recently priced a sheet of 18mm baltic birch plywood at about $179. Depending on filament costs, it is not a stretch for me to show that additive manufacturing would pay for itself.
It is tempting. My CNC is 7-8 years old and could use a little sibling.
1 Like
What if it was only $100?
You have to be a new customer and near a MicroCenter (pick up only). I was the same way in October. I was interested, but couldn't justify it. I mean, how many dryer knobs do I really need to print? But then I saw a Facebook ad and went for it. I figured it's a small investment to see what it's all about. As I tell my wife, I've spent more on dumber stuff. 
I've been printing a few things a week since I got it. Some upgrades for the printer itself, some fun stuff and Christmas presents, some tools and other useful things around the house. I prefer to print useful stuff, not desktop trinkets.
It also helps if you're mechanically inclined to put it together and troubleshoot later and have even a little experience with CAD software. Otherwise, you may struggle to keep it printing well and you'll be limited to downloading and printing files you find online instead of making your own stuff. Oh, and printing is a SLOW process. Things will take HOURS and HOURS to print. That surprised me.
https://www.microcenter.com/site/content/specialoffer3dprintertxt.aspx?web=EMAIL+OPT+IN
Looks great @danabw I'm glad you are happy with it.
Here is my main printer, it started life as an Anycubic Mega Zero v1.0, but the only OG part left is the frame! 
and I also have a Flashforge AD3 which is in bits atm as I'm rebuilding it to run Klipper FW and a Revo 6 print head.
Probably still be a stretch, LOL.
But at that price I don't think anybody's going to complain if you show up with it at home. 
It's mostly your fault you know.
I wonder if anybody should warn the printers you bring home that things are going to be changing once they get there!
Guilty as charged!
Lol, it's funny, I never intended to modify the AD3, but I got sick of its proprietary BS so decided to rip out the crap and make it better.
1 Like
For those interested in ~$100 3D printers:
I started... with a MakerBot "Thing-O-Matic" over a decade ago... 
I still have it sitting under my workbench/table although it has not been run in many years. Nowadays I am using a Snapmaker, but I will be honest that it has seen a lot of idle time while I have been focused on many other things. I even started to write a Hubitat driver for their API... but that ended up being a no-go (not because it was tough but because the API is designed to DRIVE the printer not just monitor it, so if you connect by the API nothing else can be done).
@Hatallica: Wood prices have gone insane. I have a shelving system I built in my hobby room but when I built it I fell one board short. So for over two years now it has sat with one shelf being only a 1x4 instead of the 1x10 the rest is. My wife got me a Lowes gift card SPECIFICALLY to buy the extra piece for Christmas (to be honest, I had mostly forgotten)... but when I went to buy it all their "good" pine pieces were basically trash, what I might have considered "dimensional" lumber before. I ended up having to get a "premium" piece just to get something that was the same quality as what I used originally. 1"x4"x8' for ~$45. It came from NEW ZEALAND?! Craziness.
I wouldnt even touch a $100 Ender 3 - they are trash imo. One reason I recommended the Sovol SV05 to @danabw was that it comes with all the right components to be a good printer out of the box.
Creatilty is still pushing their trash E3's (in 400 different flavours) with bowden tube extruders and single Z-axis lead screws on unsuspecting customers when for a not much more money you can get the SV05 which is better than Creality's Ender 5 series.
3 Likes
Yes, you definitely want to take a look into stuff and reviews... Preferably from real users if you can find them on a forum.
2 Likes
The problem with Ender 3 users is they almost all suffer from Stockholm syndrome and selective memory loss. 
1 Like
This seems pretty true...I've been printing stuff out w/out issue right from the start, except for when I've done something dumb. Yeah, I know, "Dana happens."
1 Like
Thinking about running down to microcenter and cashing in on this $100 printer. It would be my first foray into printing and I’m wondering if it will be more frustrating than anything. Should I step up to something in the $300 range to begin with?
I think if you were buying say a cheap inkjet printer getting the lowest-cost option can be an acceptable solution, worst-case you might get a little smearing or other issues.
W/3D printers the complexities are greater and I was more concerned about getting something that would "just work" and not waste 5 hours of my time on prints that would not come out OK.
Everyone has different budgets (real and imagined, as in my case ) and different tolerances for issues and troubleshooting, so very subjectve, but I'm very happy w/the fact that the Sovol prints are consistently coming out well so far, in my admittedly limited use over the last week. I'd like to spend most of my time w/it printing, and as little as possible figuring out what went wrong.
2 Likes
Upgrade...had a spare Ring camera (one of the little ones) and mounted it on the printer so can monitor progress remotely, whether in another room, or away from home.
Nice to see what's going on. I am printing some stuff for my next-door neighbors so I've given them access as well so they can see progress as well. Nice.
5 Likes
I'm a noob to 3d printing. My Ankermake M5 was delivered early December and has been running almost constantly since. I'm addicted to the 250mm/s speed-printing.
2 Likes
