In the past year or so, 3D printer prices have dropped, with many popular vendors offering entry-level models for well under $200. AnkerMake’s first printer, the M5, introduced last year, is not one of them. It debuted at more than triple that price, and is still being sold at $599. That puts it firmly in the advanced user market. But AnkerMake, which is a newcomer to 3D printers, seems keen to join the price-dropping trend with the M5C. It’s a similar printer to the M5, but it trades a few of the latter’s higher-end features for a greatly reduced price of $399, while still offering enough functionality and value to make it a compelling midrange 3D printer.
The Design: Print With Your Choice of Filaments
Despite its smaller price, the M5C is physically large, weighing about 24 pounds, so you will want to place it somewhere where you don’t need to move it frequently. While not quite out-of-the-box ready like the Flashforge Adventurer series, the M5C is still easy to assemble. It’s a gantry-style printer, with enclosed drive screws providing the Z axis (up and down) movement to the direct-drive extruder head. The Y axis is provided by the forward and backward movement of the print bed, while the X axis (side-to-side) is a result of the extruder, or hot end, moving left and right.
The 9.25-by-9.2-inch print bed is heated, too, which combined with the 300-degree-C-maximum extruder, allows you to print using a wide variety of filaments including PLA, PLA+, PETG, ABS, TPU, carbon fiber, and wood. The print bed features a removable plate made of flexible PEI thermoplastic, which bends to help remove stubborn prints. In my testing, I never had a print that refused to release, though there were a few times where the flexible print bed proved its worth.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
Assembling the printer is easy, and took less than 15 minutes, partly because I had a trick up my sleeve. Unlike the documentation that came with the M5 that I tested, the M5C’s instructions do not suggest using the packing foam to support the gantry when assembling the printer, which was a useful tip and one I used again for the M5C assembly. You’ll need to attach the gantry to the base with eight Allen-head screws, plug in a few cables, then attach the filament holder at the top of the right gantry support.
The M5C comes with a neat little tool kit that contains Allen wrenches, a side cutter to clip the filament before feeding it, and several additional tools. You’ll also find a a replacement nozzle, which you will probably need eventually if you do a lot of printing. These are all contained in a separate case, a nice touch that somewhat makes up for the sparse setup and operating instructions. To supplement them, you may want to turn to YouTube, where you’ll find videos to walk you through the most common operations, including replacing the extruder (should that prove necessary). Some of this information is also available on the AnkerMake website support pages, though it would be better if it were included in a more detailed set of instructions in the box.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
Once assembled, the M5C has modules that flank both sides of the gantry. Unlike the M5, which has a camera and control panel in the right module and a filament feed through the left, the modules serve no obvious purpose on the M5C. The status and all printer controls are accessed through the slicer software and the app, which is available for both iOS and Android devices.
The final bit of setup is to install the slicer software. AnkerMake offers its own software, which is what I used in testing. The company also states that you can alternatively use UltiMaker Cura or PrusaSlicer if you’d prefer. Both of these are just a bit more complex, but you might want to switch to one of them as you gain experience and want more control over the print parameters. AnkerMake’s software offers both Easy mode, which is the default with the most common settings, or Expert mode, which lets you gain much more control over parameters such as layer height, the extruder settings, retraction speed, build plate temperature, and fan motor speed. For beginner users, AnkerMake’s slicer might be the best choice.
In addition to the slicer, you’ll also need to install the AnkerMake app on your mobile device, since that is the only way to get the printer ready to load and unload filament. You will need to set up the mobile app with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, while the PC-based slicer software requires a 2.4GHz Wi-Fi connection to the printer. The mobile app uses Bluetooth to connect to the printer whenever it is in range, but switches to Wi-Fi if you move it out of Bluetooth range. You will also need to set up an account with Anker in order to download the software.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
As with pretty much all fused deposition modeling (FDM) printers, the M5C’s bed needs to be leveled before you start printing to ensure that the extruder is positioned at the same distance from the print bed regardless of where the filament is being put down. Some printers still require that you perform this manually using a card or piece of paper to set the Z-axis offset (the distance of the extruder from the print bed) in several locations around the bed. The M5C performs this leveling automatically, and tests the level at 49 points (a 7-by-7-point matrix) on the print bed. This takes a few minutes, and it happens every time the printer is powered on before a print can commence.
The Software: Take a Slice, Make a Slice
The M5C can print from three different sources. One is from the iOS/Android app. Using this approach, you are limited in what you can print to the library of objects AnkerMake has curated for you. You can’t load an .STL or .OBJ file into the mobile app, nor can you slice an object file. The files that AnkerMake includes in the library are pre-sliced, so assuming you are happy with the file from the library, all you have to do is select the file and print it.
A second option is to print from a USB drive containing a sliced file. You’ll find a USB-C port on the right side panel of the printer’s base, and if you pre-slice the model, you can print it from the USB drive by pressing the large button located on the top panel of the printer in the lower-right corner. This selects the topmost file on the drive and prints it. You can also select the file on the USB drive that you want printed from the slicer software.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
Finally, the last method is actually the one you will probably use the most: using the slicer software on a PC or Mac. Again, if you have any experience with slicers, you will feel comfortable with AnkerMake’s, and if it’s your first time using a slicer, you will find AnkerMake’s easy to use, especially in the default Easy mode.
We printed several dozen pieces on the M5C, many from the popular site Thingiverse.com, with a few more from Printables.com. Three of the models we used are benchmarks that can be used to determine print quality, which we’ll discuss below. They also help dial in the best print settings in the slicer software, which converts a model in .STL or .OBJ format into the instructions that the printer needs to actually print the model layer by layer.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
The default print speed is 250 millimeters (mm) per second, which is common for the entry-level 3D printer category. The M5C (and more recent M5 models) also have the capability of printing at twice that speed, using a setting in the slicer software. We printed a number of models at the 500mm-per-second setting, and were impressed by how much more quickly the prints were generated. On close examination, we saw just a few layer lines, and a fair amount of stringing, but for many casual prints, the high-speed mode will be fine and save considerable time. It’s also useful if you want to do a proof print to see what the final print (printed either at the default speed, or the slower setting of 50mm per second) will look like.
It’s often necessary to fine-tune the slicer settings to achieve the best quality in the print. As you start to become familiar with the printer and the default settings, you will probably want to experiment with settings such as extruder heat and retraction. You can also become familiar with settings by printing some of the many models available online that provide slicer settings for the best results.
(Credit: Anker)
By experimenting with the different speed settings, you’ll get an idea of how much time you’ll save printing at the top speed (or conversely, how much more time it will take to print at the slowest speed, which is supposed to produce the best print results). The slicer and mobile app show the estimated time elapsed for the file that you are printing, as well as a countdown to when the print will finish.
Testing the AnkerMake M5C: Good Quality Output
For the most part, the models we selected printed very nicely using the default settings in the slicer for PLA+ filament. We used several colors of this filament type from eSun, which is the filament recommended for printing and analyzing the Kickstarter-Autodesk model. This model is one of two that actually have a rubric to score various aspects of the print, such as dimensional accuracy, filament flow control, fine negative features, overhangs, bridging, resonance, and Z-axis alignment.
A perfect score on this benchmark would be 30 points. The M5C scored 25.5 points, which is very good, but just a touch lower than the M5 managed. The part of this benchmark that brought down the score the most was Fine Flow Control, in which the test object scored 2.5 out of a possible 5. This test measures the length of the spikes at the top of the object as well as the amount of stringing between the spires, which was fairly noticeable. Stringing is very often caused by the slicer’s retraction setting, which is how fast the filament is withdrawn when the extruder is moving. Too slow, and the filament is still molten when the extruder moves from one position to another, causing a string.
(Credit: Ted Needleman)
The second print that has a scoring explanation is the 3D Benchy. One component of the score is the horizontal overall length. According to the rubric, this part of the 3D Benchy should measure exactly 60mm. The M5 recorded 62.03mm, while the M5C did even better at 60.38mm. While we did not perform measurements on every benchmark the rubric contains, we did measure many of them and found the print to correspond almost perfectly to the measurements given in the rubric.
Our third benchmark, a geometric test model, doesn’t have a formal scoring rubric, but does have features that can be examined to determine print quality, including geometric and typographic forms that decrease in size going horizontally from left to right. I did not find any anomalies other than some slight visible layering on the hemispheres and a small bit of bridging in several of the hollow cylinders. We also observed these in the same test that was performed on the M5. On this test, we found the M5C’s reproduction to be very accurate.
(Credit: Ted Needleman)
In all of the prints we generated, only one totally failed to print—a model of the Apollo lunar lander. We tried printing this model at different dimensions and build plate and extruder temperatures, and ended up with a tangle of filament on two of the model’s four legs on every print. We probably could have gotten a decent print by adding supports, but our testing was performed with the slicer’s default settings, which did not recommend them.
(Credit: Ted Needleman)
In addition to the three formal benchmarks and the lunar lander, we printed a variety of other models, including a figure of Baby Yoda and a large owl figure (pictured above). All of these successfully printed and were of high quality with no noticeable layering, though we did see a small amount of stringing on the owl model, as we did on the Kickstarter-Autodesk print.
In all three of the benchmarks, as well as the other objects we printed, the output quality bordered on excellent. It should be mentioned that these results were obtained with the same eSun PLA+ filament used in all three benchmarks. The exact print results are going to be affected by the brand and spool of the filaments used to produce the print. All of the measurement comparisons were performed on the average of the results of three iterations of prints.
Verdict: An Excellent Midrange 3D Printer
We’re impressed with AnkerMake’s first-generation M5 printer, and the M5C builds upon much of the same technology while coming in at a lower price. As you’d expect, it also eliminates some features, such as the real-time and time-lapse camera, and the AI function that alerts you to a problem such as a misalignment of a layer. But Anker has kept the heart of the M5, in that the M5C is easy to assemble and to use. The prints we produced were of high quality, even with the default settings in the slicer software, and having the ability to control the printer from a mobile device is a nice touch. We also liked the availability of the fast 500mm-per-second mode, though for the most part, entry-level users who print only occasionally may not find this a compelling feature.
On the other hand, the M5C’s documentation could be lot better, especially in areas that a beginning user would need, such as how to pause and resume if you need to change a filament color or experience a filament run-out in the middle of a print.
Overall, while an entry-level user can find many 3D printers that cost less than the $400 M5C, given its ease of assembly and use, we still think it’s an excellent value.