REVIEW || Sunlu S8 3D Printer || Super Budget, but is it good value?

Does the super-budget printer - with an RRP of $200 - deliver? Or is it too good to be true.
In this video, I give my opinion on this printer and recount my experience of printing with the machine over the past 500 hours.
I hope you enjoy the video, don't forget to LIKE and SUBSCRIBE :D
Spec check:
Build Volume: 310 x 310 x 400mm
Dual Z-Axis Support Rods
Mostly Pre-assembled (you'll see from the video this is true!)
Upgraded Glass Bed
Bowden
Filament Run out sensor
If you enjoyed this video and want to support me here's the link to buy me a coffee: www.buymeacoff... or paypal.me/call...
Equally, if you are in the UK and want to support British manufacturing, why not try 3DTomorrow Filament. We're working on new colours and product lines all the time: 3dtomorrow.com
#SunluS8 #3DPrinting #Review

[@quentinroa2573]

The sunlu s8 does have a belt tensioner, it's just 2 m5 bolts in the front. Tightening those two worked well for me, just make sure to keep the bracket properly angled

[@CallumColes]

I stand corrected! Not the most obvious implementation, but I can see how that would work. Thank you for pointing this out:)

[@quentinroa2573]

@@CallumColes it's not like any I have seen, but I realized when I moved it to the right because my belt was off the roller.

[@CallumColes]

Was surprised when I thought it didn't have one, has been a long time since I had to print a belt tensioner! Lot of the old school printers did not have the tensioners built in but these days, they're normally always on a printer. Glad you commented, as I'm sure other people could miss it too

[@moeshickenyay]

Glad you came back from the future.

[@TXHEN1]

Wow! I have had this printer for 2 years now and its been working great! Minus the slightly bad seems when layer changing but they shouldn't be anything near as bad as what you showed, that's in your gcode and or over temp. Bridging is great btw you should have tested this before Suggesting that it wont be. Did a 50mm test and no issues at all so I don't know what the max would be as the test only went to 50mm. Mine came great, no loose anything and has worked perfectly all this time. Goes to show some people can have different experiences with the same products. I see your printing extremely slow, U are expecting it to be really bad. I print on 60sp because I have my Gcodes so tight by now and great prints all day long. Only at under 0.1 will I drop the speed to 48-50. NOTE to anyone that might have this or is thinking about getting one: It prints hotter then most printers so print at ur recommended lower settings. This helped clean my prints so much from stringing and blobbing when I was first testing them to none now. Took me a while to find out but after several testing's I was so happy to find this out. You can thank me later!

[@CallumColes]

Thanks for the comment, glad you're happy with the machine. It is incredibly cheap, so some users may be happy with the trade-off to save some cash and accept slightly worse performance. In terms of the blobs at layer change, you would get less if you kept the 0.4mm nozzle, I used a larger 0.6mm nozzle in this video. For me, it is not acceptable to be forced to use certain hardware or settings to compensate for dodgy electronics and firmware, which is why I chose not to recommend this machine. The machine does perform better with the power save feature turned off, which clears up the layer change blobs, I covered this in a later video if you're interested. The bridging on this printer is not as good as other printers in its class, I did test this. I do plan at some point to design a 'torture test' to compare printers more directly.

[@jackcooper8420]

What would be the most ideal control biard for this unit? I bought one recently to then mod and uograde, until I feel more confident for a high quality one.

[@dustinvandewater7022]

So I was looking at getting this. I was planning on adding my microswiss ng extruder(which I already have). Is there a recommendation for upgrades to make it better?

[@CallumColes]

The hardware is not too bad to be honest, especially for the money! The main problem is the motherboard is not great... but the firmware update I did in the follow up video helped.

[@radkosochor8091]

I know im bit late for the party, but that final issue you re mentioning could be caused by powerloss recovery function (if that printer has it) try tu turn it off and retry the print (this is common issue in some cheap printers, more or less noticable ie ender 2 pro, in my case) /vit explanmation here...yes you re corrent stopping issue is caused by low data feed rate, but that is lowered by permanenetly writing to sd card marking last location in case of power outage (this is how this funcion works)

[@CallumColes]

Yes, for this printer it definitely was the cause! My latest video talked about this. Sadly you are not able to turn off this function via the printer, or GCODE, you would have to reflash the firmware.

[@michaelross4353]

Hi Callum can you suggest a better board that will fit no problem

[@StevenMonk]

Do you still have the link tot he belt tensioner clip you used? I can't see it in the comments. Thanks

[@CallumColes]

I can't remember if this was the exact one, but more or less the same: www.thingiverse.com/thing:81991

[@azimuth9819]

I imagine this may be worth it to connect to a sonicpad?

[@MrBaskins2010]

Nice large format machine, no doubt

[@CallumColes]

After a few modifications, it's a pretty decent printer!

[@masamasa1815]

There is a bug on this printers main board. If you have to much on the memory card it will cause issues. I keep ten or less files on my card and all my prints come out fine. But I learned the hard way as well about this bug. That being said, I have multiple printers and this has been my favorite for years now. As you mentioned the PTFE tube is garbage, I replaced that with Teflon. The hot end on this machine is one of the biggest problems on this machine, it's terrible, I replaced that. And there is a fan shroud on thingiverse for this machine which fixes the cooling issues, I think it's by red squirrel? Other then that and the issues with wear at the filament run out sensor I have had no issues. I couldn't even tell you how many thousands of hours I have on this printer. I haven't even so much as have had to adjust a belt. Just new nozzles and bed leveling. I will say, it doesn't print as well my ender but I'm usually doing some sanding on my parts so I don't really care. That being said the difference is very minimal.

[@CallumColes]

Thanks for the comment, interesting to hear about your experience with the printer! I like to review the printer as I get it out of the box, but it is a lot of machine for the money. I did a follow-up SHORT video with my suggestions to get it going well, upgrading the firmware is a must, I suspect it would solve the issue you are having with the memory card as well.

[@3DJapan]

Just picked one up from Sunlu for $170.

[@CallumColes]

Bargain! How are you getting on with it?

[@3DJapan]

@@CallumColes It just arrived I'll be doing an unboxing video soon.

[@rebeccasunlu4601]

It's the first version printer of SUNLU I guess.

[@rebeccasunlu4601]

There is an upgraded version now

[@CallumColes]

Yes, it’s a great first effort! Lots of good points on the machine at a really low price point. As I said, it was a shame the processing capability lets the printer down, but I’m certainly not put off trying/reviewing future versions.

[@micro1off]

No such issues with my S8, but I agree it's a bit noisy.

[@CallumColes]

Thank you for sharing your experience with the printer, good to get a range of opinions in the comments:)

[@solomon8273]

How much is this printer worth?

[@CallumColes]

Out of the box, as much as the parts cost... However, if you watch my follow up short video and perform those adjustments, it becomes a very good value printer.