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There are several compact 3D printers on the market, and I have been lucky enough to try these out. These include the EasyThreeD Nano 3D Printer and most recently, the MakerPi M1 3D Printer of which I won! Well, here I have the Weedo Tina 2 compact 3D printer. How does it compare to other compact 3D printers? Read on to find out more!.
Weedo Tina 2 Specifications
- Layer Resolution – 0.1mm
- Nozzle Diameter – 0.4mm
- Build Volume – 100x105x100mm
- Nozzle Speed – 40 mm/s
- Positioning Accuracy – Z-Axis 0.0025mm; X,Y-Axis 0.011mm.
- Product Dimensions – 210x210x290mm
- Weight – 3Kg
- Voltage – 110-220V
- Power Supply 60W
- Extruder – Quick Release Single Nozzle
- Filament Supply External Filament Tray
- Filament Compatibility – PLA :
- Printing Mode – USB, TF Card, WIFI
- Software – Wiibuilder, Cura
- Supported File Type – STL / GCODE/ OBJ
Weedo Tina 2 Compact 3D Printer Unboxing
The Weedo Tina 2 compact 3D printer arrived in a plain brown box. Within this, you have another box plastered with the company branding. It’s rarely you see a nicely designed box for a 3D printer! As this is a small 3D printer, you can expect a small box. Small enough to fit on a CR10S bed! A handy carry handle is included too!
Upon opening the box for the Weedo Tina 2 3D printer, the first thing you will find is an unpacking guide and instructions on how to print with the app. Underneath this, you have a plain brown box which contains the accessories such as the power lead and tools. The SD card contains test files and slicing software such as Cura and Wiibuilder. I did not use these as I was using the test files.
In the accessory box, you will find:
- Masking tape sheets x2
- Hex wrenches
- M6 Nozzle
- Micro SD Card & USB SD Card reader
- Power adapter
- Filament
- Screwdriver
Compact 3D Printer Build Quality
They make the Weedo Tina 2 3D printer from a hard moulded plastic. It feels of decent quality, however, not on the premium side. It is nice and compact and it’s designed for little hands. The top is covered, apart from the top for the PTFE tube to move with the extruder. The gantry is covered by a metal guard, to avoid little fingers touching the hotend (Although makes it more fiddly should you need to check on anything in that area). The rear of the gantry is not covered so if little fingers get in there, wires are visible which can be pulled! The display is OK. There appears to be some lag when navigating the menus, however, I’m not sure if this could be down to the contents of the SD card. Not a major issue, though.
What Else Should We Know?
The noise of the printer is noisy as expected because of not having silent stepper drivers. I recorded an average of 56.6dB and it does kind of rattle as it prints. The extruder assembly appears to be of good build quality, and the inductive sensor is similar to that which is on a Prusa mini. I mount the spool holder on the side and is just a simple drop-down clip. This won’t hold your 1KG spools, unfortunately, but good for the smaller sizes. Besides this, you also have the filament extruder here, which is easy to guide your filament through. The magnetic build surface is small, but works great! A small flex on the plate once your print finishes and you can peel it off with ease.
The power adapter has a power switch on it so enables you to turn off the power without having to unplug, of which is not the case on similar printers of this degree.
Raring To Go!
Pulling the Weedo Tina 2 compact 3D printer straight out of the box and removing a couple of small clips that secure the bed for transit, I fit the little magnetic bed, apply some masking tape and insert the SD card. With the power adapter plugged in, let’s get going!
The included SD card contains quite a few test prints. They are labelled with the timings, which is handy! Let’s give these a go…After heating the extruder to 200°C I load up with some Technology Outlet Christmas Green PLA.
My first print is a cat ring which should take 10 minutes. After selecting the file, the display shows you settings for the print, such as density, layer height and temperature. Click print and the Weedo Tina 2 goes through its automatic bed levelling. A significant feature to have on such a small printer! After 13 minutes, the print completes, the extruder moves to the top, and the bed moves out to the front. As with a lot of test codes, it printed this with a brim and the print came out extremely well! The gcode wanted to print at 230°C but I changed this down to 205°C.
Enter the dragon
The next test file I am printing is a dragon. Ideal for the green filament I am using! The time stated on the file is 1hr 33 mins…it took 1 hr 40 mins, so a pretty good estimate there I think!
Gears
You’ll be able to see from the video how smooth these gears printed!
Little Digger
Straight after printing, the movement was free for the digger arm and wheels. No complaints here!
Venom Carnage
This model was sliced in Simplify3D and is modelled by Vinicius Cardoso. Again, this turned out great!
Let’s check out the Weedo App
The Weedo Tina 2 has built-in WiFi capability, which allows you to print straight from the app (Android only). They call the app used PoloPrint. It is available on the Google Play store or you can download it directly from the Weedo site.
Once installed, the app will take you through a tutorial on how to connect with the printer. On the printer, you go to Control > Connect to wifi. This then communicates with the app, finds your WiFi network and you input your WiFi password. Once successfully connected, name your printer on the app and that is it! Simple and easy to do. The app can read your SD card contents and also has cloud files from which you can choose to print. The app allows you to move the X, Y & Z and to also retract and extract filament, but that appears to be all. It is a very simplified app.
Choosing a cloud model to print, this uploads it to the Weedo Tina 2 and then it starts to automatically print. This was one file from the cloud option.
Want to know more about the Weedo Tina 2 3D Printer?
If you want to find out more on the Weedo Tina 2 compact 3D printer, you can check out their website here to get all the details. If you want to purchase, it is available from Amazon at £239. It seems a tad on the expensive side when compared to other compact 3D printers and also those that have a larger build volume such as the Ender 3. However; it produces great quality prints, although you are limited because of its build volume.
Tina 2 3D Printer ConclusionÂ
To sum up, the Weedo Tina 2 compact 3D printer produces some outstanding prints considering it’s of the lower end of the scale when it comes to 3D printers. With the addition of the bed levelling probe, this makes it so much easier to just press print and leave it to do its thing.
No need to manual bed level and watch that first layer go down! I do like the WiFi connectivity, although it seems limited, however, over time this may lead to more things. Things I would change it perhaps to provide a larger spool holder, or even include a separate spool holder so you can use 1KG spools. If silent stepper drivers could be added too, that would be great! Other than that, it’s a good quality printer that would suit any small space with the added benefit of auto bed levelling!
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Overall, a nice compact 3D printer that produces good quality prints, albeit, limited to its small build volume. With auto bed levelling, this is great for just pressing print and leaving it to do its thing. If it had silent stepper drivers, that would be a big plus for this printer! Would make a great gift for kids that have an interest in 3D printing for sure!
