HICTOP All Metal Structure
A Rewarding and Cheap 3D Printer Kit 
Assembling this kit is a really exciting and awarding experience after which you will own a high quality 3D printer with a really affordable price. To make the best out of HICTOP kit, buyers need to consider the following points :
- It is a kit. The designer has aimed at creating opportunities and challenges for learning and gaining more experiences through actions. The people who have embraced these challenges, have gained the most and the best out of this product.
- Improvement Opportunities:There are points that you can improve the functionality of this machine. For example by adding an Auto Bed Levelling probe you will be independent of Manual Bed Levelling.
So you come to the point of creativity and product improvement which is an invaluable experience and outcome! This will be discussed more later in this page.
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A Good Cheap 3D Printer: You will own a very good, large volume and fast 3D printer after finishing the assembly. This is one of the sweetest rewards. You will enjoy good quality 3D printing with a decent speed.
Print volume / Print Speed
10.6″ x 7.9″ x 7.5″ is one of the largest print volumes on the net and 120 mm/sec is really fast. Really interesting! With less than $420 (and some time and effort for assembling the kit) you can have a fast 3D printer with large volume. This is one of the main reasons why a number of people decide to buy this kit.
Resolution And Printing Quality
100 micron is a decent resolution with which you can create parts with very good quality. If you increase the printing speed then the quality of the parts will decrease in all 3D printers. After printing a number of parts, you can see that there are many variables that go into successful quality 3D printing (temperatures, print speeds, layer thickness, etc.) and this fact would be the same for any 3D printer.
Heated Aluminum Bed
( You can print both PLA and ABS )
Heated bed in this machine helps the printed object to stick well to the bed and do not warp. With this facility you will be able to print quality parts with both PLA and ABS materials.
Watch this interesting video of printing ABS with this machine.
Note to the speed of the machine. It’s really fast!!
Strong And Sturdy Structure
You will receive a well packaged kit with high quality parts. Extruded aluminum frame and aluminum brackets that hold the extruded frame give a very good strength, rigidity and durability to the machine. This sturdy structure also causes the machine to create more consistent parts with higher qualities.
74% Customer Satisfaction
This is not an accident. It’s a very good sign of the good results from this kit and the level of quality that has been created by the assembled machine.
Quiet Machine
If assembled well the level of the noise produced by this machine is very low . (less than 20 decibels or as described by their Amazon page “namely the degree of whirling sound of leaves.”)
Metal Spool Holder
This is included in your kit and causes a continuous and easy feed of the filament to the extruder which causes a smooth flow of plastic to make a good print.
SD Card Support ( Print Untethered )
You can print with just loading the model on a SD card
and inserting the card in the 3D printer. You can disconnect your laptop from 3D printer and use it for other important tasks while the printing continues through the SD card.
LCD screen
This facility enables the user to set and control the printing parameters without being connected to the computer. These parameters include the head and bed temperatures, head and bed location ( X,Y and Z) , speed and etc .
Customer Support
HIC provides at least one year limited warranty for all 3D Printers.
You can use their online service to get more help about the product assembly, set up and problem solving. It can be done through a hotline and Skype.
Tool Kit Included
With the included tool kit you don’t need to worry about preparing the tools required for the assembly.
Some important upgrades for HICTOP
Upgrade 1:
Some users have proposed to add a separate adapter dedicated to heating the bed. This upgrade prevents you from waiting long for heating the head and bed at the same time.
Upgrade 2:
Notice to the auto bed-levelling probe that has been added in this video. It is a really helpful upgrade with which you don’t need to level the bed manually.
Upgrade 3:
You can buy a Rasberry PI and run OctoPrint on it for the printer’s required USB connection. This allows you to keep the printer in your work room and run it remotely from any computer in the house.
Rasberry PI is very cheap (around $35) and you can have OctoPrint for free.
Upgrade 4:
Add some LED lighting to make your room seem really smart and technical with this machine. With this upgrade and providing enough light you can also create beautiful videos of your prints if you like.
Different Ideas about the assembly instructions
There are very different ideas about the quality of the assembly instructions.
Some people say,” It’s terrific!” and some say, “It’s terrible!”. Some users believe the instructions could be written better.
Despite different ideas about instructions, the required information is available. The assembly could be completed using the assembly manual and you may need to use you-tube and relevant forums for more clarification. The best proof of this truth is that about 70% of the buyers have been able to assemble the kit successfully and enjoy printing high quality works with this cheap 3D printer.
Important Links
Hictop channel on you tube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9Udtwu2QGX6iml-meV6s_w
Print Quality trouble shooting Guide: https://www.simplify3d.com/support/print-quality-troubleshooting/
Functional Specifications
Printing specification:
Extruder quantity: 1
Printing size: 270 x 200 x 190 mm (10.6″ x 7.9″x 7.5″)
Layer thickness: 0.1-0.4mm ( Resolution: Max 100 Micron)
Printing speed: 120mm/s
Standard extruder diameter: 0.4mm
Extruder temperature: 250
Hot bed temperature: 100
Printing material support: PLA, ABS
Hardware
Structure: Aluminum Frame
LED screen: Yes
SD-card: Support
Hot bed material: Aluminum
Software:
Operating system: XP，WIN7，MacOS , Linux
Printing software: Cura