The M3D Micro 3D Printer has been on the market for a while now, and the price has finally come down to a more reasonable level.
When M3D launched their Kickstarter back in 2021, they crushed the $50,000 funding goal in 11 minutes flat. That kind of hype doesn’t come from nowhere. People were genuinely excited about what this tiny printer promised.
We finally picked one up and spent a few months putting it through its paces.
Design
M3D Micro 3D Printer
Tiny, affordable, and shockingly good with PLA. Comes fully assembled and the print quality genuinely rivals machines costing three times as much.
Pros
- PLA print quality rivals expensive printers
- No nozzle jams experienced after months of use
- Fully assembled right out of the box
Cons
- Very small build area
- No heated print bed (ABS warping issues)
The M3D Micro 3D Printer earns the “micro” label. It’s genuinely small enough to pick up and carry with one hand. The build area measures 109 x 113 mm at the base, narrowing to 91 x 84 mm at the top, with 74 mm of height. That gives you 185 cubic millimeters to work with.
Sounds tiny. It is tiny. But this little machine puts out way better prints than you’d expect from something this size.
Layer thickness ranges from 50 to 350 microns, so you’ve got real flexibility when it comes to detail vs. speed. The FlashForge Finder starts at 100 microns and gives you a bigger build area if you need more room. M3D clearly designed every inch of this thing to maximize capability in minimal space. There’s even a hidden compartment under the print bed for stashing your filament spool.
Photo Gallery
Key Specifications
| Spec | Detail |
|---|---|
| Build Volume | 109 x 113 x 74 mm |
| Layer Resolution | 50 - 350 microns |
| Filament Type | PLA, ABS (1.75 mm) |
| Connectivity | USB |
| Heated Bed | No |
| Price Range | Budget-friendly |
My First Print
There’s a tube running from under the bed to the extruder, but M3D actually suggests putting the spool outside the printer and feeding filament in from there. No spool holder that way, but the filament feeds a lot more smoothly.
If your desk is already packed, the under-bed compartment works fine too.
They include a sample model for your first print, which I thought was smart. It gives you a baseline to compare against, so you know if your machine is outputting what it should.
The bundled software walks you through the whole process: changing filament, slicing models, rotating and resizing objects, starting your first job. Pretty intuitive even if you’ve never touched a 3D printer before.
Print Quality
No heated bed means ABS is going to give you problems. The M3D Micro 3D Printer can print ABS, but the material cools too fast and tends to curl upward before finishing. Leaves residue on the bed too.
A glue stick helps with adhesion, but it won’t fully solve the warping. Smaller ABS prints turned out okay, but if you’re serious about ABS, go with something enclosed like the FlashForge Creator X.
PLA though? This is where the Micro earns its keep. PLA prints beautifully on unheated beds, and the quality honestly rivals what I’ve gotten from the Cubify 3D Printer, a machine that costs several times more.
Getting that kind of output at a third the price. That’s why the M3D stands out.
I had no issues printing PLA at any size. Still, I’d grab a BuildTak surface for easier removal and to keep the bed in good shape over time. Every PLA print came out smooth with zero warping.
It’s slower than pricier machines, no getting around that. The LulzBot TAZ 5 is one of the fastest FDM printers out there if speed is your priority. That little dinosaur in the photo took about 8 hours at high quality with medium fill.
The stereographic projection sphere below is the most complex thing I’ve printed so far. It also shows you how much plastic waste the support rafts generate on intricate designs like this.
Hopefully someone figures out a good filament recycling system one of these days.
The So-Called Ink
The M3D Micro 3D Printer takes standard 1.75mm PLA or ABS filament. M3D calls it “3D Ink” in their materials, which confused me at first. It’s just regular filament with a marketing name.
Third-party spools like HATCHBOX 1.75mm PLA work perfectly and cost less per gram. I’ve used them extensively with no problems.
You’ll have to set your temperature and material settings manually with third-party filament, but it takes about two minutes. The Afinia H480 has a nice filament tracking feature that tells you when you’re running low, which is a handy touch.
Setup
If you’re new to 3D printing, every machine has a learning curve. Unless you’re spending thousands on something pre-configured, expect calibration headaches, the occasional jam, and filament feed quirks.
That’s just where the technology is right now. It’s getting better, but we’re not at “just press print” yet. The LulzBot Mini is probably the closest thing to true plug-and-play with its auto-leveling and zero-calibration setup.
For context, we also tested the MakerBot Replicator, and even that had nozzle jams. But after running the M3D Micro for a couple of months straight, I haven’t had a single jam.
Not one. Could be luck. Could be that the nozzle technology in budget printers is genuinely getting better.
I’m optimistic it’s the second thing.
Now here’s what did annoy me. During auto-calibration, a warning pops up telling you the printer could get damaged without BuildTak.
I had no idea what BuildTak was. It wasn’t in the box.
Turns out it’s a thin flexible sheet you stick on the print bed for better adhesion. They’re very affordable, so I grabbed a pack from Amazon.
Here’s the catch: the instructions say to raise the base height by a few hundredths of a millimeter. Doing that wiped out all my previous auto-calibration settings, and I actually had to drill a small hole through the sheet and the print bed.
So be careful with BuildTak. It helps with adhesion, but the installation process can create new problems if you’re not expecting it.
Frequently Asked Questions
We strongly recommend PLA. The M3D Micro does not have a heated print bed, so ABS prints can warp slightly upwards before finishing. PLA prints without any issues on unheated beds.
3D Ink is just M3D's branding for standard 1.75 mm PLA or ABS filament. Branded spools come with an optimization code, but third-party filament works fine if you configure settings manually.
The build area is 109 x 113 mm at the base and 91 x 84 mm at the top, with a height of 74 mm. The total volume is 185 cubic millimeters.
Final Thoughts
There’s a lot of competition in this price range, and the M3D Micro 3D Printer holds its own. Ships fully assembled, works right away, and the barrier to entry is about as low as it gets. Perfect for beginners.
The obvious limitation is size. If you want to print anything large, the CraftBot gives you 10,000 cubic centimeters of build volume. With the Micro, you’ll need to print bigger models in sections and glue them together.
Stick with PLA. Seriously. Save yourself the ABS headaches.
I’m really happy with this machine. The print quality goes toe-to-toe with printers costing two or three times as much, and at this price point, that’s about all you can ask for.
