Announced in 2020 on Anycubic’s fifth anniversiary, the Vyper is Anycubic’s newest and most interesting FDM 3D printer yet. With a great build volume for such a compactly sized 3D printer, it’s also incredibly easy to assemble and get printing in just minutes.
Thank you to Anycubic for sending us a Vyper for us to build, test and review, and we had a great time testing it out over the last few days.
Anycubic Vyper: The Key Stats
- Anycubic Vyper price: $359 — Available on Anycubic store here
- Anycubic Vyper build volume: 245 x 245 x 260 mm
- What filaments can the Anycubic Vyper print: ABS, PLA, PETG, TPU, wood filaments
Building the Anycubic Vyper
Perhaps the single most impressive aspect of our 3D printer test of the Anycubic Vyper is how incredibly simple it was to put together.
The entire assembly process took around just 10 minutes. This included assembling it, turning it on, calibrating the Anycubic Vyper (it auto levels but takes a few minutes to warm up the extruder before it can start) and inserting the filament.
Not only was it quick for us to build, but it would be that quick for anyone to build — even brand new makers. Particularly impressive was their simple design for a spool holder that attaches to the side of the printer. Other impressive 3D printers, such as the Creality CR-10 Smart we also recently tested, had more complex spool holders that used twisting nuts to slide into the side of the 3D printer’s platform frame. However, as simple as this would be for experienced makers, brand new beginners could struggle with this.
With the Anycubic Vyper there is no chance of misunderstanding — the spool holder clips on to the side, makes a satisfying clicking sound, and then you’re set to go.
All the main parts come attached, and all you have to do is put in four screws to attach the tall metal Z-axis to the build platform, put three screws in to attach the touchscreen to the front of the 3D printer, clip the spool holder in to place, connect a couple of wires together, and you’re all set to go.
It’s almost unfair to keep calling these printers DIY 3D printers, as they’re about 15 minutes from being plug & play printers. Whereas even the original Creality CR-10 from a few years back could take 45 minutes to put together (which was considered extremely fast back then!), now just a few years later the assembly process for good budget 3D printers such as the Anycubic Vyper is so streamlined that even beginners could build it. This is great for making 3D printing more accessible and democratizing the technology.
Testing the Anycubic Vyper
When testing any 3D printer it’s always good to start with some of the more standard 3D printer test models. Here are a selection of the models we tried printing:
Torture Test: XYZ cube
We firstly tried the XYZ cube torture test, printing it in the highest possible quality (0.1mm layer height), and at 25% infill.
Though high quality settings are generally overkill for simple shapes like this cube, we were most interested in seeing how it handled the letters embedded within the the cube sides. Would the Anycubic Vyper struggle with these smaller details?
The results were almost flawless. Every corner was sharp enough to potentially scratch your skin, each embedded letter was crisp on every edge, and you could barely see the diagonal layers making up the X, Y, or Z embedded into the cube.
This very clearly demonstrated that the Vyper could more than easily handle any simple shape. But, we’re often printing our favorite characters and other more intricate models, so we then upped the difficulty a notch.
Printing a more intricate model: Litten Pokemon
We then tried printing a Litten Pokemon — the fire starter from the latest generation in Pokemon Sword & Shield. We picked this because it’s similar to many of the more intricate projects makers worldwide want to print, and it would show the Vyper’s effectiveness for these precise parts.
High quality 0.1mm layer heights were again used, and as the model has a number of suspended elements including the tail and whiskers, used everywhere supports.
The results were again good, the Litten model itself was very good, just a few small imperfections where gravity took its toll, and one side of the supports for the whiskers failed, but overall it was again impressive. There was some stringing between the top of the ears leading back to the tail at the end, but this could be mostly remedied by optimizing print settings.
We adjusted the support settings after printing this model as the standard settings were perhaps overboard, but that was our misjudgment rather than the printer.
TL;DR: Anycubic Vyper test feedback
Overall, we were impressed with the Vyper’s accuracy, and the crisp surface area finishes it printed. You’ll need to tinker with the settings based on what you’re intending to print, but the default settings should handle most routine prints.
New Metal Bed
Interestingly, the Anycubic Vyper forgoes the increasingly common glass bed for a metal bed. This magnetic spring steel bed clips to the print bed and makes for better adhesion, and every model we printed was extremely easy to remove after printing had finished.
Though we tested the printer with PLA, this should also help if you’re printing with ABS, preventing deformation at higher temperatures.
The Anycubic Vyper Is Quiet
All the models we printed did so quietly, owing to the Vyper’s new and more powerful hardware.
We were putting the finishing touches to some other content and editing an article while one of the prints quietly hummed along in the background — so even if you do have to do focused work in close proximity to the Anycubic Vyper, it shouldn’t be too bothersome.
Anycubic Vyper Pros
- Comes with all the equipment you need — SD to USB adapter, two spare nozzles, USB to printer connections, some spare PLA, and a scraper tool to remove finished prints.
- Very quick and simple assembly — takes just 10 minutes to fully assemble and turn on, and then just a few minutes to heat up and auto level before you’re ready to print.
- Good print quality — for such a low cost 3D printer, the Anycubic Vyper offers great precision and prints accurate, crisp corners, and can print fine details on character models.
- Completely auto leveling — very impressive for a cheap 3D printer that most hobbyists and beginners will appreciate.
- Nice range of features — the filament run out detector, power outage resuming and other functions will save you stress over the printer’s lifetime.
Cons
- No WiFi — 3D printers such as the Creality CR-10 Smart that are only slightly more expensive come with WiFi and remote accessibility via their 3D printer app, so ideally the Anycubic Vyper would include WiFi connectivity. Having to export from Cura to an SD card, or connect via the USB port, makes the 3D printing workflow less efficient.
Differences between the Vyper and other Anycubic 3D printers
- Anycubic say that the Vyper can print at 80-100mm/s comfortably, 30% faster than other Anycubic models like the Mega S and Mega X. We did not ramp up the speed that high because we prioritized a successful and accurate print, and we printed a few smaller models where print times weren’t going to be a huge problem anyway. But this is good news for impatient makers.
- The double-fan system makes for very quick cooling down post-print.
- Upgraded 32-bit mainboard for more powerful, reliable and a quieter printing experience.
- Improved Z-axis “high-precision double screw and double photoelectric limit” for a stabler printer less affected by vibrations and other extraneous factors.
Anycubic Vyper Full Specs
- Price: $359 — Available on Anycubic store here
- Build volume: 245 x 245 x 260 mm
- 3D printer type: FDM 3D printer, 3D printer kit
- Anycubic Vyper Speed: up to 80/100mm/s (30% faster than previous iterations in the Anycubic Mega series)
- Anycubic Vyper Assembly time: around 10 minutes
- Display: 4.3-inch touchscreen
- Connectivity: USB, SD card
- Compatible filaments: PLA, ABS, PETG, TPU, Wood filled filaments
- Filament: 1.75mm
- Max nozzle temp: 260C
- Max heating bed temp: 110C
- Minimum layer height: 0.1mm
- Single or dual extruder: single
- Print system: Bowden extruder
- Nozzle size: 0.4mm
- Weight: 10kg
- Auto leveling: yes, via coordinating the print head over 16 points across the print bed.
- Build plate: magnetic spring steel plate
- Fan system: double fan system for faster cooling (without loss of print quality)
- New 32-bit mainboard and CPU for better performance, reliability and a smoother 3D printing experience.
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