Two Trees 3D printer review: I got hands-on with the affordable SK1, and it’s a mixed bag

Luckily for me, Two Trees dispatched a replacement which was fitted fairly easily.

However, it’s an easy mistake to make and could potentially be an annoying one to fix so it’s one to watch out for — just remember the correct voltage is shown on the selector switch.

The printer chassis is a fully metal construction which feels extremely solid and gives the impression of good build quality.

The metal guide rails for the X, Y and Z are all sturdy, too, and are described as high-precision guide rails with no adjustment required.

The Z axis has three independent motors — two at the front and one to the rear — which along with the inbuilt sensors and automatic 36-point levelling calibration, mean you don’t have to worry about manually levelling the bed.

The only setup required is to adjust the height of the Z ‘home’ using a piece of paper. However, the printer runs you through this process during the initial setup.

Two Trees also sent me its and which fully seals off the build volume of the printer.

The enclosure kit closes off the sides and the rear with steel plates, while the top and the front are closed off with tempered glass.

The enclosure kit does make the printer look much sleeker thanks to its black matte finish, though there were A LOT of screws in this kit and it took the best part of an hour to finish building.

One benefit I found is that the enclosure noticeably reduced the noise of the printing process, which is great if you are using it inside your home or when you have those all-nighter prints going.

The AI camera mounts in the top-right of the enclosure and monitors the printing process, looking for any failures such as the dreaded ‘spaghetti’. It will stop the print if it detects problems.

This is a great feature as it reduces the chances of wasting a lot of material if you are running long prints and are not able to constantly monitor the printer.

However, unfortunately for me, I found that the screws included in the mounting kit were interfering with one of the linear rails, causing problems with printing, meaning I had to temporarily remove it.

Software setup

The SK1 comes accompanied by a USB flash drive pre-loaded with copies of Prusaslicer, OrcaSlicer and Cura.

The printer is also compatible with other slicer software so you have plenty of options to choose from.

Also on the flash drive is a PDF copy of the user manual and the classic ‘Benchy’ test file.

I went with Cura as I had some experience using it when I reviewed the Elegoo Saturn Ultra and found the UI quite intuitive.

I installed it and followed the instructions to set up an account. Once the slicer was installed, I selected my printer and created the printing profiles.

This is where the lack of detail in the instructions became rather apparent; it took a bit of Googling and some YouTube videos to get through.

In the end, it wasn’t overly difficult, but I feel the process could have been made easier with clearer instructions.

The Klipper firmware used by the SK1 gives it the ability to use fluidd which is a web browser-based interface enabling the remote monitoring and control of your printer.

All you need to do is ensure your printer is connected to your local network and with internet access; simply enter its IP address into your web browser and you’re good to go.

Test print