I’m thinking of entering this world for the first time, and I was wondering if there are any models that you feel you would particularly recommend, thanks to anyone who would like to share their experience!
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One printer that isn’t mentioned as much is the Qidi Q1 Pro, which looks like a killer value.
I personally have an A1 because it was really cheap in my region, but Bambu has done a bunch of anti-competitive things by blocking third-party software, so if I had to start over, I would get something else.
Other good options I think would be the Ender 3 V3, Sovol SV06, and maybe even a Prusa MK4S if it’s within your budget. The cheaper printers are perfectly fine though.
I recommend buying a used/refurbished model from eBay or some other outlet. I picked up a Anycubic Vyper for $200 four years ago and even though its an older model they are easy to use, self leveling and later you can upgrade pretty much everything on it including the firmware (using Community). I liked it so much I bought a second one and was able to get a replacement motherboard from Anycubic for $40. There are other printers out there like the Ender or a Bambu you can find on eBay too. Just make sure the seller has a strong reputation and good reviews.
Any Prusa
If you don’t want to have a second hobby as a 3D printer maintainer (which is totally fine if you like to thinker and calibrate print-settings) then Bambulab printers are really good (if you have pets, buy an enclosed one)
Is the hobby printing, or what you want to do with the print?
This was the question posed to me, and I went with the latter which lead me to Bambulabs (pre-shenanigans).
As a house with 3 dogs and 2 cats, it’s not a real problem. Sometime a quick wipe is needed, but the critters ain’t going to interfere with any printing.
That’s what I thought too at first, then I forgot the door open once when I went to the toilet and when I came back I found one of my cats very closeling inspecting the moving toolhead heated up at 200°C pushing out molten plastic
And it’s still annoying to clean the printer before each use
(if you have pets, buy an enclosed one)
Interesting point.
IDK if you heard about Bambu’s enshittification, an alternative that’s very similiar in price and design is Qidi.
I didn’t get a Bambu printer because of the price or design, I got it because of its “just works” reputation, which it does.
Unless Qidi matches that ease, it isn’t equivalent, and that’s important to mention. Maybe it does?
And yeah, I don’t love the recent changes, but that’s only ideologically. Practically speaking it is still amazing.
A1 bambu
I originally had a enderr 3 v3
I will say I learned how to replace virtually every part and how to make custom parts to fix design flaws
But no. I would not recommend it.
I got the A1 bambu. It just works.
You can also use it with AMS. Which is a 4 color multicolor system (optional).
Has wifi. No need to deal with getting cards and card readers and all that. There is also an app that you can monitor your print from. With video.
If you are printing a bunch of parts and one messes up, you can cancel that specific part and the rest of the print will continue.
This kind of thing is really awesome actually.
The slicer software is user friendly. (The software you use to prepare the print file,).
It has this whole thing where you can create projects with multiple plates. Didn’t know how awesome this was until I started using it. It’s so convenient.
The replacement parts are cheap. So far I haven’t needed any but I bought a few nozzles and a fan when I ordered mine just in case. Since I figured all printers were like my ender and needed things replaced regularly.
Honestly can’t say enough good things.
If you broke. The A1 mini is about $200.
It’s just as good as the A1. Same features just smaller print bed.
I bought one for my nephew and niece. They are kids and have learned how to use it.
No way could they use the ender without my help on every print.
Cause it seems to always have some problem.
Here is how you can verify what I have said. Go to reddit r/ender3v3 and r/bambulab
See which one has constant posts about big problems.
The slicer software is the same as Prusa/Orca Slicer. (It’s a fork of Prusa and Orca is a fork of Bambu slicer) You can use either and get all the same slicer features for any 3D printer. In short, don’t choose a 3D printer for it’s bundled slicer since almost any slicer can be used for almost any 3D printer.
If you have the money I’ve had nothing but good experiences with Prusa, and I had tons of bad experiences with the cheap printers I had before.
I can only speak directly to their bed slingers, but if I was buying today I’d probably get their new coreXY model.
Not all cheap is bad, im a proud owner of an lk5 pro that refuses to die for nearly 3 years now. Print quality equal to an ender 3 i’d say.
But in all honesty, it may be durable but not as easy to upgrade than the popular ones.
A 3D printer is a tool first and foremost.
These days outside of poorly designed fire hazards any model you can get will be good.
For my two cents avoid the following traps.
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all plastic construction. Looks nice but assume you will need to service it at some point.
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no spare parts available. Basically go on Amazon and type “print bed for model of printer” and if you find nothing it’s not getting parts or service.
What to get then. Brands are fickle so these are the features I look for.
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thermal run away protection. If it doesn’t have the run away yourself.
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heated bed. Helps with adhesion
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removable build plate. Easy service and since the build plate is consumable good to have
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auto bed leveling. It’s not 2018 and manual leveling is a waste of time.
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direct drive extruders. Bowden isn’t bad but if you want consistency direct drive really helps
Brands I would recommend is Creatily since it’s a good budget machine (do research first their naming is crap) and Prusa since most machines are based off of theirs.
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Honestly, it comes down to personal preference at the end of the day, and I would recommend you go with a Creality Ender 3 v3, cheaper than a bambu, and plug-n print, I’ve had mine for a year with only the occasional easily fixed issue. Really not a fan of bambus walled Garden experience.
The Prusa One and Bamboo X1 are very equivalent printers: both are high print quality, low intervention crazy fast, and more beginner friendly than anything that has come before. The Bamboo will (currently) do better with multicolor (with an addon unit) and Prusa is more trusted (there’s a threat that Bamboo will go closed-ecosystem).
I’d recommend watching some of the reviews from bigger names in the 3D printing world. I don’t remember who specifically has done reviews and comparisons of the two, but safe bets are Thomas Sanladerer / Made With Layers, CNC Kitchen, and 3D Printing Nerd.
Can you share more about how much you are willing to spend, what you want to do with the printer (print parts for outdoor use or fidget toys or minifigures etc.) and where you are located? That way it is possible to make a recommendation more specific to your needs and situation
I don’t have any particular needs at the moment, other than that it be a printer that I can keep in my room and that it not be noisy; I would certainly prefer to avoid closed apple-style hardware systems. I live in Europe.
If you are willing to spend the money, I would recommend getting a Prusa. They are pretty good with keeping their system open (although not everything is open source, you can read about it here), their printers print well and their support is very good, which is nice, especially as a beginner. I would recommend buying a kit and building the printer yourself if possible, it’s a lot of fun imo and also helps if you need to troubleshoot something later because you already know how the printer works.
The Core One is their newest model, it’s a bit faster than the MK4S and fully enclosed, so its easier to print more technical materials on it. It has a bit of a wait time on the order tho and still needs some firmware patches to be as reliable as the MK4S and it has no support for multi material printing yet. I think it will probably be quieter than the MK4S if/when it gets a phase stepping update and you can easily put a filter on it if you want to print some of the more nasty materials.
The MK4S is also still a good option imo if you plan to mostly stick to using PLA and PETG.
I don’t think the Mini is worth it at the moment unless you can get one used, and the XL is massive overkill if you are just starting.
If you don’t want to spend as much, Sovol is one of the better Chinese manufacturers when it comes to respecting open source and not having shitty apps full of ads afaik, but I don’t have any personal experience with them.
Bambu printers work great, but if you want to avoid a closed system I would not recommend them.
Aurora Tech is a good source for detailed printer reviews on Youtube, in addition to the channels mentioned by Derek.
Edit: Formatting and typos
Thank you!
I just got my Core One last week (also first time buyer), and my first impressions are very good.
ETA: I got a lot of helpful comments in a thread I posted last year: https://lemmy.ml/post/23563961
Yeah it had some issues with the door sensor and the nozzle cleaning directly after release, but those should be fixed now, and based on Prusas track record it will get firmware improvements for a long time.
Thank you too
My first printer was a I3 mega from anycubic and it tought me a lot about 3d printers. Even though I love my i3 mega I’d stil recommend a Bambu lab printer to newbies because of the reliability. I don’t like Bambu lab as a company but right now it’s hard to beat them reliability wise. Disclaimer: I’ve been out of the 3d printing community for some time and only speak for my own (outdated)experience.
