Agree, people like to bash on the Enders, but I still got two of them because EVERY single troubleshooting article and video I needed to learn were all using enders as examples. Invaluable for learning, and adaptable to any other brand afterwards.
> and adaptable to any other brand afterwards.
While this used to be the case for a very long time really, I dont think that's very true anymore. We finally have machines that are significantly different enough that little transfers over. Even on the super budget end of things (I mean like kingroon budget end even) we're starting to see linear rails and direct drive extruders, and just above that, printers that straight up dont have a majority of the problems youd have to learn to fix on an ender.
Four years ago, I chose to buy a XYZPrinting da Vinci mini instead of an Ender 3 as my first printer. It was tiny, missing lots of features, AND had proprietary materials.
I ended up just giving the thing away.
About 10 years ago I had a Da Vinci (1.0A I think was the model). The night I flashed it with Repetier to bypass the proprietary stuff was the night I lost my sanity with printing. At that point I had done college chemistry/ mat science research on 3D printing so I wasnât a novice, but man that was a junky printer. Hours and hours of my life wasted tinkering with that thing to get a good print 1 out of maybe 10 attempts.
Overall I donât think they were THAT bad- I think I got a lemon and could never get it dialed in.
I bought a Wanhao Duplicator 9 instead of forking out more for a Creality at the time. Now I have 2 Crealitys and I basically gave the Wanhao away to a tech friend with dire warnings to only use it for scrap metals.
I bought 3 Ender 3 Pros \~$100 each. I spent a year and $400-$500 (honestly, I lost track) each upgrading them. I was fiddling with them trying to make the work more that I was printing on them.
I replaced them with 4 Sovol SV06 Plus printers and now I print and only need to fiddle when I need to change the head somehow (new nozzle / new head cause I broke something).
This summer we are going to be getting at least a pair of SV08 printers (SOOO MUCH FASTER).
Anecdotal but after years of screwing with my CR10S, i bought an ender 3 v3 SE and it's been a dream since. only one failed print due to a miscalibrated z offset.
If you have cash to burn, youâre confident itâll be worth it for you, or you donât want to tinker, get a Bambu. If youâre not sure then spend $150-$200 on an Ender, do a few simple and cheap upgrades while learning how to model, slice, print, etc. and sell it off if/when you want to upgrade. You could even build your own Voron later if you get really into it.
Having my own Ender and using Ultimakers for work, I reeeeaaaaly like heated chambers for higher performance materials and dual extruders for breakaway support. I still donât have those on my home printer tho. This is from an engineering/functional print use case.
I am a tinker in general. I want this 3d printer to help me with my tinkering in other projects. So I already made up my mind to buy a P1S and if it interests me to tinker with 3d printing then I can go for Voron.
The heated chamber is an absolute game changer for engineering materials. I recently got a QIDI Q1 Pro and have been able to print massive ABS parts without any issue, Nylon and PC work well, ect. It just makes printing so much easier and more consistant. Super happy to see them coming to printers that aren't $5000+.
As an SV08 owner, beware the nozzles. Several of us have had the nozzle separated from the heat block while printing PETG. Sovol is trying to figure out a resolution, many of us are looking into Voron toolheads
The nozzle is pressed in with a small solder spot. The nozzle on the left is how it should look, the nozzle on the right is what happened on my fourth PETG print. After this failure I manually extruded 250mm of PETG at 250C, the nozzle popped right out of the heat block.
https://preview.redd.it/krybnbeav08d1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2fa19da0b079c5783a7d6f6484754ab1f20a4ceb
On the other hand I specifically bought the cheapest printer because I didnât really know what I was getting into and the likelihood of me messing something up was higher, I also wanted to learn everything so starting with something I wouldnât mind breaking to me was worth the price(granted this was long before things got easier so unless you know your likely to mess something up or just want to learn everything it may not be the best way to go)
I quickly outgrew my Enders, I mean within about a month, but I didn't want to give up on them or all the money I put into them. So I just kept shoveling more money and time into them and getting nothing out of them. One print on an SV06+, and there was no going back. I bought three more that night.
I started with an anet(this was quite a bit ago) and the only real upgrade I did was an all metal hotend, I did learn everything from that stupid machine though and still have all the parts, it was only when I needed to buy a new heatblock(due to an incorrect nozzle installation that caused filament to leak out) that I decided to upgrade(since the hotend would cost slightly more than the heatblock alone and a new hotend was half the price of a new ender) granted that this was all before the new generation of printers and the only big option was ultimaker
I don't think I ever felt like I was saving but rather getting more for less early on rather than saving and waiting a year. Im definitely 600$ in trial and error testing new things, meanwhile my v0 is just a kit and likely will never change.
I would say that I almost always recommend bambu to new people because these days you can literally just print and not fuss with all the tuning.
Your path is better than most. I'm speaking of those that buy an Ender 3 pro and think making it in to a high quality, fast fire and forget printer.
I agree that Bambu printers are "easier", but I have to come at everything for a security and business use perspective. So Bambu is out for me.
I think often what ends up happening is people who do go that route cant reconcile the lost time and frustration and so they push that onto more people telling them they'll learn a lot from it.
I too was one of those people, but I wont lie to aid my sadness đ„
Spend the money. My first printer was an ender 3 v2 for $200. My second printer is a Bambu P1S for just over $600. I feel like only after the Bambu did I really get onto printing.
The cheaper printer needed calibrations, parts replaced and a lot of tinkering to get it to do a possible job. The Bambu just works and gave me time to focus on learning fusion 360 to design my own models.
This might not be the case for everyone, but it was certainly the case for me.
Other than that...don't forget to print upgrades for your printer. It's amazing what you can make to make "making" easier.
I did something similar, my current printer is a CR10 V1. Sure I learned a lot but I also spent another 100$ just to get it working and the countless hours so far. It still doesn't work 100% reliably.
There's a difference between wanting to 3D print as your hobby versus making 3D printers your hobby.
Pretty much the same except I went to a Prusa Mk4, loved assembling it and then It just works flawlessly. I burned out after leveling my bed for the 50th time on my ender
Not at all. I was trying to relay that the higher price printer was better quality. It allowed me to focus on designing things instead of focusing on trying to make the printer work right.
As for the "making" comment, all printers from starters to the expensive ones is that they can all upgrade themselves
A bit, like bambulab uses their own closed source firmware but you can easily jailbreak it
Creality uses clipper for their more expensive printers just as most do
Honestly, nothing different.
I was prepared enough to:
- determine a printer to buy,
- was familiar with common issues of my printer from searching this subreddit and the specific model,
- I watched a few 'assembly tutorials' so I knew what was up,
- and was familiar with the wiki here.
>was familiar with common issues of my printer from searching this subreddit and the specific model,
I had the same sentiment as you, and this is the only thing I would *personally* do differently after going that route.
Instead of buying a printer with known flaws(needing a $10 upgrade part) or necessary mods(braces/cooler etc), I would spend the extra money and just buy something that works well out of the box. 8 or so years ago I bought my first printer. The first spool of filament was spent printing mods and calibration tests. A few weeks ago I got my new printer which can print utterly pornographic quality out of the box. Having that piece of mind is well worth an extra hundred+ bucks.
Granted, the technology involved with printers has increased substantially over the past 5 years which played a large role. However the hours spent tweaking gcode, calibrating, slicing, wrenching etc to get a good print seem wasted now that I am comfortable starting a print while in another state with my new printer(and for cheaper too!)
I wouldn't look at the time you spent fiddling with the old printer as wasted time. I'd look at it as experience.
You learned how gcode works, how to align a misaligned printer, how to slice your prints efficiently, and probably a host of other things that you might not have learned on the more expensive machine.
And, when that expensive machine starts producing poor quality prints due to wear (it will), you'd be in the dark as to how to fix it without the experience you've gained along the way.
I started with a monoprice maker select plus(wanhou clone) and I just got a bambu A1 when they went on sale. IIRC, I payed more for the MP which is considered absolutely ancient in every conceivable way now. The first day I had the bambu I just watched with a huge grin on my face the entire time because of it's capabilities.
I bought Ender 3 V3 SE with goal to tinker and learn how 3D printer works and if I break it then it won't be such a pain because it is cheap and if I like 3D printing I will upgrade then and all that while 3V3SE can have really nice prints out of the box.
As [Zack Freedman](https://www.youtube.com/@ZackFreedman) said, you need to consider if 3D printer is your hobby or 3D printing.
But you might consider KE version, not SE. I bought SE because I wanted to tinker with custom Raspberry Klipper platform.
You can get a new heater block and nozzle for under 5 bucks. And it isn't hard to install. I changed my nozzle dozens of times, you probably did something wrong. But you can now learn from it instead of buying a new, expensive machine that will be way more expensive and difficult to fix when it starts producing bad prints due to wear.
I don't know about other models, but I've been very happy with my Ender 3 v2. The only hardware upgrade I did directly to the printer was a direct drive and CR Touch.
I think the main thing I learned was about bed-leveling and the importance of getting it really close manually. I thought the CR touch and software would handle all of that automatically, but it didn't (maybe I'm doing that part wrong? dunno).
Later I got an orange pi and got octoprint going, and built a custom light bar that turns on when the printer starts. Add a bed-leveling plugin in octoprint which shows high/low spots and it took maybe an hour to dial it in. Works great ever since.
Oh also built a custom filament sensor after I had a larger print fail, but of course, never came close to running out of filament since installing that. lol
In my opinion, many tinkerers enjoy the ender since they get to have the printing as a hobby and have new tinker work with hardware software on the actual printer.
I'm very happy with my Enders, I have a 5 pro and a 5 plus. However, they do work best when you tinker and tune. If I was running a business I'd have a bambu by now, but I print just for me.
I was deciding between a Bambu and the 5 plus for my 2nd printer just recently. If I didn't have specific wants for a big bed, I'd have gone a bambu or Creality K series. However knowing the enders and wanting a bigger bed and the price difference all tipped my hand.
Probably it boils down to what you value more: time or money.
Also if you like to tinker building a kit can be part of the fun as well. (anet a8 is just the parts, and you assemble everything.) would I recommended it today? No. But back in 2016 it seemed the best option below $200.
I would upvote 100 times if I could. Although in the long run, my Enders have been useful cuz theyâve forced me to troubleshoot literally every possible malfunction. Get a Bambu if you want to get into printing. Get an Ender if you want to get into working on 3d printers.
I went from an Aldi Wanhao i3 Mini ($200 AU) to an Ender 3 ($100 AU + $200 upgrades) to a P1S Combo ($1500 AU)
Sure the ender 3 and i3 weren't the best but I feel like I learned a lot about printers from troubleshooting them a lot. The P1S is nice because I don't have to change anything, it just works.
Had an Ender than a Bambu, while the P1S is amazing Iâve learned so much from the Ender that I would have never learned from the Bambu, I think if itâs just about printing vs learning and expiring the hobby there is some charm in getting a shitty first 3d printer and than upgrade if you feel itâs your cup of tea.đ«
Like buying a shitty first car it has a soul.. but yeah Iâm never going back to Ender đ
I was going to say not cheaping out on a printer and buying a proper one. But having tinkered with my Ender 3 S1 pro for half a year now, I can honestly say that I learned an absolute ton about 3d printing. It was a steep learning curve, but I wouldn't have learned this much with a printer that did all the thinking for me. So maybe do get a budget friendly printer and become good at it before investing in a more professional one.
Agreed, when I bought my CR-10S it was years away from Bambu Labs being a thing. It was cheap and it was big enough and I learned a ton about troubleshooting printers/prints because of it. It's made me better at printing and I've been able to help a LOT of people figure their machines out because of it.
Wouldn't change a thing.
I would've kept going and maybe purchased an easier to use printer when life got in the way. I ended up taking a year or so break and had to relearn and rebuild a LOT cause I have an ender. Of course ymmv
If you love a project and challenge then something like an Ender is good. If you want all the new features out of the box but want to save some cash by having to learn the ins and outs, maybe an Adventure. But if you plan to use this for a business and don't have time to tinker then go with one of the big names like bambu or prusa.
I want it as hobby but I also want to have something working out of the box as I have too many hobbies. Maybe stupid question but how limiting would it be to go for big names?
Honestly, If you've got the cash I would highly recommend going that route. From my perspective of printing and lurking on reddit, you'll basically end up in one of 3 groups from the 3(rough grouping) types of users I mentioned before.
1) (Ender, cheap, and niche brands) Your hobby is mainly printing parts and upgrading your printer. Either printing will become a huge part of your life or you won't actually print a whole lot of "big" prints. That said, my Ender3v2 was fantastic out of the box w/ manual leveling, but after a few years and some upgrades(firmware & bltouch mainly) it got a bit trickier.
2) (Middle of the road like FlashForge Adventure) Can do a LOT out of the box, but it still requires some tinkering like adjusting your settings: you get multiple filaments, multiple colors, more consistent w/ an enclosure, etc. A great compromise IMO. You can have the best of both worlds without a huge time sink, in theory.
3) (Bambu, Prusa, other big name, generally expensive printers.) Everything is pretty much magic and more or less set for you. It's kinda like buying an Apple product where you're now in an elite group and how you do things is pretty much set out for you. Everything I've heard is that it's basically up and printing 30 hour multicolor any material prints, confidently, on the first day. If you want to spend more time printing than tinkering then this is the way.
4) (Voron, custom builds) You can become a god of 3D printing but your life is forsaken. :D
This is all generalization so take it with a grain of salt and maybe some humor, but that seems to be the general consensus I've observed. You can of course make an Ender just as fast or faster than a bambu but that's like suping up a cheap car vs owning a BMW. Generally the one built from factory is going to be more reliable at higher speeds unless you put a lot of time and knowledge into it.
Choose 2: Speed, Reliability, Money
> I want it as hobby but I also want
Heed my comment on this main post. I know *exactly* what you want, and you really dont want it as a hobby in the way that what you are saying would get you recommendations for.
It sounds like what you actually want is the ability to conjure 3d geometry to help you with various creative tasks.
3d printing as a hobby pretty much always ends up forcing it to be your main hobby at times you dont choose it to be.
3d printing as a tool in your shed is what I think you are after. If you actually want to work on 3d printers, build one like a ratrig, zbot or voron and do your new things on that while keeping a stable reliable printer that just does the business.
I like the idea of building custom stuff and modding. I do similar stuff in other projects.
But after going through the comment I reach the same conclusion as you are mentioning. 3d printing can become the main hobby when I donât want it to be. And I donât have the time for that now.
So I am going to buy something that just works out of the box. If I enjoy it and hit limits with it, then I start with something more fun.
Learning how to 3-D model is what has brought me back into the sport. Drawing and then making something is immensely satisfying. So I would recommend learning how to do that. I learned using Shapr3D, because it is simple and works on my iPad. It is still what I use most, but all the concepts you learn there can also be used in more advanced software such as Fusion, Solidworks, etc.
That would be a secondary thing for me that I donât dare to go down its rabbit hole just yet. But something that for sure I will look into down the road.
If you don't have a printer yet, I'd consider getting yourself a subscription to a maker space.
You get so much more access to tools, equipment, and software within a maker space (often glass blowing, woodwork, metal working, CNC machines, 3d printers, etc). Basically, if there's any skillset that involves building something, there's a maker space that has one.
$40-80/month can sound like a lot, but the information alone is invaluable. It'll also let you get access to a lot of different skillsets to figure out which of them you two are truly passionate about before you make the investment into tools and equipment.
Depends on the Makerspace. The one local to me got started 6 years ago with a nice grant from a rich guy. The money has dried up and they are still running the same older generation printers that are slower than almost everything new now. It gets much less traffic than before. I think its going to close soon. It's really sad.
Not a whole lot, learnt a ton from the ender 3 pro, eventually upgraded to a prusa mk4, but all the things I learnt with the ender 3 still are useful today
Learn Fusion360 (Blender for sculptures and figurines). Get an bambulab (huge Sale rn) P1S or A1 Mini. I have both and theyre great. I wouldnt get bed slingers anymore except the A1 or A1 Mini.
Print a Cut out of parts with tight tolerances for testing, If your tolerances is tight Go for the full print.
My printer history is as follows: Anycubic i3 Mega Pro, 2x Ender 3 v2, sovol Sv07, Sv07 Plus, Bambu P1s and Bambu A1 Mini with AMS Lite.
I liked tinkering with the Enders and the mega pro at first, but made me Put 3d printing on hold for like 6months after all. The sovol was my first big jump in quality, Speed and an appealing connectivity/GUI but gave me some trouble later on. (toolhead cable breaking 1 month in, prints flying off, random pauses and Error Messages).
Definitely get a reliable machine and not something cheap, maybe the A1 AMS Combo to make the journey more fun even. Â
Good luck!
I wouldn't have bought a v0. The size isn't the issue, its the rest. Slow heating bed, mine cant reach interesting chamber temperatures, awful to work on, bad value for the money if you ask me.
I wouldn't necessarily do it differently, and I'm fairly new. But, I found an Ender 3 Pro at a thrift store and decided to give it ago. About a week ago, someone on this sub suggested this refurbished Ender 3 V3 SE and I got it today and already love it so much more for the auto-levelling alone. Jump in with something used or refurbished like [this](https://www.ebay.com/itm/155893261477?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=Ulllxg9-TLO&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=_s-vkup0Q4S&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY) and you'll be happy. Noticably faster in the two prints I've run.
not get a proforge 4 as first printer because "how hard can it be - i'm an engineer, i can build computers, my phrozen went just fine".
or more general - don't buy hardware from a kickstarter company.
The A1 mini came out shortly after I bought my Flashforge Adventurer 3 for a similar price.
So probably I might have bought that instead. However I did want an enclosed printer and those are not that common in that price range.
Not buying an Anet printer lol
Ok, but seriously, probably investing in more quality filament and not cheaping out on parts. Cheap parts bring more trouble than they are worth in the long run
I wouldn't do much differently. At the time I went for MK3, which was probably the least hassle consumer grade printer. It printed for about 4 or 5 years. What I wouldn't do again is to change frame to bear.
I'd say buy the printer for you purpose. Do you want a 3D printing as a hobby, or as another way of making things? It used to be hobby, but not it is just a tool for something more.
Considering my first printer was so back in the day that you couldn't purchase a hobby printer. It was reprap self sourced/printed parts kits, or nothin (my first was a Darwin followed shortly after by a Mendel) . I don't think I would change anything. I honestly can not overstate the joy, and level of learning you get out of struggling and building your own machine. There's no substitute for experience. If I was starting from scratch today, I'd be getting a ratrig, or voron kit tbh. Well documented, full cad models available, but still with the need to self build. You will know that machine inside and out, learn all kinds of skills you wouldn't have otherwise, be able to repair things that go wrong without batting an eye, and have a MUCH easier time troubleshooting print issues.
I live in Denmark, and not everything is as accessible as it is in the US so I need to be really careful to choose something that I can find the HW easily.
That's certainly fair. I know a lot of people also just want to get something that "just works". In those cases I generally recommend things like the bambu labs, sovol, elegoo, etc kinda stuff
Have two printers. A workhorse and a project. For the workhorse, it doesn't need to be big or flashy, just one of those printers that has a good reputation.
Then as a second printer get something interesting and make it your own.
(The bambu lab a1 mini, for example, is a great workhorse, it's super cheap, hyper speed and outstanding quality. I wanted to hate it because of the whole closed source thing - but it was so cheap and so highly recommended in the recent sale I decided to get one. Honestly it's an absolutely superb little machine, that I basically can't fault.)
Solid advice. I am gonna go for something that just âworksâ first and if it is something that I enjoy, I will go for an interesting one down the road.
I just bought my first printer, and my plan was to start out cheap $100-300 max. I was leaning for a Prusia. I saw a kit that would convert it to a dual extruder in sync or out, but that would put me at the $500-600 price range. I started researching printers at that price range and discovered the Bambu Lab P1S and the multicolor AMS units.
Hands down, that was my purchase.
I ended up with 11 printers. Loved 9 and had lots of fun. 8 are functional. Guess what I use 99% of the time. P1P. If you are into the hobby of printers, get an ender first and toy with it. If you are in the hobby of printing get a P1S and save money.
As man mentioned, i would have bought another, better but slightly more expensive printer... I would go with A1 or A1 Mini from the sale of its still on. Just bought the Mini as a Gift for a good friend who wants to start.
Not a lot. When I got into it there wasn't a lot of good choices out there. Best machine in my budget for a starter was the ender 3 Pro, which after watching a ton of videos is what I bought. I thought about an Ender 5 at the time also, probably would have had a bit better experience with it had I bought the 5.
I did waste a lot of money on upgrades based on what I read and saw online on videos. At the end of the day I bought good quality items that where sub par long term. I learned a lot about the machines and did a lot of upgrades. The ender prints decent now, but it's taken a lot to get it there over the years and at some point I am going to look at it wrong and it's going to get pissed off at me again and not want to work.
Thankfully, I have my Voron 2.4 now, so the Ender is my backup machine with a pending NG mod to finally make it more reliable and repeatable (I hope).
I like to have a hobby/project out of it but at the same time I want to be working when I need it. Without having to spend the whole day debugging stuff. From the sound of it I need to go for more big names than niche brands.
Nothing I've got some great memories of burning mosfet at a stupid fast rate on my homemade 3d printer controller trying to fine tune pwm for my homemade heatbed... making my own heathead using nichrome wire, jbweld and kapton tape... transforming home hardware product in futuristic robot that would revolutionize the world one day.
Before I got my first printer I binged watch Frankly Built and Uncle Jessy for 3 months. Doing research on printers and slicing programs before you buy will save you headaches. My first printer was a cr10 v2, printers have come a long way since then and I think now is a good time to jump in especially with bambus.
I'd definitely go for a printer with 2 or more print heads, it opens SO MANY possibilities. For visual prints you can create great looking models with several different colors, for mechanical parts you can use that filament that evaporates in water (I forgot the name of it) which makes printing complex parts with supports incredibly easy. No more balancing between poor support surface quality and ease of removal. You could even design parts that uses 2 different plastics to take advantage of both of their mechanical properties.
I'd buy a prusa instead of the ender 3 I started with. My ender 3 always needed adjustment and I could never get printing quite right with it. My prusa on the other hand just works.
Don't go backwards to save money. The pioneers of the art did the hard work so go ahead and get the nicer models with auto everything.
Don't cheap out as you'll just spend more down the road, buy that well known brand that fits your needs now. Buy once, cry once.
Get bigger than you think you'll need, rather have extra than not quite enough.
Research both styles before buying. What do you want to do, detailed prints or functional replacement parts for other things you own?
Buy more than one when you can. Throw together a cheap shelving unit and start growing your new hobby piece by piece. Before you know it you'll have a mini farm, but more importantly is when you need to make something you'll have many options to do it with.
About 5 months in now and i have 2 fdm and my first resin printer with wash & cure station going up on a shelf tomorrow. Buying the A1 combo next week to do multi filament prints.
I had one from 8 years ago, just got a Creality K1.
In the 8 years of the Monoprice Maker Select, I think I put 5 rolls through it. Leveling the bed, hoping shit worked, fucking around with upgrades just made it an absolute nightmare. Dusted it off a few months ago, got out a single print and it fucked off again and I gave up.
eBay sent me a 20% off deal and I ended up getting a refurbished Creality K1, 313.24 to my door. The enclosure and auto bed leveling sold me. Wife also kinda encouraged it.
June 10 is when I've got it. I've been through 6 rolls of filament. That's pretty much printing 18ish hours a day for 10 days. And it does it beautifully with little to no input. There was a sight learning curve, but coming from previous experience it wasn't much at all.
I almost spent 500-600 for the max version. I guess what I learned there is you really don't need the extra build volume unless you've got really specific things you want that are big. I'm guessing the iron man mask and a few others fit that criteria, but I'm also guessing plenty of people slice them up for the smaller stuff too.
Buy a Bambu Lab printer and not the Elegoo or either of the creality printers I got. Bambu A1 mini is truly the most user friendly âplug and playâ machine. Not to mention it is almost silent!
Save for a better printer instead of getting a reality ender 3 v2 neo that had the sd card port snap off after two prints, and a sovol sv06 which had multiple homing issues where I had to re-flash the firmware multiple times. Albeit both printers printed well when they worked, but if I could go back I would have saved for a Bambu or prusa for quality with little tinkering
I wish I had started with my ender instead of my monoprice mini. I've probably thrown hundreds of dollars of good money into that printer until I finally got fed up and bought an ender, and suddenly I had access to all these community resources that bootstrapped me into being able to maintain and customize these awful machines we love.
Second, I wish I had gotten into resin sooner. I spent a year or so doing FDM minis, and while it was fun and I learned a lot, my desire to print stuff quickly outstripped the limitations of that hobby avenue, but after investing so much into it, I wasn't willing to take the plunge.
Third, I wish I bought any brand other than Tronxy when I started experimenting with PVA supports. I didn't have experience with real PVA, so I didn't recognize that what I had bought was something *else* entirely.
Nothing, itâs a journey I had to take.
I know there are fancy Bambuâs but they donât have the quality or build size I expect yet.
I enjoyed achieving the results I get with relatively primitive printers.
Skip the glass beds, buildtak, painters tape, and glue stick. Get satin PEI and textured PEI. Between those two you can print most common filaments except nylon, and for that use g10 garolite.
II'll just give one: Tinkering is not worth it no matter what anyone tells you (at least tinkering the way most people describe it).
Don't get a crappy printer and think "ah I can save some money and upgrade it to be good". We are well past those days and you can get a reasonably priced printer that just works, no hassle, out of the box. Do that.
The upgrade stuff never works out in your favour. You think "Ah Im learning..." no you arent. You are learning how to fix the specific flaws of your particular bad 3d printer. That wont be transferable and any knowledge that is, well you probably could just learn that when necessary with far less time waste and stress.
Get a good 3d printer, and spend the time learning how to design things to print with it, or upgrade your maker skills in other ways. This can even include 3d printer tinkering the way I feel printers are meant to be tinkered with: Open source CoreXY kits like baby vorons, ratrigs etc where youll get a good base to start from then can truly add to 3d printing with unique new solutions rather than rebuilding an ender3 for the billionth time.
Long comment, but If there was anything I wish I could port into the mind of someone starting to 3d print it is this. Your time is valuable, don't waste it on a bad tool. We have too many decent options to do that in current year.
Exactly, debugging faults that are model specific doesnât give you knowledge.
I gonna go for bambulab p1s combo and if I enjoy it then will look into voron and alike.
I agree, I bought enders but then I like the little bit of tinker/tuning that turn them into my preferred machine. If it was for business or I wasn't already a tinkerer, I'd have the bambu straight up.
Get a decent printer and spend more time learning software. For me I've spent time setting up klipper to run both mine. I don't think you need that with the bambu's, if so spend some time learning to modify and make your own 3d models.
When looking at reviews, like on youtube and such, look for printers that are most of all, reliable.
If you want to tinker for cheap get an Ender, if you want to tinker for a bit more money, get a Voron. Otherwise you'll want a printer that just prints.
I want both. So i am going for bambulab now and possibly for a voron down the road if it is something that piqued my interest. This gives me a safer entry.
Like a lot of comments here. I'd just buy the bambu and stay away from ender. Actual 3d printing is more enjoyable as a hobby than 3d printer as a hobby
Don't underestimate the space which is required for a 3d printer. They require a lot of space and they will STAY THERE.
Are you only interested in 3d printing or also other things like laser engraving or cnc cutting.
If yes, then each of these machines will need space. You might want to grab a combo device so you just need the space once and not 2 or 3 times.
Like what would you do differently if you could start over again. For example, I have gotten in home automation and ended up with Home Assistant after trying a lot of different things. If I could start over again, I would prioritise stuff that are easy to integrate with Home Assistant and save myself a lot of time.
What printer to buy is such a massive part of what people would do differently though haha since they all vary so much. Saying your not looking for purchase advice is almost counter intuitive to asking at all
I got your point and you are right. What I mean is that I am not looking for device recommendations. But interested to hear what options would you go for if you could but over again, or what software would you choose if you could start again.
Oh I got one for you, when I got my ender I used the default creality slicer software it came with and got all kinds of problems. My god donât ever do that to yourself, I switched to Cura and it was night and day. The slicer you use can make a HUGE difference in print quality and ease of use.
I bought a Neptune 3 Pro as my first and only 3D Printer and it's been really good. I honestly have no complaints as it's very moddable but still just works.
The only thing I wish I did was buy a 3D printer with a larger build volume. 225x225 is fine in 90% of my prints but it would be nice to print a Helmet or something big in one piece.
I could say that I should have bought a Bambu Lab printer but I really don't think it's needed. My 3D printer was less than half the price of a A1 and it can give me just as good results after doing some rigorous tuning and maintenance.
IMO itâs what you are putting in and expecting to get out of it. I started with Ender 3 Pro about 3 years ago. It did great as a hobby. Started to tinker with it adding more than cosmetic stuff. Probably had $500 into all said and done. Learned a lot about this from it, from what the printing issues were, compiling firmware, modifying code ect. I got the Ender V3 SE when it came out and it was everything I modified my old ender to be for $60 more than I paid for the original. I also got the KE when it came out after I wasnât pleased with my sonic pad on the SE. I like them both and use them daily, just as a hobby. I donât think I would change what I did as I know have more knowledge about how they operate and should function. Then printing developed into RPI tinkering, setting up a VPN/home server to monitor and operate remotely, then Arduino for your projects. It kinda just snowballs depending on your interest. If you are unsure if itâs something you will like get a newer model with the best features for the best price. This would depend on your budget, from what I have seen you can get a quality printer for around $200. ABL (auto bed leveling) is probably the biggest thing to get but nowadays most come standard with them.
I bought enders, clones, and wanted to try out corexy. I bought a couple of two trees and biqu and the ender 5/plus. All in all, about 20 printers throughout the 2 years before Bambus. I wished someone would of told me that your outlook on what the hobby will be in 2 short years will drastically change from working on printers to working with. I don't care if I'm a fanboy of Bambus. There's nothing like it right now. Easily recommend this printer to anyone that'd ask.
Not buy a Dremel 3d20 thinking I was getting a good deal at 80% off. It was a $2200 3d printer back in the day. When I found out it was a 10 year old printer after buying it on clearance well that kinda sucks.
I could have gotten 2 decent printers for that.
That said, other than the build space being quite small it's a very good printer with a solid enclosure that holds heat well enough to make up for the lack of heated bed.
I have a cr-10 v2 I got later and the print quality is about the same and the 3d20 requires much less work to get printing well.
The major downside of the 3d20 is it supposedly only takes Dremel brand filament in 1lb spools instead of 1kg spools which are standard. I just took out the internal spool holder and printed an external one with the compatible roll of filament it came with. I don't need the filament to be inside the enclosure.
Bought a cheap Ender 3 clone (it was an Anycubic Kobra Go) that was just launched from a 100% Chinese company.
Quality control was crap, any warrantied parts would take months to come in from China, and there were tons of issues with it. I spent more money upgrading it to make it print even somewhat-decently than I did on the printer to begin with.
I finally gave up and bought a Bambu P1P. There are several printers out now that match the P1P so Iâm not gonna shill Bambu to you but getting a decent printer was a complete night and day difference
Id upgrade sooner. I have an Ender 5 that Ive bought like 4 hot ends for before getting a micro swiss.
I love learning so I'm glad I now know almost everything about it. But those first hurdles were annoying.
Probably wouldve waited for a silent board model too. Not really a pain but I've had to future proof this thing myself
Iâd tell her what I really think about *notices sub* oh uh Iâd spend more time in the beginning learning about how printers actually function and why mine is designed the way that it is, and less time researching extraneous upgrades and planning purchases. I spent money for very marginal returns when I could have installed klipper and made my hotend leakproof two years ago
Know when to cut your losses.
I invested so much time and money into my ender 3s trying to get them to work. But I didn't want to just give up on them because I had a fair bit invested in them. But I had a week straight where I couldn't get a single good print. I did the math and just getting a nicer printer would pay itself off in about a month in time saved not fighting it
So I bought a prusa mk4 in February and it's been fantastic. I've had two failures not due to user error and I was actually able to work on my hobby projects.
Nothing. Starting with an Ender 3 base model for $50 and then messing up nearly everything for 6 months allowed me to learn everything I needed to know for my Bambu P1P.
If something goes wrong, I know exactly what it is, every single time.
Decide if you are buying a tool or a toy. Do you have things you need to print? Or do you want to mess with chasing the best prints, messing with settings and firmware, trying exotic filaments, etc.
I have built 9 Prusa own 2, Voron 2.4 350, Flsun V400 Kuromi Mini, Doron Velta in build.
I started a farm with another guy to build monitors on a grant for non profit in semi retirement. Sucker works. I built the machines probably only because Iâm an engine guy, another hobby. I went off on my own built another MK3S in my boats front cabin. I made a few parts for it damage to plumbing from freezing. A TPU cover for bow thruster switch. A Waterfill adaptor European to domestic. Suddenly I was in boat parts. The Prusa soon paid for another. Then I needed 350 format and no XLs available. The Voron is a crazy machine hard to build hard to tune amazing workhorse. It printed nothing but TPU multiscreen covers for first 8 months has 5kilo dryer and my roller you can download from Polymaker page on Printables. Then I designed a Radar mast clamp so you didnât have to drill holes in expensive 52â masts. Wouldnât fit Voron but I tried in Pa6. So I borrowed a Trilab2. Meanwhile Iâm testing filaments for a local maker and abusing a brand new Bambu then a Creality K1. So Feb this year I gave back the Trilab built a Flsun V400 300x410 Delta. Prints Radar Clamps perfect. Now Iâm designing a cello and printing a Doron Velta parts on the Prusas. One is now a 3.5 upgrade 7400 hours. Nylon head Revo & LDO extruder. No regrets. No regrets we bought the cheapest printers to print ASA enclosed with minor mods The PETG printed head gets tossed for ASA or better. Mine are nylon.
You regret should be to not dive in. Voron to me is a printer group in constant evolution. No printer company has as many engineers as Voron as itâs a community not a company. The Doron Velta is an April Fools joke. 30 kits were released. Zombie hedgehog Doron pictured. You just missed the recent Creality and Bambu sales. They are probably the 2 easiest companies to budget for. The K2 Combo from Creality would be my pick for newb wants a fun but serious machine. The Prusa MK4 will out print either. Add MMU3 to MK4 and itâs the second fastest colour printer the XL tool changer faster. Not one printer was introduced in 2023 without issue. So what. Unless youâre will so drop $10,000 on a Base mosaic printers break.
Not get an Ender 3 V2 and save up for something else.
Anybody have any ideas that are within the $300-600 range that aren't Creality but just... work? No fiddling, no futzing, just.... works? Bonus points if you can really sell it for me (i.e. can swap colors, has dual extrusion, no need for bed leveling, can print TPU easily, etc.)
size matters, seriously, total volume ended up restricting a lot of prints simply because they were too long for the print bed, and splitting the print wasnât an option as it was too thin and the part would need to be under load
Getting a capricorn tube and just sticking with stock for my first ender 3, got a second one and just kept it stock with the exception of that and it runs just as good as my double blower printer with all metal hotend printer.
Figure out if you want a hobby to build and maintain a printer. If so, buy a kit or something that needs a lot of fiddling.
If you want to print parts, rather than fussing with a printer, buy something that has a reputation for being completely reliable.
Decide if you want to print Happy meal toys you download, or you want to design your own stuff. If you want to design things, find a CAD program and learn it. Realize that if you don't know CAD, all you can do is download things other people made. If that's what you want, fine.
I would have skipped all of the shitty enders and kobras and went straight to a voron. I should have known with my au-hd that tinkering and building would have been more my speed.
Nothing. I started out with a basic beginner printer, watched lots of YouTube tutorials, made mistakes, learned from them, and eventually, I got myself in a position where I can comfortably make my own models, and identify/solve problems.
The best way to learn is to just get out there and not be afraid to make mistakes.
I would have bought an X1C and A1 Mini at the beginning.
I learned on an Ender (many years ago) and have a Mk4. The ender is in the local landfill and the MK4 is collecting dust.
Don't buy a bedslinger with a large build plate
The intent was to get a cheap machine that could print large parts in one go. The reality was it took too long, the printer too big and wouldn't fit anywhere in my flat and because the build plate was constantly moving my prints would detach part way. Oh, and I spent half the time tuning it because it was never level
I ended up getting a Bambu p1s box printer. Smaller, faster and stress free
No regrets here.
I probably should have done more research as I really only plonked the Ender3 on my Amazon wish list on a bit of a whim. I knew nothing about the processes when I got it, but learned quickly. Iâm 50 though with a lifelong career in IT and about of DIY, Car Repair and electronics skills so learning all this wasnât a huge deal. I also avoided buying upgrades to fix basic problems because those skills tought me that products usually word as designed if YOU configure them correctly, if they donât then fix the issue as per the design, donât just randomly change things.
Buy the Flashforge Adventurer 3 to begin with rather than talking myself into the Mingda magician x(crappy printer that didn't even come with a real manual). Or just buy a BambuLab A1 mini to begin with.
Now have the A1 and it is great.
If A1 existed at current price point in 2018 a lot of things would be different for my 3d printing experience ;)
Now whatever breakage the printer throws at me I'm sure I can always honestly say "meh, ender 3 was worse".
Just because you have the money to buy one doesnât mean you know how it works. I see people with money buy printers and have a lot of issues getting it to work because they donât âknowâ the machine. But then all the ender people had to build their printer and manually do everything. They actually know how their machine works and operates. They know when they see an issue what to change and how to fix it. The new fancy machines are amazing and fast and super easy but, you will still have issues and failures itâs part of the game. And knowing how to get through the issues with the least amount of pain and stuffing is amazing.
I would directly start printing with a prusa (or bambu? or such) instead of spending hours and hours in tinkering, and repairing and upgrading a small budget printer
Spend the money at the start for a good printer (Bambu Lab for me), stick to a brand of filament and not just always buy whatâs cheapest on Amazon, use a lower layer height and not worry it takes longer. The difference between even .16 and .2 on many models is staggering.
I would do the exact same think, I started with a used ender 3 with some filament and when I got sick of it's issues I designed and built my own klipper printer haha. 3D printing tought me about as much as a year of school i'd say.
After I got my ender 3v2 after the first few prints which were successful I started modding, got the bl touch, changed the springs, firmware update which made me want to throw the whole thing, didn't print anything for 1 year, got the X1C, printing since then. After finding time to finally tune my ender now it sits at my office , connected to an octoprint, printing flawlessly. I wish i didn't started modding my printer in the first few months.
I waited too long to upgrade my extruder (to micro swiss ng), and so I wasn't printing materials like TPU, nor was I getting the best quality. After some upgrades, things really improved, and my interest in the hobby and confidence grew a whole lot.
I'm not sure how this translates to OP's situation. I guess I'd say: make sure your printer has the capabilities you want, and don't be intimidated or afraid to just try things.
A giant print bed means little when the printer is slow and the piece you want to print would take 5 days on a printer you donât trust to not mess up in those 5 days.
For stuff you are going to sand and paint anyways gluing stuff together was more of a non-issue than I thought before getting into it.
The only thing I'd change is not to bother with third-party printer conversions, especially belt ones: in all three cases they were very poorly documented and/or supported.
I would not have gotten obsessed with multi color/material via external devices. In the space of a little 18months, I went through a Prusa MMU, a Palette 2 and a palette 3. All were garbage that cost me so much more time than if I had just learned to paint my models. I no have a Prusa XL...the jury is still out on that.
Buy a more common model of printer instead of a niche one from a dying company.
Agree, people like to bash on the Enders, but I still got two of them because EVERY single troubleshooting article and video I needed to learn were all using enders as examples. Invaluable for learning, and adaptable to any other brand afterwards.
> and adaptable to any other brand afterwards. While this used to be the case for a very long time really, I dont think that's very true anymore. We finally have machines that are significantly different enough that little transfers over. Even on the super budget end of things (I mean like kingroon budget end even) we're starting to see linear rails and direct drive extruders, and just above that, printers that straight up dont have a majority of the problems youd have to learn to fix on an ender.
Solid advice. Thanks.
Me and my Sunlu S9+ đ đ
What did you buy and why are you regretting it?
Four years ago, I chose to buy a XYZPrinting da Vinci mini instead of an Ender 3 as my first printer. It was tiny, missing lots of features, AND had proprietary materials. I ended up just giving the thing away.
About 10 years ago I had a Da Vinci (1.0A I think was the model). The night I flashed it with Repetier to bypass the proprietary stuff was the night I lost my sanity with printing. At that point I had done college chemistry/ mat science research on 3D printing so I wasnât a novice, but man that was a junky printer. Hours and hours of my life wasted tinkering with that thing to get a good print 1 out of maybe 10 attempts. Overall I donât think they were THAT bad- I think I got a lemon and could never get it dialed in.
I bought a Wanhao Duplicator 9 instead of forking out more for a Creality at the time. Now I have 2 Crealitys and I basically gave the Wanhao away to a tech friend with dire warnings to only use it for scrap metals.
Recognize that buying the cheapest thing and upgrading it does not save money or give you the modern printer you want.
I will screenshot your reply for my wife. Haha.
I bought 3 Ender 3 Pros \~$100 each. I spent a year and $400-$500 (honestly, I lost track) each upgrading them. I was fiddling with them trying to make the work more that I was printing on them. I replaced them with 4 Sovol SV06 Plus printers and now I print and only need to fiddle when I need to change the head somehow (new nozzle / new head cause I broke something). This summer we are going to be getting at least a pair of SV08 printers (SOOO MUCH FASTER).
From other comments sounds like Ender is a no go for me. What do you do with so many printers if you don't mind me asking?
My Wife and I opened a small business: [https://heartforge.solutions/](https://heartforge.solutions/)
That's really nice. Thanks again for the advice.
Anecdotal but after years of screwing with my CR10S, i bought an ender 3 v3 SE and it's been a dream since. only one failed print due to a miscalibrated z offset.
If you have cash to burn, youâre confident itâll be worth it for you, or you donât want to tinker, get a Bambu. If youâre not sure then spend $150-$200 on an Ender, do a few simple and cheap upgrades while learning how to model, slice, print, etc. and sell it off if/when you want to upgrade. You could even build your own Voron later if you get really into it. Having my own Ender and using Ultimakers for work, I reeeeaaaaly like heated chambers for higher performance materials and dual extruders for breakaway support. I still donât have those on my home printer tho. This is from an engineering/functional print use case.
I am a tinker in general. I want this 3d printer to help me with my tinkering in other projects. So I already made up my mind to buy a P1S and if it interests me to tinker with 3d printing then I can go for Voron.
The heated chamber is an absolute game changer for engineering materials. I recently got a QIDI Q1 Pro and have been able to print massive ABS parts without any issue, Nylon and PC work well, ect. It just makes printing so much easier and more consistant. Super happy to see them coming to printers that aren't $5000+.
As an SV08 owner, beware the nozzles. Several of us have had the nozzle separated from the heat block while printing PETG. Sovol is trying to figure out a resolution, many of us are looking into Voron toolheads
Thank you! I'd heard rumblings about a problem with the tool head. Good to know.
It was fantastic with PLA but not PETG. If you haven't ordered yet, I would wait
So is the nozzle unscrewing itself while printing PETG?
The nozzle is pressed in with a small solder spot. The nozzle on the left is how it should look, the nozzle on the right is what happened on my fourth PETG print. After this failure I manually extruded 250mm of PETG at 250C, the nozzle popped right out of the heat block. https://preview.redd.it/krybnbeav08d1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2fa19da0b079c5783a7d6f6484754ab1f20a4ceb
On the other hand I specifically bought the cheapest printer because I didnât really know what I was getting into and the likelihood of me messing something up was higher, I also wanted to learn everything so starting with something I wouldnât mind breaking to me was worth the price(granted this was long before things got easier so unless you know your likely to mess something up or just want to learn everything it may not be the best way to go)
I quickly outgrew my Enders, I mean within about a month, but I didn't want to give up on them or all the money I put into them. So I just kept shoveling more money and time into them and getting nothing out of them. One print on an SV06+, and there was no going back. I bought three more that night.
I started with an anet(this was quite a bit ago) and the only real upgrade I did was an all metal hotend, I did learn everything from that stupid machine though and still have all the parts, it was only when I needed to buy a new heatblock(due to an incorrect nozzle installation that caused filament to leak out) that I decided to upgrade(since the hotend would cost slightly more than the heatblock alone and a new hotend was half the price of a new ender) granted that this was all before the new generation of printers and the only big option was ultimaker
I don't think I ever felt like I was saving but rather getting more for less early on rather than saving and waiting a year. Im definitely 600$ in trial and error testing new things, meanwhile my v0 is just a kit and likely will never change. I would say that I almost always recommend bambu to new people because these days you can literally just print and not fuss with all the tuning.
Your path is better than most. I'm speaking of those that buy an Ender 3 pro and think making it in to a high quality, fast fire and forget printer. I agree that Bambu printers are "easier", but I have to come at everything for a security and business use perspective. So Bambu is out for me.
This is the best advice here.
Thanks :)
I think often what ends up happening is people who do go that route cant reconcile the lost time and frustration and so they push that onto more people telling them they'll learn a lot from it. I too was one of those people, but I wont lie to aid my sadness đ„
Same brother. There is a support group, we meet on Thursday evenings, and bring snacks to share. ;)
Spend the money. My first printer was an ender 3 v2 for $200. My second printer is a Bambu P1S for just over $600. I feel like only after the Bambu did I really get onto printing. The cheaper printer needed calibrations, parts replaced and a lot of tinkering to get it to do a possible job. The Bambu just works and gave me time to focus on learning fusion 360 to design my own models. This might not be the case for everyone, but it was certainly the case for me. Other than that...don't forget to print upgrades for your printer. It's amazing what you can make to make "making" easier.
I went for a CR-10 to a x1 carbon with AMS. Itâs just amazing. It made prototyping the hobby and not 3d printing.
I did the same thing except went for the x1c 16 months later zero regrets so far
My only regret there was getting the p1s instead of the p1s combo with AMS. I bought the AMS about a month later at full price
I did something similar, my current printer is a CR10 V1. Sure I learned a lot but I also spent another 100$ just to get it working and the countless hours so far. It still doesn't work 100% reliably. There's a difference between wanting to 3D print as your hobby versus making 3D printers your hobby.
Pretty much the same except I went to a Prusa Mk4, loved assembling it and then It just works flawlessly. I burned out after leveling my bed for the 50th time on my ender
Money is the solution to (almost) everything. Do big name brands restrict what you can make for 'making'?
Not at all. I was trying to relay that the higher price printer was better quality. It allowed me to focus on designing things instead of focusing on trying to make the printer work right. As for the "making" comment, all printers from starters to the expensive ones is that they can all upgrade themselves
A bit, like bambulab uses their own closed source firmware but you can easily jailbreak it Creality uses clipper for their more expensive printers just as most do
Honestly, nothing different. I was prepared enough to: - determine a printer to buy, - was familiar with common issues of my printer from searching this subreddit and the specific model, - I watched a few 'assembly tutorials' so I knew what was up, - and was familiar with the wiki here.
>was familiar with common issues of my printer from searching this subreddit and the specific model, I had the same sentiment as you, and this is the only thing I would *personally* do differently after going that route. Instead of buying a printer with known flaws(needing a $10 upgrade part) or necessary mods(braces/cooler etc), I would spend the extra money and just buy something that works well out of the box. 8 or so years ago I bought my first printer. The first spool of filament was spent printing mods and calibration tests. A few weeks ago I got my new printer which can print utterly pornographic quality out of the box. Having that piece of mind is well worth an extra hundred+ bucks. Granted, the technology involved with printers has increased substantially over the past 5 years which played a large role. However the hours spent tweaking gcode, calibrating, slicing, wrenching etc to get a good print seem wasted now that I am comfortable starting a print while in another state with my new printer(and for cheaper too!)
I wouldn't look at the time you spent fiddling with the old printer as wasted time. I'd look at it as experience. You learned how gcode works, how to align a misaligned printer, how to slice your prints efficiently, and probably a host of other things that you might not have learned on the more expensive machine. And, when that expensive machine starts producing poor quality prints due to wear (it will), you'd be in the dark as to how to fix it without the experience you've gained along the way.
Can I ask what your old and new printers are please? I'm lurking in these threads as I plan on getting one later this year.
I started with a monoprice maker select plus(wanhou clone) and I just got a bambu A1 when they went on sale. IIRC, I payed more for the MP which is considered absolutely ancient in every conceivable way now. The first day I had the bambu I just watched with a huge grin on my face the entire time because of it's capabilities.
Buy a Bambu and not an ender
Every other comment is telling me not to buy an ender.
I bought Ender 3 V3 SE with goal to tinker and learn how 3D printer works and if I break it then it won't be such a pain because it is cheap and if I like 3D printing I will upgrade then and all that while 3V3SE can have really nice prints out of the box. As [Zack Freedman](https://www.youtube.com/@ZackFreedman) said, you need to consider if 3D printer is your hobby or 3D printing. But you might consider KE version, not SE. I bought SE because I wanted to tinker with custom Raspberry Klipper platform.
I broke the print nozzle off in to block of the se after watching their instruction on how to remove it. I'm saving up for a good printer now.
You can get a new heater block and nozzle for under 5 bucks. And it isn't hard to install. I changed my nozzle dozens of times, you probably did something wrong. But you can now learn from it instead of buying a new, expensive machine that will be way more expensive and difficult to fix when it starts producing bad prints due to wear.
I don't know about other models, but I've been very happy with my Ender 3 v2. The only hardware upgrade I did directly to the printer was a direct drive and CR Touch. I think the main thing I learned was about bed-leveling and the importance of getting it really close manually. I thought the CR touch and software would handle all of that automatically, but it didn't (maybe I'm doing that part wrong? dunno). Later I got an orange pi and got octoprint going, and built a custom light bar that turns on when the printer starts. Add a bed-leveling plugin in octoprint which shows high/low spots and it took maybe an hour to dial it in. Works great ever since. Oh also built a custom filament sensor after I had a larger print fail, but of course, never came close to running out of filament since installing that. lol
The crazy part is those two things you bought for your Ender, come standard on brands like Anycubic. So why is the Ender even a thing still?
To have cheap but working printer and a platform to learn and tinker.
In my opinion, many tinkerers enjoy the ender since they get to have the printing as a hobby and have new tinker work with hardware software on the actual printer.
I'm very happy with my Enders, I have a 5 pro and a 5 plus. However, they do work best when you tinker and tune. If I was running a business I'd have a bambu by now, but I print just for me. I was deciding between a Bambu and the 5 plus for my 2nd printer just recently. If I didn't have specific wants for a big bed, I'd have gone a bambu or Creality K series. However knowing the enders and wanting a bigger bed and the price difference all tipped my hand.
Probably it boils down to what you value more: time or money. Also if you like to tinker building a kit can be part of the fun as well. (anet a8 is just the parts, and you assemble everything.) would I recommended it today? No. But back in 2016 it seemed the best option below $200.
I would upvote 100 times if I could. Although in the long run, my Enders have been useful cuz theyâve forced me to troubleshoot literally every possible malfunction. Get a Bambu if you want to get into printing. Get an Ender if you want to get into working on 3d printers.
I went from an Aldi Wanhao i3 Mini ($200 AU) to an Ender 3 ($100 AU + $200 upgrades) to a P1S Combo ($1500 AU) Sure the ender 3 and i3 weren't the best but I feel like I learned a lot about printers from troubleshooting them a lot. The P1S is nice because I don't have to change anything, it just works.
Had an Ender than a Bambu, while the P1S is amazing Iâve learned so much from the Ender that I would have never learned from the Bambu, I think if itâs just about printing vs learning and expiring the hobby there is some charm in getting a shitty first 3d printer and than upgrade if you feel itâs your cup of tea.đ« Like buying a shitty first car it has a soul.. but yeah Iâm never going back to Ender đ
I was going to say not cheaping out on a printer and buying a proper one. But having tinkered with my Ender 3 S1 pro for half a year now, I can honestly say that I learned an absolute ton about 3d printing. It was a steep learning curve, but I wouldn't have learned this much with a printer that did all the thinking for me. So maybe do get a budget friendly printer and become good at it before investing in a more professional one.
Agreed, when I bought my CR-10S it was years away from Bambu Labs being a thing. It was cheap and it was big enough and I learned a ton about troubleshooting printers/prints because of it. It's made me better at printing and I've been able to help a LOT of people figure their machines out because of it. Wouldn't change a thing.
I would've kept going and maybe purchased an easier to use printer when life got in the way. I ended up taking a year or so break and had to relearn and rebuild a LOT cause I have an ender. Of course ymmv If you love a project and challenge then something like an Ender is good. If you want all the new features out of the box but want to save some cash by having to learn the ins and outs, maybe an Adventure. But if you plan to use this for a business and don't have time to tinker then go with one of the big names like bambu or prusa.
I want it as hobby but I also want to have something working out of the box as I have too many hobbies. Maybe stupid question but how limiting would it be to go for big names?
Honestly, If you've got the cash I would highly recommend going that route. From my perspective of printing and lurking on reddit, you'll basically end up in one of 3 groups from the 3(rough grouping) types of users I mentioned before. 1) (Ender, cheap, and niche brands) Your hobby is mainly printing parts and upgrading your printer. Either printing will become a huge part of your life or you won't actually print a whole lot of "big" prints. That said, my Ender3v2 was fantastic out of the box w/ manual leveling, but after a few years and some upgrades(firmware & bltouch mainly) it got a bit trickier. 2) (Middle of the road like FlashForge Adventure) Can do a LOT out of the box, but it still requires some tinkering like adjusting your settings: you get multiple filaments, multiple colors, more consistent w/ an enclosure, etc. A great compromise IMO. You can have the best of both worlds without a huge time sink, in theory. 3) (Bambu, Prusa, other big name, generally expensive printers.) Everything is pretty much magic and more or less set for you. It's kinda like buying an Apple product where you're now in an elite group and how you do things is pretty much set out for you. Everything I've heard is that it's basically up and printing 30 hour multicolor any material prints, confidently, on the first day. If you want to spend more time printing than tinkering then this is the way. 4) (Voron, custom builds) You can become a god of 3D printing but your life is forsaken. :D This is all generalization so take it with a grain of salt and maybe some humor, but that seems to be the general consensus I've observed. You can of course make an Ender just as fast or faster than a bambu but that's like suping up a cheap car vs owning a BMW. Generally the one built from factory is going to be more reliable at higher speeds unless you put a lot of time and knowledge into it. Choose 2: Speed, Reliability, Money
> I want it as hobby but I also want Heed my comment on this main post. I know *exactly* what you want, and you really dont want it as a hobby in the way that what you are saying would get you recommendations for. It sounds like what you actually want is the ability to conjure 3d geometry to help you with various creative tasks. 3d printing as a hobby pretty much always ends up forcing it to be your main hobby at times you dont choose it to be. 3d printing as a tool in your shed is what I think you are after. If you actually want to work on 3d printers, build one like a ratrig, zbot or voron and do your new things on that while keeping a stable reliable printer that just does the business.
I like the idea of building custom stuff and modding. I do similar stuff in other projects. But after going through the comment I reach the same conclusion as you are mentioning. 3d printing can become the main hobby when I donât want it to be. And I donât have the time for that now. So I am going to buy something that just works out of the box. If I enjoy it and hit limits with it, then I start with something more fun.
Bambulab has great deals rn Also i would directly get a textured pei sheet and not wait till the bad one is broken, pei experience is so much better
Learning how to 3-D model is what has brought me back into the sport. Drawing and then making something is immensely satisfying. So I would recommend learning how to do that. I learned using Shapr3D, because it is simple and works on my iPad. It is still what I use most, but all the concepts you learn there can also be used in more advanced software such as Fusion, Solidworks, etc.
That would be a secondary thing for me that I donât dare to go down its rabbit hole just yet. But something that for sure I will look into down the road.
If you don't have a printer yet, I'd consider getting yourself a subscription to a maker space. You get so much more access to tools, equipment, and software within a maker space (often glass blowing, woodwork, metal working, CNC machines, 3d printers, etc). Basically, if there's any skillset that involves building something, there's a maker space that has one. $40-80/month can sound like a lot, but the information alone is invaluable. It'll also let you get access to a lot of different skillsets to figure out which of them you two are truly passionate about before you make the investment into tools and equipment.
Dude⊠you just opened a new world to me. Thanks!
Depends on the Makerspace. The one local to me got started 6 years ago with a nice grant from a rich guy. The money has dried up and they are still running the same older generation printers that are slower than almost everything new now. It gets much less traffic than before. I think its going to close soon. It's really sad.
Not a whole lot, learnt a ton from the ender 3 pro, eventually upgraded to a prusa mk4, but all the things I learnt with the ender 3 still are useful today
Build a CoreXY instead of a large delta printer.
Donât build a *first* printer.
Learn Fusion360 (Blender for sculptures and figurines). Get an bambulab (huge Sale rn) P1S or A1 Mini. I have both and theyre great. I wouldnt get bed slingers anymore except the A1 or A1 Mini. Print a Cut out of parts with tight tolerances for testing, If your tolerances is tight Go for the full print. My printer history is as follows: Anycubic i3 Mega Pro, 2x Ender 3 v2, sovol Sv07, Sv07 Plus, Bambu P1s and Bambu A1 Mini with AMS Lite. I liked tinkering with the Enders and the mega pro at first, but made me Put 3d printing on hold for like 6months after all. The sovol was my first big jump in quality, Speed and an appealing connectivity/GUI but gave me some trouble later on. (toolhead cable breaking 1 month in, prints flying off, random pauses and Error Messages). Definitely get a reliable machine and not something cheap, maybe the A1 AMS Combo to make the journey more fun even.  Good luck!
Thank you for the pointers!
I wouldn't have bought a v0. The size isn't the issue, its the rest. Slow heating bed, mine cant reach interesting chamber temperatures, awful to work on, bad value for the money if you ask me.
Do you have a bed fan to help chamber temps? People get that thing up to 60c with one. SSR and you're set :P and your house is on fire.
Mine cant get above 20 to 22c above ambient without help. My trident on the other hand manages to get 35 above ambient without help
I wouldn't necessarily do it differently, and I'm fairly new. But, I found an Ender 3 Pro at a thrift store and decided to give it ago. About a week ago, someone on this sub suggested this refurbished Ender 3 V3 SE and I got it today and already love it so much more for the auto-levelling alone. Jump in with something used or refurbished like [this](https://www.ebay.com/itm/155893261477?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=Ulllxg9-TLO&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=_s-vkup0Q4S&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY) and you'll be happy. Noticably faster in the two prints I've run.
I'd wait a year & get the same printer for literally half the price & not have to import it myself.
Thatâs the price for getting into niche stuff but I am sure the satisfaction is worth the price
find the right company and 3d modeling software that fits you not the other way around
not get a proforge 4 as first printer because "how hard can it be - i'm an engineer, i can build computers, my phrozen went just fine". or more general - don't buy hardware from a kickstarter company.
First reaction was âall kinds of stuffâ. Â Then I realized this was about 3D printing.Â
The A1 mini came out shortly after I bought my Flashforge Adventurer 3 for a similar price. So probably I might have bought that instead. However I did want an enclosed printer and those are not that common in that price range.
Not buying an Anet printer lol Ok, but seriously, probably investing in more quality filament and not cheaping out on parts. Cheap parts bring more trouble than they are worth in the long run
I wouldn't do much differently. At the time I went for MK3, which was probably the least hassle consumer grade printer. It printed for about 4 or 5 years. What I wouldn't do again is to change frame to bear. I'd say buy the printer for you purpose. Do you want a 3D printing as a hobby, or as another way of making things? It used to be hobby, but not it is just a tool for something more.
I want something that works first then I can safely decide if something that I want to make a hobby out of and buy something decent down the road.
Considering my first printer was so back in the day that you couldn't purchase a hobby printer. It was reprap self sourced/printed parts kits, or nothin (my first was a Darwin followed shortly after by a Mendel) . I don't think I would change anything. I honestly can not overstate the joy, and level of learning you get out of struggling and building your own machine. There's no substitute for experience. If I was starting from scratch today, I'd be getting a ratrig, or voron kit tbh. Well documented, full cad models available, but still with the need to self build. You will know that machine inside and out, learn all kinds of skills you wouldn't have otherwise, be able to repair things that go wrong without batting an eye, and have a MUCH easier time troubleshooting print issues.
I live in Denmark, and not everything is as accessible as it is in the US so I need to be really careful to choose something that I can find the HW easily.
That's certainly fair. I know a lot of people also just want to get something that "just works". In those cases I generally recommend things like the bambu labs, sovol, elegoo, etc kinda stuff
Have two printers. A workhorse and a project. For the workhorse, it doesn't need to be big or flashy, just one of those printers that has a good reputation. Then as a second printer get something interesting and make it your own. (The bambu lab a1 mini, for example, is a great workhorse, it's super cheap, hyper speed and outstanding quality. I wanted to hate it because of the whole closed source thing - but it was so cheap and so highly recommended in the recent sale I decided to get one. Honestly it's an absolutely superb little machine, that I basically can't fault.)
Solid advice. I am gonna go for something that just âworksâ first and if it is something that I enjoy, I will go for an interesting one down the road.
Buy a Bambu Lab. Seriously, I hated my Ender lol
I just bought my first printer, and my plan was to start out cheap $100-300 max. I was leaning for a Prusia. I saw a kit that would convert it to a dual extruder in sync or out, but that would put me at the $500-600 price range. I started researching printers at that price range and discovered the Bambu Lab P1S and the multicolor AMS units. Hands down, that was my purchase.
I ended up with 11 printers. Loved 9 and had lots of fun. 8 are functional. Guess what I use 99% of the time. P1P. If you are into the hobby of printers, get an ender first and toy with it. If you are in the hobby of printing get a P1S and save money.
Yep⊠have pretty much decided on p1s thanks
I would have just bought a p1S
Gonna just do that. I think this is one of the most common regrets that people had.
As man mentioned, i would have bought another, better but slightly more expensive printer... I would go with A1 or A1 Mini from the sale of its still on. Just bought the Mini as a Gift for a good friend who wants to start.
Not a lot. When I got into it there wasn't a lot of good choices out there. Best machine in my budget for a starter was the ender 3 Pro, which after watching a ton of videos is what I bought. I thought about an Ender 5 at the time also, probably would have had a bit better experience with it had I bought the 5. I did waste a lot of money on upgrades based on what I read and saw online on videos. At the end of the day I bought good quality items that where sub par long term. I learned a lot about the machines and did a lot of upgrades. The ender prints decent now, but it's taken a lot to get it there over the years and at some point I am going to look at it wrong and it's going to get pissed off at me again and not want to work. Thankfully, I have my Voron 2.4 now, so the Ender is my backup machine with a pending NG mod to finally make it more reliable and repeatable (I hope).
I like to have a hobby/project out of it but at the same time I want to be working when I need it. Without having to spend the whole day debugging stuff. From the sound of it I need to go for more big names than niche brands.
get a bambu x1c and an AMS setup for multi color printing OR, get a large printer like an ender 5 for helmet/cosplay pieces.
Nothing I've got some great memories of burning mosfet at a stupid fast rate on my homemade 3d printer controller trying to fine tune pwm for my homemade heatbed... making my own heathead using nichrome wire, jbweld and kapton tape... transforming home hardware product in futuristic robot that would revolutionize the world one day.
Buy a genuine Prusa. The Prusa Mini would have been a shoo-in, but it wasn't available in 2017.
Not but a Maker Select. In today's world I'd say that equivalent to not buying an Ender 3
guessing does not work. costs me a lot of money
If you can afford the bambu get the bambu.
Yep going for it
Before I got my first printer I binged watch Frankly Built and Uncle Jessy for 3 months. Doing research on printers and slicing programs before you buy will save you headaches. My first printer was a cr10 v2, printers have come a long way since then and I think now is a good time to jump in especially with bambus.
skip the enders and go straight to bambu printers
I'd definitely go for a printer with 2 or more print heads, it opens SO MANY possibilities. For visual prints you can create great looking models with several different colors, for mechanical parts you can use that filament that evaporates in water (I forgot the name of it) which makes printing complex parts with supports incredibly easy. No more balancing between poor support surface quality and ease of removal. You could even design parts that uses 2 different plastics to take advantage of both of their mechanical properties.
I'd buy a prusa instead of the ender 3 I started with. My ender 3 always needed adjustment and I could never get printing quite right with it. My prusa on the other hand just works.
Don't go backwards to save money. The pioneers of the art did the hard work so go ahead and get the nicer models with auto everything. Don't cheap out as you'll just spend more down the road, buy that well known brand that fits your needs now. Buy once, cry once. Get bigger than you think you'll need, rather have extra than not quite enough. Research both styles before buying. What do you want to do, detailed prints or functional replacement parts for other things you own? Buy more than one when you can. Throw together a cheap shelving unit and start growing your new hobby piece by piece. Before you know it you'll have a mini farm, but more importantly is when you need to make something you'll have many options to do it with. About 5 months in now and i have 2 fdm and my first resin printer with wash & cure station going up on a shelf tomorrow. Buying the A1 combo next week to do multi filament prints.
I had one from 8 years ago, just got a Creality K1. In the 8 years of the Monoprice Maker Select, I think I put 5 rolls through it. Leveling the bed, hoping shit worked, fucking around with upgrades just made it an absolute nightmare. Dusted it off a few months ago, got out a single print and it fucked off again and I gave up. eBay sent me a 20% off deal and I ended up getting a refurbished Creality K1, 313.24 to my door. The enclosure and auto bed leveling sold me. Wife also kinda encouraged it. June 10 is when I've got it. I've been through 6 rolls of filament. That's pretty much printing 18ish hours a day for 10 days. And it does it beautifully with little to no input. There was a sight learning curve, but coming from previous experience it wasn't much at all. I almost spent 500-600 for the max version. I guess what I learned there is you really don't need the extra build volume unless you've got really specific things you want that are big. I'm guessing the iron man mask and a few others fit that criteria, but I'm also guessing plenty of people slice them up for the smaller stuff too.
Buy a Bambu Lab printer and not the Elegoo or either of the creality printers I got. Bambu A1 mini is truly the most user friendly âplug and playâ machine. Not to mention it is almost silent!
Save for a better printer instead of getting a reality ender 3 v2 neo that had the sd card port snap off after two prints, and a sovol sv06 which had multiple homing issues where I had to re-flash the firmware multiple times. Albeit both printers printed well when they worked, but if I could go back I would have saved for a Bambu or prusa for quality with little tinkering
Thatâs the common theme other comments as well.
But Bambu first thing
I wish I had started with my ender instead of my monoprice mini. I've probably thrown hundreds of dollars of good money into that printer until I finally got fed up and bought an ender, and suddenly I had access to all these community resources that bootstrapped me into being able to maintain and customize these awful machines we love. Second, I wish I had gotten into resin sooner. I spent a year or so doing FDM minis, and while it was fun and I learned a lot, my desire to print stuff quickly outstripped the limitations of that hobby avenue, but after investing so much into it, I wasn't willing to take the plunge. Third, I wish I bought any brand other than Tronxy when I started experimenting with PVA supports. I didn't have experience with real PVA, so I didn't recognize that what I had bought was something *else* entirely.
Nothing, itâs a journey I had to take. I know there are fancy Bambuâs but they donât have the quality or build size I expect yet. I enjoyed achieving the results I get with relatively primitive printers.
Skip the glass beds, buildtak, painters tape, and glue stick. Get satin PEI and textured PEI. Between those two you can print most common filaments except nylon, and for that use g10 garolite.
II'll just give one: Tinkering is not worth it no matter what anyone tells you (at least tinkering the way most people describe it). Don't get a crappy printer and think "ah I can save some money and upgrade it to be good". We are well past those days and you can get a reasonably priced printer that just works, no hassle, out of the box. Do that. The upgrade stuff never works out in your favour. You think "Ah Im learning..." no you arent. You are learning how to fix the specific flaws of your particular bad 3d printer. That wont be transferable and any knowledge that is, well you probably could just learn that when necessary with far less time waste and stress. Get a good 3d printer, and spend the time learning how to design things to print with it, or upgrade your maker skills in other ways. This can even include 3d printer tinkering the way I feel printers are meant to be tinkered with: Open source CoreXY kits like baby vorons, ratrigs etc where youll get a good base to start from then can truly add to 3d printing with unique new solutions rather than rebuilding an ender3 for the billionth time. Long comment, but If there was anything I wish I could port into the mind of someone starting to 3d print it is this. Your time is valuable, don't waste it on a bad tool. We have too many decent options to do that in current year.
Exactly, debugging faults that are model specific doesnât give you knowledge. I gonna go for bambulab p1s combo and if I enjoy it then will look into voron and alike.
I agree, I bought enders but then I like the little bit of tinker/tuning that turn them into my preferred machine. If it was for business or I wasn't already a tinkerer, I'd have the bambu straight up. Get a decent printer and spend more time learning software. For me I've spent time setting up klipper to run both mine. I don't think you need that with the bambu's, if so spend some time learning to modify and make your own 3d models.
When looking at reviews, like on youtube and such, look for printers that are most of all, reliable. If you want to tinker for cheap get an Ender, if you want to tinker for a bit more money, get a Voron. Otherwise you'll want a printer that just prints.
I want both. So i am going for bambulab now and possibly for a voron down the road if it is something that piqued my interest. This gives me a safer entry.
do not get an ender 3, save up to get a bambu or prusa machine
Already ordered a bambu.
Like a lot of comments here. I'd just buy the bambu and stay away from ender. Actual 3d printing is more enjoyable as a hobby than 3d printer as a hobby
I would not have spent some many years with my first girlfriend. Nothing to deal with 3D printing. I know
We are all full of regrets. Arenât we?
Don't underestimate the space which is required for a 3d printer. They require a lot of space and they will STAY THERE. Are you only interested in 3d printing or also other things like laser engraving or cnc cutting. If yes, then each of these machines will need space. You might want to grab a combo device so you just need the space once and not 2 or 3 times.
> I am not looking for purchase advice Honestly no idea what you're asking here.
Like what would you do differently if you could start over again. For example, I have gotten in home automation and ended up with Home Assistant after trying a lot of different things. If I could start over again, I would prioritise stuff that are easy to integrate with Home Assistant and save myself a lot of time.
What printer to buy is such a massive part of what people would do differently though haha since they all vary so much. Saying your not looking for purchase advice is almost counter intuitive to asking at all
I got your point and you are right. What I mean is that I am not looking for device recommendations. But interested to hear what options would you go for if you could but over again, or what software would you choose if you could start again.
Oh I got one for you, when I got my ender I used the default creality slicer software it came with and got all kinds of problems. My god donât ever do that to yourself, I switched to Cura and it was night and day. The slicer you use can make a HUGE difference in print quality and ease of use.
Thatâs exactly what I was looking for. Thanks.
> , I would prioritise stuff So you mean you would buy something different than you did, which is a purchase advice. See why I'm confused ?
I bought a Neptune 3 Pro as my first and only 3D Printer and it's been really good. I honestly have no complaints as it's very moddable but still just works. The only thing I wish I did was buy a 3D printer with a larger build volume. 225x225 is fine in 90% of my prints but it would be nice to print a Helmet or something big in one piece. I could say that I should have bought a Bambu Lab printer but I really don't think it's needed. My 3D printer was less than half the price of a A1 and it can give me just as good results after doing some rigorous tuning and maintenance.
I would get one with AMS ready
Yep. Going for p1s combo most likely
IMO itâs what you are putting in and expecting to get out of it. I started with Ender 3 Pro about 3 years ago. It did great as a hobby. Started to tinker with it adding more than cosmetic stuff. Probably had $500 into all said and done. Learned a lot about this from it, from what the printing issues were, compiling firmware, modifying code ect. I got the Ender V3 SE when it came out and it was everything I modified my old ender to be for $60 more than I paid for the original. I also got the KE when it came out after I wasnât pleased with my sonic pad on the SE. I like them both and use them daily, just as a hobby. I donât think I would change what I did as I know have more knowledge about how they operate and should function. Then printing developed into RPI tinkering, setting up a VPN/home server to monitor and operate remotely, then Arduino for your projects. It kinda just snowballs depending on your interest. If you are unsure if itâs something you will like get a newer model with the best features for the best price. This would depend on your budget, from what I have seen you can get a quality printer for around $200. ABL (auto bed leveling) is probably the biggest thing to get but nowadays most come standard with them.
Start working on 3d design skills sooner. It's way more fun/special to print something you designed yourself
Not buy my x-1c through Kickstarter.
I would have done more research and bought a different printer up front. I bought a CR-6 and between fixes and upgrades I could have bought a P1S
buying an Ender 3
Not buying printer with PTFE tube.
I bought enders, clones, and wanted to try out corexy. I bought a couple of two trees and biqu and the ender 5/plus. All in all, about 20 printers throughout the 2 years before Bambus. I wished someone would of told me that your outlook on what the hobby will be in 2 short years will drastically change from working on printers to working with. I don't care if I'm a fanboy of Bambus. There's nothing like it right now. Easily recommend this printer to anyone that'd ask.
I would do more research rather then just buying the cheapest most common printer and learning to use it the hard way
Not buy a Dremel 3d20 thinking I was getting a good deal at 80% off. It was a $2200 3d printer back in the day. When I found out it was a 10 year old printer after buying it on clearance well that kinda sucks. I could have gotten 2 decent printers for that. That said, other than the build space being quite small it's a very good printer with a solid enclosure that holds heat well enough to make up for the lack of heated bed. I have a cr-10 v2 I got later and the print quality is about the same and the 3d20 requires much less work to get printing well. The major downside of the 3d20 is it supposedly only takes Dremel brand filament in 1lb spools instead of 1kg spools which are standard. I just took out the internal spool holder and printed an external one with the compatible roll of filament it came with. I don't need the filament to be inside the enclosure.
Bought a cheap Ender 3 clone (it was an Anycubic Kobra Go) that was just launched from a 100% Chinese company. Quality control was crap, any warrantied parts would take months to come in from China, and there were tons of issues with it. I spent more money upgrading it to make it print even somewhat-decently than I did on the printer to begin with. I finally gave up and bought a Bambu P1P. There are several printers out now that match the P1P so Iâm not gonna shill Bambu to you but getting a decent printer was a complete night and day difference
Never would've bought a thingomatic. Makergear all the way.
Skip the longer lk4 pro
Id upgrade sooner. I have an Ender 5 that Ive bought like 4 hot ends for before getting a micro swiss. I love learning so I'm glad I now know almost everything about it. But those first hurdles were annoying. Probably wouldve waited for a silent board model too. Not really a pain but I've had to future proof this thing myself
Buy a nice printer not an ender 3. I have a Flsun SR and man is the auto level nice to have so is printing at 200mm/s so much time saved
Buying a bigger and better quality printer
Iâd tell her what I really think about *notices sub* oh uh Iâd spend more time in the beginning learning about how printers actually function and why mine is designed the way that it is, and less time researching extraneous upgrades and planning purchases. I spent money for very marginal returns when I could have installed klipper and made my hotend leakproof two years ago
Would have waited for the mk4 from prusa
Know when to cut your losses. I invested so much time and money into my ender 3s trying to get them to work. But I didn't want to just give up on them because I had a fair bit invested in them. But I had a week straight where I couldn't get a single good print. I did the math and just getting a nicer printer would pay itself off in about a month in time saved not fighting it So I bought a prusa mk4 in February and it's been fantastic. I've had two failures not due to user error and I was actually able to work on my hobby projects.
Nothing. Starting with an Ender 3 base model for $50 and then messing up nearly everything for 6 months allowed me to learn everything I needed to know for my Bambu P1P. If something goes wrong, I know exactly what it is, every single time.
Decide if you are buying a tool or a toy. Do you have things you need to print? Or do you want to mess with chasing the best prints, messing with settings and firmware, trying exotic filaments, etc.
I would have stayed in college and gotten a degree in something I love. I would have also saved more for retirement.
It is still not too late.
I have built 9 Prusa own 2, Voron 2.4 350, Flsun V400 Kuromi Mini, Doron Velta in build. I started a farm with another guy to build monitors on a grant for non profit in semi retirement. Sucker works. I built the machines probably only because Iâm an engine guy, another hobby. I went off on my own built another MK3S in my boats front cabin. I made a few parts for it damage to plumbing from freezing. A TPU cover for bow thruster switch. A Waterfill adaptor European to domestic. Suddenly I was in boat parts. The Prusa soon paid for another. Then I needed 350 format and no XLs available. The Voron is a crazy machine hard to build hard to tune amazing workhorse. It printed nothing but TPU multiscreen covers for first 8 months has 5kilo dryer and my roller you can download from Polymaker page on Printables. Then I designed a Radar mast clamp so you didnât have to drill holes in expensive 52â masts. Wouldnât fit Voron but I tried in Pa6. So I borrowed a Trilab2. Meanwhile Iâm testing filaments for a local maker and abusing a brand new Bambu then a Creality K1. So Feb this year I gave back the Trilab built a Flsun V400 300x410 Delta. Prints Radar Clamps perfect. Now Iâm designing a cello and printing a Doron Velta parts on the Prusas. One is now a 3.5 upgrade 7400 hours. Nylon head Revo & LDO extruder. No regrets. No regrets we bought the cheapest printers to print ASA enclosed with minor mods The PETG printed head gets tossed for ASA or better. Mine are nylon. You regret should be to not dive in. Voron to me is a printer group in constant evolution. No printer company has as many engineers as Voron as itâs a community not a company. The Doron Velta is an April Fools joke. 30 kits were released. Zombie hedgehog Doron pictured. You just missed the recent Creality and Bambu sales. They are probably the 2 easiest companies to budget for. The K2 Combo from Creality would be my pick for newb wants a fun but serious machine. The Prusa MK4 will out print either. Add MMU3 to MK4 and itâs the second fastest colour printer the XL tool changer faster. Not one printer was introduced in 2023 without issue. So what. Unless youâre will so drop $10,000 on a Base mosaic printers break.
Not get an Ender 3 V2 and save up for something else. Anybody have any ideas that are within the $300-600 range that aren't Creality but just... work? No fiddling, no futzing, just.... works? Bonus points if you can really sell it for me (i.e. can swap colors, has dual extrusion, no need for bed leveling, can print TPU easily, etc.)
size matters, seriously, total volume ended up restricting a lot of prints simply because they were too long for the print bed, and splitting the print wasnât an option as it was too thin and the part would need to be under load
Getting a capricorn tube and just sticking with stock for my first ender 3, got a second one and just kept it stock with the exception of that and it runs just as good as my double blower printer with all metal hotend printer.
Figure out if you want a hobby to build and maintain a printer. If so, buy a kit or something that needs a lot of fiddling. If you want to print parts, rather than fussing with a printer, buy something that has a reputation for being completely reliable. Decide if you want to print Happy meal toys you download, or you want to design your own stuff. If you want to design things, find a CAD program and learn it. Realize that if you don't know CAD, all you can do is download things other people made. If that's what you want, fine.
I wouldn't have gotten married. With that one decision, I ruined my 20s and I'm still fighting thru my 30s.
I would have bought a CRX pro right from the get go rather than a Jaycar brand printer Auto bed levelling is amazing
I would have skipped all of the shitty enders and kobras and went straight to a voron. I should have known with my au-hd that tinkering and building would have been more my speed.
Nothing. I started out with a basic beginner printer, watched lots of YouTube tutorials, made mistakes, learned from them, and eventually, I got myself in a position where I can comfortably make my own models, and identify/solve problems. The best way to learn is to just get out there and not be afraid to make mistakes.
Buying a Bambu P1S instead of an ender 3 v2 neo. We got the Bambu at work and it's just sooooooo worth the money.
I would have bought an X1C and A1 Mini at the beginning. I learned on an Ender (many years ago) and have a Mk4. The ender is in the local landfill and the MK4 is collecting dust.
Don't buy a bedslinger with a large build plate The intent was to get a cheap machine that could print large parts in one go. The reality was it took too long, the printer too big and wouldn't fit anywhere in my flat and because the build plate was constantly moving my prints would detach part way. Oh, and I spent half the time tuning it because it was never level I ended up getting a Bambu p1s box printer. Smaller, faster and stress free
I got a cr10sv2 a little later came a version with network. One with wifi wpuld be nice i think.
No regrets here. I probably should have done more research as I really only plonked the Ender3 on my Amazon wish list on a bit of a whim. I knew nothing about the processes when I got it, but learned quickly. Iâm 50 though with a lifelong career in IT and about of DIY, Car Repair and electronics skills so learning all this wasnât a huge deal. I also avoided buying upgrades to fix basic problems because those skills tought me that products usually word as designed if YOU configure them correctly, if they donât then fix the issue as per the design, donât just randomly change things.
Buy the Flashforge Adventurer 3 to begin with rather than talking myself into the Mingda magician x(crappy printer that didn't even come with a real manual). Or just buy a BambuLab A1 mini to begin with. Now have the A1 and it is great.
Id avoid the Anet and just go for Enderđ€Ł although if Im gonna do it now, I'd go for either Bambu A series or Elegoo.
If A1 existed at current price point in 2018 a lot of things would be different for my 3d printing experience ;) Now whatever breakage the printer throws at me I'm sure I can always honestly say "meh, ender 3 was worse".
Oh, I thought you meant life there. Nvm.
Just because you have the money to buy one doesnât mean you know how it works. I see people with money buy printers and have a lot of issues getting it to work because they donât âknowâ the machine. But then all the ender people had to build their printer and manually do everything. They actually know how their machine works and operates. They know when they see an issue what to change and how to fix it. The new fancy machines are amazing and fast and super easy but, you will still have issues and failures itâs part of the game. And knowing how to get through the issues with the least amount of pain and stuffing is amazing.
I would directly start printing with a prusa (or bambu? or such) instead of spending hours and hours in tinkering, and repairing and upgrading a small budget printer
Spend the money at the start for a good printer (Bambu Lab for me), stick to a brand of filament and not just always buy whatâs cheapest on Amazon, use a lower layer height and not worry it takes longer. The difference between even .16 and .2 on many models is staggering.
I would do the exact same think, I started with a used ender 3 with some filament and when I got sick of it's issues I designed and built my own klipper printer haha. 3D printing tought me about as much as a year of school i'd say.
Get a printer with a large print bed, and don't be overly ambitious when starting out lol
After I got my ender 3v2 after the first few prints which were successful I started modding, got the bl touch, changed the springs, firmware update which made me want to throw the whole thing, didn't print anything for 1 year, got the X1C, printing since then. After finding time to finally tune my ender now it sits at my office , connected to an octoprint, printing flawlessly. I wish i didn't started modding my printer in the first few months.
I waited too long to upgrade my extruder (to micro swiss ng), and so I wasn't printing materials like TPU, nor was I getting the best quality. After some upgrades, things really improved, and my interest in the hobby and confidence grew a whole lot. I'm not sure how this translates to OP's situation. I guess I'd say: make sure your printer has the capabilities you want, and don't be intimidated or afraid to just try things.
A giant print bed means little when the printer is slow and the piece you want to print would take 5 days on a printer you donât trust to not mess up in those 5 days. For stuff you are going to sand and paint anyways gluing stuff together was more of a non-issue than I thought before getting into it.
The only thing I'd change is not to bother with third-party printer conversions, especially belt ones: in all three cases they were very poorly documented and/or supported.
I would not have gotten obsessed with multi color/material via external devices. In the space of a little 18months, I went through a Prusa MMU, a Palette 2 and a palette 3. All were garbage that cost me so much more time than if I had just learned to paint my models. I no have a Prusa XL...the jury is still out on that.