So the Bambu labs A1 looks like the perfect starting point.
One problem, it uses proprietary firmware and software, I’m a big advocate for owning the things you buy, and not supporting companies that don’t allow you to do that as much as I reasonably can. So yea I can’t buy Bambu.
The Creality SparkX i7 seems nice, it looks like a straight up clone of the A1
https://store.creality.com/eu/products/sparkx-i7-3d-printer
I’ve heard a lot of people complain about Creality though, so unsure. I’m a bit stuck and getting decision fatigue.
My budget is ~500 Euro.
Help.
Elegoo Centauri Carbon 1 or 2 would be my recommendation.
Qidi Q2 can offer magnificent value if you want something slightly bigger. It runs on open-source Klipper.
That’s the one on my list. I’ve been looking at the snapmaker U1, the Sovol SV08, and the Q2/Q2C. For a replacement for bambu, I think the Q2 fits that profile best.
SV08 is atractive for large prints but it’s huge and doesn’t have an enclosure. The large size can become cumbersome in a smaller house and it’s very rarely needed.
Snapmaker is attractive for multi-color or multi-material prints but those aren’t that common and it’s also much more expensive.
For a first printer the Q2 is probably good. You can run it fully locally without the Qidi cloud as well which is a big plus. Though accessing it outside of your home network would require a reverse proxy or something like Tailscale to connect to your home network first. (But you can use Qidi cloud if you wish)
I live in a tiny apartment, so it might end up in my living room, so ascetics is also a factor, I really like the A1, but yea fuck Bambu
In any space where you spend a lot of time, I’d recommend an enclosed printer and an air filter or outside ventilation. While the fumes of PLA and PETG are not proven to be harmful, they do contain microplastics that you’ll breathe in.
they do contain microplastics that you’ll breathe in.
so does every plastic packaging of your food.
so does every plastic packaging of your food
That’s no reason to willingly add even more to your diet/environment
@SaveTheTuaHawk hence it’s not recommended to melt your food containers while eating.
@PonyOfWar
This is also good advice for ABS/ASA and filled plastics. Honestly, I’m way less concerned about PLA fumes than I am styrene or potential airborne microscopic carbon fibers.
we have a prusa mini for several years at work. i am printing quite a lot and had zero issues so far. if you buy the mini: order the wifi module.
Prusa is ran by Zionists so I’d definitely avoid that.
i never heard about that. is that something prusa said?
Prusa recently partnered with Israeli company Fillament2
sad to hear, prusa looked pretty good.
Yeah very sad development from Prusa indeed, but it is what it is. Chinese companies like Sovol and Qidi provide good open-source alternatives.
You can put custom firmware on the x1c and use whatever the hell you want. Make sure you put it somewhere you can vent outside, so not in the living room.
bambu x1c ?
I don’t want to support companies that lock down their firmware. The more Open-Source the better.The are also printers that are inspired by the voron project, while not fully being a voron, but more pre-assembled. I think sovol has some, and formbot has the troodon series, including a smaller 250mm version.
I haven’t used either, but it might be worth looking into. I did but a voron kit by formbot and honestly that was great. Firmware is just klipper, so fully open source, of course.
can’t vorons be bought prebuilt these days?
Sovol sv08 is basically a prebuilt voron
They aren’t vorons then. There are printers, including some that I listed, that are very closer to this conceptually, but they aren’t allowed to be called vorons (and you won’t get an official serial number for them).
One core point of a voron is the fact that it’s built, from scratch, by you. A pre-assembled printer can never be a Voron.
Note that anyone is free to use the parts and designs, that’s the point of them being open-source. The Voron name is intentionally protected so you can’t sell a commercial 3d printer product called Voron.
i mean, as long as you get the excellent functionality of a voron.
you won’t get the prestige or the customization, but it’d be fine as a first printer i suppose.
If you don’t want to go down the e.g. “Voron route” nor that I could recommend for the first 3D-Printer, Prusa or partially Sovol Printers would be good. For what I can say Prusa MK4S would be a solid option, although more costly than the Mini.
If you’re wanting to learn, just get the cheapest Ender3. No they’re not good printers, but they’re open and you can add on parts as you figure out they’re needed. They take tuning to adjustment to get a halfway decent print, meaning you’re going to learn how to do that. And once you’ve done that, you’re going to have very solid opinions about what you need in your next printer.
ender 3s aren’t that bad.
My Ender 3 Pro can get really high quality prints when I swap to a 0.2mm nozzle. As in, competes with (though doesn’t beat) SLA printers for D&D minis
They’re not horrible, but they’re very basic. If you want bed leveling, filament sensing, or network connectivity, then you’re going to have to upgrade the basic machine, and you can. Top that off with figuring out what modeling to slicing pipeline you want to use and you end up touching every step of 3d printing for a very modest price. At which point, if you do want to drop some money on a printer with everything you want already in it, you know exactly what you’re looking for.
bed leveling
easy to install bed leveling on it, after you figure out you need it.
filament sensing, network connectivity
a bit superfluous for a first printer to learn on.
figuring out what modeling to slicing pipeline
that’s a positive not a negative, especially considering OP wants to learn.
basic simplicity and reliability are actually big pluses. ender 3s are fine as a first printer for good quality prints at rock bottom price for what you get.
I have one of the newer Ender 3 V3 SE models. It’s pretty good actually! Very rarely have to tinker with it unlike on the older models like my Ender 3 Pro
You can always spend more to get more. The great thing about the Ender series is that you can get the very base model for super cheap, and parts/upgrades are also dirt cheap. So you can learn, tinker, and get into things easily.
In small places: corexy not only for particles (cooking produces much more than a pla/petg print and some are proven carcinogenic, but research your self) but for actual space. Bed slinger often seem smaller but once you factor in the space the bed travels, they are actually requiring more space.
Something more open like Sovol or Creality will benefit you once you want to tinker with the printer to have better cooling or sth…
Ibwoukd recommend grabbing a used Prusa MK3S or newer. Used they can often be had for half your budget, and they’re damn good machines.
Well this is my opinion; I have a large cr10 smart pro, it is way too big for 95% of my prints. Only a small number has ever been larger than 20cm. So don’t go and buy too large of a printer initially. So don’t think you are missing out with 30cm30cm30cm build volumes.
Next is speed, I am still stuck at 60mm/s speeds so get something fast, this is the biggest gripe of my printer. Not the quality, not the size… But speed. You can always make your printer print slower but not easily very faster than designed. Anything that can hit 180-200mm/s would be amazing.
Next is the multiple filament that has taken the world by storm, all I can say is I am jealous and cannot wait to get a printer which has it, call it fomo but I want it, I think it has its use cases but for you that is to decide.
Next is do you like to tinker or do you just want to print and forget. I cannot speak to either of your examples but even my cr10 is very close to print and forget, I did a bit of setup but you will do something similar while learning how to use it. So I think both your examples will be basically print and forget out of the box. If you want to tinker I do not think either your examples are very mod friendly but I might be wrong. Nor privacy friendly if you just connect and forget but that is your choice, honestly I am indifferent. If you want to maybe try and install a rpi with klipper maybe you will get past most of your privacy concerns, but that is a whole bunch of learning and say then good bye to a good weekend learning and getting everything to work, but learning is so rewarding. I did a klipper conversion on my creality and I love it.
Honestly go with your gut, there will never be a 3d printer that does everything and is perfect, just ask yourself what your needs are and what are non negotiable. Everything is evolving so rapidly in 3-5 years your new printer now will seem old, so future proofing is very hard with a plug and play.
Also check part availability where you are, in South Africa, where I assume both of us are, I chose creality because even now I can still buy parts easily at most 3d printer shops years after the model has been discontinued.
So if I had to buy one tomorrow, and being a creality fan, on your budget it would be a creality hi combo, if I had more it would be any K2 with a cfs combo
