I am looking to get a new 3d printer. I’ve had an ender 3 V2 for a few years. While I’ve been able to get many excellent prints out of it, I’m looking for a printer for my new apartment that will require a little less tinkering and troubleshooting. I’m pretty experienced with the nuances of 3d printing, and don’t mind taking things apart and fixing things(but not every time I wanna use the thing). Realistically I’ll be printing mostly PLA and PETG, but it would be nice to have the option of trying out other higher strength filaments, and I’d like to have an enclosure to play with ABS eventually.

I prefer to spend around $500. I’ve been eying up the Bambu P1S with the AMS but I really don’t think I can afford almost $1000 right now. If it’s really worth it, I can pull it off. The Bambu a1 is also interesting, but id prefer to have a core-xy with an enclosure.

I’ve been looking at the flashforge 5m or 5m pro, as well as creality k1c. Those prices are way more attractive. Or perhaps qidi?

All the choices and different technologies on the market now are a little bit overwhelming, and I don’t want to be disappointed in my purchase. I’ll mostly be using it to print random things for around the house and for electronics projects.

Any thoughts or recommendations are welcome, thank you!

  • @IMALlamaEnglish
    4•22 days ago

    Let’s start backwards:

    • If you want to print larger and/or high aspect ratio (say greater than 1:2 in terms of x:y or y:x) you’ll need an enclosure. You’ll likely need to actively heat it with bedfans. It’s also worth saying that you can run a fan with ASA/ABS, but only if your chamber is warm. Think 55-60 °C. As with other filament, fan generally helps quality. If you’re not able to crack 50 °C you should probably run fan off aside from overhangs
    • These chamber temps mean you’ll probably want your electronics outside the chamer
    • CoreXY printers lend themselves to being enclosed. Bonus points if the enclosure is easy to open if you want to print something like PLA, PETG, etc. I’ve found that bigger PETG prints do benefit from being enclosed, but I open the top of my enclosure
    • CoreXY printers can be pretty quick. If you want to print quickly you’ll need an extruder that can keep up. Also note that mechanical speed only gets you so far. If you want to really drop print time you need bigger extrusions (width and height), which again means high flow needs

    All of this sounds somewhat expensive TBH. Consider why you’re considering a new printer then ask yourself what on the market will help meet those needs - especially at your price point.