Hello, I’m a total beginner in 3d printing and I want to get into 3d printing for the sake of building small engineering projects. Considering this I probably won’t need a printer with alot of fine detail like for example small sized textures (I think). So would it make sense for me to just go for the cheapest one that somehow prints ok (I thought of an ender 3 or something like that) or should I spend some more money on a Presa mini (+) or a somewhat similar model. What experiences do you have with low budget printers (250€-400€) for my specific although not very unique use case? I’m very thankful for every answer I get.
All cheap machines are thinkering machines. You have a chance to get faulty parts and bad support from manufacturer, but this community can help a lot. But even more expensive ones can be frustrating for begginers. Stick with open source products and you will get replacement parts much cheaper and also better support.
Ender 3 and prusa mini are both bed slingers where bed is moving while printing. Not best design, but its proven that they can produce high quality prints, just like any expensive fdm printer (with more tuning and lower speeds). Prusa mini got smaller build volume (good thing for cheap printers imo cuz it increases rigidity), but only 1 “Z tower” which im not a fan. I think you should compare prusa i3 with ender 3, but thats even bigger price difference. I think both are good deals, but prusa is more expensive. Its also probably better quality and prusa is well known respectable manufacturer. Ender is much younger but they are so popular, I believe they sell more printers than anyone else. Therefore great support from anywhere including this lemmy community, but dont expect much from creality. I think prusa is better especially for begginers, but its hard to beat crealitys low price.
Whatever you chose you need to dive deep in this hoby to have consistent prints. Bring a lot of patinece, do a lot of research and dont be afraid to ask when needed and have fun!