I am looking to buy a 3D printer for my son (and for myself too). We want to print, not tinker, so it should be something that gives great results right from the start.
Can you guide me to a sensible choice?
My first choice would have to be the Prusa MK3S Plus but it is outside the price range I am shopping for, except if I buy used – would that be bad to do?
Realistic choices:
- €380 used Prusa MK3S+, with 10 days printing time
- €400 new Prusa Mini+
- €250 new Ender 3 V2 Neo
Criteria:
- High quality, no hassle. I want to print, not tinker.
- Preferably (semi)assembled.
- Auto bed leveling.
- Auto error detection (filament, power, etc.?).
- Budget up to 600 EUR/USD including extras, excluding filament.
- Speed is not important.
- Size is not important.
- Must not be cloud-based.
Questions:
- Surface?! Smooth, os satin, or textured? (Why) Should I have more than one kind?
- (Why) Do I need an enclosure?
Keep in mind that any hobby printer, especially those under ~$/€1k are subject to needing some level of tinkering to get reliable printing. If speed is unimportant, any of the options you provide will be a good fit. You will benefit from running some basic tuning for each spool of filament to get the best print quality. The speed can be dialed in to reduce failures but not take forever.
Build plate finish is more of a personal preference when it comes to PLA. Textured plate will provide slightly better grip to prevent the print from popping off mid-print, but it’s a visible and tactile texture to that surface. It would probably be best to have a both a texture and smooth plate on hand long term.
Enclosure mainly comes into play if you print high-shrink materials like ABS or ASA. If you don’t like to tinker, I wouldn’t try to enclose a prusa or ender and would save up for a design built for it. If you don’t mind tinkering a bit, you can always add the enclosure later.
Buying a used printer isn’t a terrible option, but I would get eyes on first to ensure it prints as-is, especially since you want it to be plug and play. People sell printers for a variety of reasons such as upgrading, lack of interest, lack of funding, etc.
A suitably large cardboard box can happily enclose a printer. Just cut the top flaps off and set it over the printer
Or some painters tape and foam board.
Just let the bed heat it up and consider slapping an enclosure thermometer (and or smoke detector on top) for fire safety,
Im not afraid of fire (that much), but check out Ikea Lack enclosures. You can build one for quite cheap and you will have much better experience. Its still cheap crap, but you will enjoy printing much more. While cardboard can do its job, I wouldnt recommend it to someone new in printing. You want to see your first layers to make sure its printing fine etc. QOL upgrades are prio #1, at least for me
I agree. The point of mentioning it is how simple enclosures can be. The creality enclosure is literally just a pop-up hamper with metalized nylon.
You don’t need to go hog wild with it or In any case…my FDM printer probably doesn’t fit a lack. It already barely fits on my workbench desk.
Though if you have something like a voron, where there’s vslot frame all the way around it… some thin plexiglass can just slide into the vslot. If you want a very tight seal, silicone caulk inside first. The front face uses ball bearings imbedded around a u-track edging that snap to small magnets imbeddd into some vslot slot covers (all printed.)
I’m still considering an enclosure but besides the novelty I don’t believe a Lack is really a cheap option. A tent will cost €50 while the Lack will cost €26 for the tables, €5 for the screws, and then €150 for the sides and door :-)
Its not the cheapest, but your math is boosted a bit. 4 years ago, I bought 3 ikea lack tables for 30€ in total and sides were <100€. I know everything is more expensive today, but I built enclosure with storage. You can also use cheaper sides (I got 18 mm wood for furniture) and you can make enclosure with only one lack table if printer sits on something already, it shouldnt be more than 100€. Tent should be cheaper than cabinet anyway, but anything is better than cardboard box
Can confirm, this is how I printed my ASA Voron parts. That said, my I3 clone was acting fairly flakey toward the end (stopping mid print despite progress still incrementing at the normal rate on the display). I wonder if it was because the electronics were inside the cardboard hat too.
It took quite a few boxes taped together to enclose the printer with the spool holder on top, but it worked.
This might get more fiddly, but an easy way is to add a shelf beneath the heated bed- or rather, 2 shelves that come together (or slightly overlap) with cut outs to accommodate any moving parts/things that pass through.
Also, I’d say that’s a reasonable assumption.
Though foam board is nice and cheap for prototyping or maybe corrugated plastic sign board, but that’s relatively hard to cut.), and if you print up some hinges, maybe a magnetic door clasp, you can fold the thing up when you don’t need it.
When you get a design you like, convert to acrylic or something.