tl;dr: What is the best quality consumer 3D printer available (NOT bambu labs)?
Hello,
I’m relatively new to 3D printing (<6 months exp) and am in need of advice.
Background: I purchased a used Prusa MK3S+ as my first printer (got a good deal from a neighbor, not a print farm). I had great experiences with it for a few months. However, recently several components keep breaking one after another. I’ve spent ~$100 over the last month replacing parts, and now it seems the power supply and/or mainboard needs replacing. (I promise I’ve followed every guide and been very careful. I think I’m just unlucky.) I’m sick of fixing my printer. I just want a printer that works. I’ve decided it’s time for me to just upgrade.
- What is currently the best consumer level printer available? I do NOT want a Bambu Labs printer. Otherwise, I would just get the X1C. Here are some things that are important to me:
- Open source software available (even if rooting is necessary)
- Very high quality prints
- Enclosure would be nice
- The bigger the better
- Reliable
- Ideally can be made quiet for overnight prints, even if I need to turn down the speed.
Currently I’m looking at the Qidi X-Max 3 and the Creality K1C. I’m hesitant though because both are new and both brands have had QA issues on other products. I’m also looking at the Rat Rig V-Core 3.1, but I’m scared it’ll be a mess of tinkering like my Prusa was.
Any input or recommendations from more experienced people would be greatly appreciated.
- What should I do with my Prusa MK3S+? I don’t want to throw it out, but I’m not sure its worth anybody’s time or money if the mainboard and power supply are dead. I definitely don’t wanna put any more time or money into fixing it myself.
Sorry for the long post, but I felt adding context would help specify what I’m looking for.
Thanks in advances for any replies!
I’ll give you some thoughts for question 2 based on my experience with it.
Klippering your mk3s is an option. I dropped a skr mini in mine after the Einsy board (temporarily, somehow resurrected it with the Arduino IDE and reflashing it) died, it’s substantially quieter with the drivers on the mini and it’s been able to print faster than I comfortably would have before. It opens up a lot of options, have pins on the board to do things with. You could put together a lack enclosure for it as well. I’m personally thinking about maybe bear modding it next, but one thing at a time.
You could also use the mk3s as a base for a switchwire
All in, the mk3s is a really solid base printer, restoring it to stock would definitely be worth it, I put thousands of hours on mine in the last year with at most a bit of 3-in-1 on the rods as maintenance. The only real failure I had that wasn’t self inflicted was the original petg parts failing after printing most of the parts for my v2.4 in the summer heat with an enclosure, which was totally expected and I had already printed abs/ASA parts to use. Even heavily modded it’s super simple to tear down and rebuild when compared to my voron.
Edit for question 1, why not look at a prusa xl? Prusa support is top notch, it’s core xy and supports multiple print heads and had a large print area. It comes with a premium price though, think it’s over $2k. The mk4 is an option, but you’re getting the same print area as the mk3s, but its cheaper, pre assembled with an enclosure bundled is like 1.4k, less if you go for the kit.
I’ll definitely look into your modding ideas for my mk3s+ once I get a new printer. It’s good to know there are some good options to keep it out of the trash.
I kinda forgot to look at the new Prusas because of the bad experience I had, but I definitely should look into it.
Thanks for the ideas!