Hy everyone
I’m a tech enthiast, full time developer and looking a long time to enter in the 3D printer world.
I have been search recenlty for some sugestions on the internet, and looking the options available in my country, mostly on a local aliexpress warehouse (to avoid some unpredictable tax).
I saw some Core XY from Tronxy I saw a lot of Ender 3 and it variants (V2, S1 pro) I saw some SLA (This one i’m a litte scared beacuse of toxity of the material, is that bad ? Like print something to touch for some time) I saw a Fysetech prusa mk3 clone that i discard after watch some bad reviews from long time users I saw the sovol s06 and the sovol s07
All I look will be close to ~500/600 usd in a local wharehose.
The ender 3 v2 will be a littble bit less, and some s1 plus will be a little bit more that that.
My usage will be to make some improvements for my work setup, something that i need in home, some addons for my switch, some charctaers to put on my desk, nothing commercial or that dependes of perfections.
Looks like that the Core XY it’s on trend right now, but I think maybe it’s too much for starts with.
I tend for the sovol s07 right, but i confess that the v roller wheels looks a cheap economy
But what do you guys think about thoes options ? Maybe await to check the neptune 4 ? Worth to buy a cheap printer and made some upgrades ? Like buy a Sovol S06 and put a Klipper by myself later ?
The most important question you must answer is if you want to make/print things, or if you want to add 3D printer building & coding as a hobby.
If your intent is the latter, then the other comments have you covered. If the former is your goal, break out your wallet and order an assembled Prusa Mk4 ($1100 plus shipping, customs). Put it in a convenient location with moderate ventilation and good thermal stability and print everything in either PLA+ or PETg. I’ve been through two “cheap” printers and know more about tweaks, firmware, and upgrades than I ever wanted to. I’m tired of having printer maintenance as a hobby and, personally, have a Prusa on preorder.
Alternates for plug-and-play: I have a friend with a Qidi Tech printer from 3 years ago and he does nothing but print Etsy stuff. No tweaking and he loves it. Also, people who have the Bambu P1P and X1 seem to love them. In fact they love them so much they can’t shut up about them. Probably both are good choices for Just Printing and they’re in the $700 range. In all cases you’ll still have to learn the intricacies of slicing and, for custom parts, modeling, but at least you won’t be fighting with your printer.
This is so true. My first FDM printer after working with SLA was an Ender3v2. I’m intimatly familiar with the inner working now after installing probes, changing out the motherboard, installing a new hot end, compiling custom firmware etc. Looking back I would’ve just bought one that worked out the gate instead of struggling for so long.
Worth mentioning, Bambu X1 and P1P seem to be trying to fill your first criteria as well.
I’ve also seen the Anker Make M5 as a cheaper way to just have a printer that’s pretty good that takes little fuss.
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The Ender 3 S1 Pro is pretty popular at my store right now, I’ve put together a few of them and as long as you check to make sure the gantry is level with the frame and that all the wheels are tightened correctly, it prints pretty solid. If you can get a really good deal on a Ender 3 Pro or Ender 3 V2 though, they’re still not bad either and there are tons of guides on how to mod and upgrade the machines. And if you have a Pi or SBC lying around, definitely give Klipper a shot once you’re used to the machine a bit, I put it on all my machines when possible now.
True this. It depends a lot on your budget but the difference in ease of use of an Ender 3 and the S1 is massive. Is is massively easier to get good prints in the S1 when you still don’t know the ropes yet.
I would recommend the sovol sv06, it’s a great beginner printer at its price! Either that, or a Neptune 3 Pro
I would probably avoid creality’s Ender 3 series, nowadays it’s overpriced compared to other, better printers on the market. Unless you can find them for around $100~ as the other person mentioned, I probably wouldn’t buy one
SV07 is still new, it’s both an upgrade and a downgrade to the SV06. I would suggest that if you want klipper, an sv06 and an orange pi (or thin client) with kiauh may be the better option.
Haven’t heard much about the Neptune 4 besides it being a Neptune 3 pro with klipper and a big cooling fan
Tronxys Corexy machines are usually regarded as tinkerers machines. They are alright out of the box, but you can do many upgrades to make them so much better
I ended by follow your answer and bought a Neptune 3 pro. It looks more complete than the sovol with a better community and a for the same price. I’m thinking about try to make it works with klipper on the future. Does it worth ? Or it’s more for learning ?
I recommend the $99 Ender 3 that Microcenter (and other retailers) have frequently.
Like just the base Ender 3? Not the V2 or the Neo? Looking at prices the Neo seems to be about $30 more but the improvements in the gear are well worth it. Plastic -> metal extruder, BL Touch (Which is like $40 by itself), and a much nicer build plate.
I haven’t looked at prices in a while, but when Microcenter offers the Ender 3 Pro for $99, the V2 and Neo are more than double the price.
Microcentre have done the walk-in-with-coupon $99 V2 in the last several months, a couple of times. And also the base 3 for $79.
I love my 3V2, but it is a jalopy. A jalopy I’ve turned into a hot rod, but it started a jalopy. A model A, as compared to the original 3’s model T, perhaps. xD
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i got an ender 5 pro and the first time i tried to set it up and use it i ended up giving up and setting it aside for a while. the bed would never level, the z stop seemed stuck in place even with tools, the extruder kept running in reverse, i couldnt not get clogs. it was just a mess. in the last month i tried it again and its gone so much better. having something that handles the bed for me sounds amazing.
An Ender 3 or similar clone would be a great start. There is a reason they get recommended so much. They are fantastic to learn on, have tons of community support, and can be incrementally upgraded to be a very excellent all arounder. Really, as enticing as others can be, go with the ender or one of its clones. I got a voxellab s3 and I love it but it’s got some pain that I wish weren’t there.
Starting out, can’t go wrong with an ender 3 V2 (or s1). We have 3 of them running at work and they are reliable, easy to work on, and produce solid parts. Extra parts are easy to get and are plenty cheap. There’s a huge community around them. Overall, excellent starting printer. You’ll definitely want to toss an autoleveling kit on there. The only real downsides are it doesn’t print higher end materials well (honestly through, PLA is fine for most use cases), and it’s super slow. Dear god it takes forever to print.
If you want to spend a bit more, the p1p is a no fuss printer from Bambu Labs. We also have 3 of their top tier model at work and can’t say enough good things about them.
I don’t recommend upgrading printers. It can get expensive fast and the tuning becomes endless. The p1p is such a good value that buying a printer with the intent to mod it is hard to justify. Just spend a bit more to get a better, more reliable printer up front.
I think any of the Ender 3 variations would be a good choice. Lots of parts availability and a big online community to help you should you need it.
Ender3 is fine, but I probably ended up spending more on upgrades than I did on the printer (incl. a new motherboard when the microSD slot stopped reading, a new hot end, dual z axis upgrade and a few others). I’d save yourself the time and headaches that a lower end printer can bring a go for something a little better.
As for SLA, I quite like it. I work with water washable resins, and as long as you wear gloves and contain the washing waste, it’s great. Yes it’s more hassle than FDM, but the detail is unparalleled. Just be careful, resin is very brittle and it’s easy to break prints.
I was given an Ender 3v2 (it was on my wishlist) as my first 3D printer and I have learned so much modding it, upgrading it, extending its capabilities. If you want that kind of experience, the Ender 3 series is great. And yes, I’m making/prototyping real parts with it.
But if that’s not the approach you want to take, yeah, spend some additional moneys, buy something that’s already where I’ve got with my 3V2.
Get something cheap which does what you want it to do. Then go expensive.
For me, I got a Monoprice Select Mini as my first printer. It was good enough, but I soon learned I needed something bigger. Then I got a Flash Forge adventure.
That ended up breaking because of over use, so I got a Ender for the reparability. I would’ve just kept the Ender but I was able to start selling my designs, so I got a Prusa Mini and soon a MK 4 for their reliability.
You won’t know what you’ll need until you use it. Getting something cheap makes this more accessible.
I went with BambuLabs and couldn’t be happier. As a total noob with a healthy budget for a new hobby I wanted something that I could use more often than I had to tinker with it, and it fit the bill nicely. (Don’t get me wrong, plenty of tinkering has still been required lol)
A lot of people are saying Enders, but I would avoid them at this time, their quality has dropped a lot and you can get better printers for around the same price (most notably from sovol)
Avoid tronxy, they are big, cheap and so basic you will end up spending more to upgrade them than you would have by spending the money to build a Voron.
Personally, if you are attracted to the DIY/tinkering aspect of 3D printing, start off with building a voron. It’s open source, fast as hell and prints great.
If you just want to print the occasional thing and want to tweak/upgrade occasionally, buy a sovol, prints great, won’t need a lot of maintenance and has some room for upgrades.
If you want incredible prints with no fuss, get a prusa or a bambu. You’ll get great prints like a voron will give you, but you will pretty much print out of the box with little tweaking besides occasional calibration .
Also, don’t be surprised when you look behind you and found out you have 7 printers shoved In your office. A meth addiction may be cheaper than this hobby ;)
I second a BambuLab. I have the X1 Carbon and after 4 years on my ender 3 I have hundreds more successful prints on the X1 with almost no headaches. The mult color is great, even if you have to deal with the ethical dilemma of the waste filament. Really is a set and forget printer.
I got a Voxelab Aquila X2 for <200. With a few upgrades it works like a champ for prototyping. For more high quality parts I’d go with something else but I mainly print functional stuff and projects and its more than enough
