3D printer for starting

[hiei27]

My Ender 3 has handled PLA, PETG, and TPU just fine.  Not Nylon or ABS.  But the materials it can print cover almost everything I want.  The only thing that might be nice but isn't covered is easy vapor smoothing.  I don't really miss it.

I would emphasize the comment about choosing a popular brand.  If you use your printer a lot things will wear out or fail.  Nozzles if nothing else.  Replacements for popular printer parts are easy and inexpensive to source, and plenty of advice on tuning and repairs is available.

do you have any specific model/s suggestions ?

[CatalinaWOW]

My Ender 3 has handled PLA, PETG, and TPU just fine.  Not Nylon or ABS.  But the materials it can print cover almost everything I want.  The only thing that might be nice but isn't covered is easy vapor smoothing.  I don't really miss it.

I would emphasize the comment about choosing a popular brand.  If you use your printer a lot things will wear out or fail.  Nozzles if nothing else.  Replacements for popular printer parts are easy and inexpensive to source, and plenty of advice on tuning and repairs is available.

do you have any specific model/s suggestions ?

I can't really give good advice about the various Ender3 versions since I haven't tried all of them, and I really don't know what you care about most.  But here goes with some thoughts.

If budget is truly the most important thing to you, go for the used.  I see various versions on the used market for prices in the $80-$130 USD range.  Often describe as refurbished.  There will be some risk of buying someone else's problems but I suspect that most of them are machines that someone bought to start out with and then moved up to something better and more expensive.   If you are mechanically handy these are pretty simple devices and can be repaired at low cost and minimum difficulty so the risk isn't huge.  There are many videos on YouTube about both diagnosing what may be wrong with them and how to fix them.  I find a guy calling himself MakersMuse pretty informative and generally correct. 

A little higher on the price scale is a new base model direct from Creality.   Usually available for well under $200.  It is what I started with and I made many very useable prints with it.  It shares the print volume with all the later models and can in general be upgraded as you decide you want/need/can afford to move up.  The one thing that I would recommend you think about before going here is thinking about your noise sensitivity.  The base model uses a controller board which doesn't do microstepping on the movement motors which makes them somewhat noisier.  I never found the sound level annoying but some people find it anything from annoying to truly objectionable.  I actually liked the noise because it allowed me to know when the print finished or stopped because of some problem.  The noise level is on par with computer cooling fans in my experience.

If you plan to print flexible materials (TPU for example) a direct drive print head on the higher end models will work with softer materials more reliably.  My base model worked with TPU 95, a fairly stiff filament, but like any Bowdin tube printer the softer varieties (TPU 65) for example would be problematic.

If you think you will use erosive filaments you want to go up to a model that has an all metal hot end and can handle steel or better nozzles.  Erosive includes virtually all of the carbon filled, fiber enhanced, and basically anything else that embeds particles in the filament.

All of the other upgrades are more conveniences than necessities.  Automatic bed leveling is nice, but doing it manually is not difficult and my experience is similar to others, it doesn't need to be done all that often.  I like the flexible coated bed plates a lot, but again it is a luxury, not a necessity.   An analogy is that they are like power door locks and windows in automobiles.  Very convenient, but certainly not necessary.  And being included in more and more printers because it is "just a few dollars" more. 

[MarkF]

If you're leaning toward the Ender 3, this write-up on the Ender 3 V3 and
the differences between the Klipper (KE) version ^{MSRP $279}  vs  the Marlin (SE) version ^{MSRP $219}.

   https://www.crealityexperts.com/creality-ender-3-v3-se-vs-ender-3-v3-ke

I'm not that familiar with Klipper but I think it's more web based and the higher print speeds are a bit of hipe.
I highly recommend researching Klipper if that's the way you want to go.

[hiei27]

i was watching the Artillery Sidewinder X4 Plus (not the S1 version) and i can get a new one for around 220€, it seemed rather nice given the big bed space. Does anyone have experience with it?

[CatalinaWOW]

Large bed space seems attractive until you think about how long a print that fills it will take.  I wouldn't use that as a primary selection criteria unless you have a specific need to print large items.  Most people fill those needs by printing in sections and bonding the pieces together.

[hiei27]

Large bed space seems attractive until you think about how long a print that fills it will take.  I wouldn't use that as a primary selection criteria unless you have a specific need to print large items.  Most people fill those needs by printing in sections and bonding the pieces together.

isn't that just a volume comparison? let's say that a 50cubic mm print will take the same amount of time as 2 25cubic mm print right? so in the end the total print time is the same or i'm wrong?

[abeyer]

isn't that just a volume comparison? let's say that a 50cubic mm print will take the same amount of time as 2 25cubic mm print right? so in the end the total print time is the same or i'm wrong?

Yes, and if anything the separate parts can take a bit longer. However if you want to be available to monitor for filament runout, feed issues, overheating, and any other sort of failure, it's often easier to do so in several shorter bursts, even if the total time is longer, rather than one muti-day marathon.

[CatalinaWOW]

The time to print is roughly given by an equation like A times volume plus B times surface area, with A and B depending on fill factor and wall thickness.  A 50 mm^3 part will take in the neighborhood of 20 times as long as a 2.25 mm^3 part.  You can get a good feel for the time required for a print by downloading (Free) one of the popular slicers and prepping some of your potential prints with it.  The slicers don't care if you already have a printer.  And will tell you how long the prints will take.  This will also give you some idea of the front end of 3D printing, an area which stops some people in their tracks.

The print time depends weakly if at all on the print volume of the printer.  A 2.25 mm^3 part will print in roughly the same time on a small printer as a large one.  Any differences will be due to different bed heater power, different extrusion capabilities and different speeds of the 3 axis systems.  Some of those parameters get harder to achieve as the volume grows, but not to the point that a large printer can't be as fast as a smaller one. 

The only point I am making is that 3D printing becomes less attractive as the part size grows.    There are special use cases where large 3D prints are one of the best available answers.  Things like parts for cosplay costumes or scenery for G scale model railroads.  If you plan to do such things go for a bigger printer.  But there is a reason that the most popular printer models are in the 200 to 300 mm cube range.   It also costs in desk space consumed and other factors.  This is one area where bigger isn't necessarily better.

[hiei27]

i was looking at the artillery sidewinder X4 plus (220€) but it has mixed reviews, on the contrary the sovol sv06 ace (265€) seems a nice printer for starting out, with solid reviews. Also the neptune 4 pro (220€) seems solid, and for the core xy printer the adventurer 5M (300€) gets a lot of recommendations.

Do you think it makes sense to spend the extra to go from the sovol(a bed slinger) to the "new" core xy type of the adventurer 5M?

[brucehoult]

The only point I am making is that 3D printing becomes less attractive as the part size grows.    There are special use cases where large 3D prints are one of the best available answers.  Things like parts for cosplay costumes or scenery for G scale model railroads.  If you plan to do such things go for a bigger printer.  But there is a reason that the most popular printer models are in the 200 to 300 mm cube range.   It also costs in desk space consumed and other factors.  This is one area where bigger isn't necessarily better.

Well I'm glad you quantified that.

My first printer, a Makerbot Thing-O-Matic with 100x100x100 print volume was annoyingly limiting. For my second machine, which I built in 2013, I went for a kit with 27x larger 300x300x300 print volume, and that was usually enough. I don't think I'd want one that was only 200mm.

[ejeffrey]

I have a Prusa with a 250x210 mm build area.  That's definitely borderline for me.  It can fit most things I want to print, but sometimes I wish I could pack more parts on the plate.  It's just more convenient to set it up and go for 24 hours rather than have to start multiple jobs.  The printer is quite reliable, so I don't really worry that it's going to fail halfway through the print.

Much smaller and I would really get annoyed and have trouble printing even single parts.  I wouldn't really consider something sized like the A1 mini or prusa mini unless it was for a specific purpose or I was really tight on space.  Especially given the popularity of the i3, it's clones, and the Bambu Labs 250x250 printers, a lot of models you will find on the internet are designed around those sizes.

I wouldn't consider size an overriding concern for someone looking to get started inexpensively, but it's definitely a factor to consider.

[kripton2035]

also consider a printer that has a end of filament (or broken filament) detector.that pauses the print when such event occurs, and that is capable to resume the print after filling a new filament.
or you won't be able to make large prints without waiting permanently in front of the printer for hours ...

[amwales]

The Bamblu labs machine is just like buying an appliance, it was not designed for modification and indeed I believe there are parts that are non user replaceable.
The intent appear to be a consumer device that delivers on the promise to print 3d models.
I don't remember any promises made by the company that it would be opensource or user upgradable.
It allows you to use any manufacturers filament but that's about it.
They seem to have delivered and by doing so pushed other manufacturers that were sitting on old products and not innovating to take note and start adding features.
The core x-y printers are normally faster than bed slingers and you don't suffer from so many problems with taller models.
The company is being slammed right now for removing access to some network apis.
From what I see online they have a problem with the levels of customer support that a westerner expects when buying a product, it does seem hit and miss.
Seeing the prints being produced by their line of printers they look outstanding.
I would not suggest the A1 mini as it seems very small but the A1 looks reasonable is a tiny bit outside your 300 budget.

[abeyer]

also consider a printer that has a end of filament (or broken filament) detector.that pauses the print when such event occurs, and that is capable to resume the print after filling a new filament.
or you won't be able to make large prints without waiting permanently in front of the printer for hours ...

Personally I'm not a fan of leaving an active hot end running unattended in my home anyway... there have been cases of runaway heaters starting a fire. Those are nice features to have, absolutely, but I still like to be around while a print is running regardless. (Though having lived through a house fire before, I'm perhaps more conservative on this than many.)

[MarkF]

I bought a Raspberry Pi, installed OctoPrint and connected an old USB web camera.
If you set Octoprint correctly you can access the camera through the internet from anywhere.
I didn't setup mine to be accessible externally. 
But being able to keep an eye on a print from anywhere in house is nice to have.
(Mounted to the rail on the right side, front and back.)



I also added a LED strip light into the upper rail.

[brucehoult]

The Bamblu labs machine is just like buying an appliance, it was not designed for modification and indeed I believe there are parts that are non user replaceable.
The intent appear to be a consumer device that delivers on the promise to print 3d models.

If they're adopting an Apple-style model of "it Just Works for most people out of the box and we don't want inexpert users screwing it up" then that's fine by me.

If anything, it might make me more likely to buy one this year. I've been there and done that a dozen years ago building and tuning and debugging my own 3D printer and right now I just want something decent and trouble-free.

Apple has never tried too hard to stop actual experts getting in and modifying things and e.g. have actually made system mods and added APIs to HELP the Asahi Linux people on Apple Silicon, not to mention many other things historically.

If they wanted to they could have shut down people making Hackintoshes (MacOS running on general PC hardware) in an instant, but they don't seem to care as long as you're not selling them. I used i7-860, i7-4790K, and i7-6700K Hackintoshes as my main computer for years.

[kripton2035]

also consider a printer that has a end of filament (or broken filament) detector.that pauses the print when such event occurs, and that is capable to resume the print after filling a new filament.
or you won't be able to make large prints without waiting permanently in front of the printer for hours ...

Personally I'm not a fan of leaving an active hot end running unattended in my home anyway... there have been cases of runaway heaters starting a fire. Those are nice features to have, absolutely, but I still like to be around while a print is running regardless. (Though having lived through a house fire before, I'm perhaps more conservative on this than many.)

even if you're around the house, you still have to SLEEP sometimes ? a complex big print can take more than a day.

[CatalinaWOW]

While fires have been reported, I don't think it is a large risk.  Most if not all current printers have protection mechanisms to protect against at least the some of the fault modes, and putting some thoughts into placement of the printer can control the chances of a fire spreading.

Everyone must respond to their own perception of risk but these printers are no more dangerous than hot glue guns, coffee makers and several other household items.

[Lindley]

While fires have been reported, I don't think it is a large risk.  Most if not all current printers have protection mechanisms to protect against at least the some of the fault modes, and putting some thoughts into placement of the printer can control the chances of a fire spreading.

Everyone must respond to their own perception of risk but these printers are no more dangerous than hot glue guns, coffee makers and several other household items.

Plus, fitting a decent smoke alarm above the printer/enclosure and connected to the rest of the home system is what we have.

[mihai.cuciuc]

Just because I haven't seen it mentioned here, I got an Ender 5 Pro in 2021 and have been pretty happy with it. I see it's no longer available, replaced by newer (and more expensive) models, starting at 300 Eur. I paid $260 for it on banggood. It was suggested by a friend who does a lot of engineering work for his PhD.

Some assembly (ikea style) was requires and I did have some issues with it at the beginning. Had to loosen&retighten some of the preinstalled components as some rollers were dragging a lot.

I installed a few mods (glass bed, extra support to not let the print bed sag, bltouch autolevel sensor) and I experimented with a few types of filament and settings until I got consistent results. Since then it's been super reliable. For very wide prints I still get some warping but I rarely print large things.

My use case is building enclosures and various components for my electronics projects, and for that it's been a very reliable tool.

[Vertamps]

We have a Bambu Lab A1 at work. I was up and running within an hr or two from my first 3D model using the free Autodesk Fusion, exported and setup up with Bambu lab (3D printing placement and editing/slicing software) and started printing. My 83 year old boss set the printer up, but its almost drag and drop to start using it file wise. I do not even know what all the setup settings do, but i do know that I let the machine do its auto bed leveling and dynamic printing calibration or such every print to avoid issues. We have two older 3d printers that as a technical guy, was to complicated for me to get to work and figure out issues. Walls should be two nozzle diameters thick.

[Monkeh]

One issue that has not been brought up is Marlin or Klipper firmware.  You NEED to decide before buying.  You can't change after the fact.

Not only are these not the only options, you can very much change them after the fact (usually), and you cannot make a meaningful decision between them prior to buying your first printer. Experience and familiarity is required to do so.