3DPrinting

::: spoiler I would only do a Prusa if you want a tool that just works and will work in the future. I don't regret my MK3 at all. I do regret a little KP3 Kingroon. I just never use it. It is cheap and a decent deal in a budget printer. The thing is, the whole hardware spec mindset and budget printers are not a path to the same place or end game. Everyone I know that buys a bottom tier printer, sticks with it, and actually prints owns several budget printers. Almost everyone that talks about how great one is, spends a bunch of time fiddling with it and almost always has several of these machines, of which one is ever working.

I got the Prusa first, and only got the Kingroon to try out klipper, modding, and determine if I wanted to build a Voron. A Voron 2.4 is great for a machine designed specifically for ABS. I know ABS extremely well from all of my years painting cars when almost all trim parts and bumper covers are made of the stuff. At one point, I considered making prototype and rare automotive parts using a Voron 2.4. If you do not know, the 2.4 has a totally stationary bed, and a core x/y like print head that moves inside a rigid cube. The actual print head rises with each layer, unlike a Core X/Y where the bed is lowered with each layer. This keeps the air around the print as still as possible which is absolutely critical for large ABS prints that have thickness variations in the walls and thin structures. Even in a good heated temperature controlled enclosure most printers struggle with this kind of print. I've made many iterations of tuned wall thicknesses to make large ABS prints work on my MK3 in a totally sealed enclosure.

This is my point, if you're going to buy a project printer, buy one that is for some special niche. I spent most of my life learning this lesson the hard way: "there is nothing more expensive than being cheap/poor." Buying anything twice costs more than doing it right the first time, and the physical cost neglects all of your time as worthless. There is a major fallacy in the assumption that hardware specifications count for anything of value. Unless you are an embedded hardware developer that somehow does not value your time, the hardware specifications are an irrelevant joke. The level of development that has gone into dialing a setup as well as a (well aged) Prusa is not trivial. You can't just roll a marlin config and get comparable results. This software blind spot almost always results in the person playing with a perpetual printer project instead of a tool they actually use for useful stuff. That is a perfectly acceptable hobby if that is what you are looking for. My advice is that I do not regret buying the tool first and having something that will just work for the rest of your life. If you want a printer project, that is what you get for your second machine.

For me I was looking for reliability, so I ended up with Prusa. But I ended up with them thanks to a few simple rules I followed.

1. Can the machine and it's parts be replaced with off shelf components?

2. Does it use, or is the platform compatible with open source slicers (Prusaslicer/Cura)?

3. Does the community support the device with mods on 3D model repositories (Thingiverse/Printables)?

4. Does the manufacturer have a track record for support (or the lack thereof)?

Before I got my Prusa, the Creality Ender 3 was the goto, and it was a really reliable machine. For my printing needs I need a direct drive print head, and a better auto bed leveling routine. But the Ender 3 s1 looks pretty good as an alternative.

…Voron? 😔 Sorry

I love Elegoo's printers. Got a Neptune 2S and a 3 Pro tuned and running Klipper, they're good workhorses

Sovol V8 is a nice printer, especially for its price. Based on the voran v2.4 but pre-assembled.

Aside from what's already been mentioned there's the Qidi plus 4. Reviewers seem to like the newer Qidi printers but I have no clue how closed off their ecosystem is. Also seems to be about the price seems to be 800 usd which is cheaper than a Prusa but more expensive than some of the other options given.

Bambu just has "future enshittification" written all over it.

I disagree. It's the reason why everyone else is scrambling soooo fucking hard to catch up with them. The A1 is absolutely a killer value for a machine. If anyone asks about multicolor, Bambu is the only one I've seen that's as reliable as it needs to be. I cannot recommend anyone else for multicolor.

There are quite literally not any machines out on the market that even come close to Bambu with their multitude of sensors. They've got tangle sensors, they've got programming that will detect blobs or disconnects of prints from the bed -- really - nobody comes close.

I have a k1 Max and a K1C, I loaded rooted firmware, mainsail, and KAMP. They are running like champs. Once the K2 has a couple revisions it's probably my next purchase.

I have an Anycubic Kobra 2 that is pretty OK. Only mods I've done are print a new fan duct for better cooling and flash klipper on it, other than that it's original HW. It obviously requires some tuning for best possible results, but the printing with just Anycubics setup guide OOTB were decent.

Tevo tornado.

My prints make this forum seem like a sad joke.

I just received a Kobra 3 combo. I’m very impressed with the quality of the machine and the prints. My Voron 2.4 is still my go-to. I’ve heard a lot of good things about qidi lately.

i have an old flsun super racer delta printer that i really like. it's about 5 or 6 years old now, but it still cruises along like a champ. only drawback is that deltas are tall machines by comparison to other printers.