I am looking to get a new 3d printer. I’ve had an ender 3 V2 for a few years. While I’ve been able to get many excellent prints out of it, I’m looking for a printer for my new apartment that will require a little less tinkering and troubleshooting. I’m pretty experienced with the nuances of 3d printing, and don’t mind taking things apart and fixing things(but not every time I wanna use the thing). Realistically I’ll be printing mostly PLA and PETG, but it would be nice to have the option of trying out other higher strength filaments, and I’d like to have an enclosure to play with ABS eventually.
I prefer to spend around $500. I’ve been eying up the Bambu P1S with the AMS but I really don’t think I can afford almost $1000 right now. If it’s really worth it, I can pull it off. The Bambu a1 is also interesting, but id prefer to have a core-xy with an enclosure.
I’ve been looking at the flashforge 5m or 5m pro, as well as creality k1c. Those prices are way more attractive. Or perhaps qidi?
All the choices and different technologies on the market now are a little bit overwhelming, and I don’t want to be disappointed in my purchase. I’ll mostly be using it to print random things for around the house and for electronics projects.
Any thoughts or recommendations are welcome, thank you!
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I have an Ender 3V2 that I converted to direct drive with linear rails and CR Touch, and was pretty happy with the reliability of it. I’ve been wanting to build a Voron forever, but the amount of hours to build/cost of a kit (I can’t print ABS) was a barrier to entry.
I just picked up a Sovol SV08, which is a derivative of the Voron 2.4 (there are some proprietary parts on it, but $579 vs. $1000-1200 for a kit, I’m OK with that). I’m pretty happy with it thus far, although it did require some initial tinkering. Here are the highlights:
- Core XY
- Enclosure Ready
- Fast (printed something that took 26 hours on the Ender, and it took less than 4 on the SV08).
- Finicky for the initial z-offset. Heat soak the bed for 30 min at 65 degrees, then run the automatic z-offset.
- Got super frustrated why I couldn’t figure out the inconsistent extrusion/shitty prints. Tightened the tension screw on the extruder. Problem solved (rookie move).
Time will tell if it’s a long term printer, or more of a tinkerer. However, they open sourced it all - and there’s already a ton of mods. Printing the housing for the BTT 5" touchscreen, saving me $50 over buying a touchscreen from Sovol. It might be worth a look.
I think the usual recommendation these days is get the highest rated corexy in your price range.
I’ve heard mixed reviews about Bambu AMS; seems cool enough, not quite the same as a true dual extruder, has some quirks and annoyances.
