Which 3d printer - 2023 edition

[LancsRick]

Or you can use the difference in price from 750 pounds to invest in proper air filtration, which, coupled with dust extraction, would bring you several other benefits. Just a thought.

Yea I wouldn't rely on a printer being enclosed to keep the dust out. It's enclosed to keep some heat in, it's by no means a sealed unit.

 

[MorrisWoodman12]

re keeping your bed clean: with my (now) old CEL Robox 3D printer I rarely cleaned the flex bed. Lightly toughened with wet and dry, cleaned off with IPA and then cleaned again with IPA about every six months. The trick is not to put finger grease on the bed by touching the working surface with your fingers. invariably print with ABS.
This is an interesting thread as my 9 year old Robox is nearing the end of it's life so I'm thinking about replacing it.
Have fun
Martin

 

[HamsterJam]

I bought an Creality Ender 3 V2 in Feb 2021 for my son then 12. After a while, it felt like I was spending all my spare time trying to get it to work. There were some successes but more failures. It alsonfelt like most of the people on the forums didn't really know what they were talking about and I gave up.
Is it possible to get an Ender 3 V2 working consistently?

Yes - I have one and have very few failed prints.
Of those that do fail nearly all are because I’m asking too much of it.
Mine is a few years old now and stock. I just print PLA.
Happy to try and answer your questions if it will help.

 

[pgrbff]

Yes - I have one and have very few failed prints.
Of those that do fail nearly all are because I’m asking too much of it.
Mine is a few years old now and stock. I just print PLA.
Happy to try and answer your questions if it will help.

Thanks. I may get it out and have another go.

 

[Ollie78]

What about a liquid resin printer, these seem to make very smooth and detailed prints. I think you could get everything needed for the full process inside the budget.
I have an ender 3 and it is pretty decent but I am not sure I would buy it again, as others mentioned you do need to tinker with them ( I have upgraded the extruder ) they are very affordable though.
Prit stick on the bed is actually proving to be excellent for first layer adhesion.

Ollie

 

[sploo]

I've had/have a couple of resin 3D printers (an Elegoo Mars 3 and a Saturn 2). Both are excellent at producing detailed prints, but the handling of the resin and post processing of the prints is a very messy job. Most of the resins are also fairly brittle after curing; so fine for cosmetic items but not so great for functional parts.

 

[MorrisWoodman12]

I've stuck with fdm printers for exactly the reason @sploo said - the resin printedobjects are weaker than fdm ones. I haven't the direct experience of sploo but have read several articles explaining same so if, like me, you want to print things for use in the workshop (DX pipe adaptors, centre finders, jigs etc) then you'll need something a bit stronger.
Have fun
Martin

 

[fezman]

Thanks for all the comments folks.

I plumped for the Bambu X1C. I didn't go for the AMS module (yet), as I can't see myself printing multi colour items initally.

I queried Bambu as to their stock levels as it was showing an ETA of Mid June (UK). But then i noticed it was back in stock yesterday morning. So i placed my order about 8 am, and it was delivered about 2pm today (despite DPD yet again trying to deliver to the wrong street - my word they are useless sometimes!).

So i unboxed it, pretty easy to setup - did take about 20 minutes. I have to say this thing is exceedingly high quality on first appearances. The glass and aluminium sides make it feel like a premium product. The calibration process stalled on the first go, hard reset and it went smoothly second time around.

Decided my first print wouldn't be the Benchy , but something useful , so opted for the little bed scraper. First go - nothing extruded. Second go - nothing extruded. Unloaded and Re-loaded the filament, and this time it worked perfectly. Took about 15 minutes for this (90x45x5mm). I'm amazed how strong this is - easily comparable with something injection moulded.

Pleased so far.
Ian

 

[LancsRick]

Be very careful with what you believe the strength to be, fdm prints are far weaker than injection moulding. When you're designing something consider the layer lines in the same way you would grain - put a force perpendicular to the layer lines and it's very strong, drive a force between them and it'll split.

In much the same way, different filaments have different characteristics.

 

[fezman]

I've had to calm myself down on this Otherwise I would run out of filament....

Anyhoo. Perfect print of a backgammon doubling cube. Followed by a perfect print of a headphone bracket. It was larger than I thought, Too much for my office, but amply hold my dewalt goggles, 3m ear defenders and 3m mask in the workshop.

As @supertom44 said this printer is a game changer. My mate at work regularly curses his non-Bambu printers with failed prints - I think the green eyed monster may surface when he sees how easy the X1C is.

Got a load planned for tomorrow, and just received 2 spools of filament from amazon that I ordered this morning.

 

[fezman]

Bloomin typical. I've had the X1C for less than 2 weeks and the price has dropped by £80! The rest of the Bambu range also appear to have dropped in price too - so if anyone is considering one, you have probably just saved enough for 3-4 rolls of filament.

 

[ALB]

Just chiming in with another vote for Bambu Lab. I have a P1P and it's magic. I've had an Ender 3v2 for a couple of years which is a great budget setup and perfect if you enjoy tinkering, but the P1P blows it away with ease of use and speed. The X1C is basically the same printer, but with a bigger screen and some fancy print head LIDAR sensors for levelling and AI print quality checking.

Nobody else is really keeping up with Bambu's CoreXY offerings at present. Creality are rushing their K1 to market, and there are a few others trying to clone it, but the X1C/P1P are the new gold standard for fast printing. Prusas are rock solid but they're so SLOW in comparison to CoreXY. The other option is to build yourself a Voron, but that's a big project and not suitable if you just want something that works out of the box.

My E3v2 is now in bits getting super-sized with auto bed-levelling, input shaping, a 400x400 build plate and Klipper control for making BIG stuff. Probably going to throw an upgraded hotend and extruder on to use a much larger nozzle too.

 

[supertom44]

I plumped for the Bambu X1C. I didn't go for the AMS module (yet), as I can't see myself printing multi colour items initally.

The main use of my AMS at the moment isn't for mutli colour prints (although they are cool), I use it to easily and quickly swap between different filament types depending on what I'm printing. Previously on my ender 3 I'd sometimes either not print something or print it in the "wrong" filament type because I couldn't be bothered to change the filament. With the AMS unit, it's as simple as changing a drop down menu.

 

[Corset]

I too have a bambu x1 with ams after owning a qidi and a budget chinese think. I find that largely i just spend my time focusing on designing things to print as it just prints. Previously i spent nervous hours waiting for an inevitable print error or mistake. Then i would get a jam or something. Now i just print and go, i printed some Poly carbonate recently, no drama just perfect prints. I have recntly been buying bambu filament because i am a bit lazy and i can just stuff it in the ams with so little hassle. I am trying to use my offcut rolls up making glue pots etc unless anyone has any better ideas

 

[supertom44]

I too have a bambu x1 with ams after owning a qidi and a budget chinese think. I find that largely i just spend my time focusing on designing things to print as it just prints. Previously i spent nervous hours waiting for an inevitable print error or mistake. Then i would get a jam or something. Now i just print and go, i printed some Poly carbonate recently, no drama just perfect prints. I have recntly been buying bambu filament because i am a bit lazy and i can just stuff it in the ams with so little hassle. I am trying to use my offcut rolls up making glue pots etc unless anyone has any better ideas

I use bambu filiaments for the same reason.

 

[pops92]

I bought an Creality Ender 3 V2 in Feb 2021 for my son then 12. After a while, it felt like I was spending all my spare time trying to get it to work. There were some successes but more failures. It alsonfelt like most of the people on the forums didn't really know what they were talking about and I gave up.
Is it possible to get an Ender 3 V2 working consistently?

Yes definitely. I have the Ender3v2 spent time getting to know it, and tweek it. It now as micro Swiss d/d. Dual belt single motor Z axis. And it very rarely let's me down.
And with addition of the Sonic Pad as has improved my prints further.
I love the designing part more than the printing. Self taught fusion 360 and still learning it.
In the process of designing a bbs wheel cap kit for a guys VW TRANSPORTER CARAVELLE which are no longer available. Commission obviously.
The black piece.

 

[pgrbff]

Yes definitely. I have the Ender3v2 spent time getting to know it, and tweek it. It now as micro Swiss d/d. Dual belt single motor Z axis. And it very rarely let's me down.
And with addition of the Sonic Pad as has improved my prints further.
I love the designing part more than the printing. Self taught fusion 360 and still learning it.
In the process of designing a bbs wheel cap kit for a guys VW TRANSPORTER CARAVELLE which are no longer available. Commission obviously.
The black piece.

So how much roughly did it cost you in upgrades to get it working in a reliable way?

 

[pops92]

So how much roughly did it cost you in upgrades to get it working in a reliable way?

To much . But I have made a lot of stuff and the printer as paid for itself 3 times over. If didn't get the Sonic pad micro Swiss d/d is a definite then dual belt drive far better than the dual rod axis.

 

[starfish]

I have a CR10 Smart Pro which is basically a larger version of the Ender S1 Pro. The S1 Pro may be easier and cheaper than upgrades. Bambu or Voron seem like the next step for me but the CR10 does what I need - extra spped would be very handy for big prints

 

[pgrbff]

And what about levelling the bed? I seemed to be forever, every print, checking the bed.