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Ask HN: What's a good 3D Printer for sub $1000?

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Re: Ask HN: What's a good 3D Printer for sub $1000?

#101

Post by robohydrate »

thanhhaimai wrote: post #45

> I would prefer something that doesn't phone home and can work offline. Opensource firmware/software and repairability are important. I built myself a Voron, and it's an amazing learning experience. I learn how things work, and the trade offs. I get to pick and replace the exact parts I want. I design my functional parts knowing exactly the printer's capability. There is something very fascinating about it. You can…

I bought a Creality Ender 3 V2 a little over a year ago, spent 6 months printing things and fiddling with it and finally had it with how primitive it is.

If you have the time and patience for tinkering, the Voron is great. I built a Voron 2.4 and Voron Trident this year. Both printers are designed with automatic bed leveling as a base feature and I modded them right from the start to have automatic z offset calculation as well with a fancy probe. With these 2 features I have print it and forget it operation 99% of the time with no issues. There have also been some open source multi filament/material projects that you can add to the printers since you have full control of the hardware and software.

Re: Ask HN: What's a good 3D Printer for sub $1000?

#102

Post by stavros »

timw4mail wrote: post #34
skhameneh wrote: post #8

If you don't care about business practices and general privacy concerns, Bambu. If you want a large printer that's decent for tinkering, Sovol SV08. If you want relatively good support and to support a company that has a history of giving back, Prusa. If you want something cheap with a lot of features that tend to be more high end, Elegoo Centuri Carbon. If you just want something cheap that's arguably incredible val…

Of these options, I'd recommend the SV08, provided you are okay with some mods essentially being required for consistent, reliable use. These being: - Eddy sensor (for faster bed meshing, eddy-ng addon for Klipper adds auto z-offset) - Mainline Klipper/Kalico (required for eddy functionality) - Some motherboard fan replacement mod (the default is tiny, noisy, and always-on) Of the others listed: - Bambu printers and…

This is if you like tinkering with printers. I gave away my Wanhao and bought a Bambu, and I haven't thought about the printer since. Now I just print.

Re: Ask HN: What's a good 3D Printer for sub $1000?

#103

Post by cma »

lawn wrote: post #54
Aurornis wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Enclosed with filter for ABS fumes etc. I agree that the Bambu printers are as good as it gets for plug-and-play printing, but I wouldn't trust the tiny carbon filter for toxic fumes in an indoor environment. The better VOC filters use a larger amount of activated carbon and they recirculate a high volume of chamber air inside the chamber. Activated carbon also needs to be replaced over time as it loses capacity to…

Their printers are also not sealed well. See for example @CanuckCreator on YouTube where he does a teardown, revealing large holes. This is not the way to go with toxic fumes or how to get good ABS printing performance.

Does it have to be sealed? Thinking of fume hoods which aren't but are ok. Can you link the vid?

Re: Ask HN: What's a good 3D Printer for sub $1000?

#104

Post by thot_experiment »

thot_experiment wrote: post #50
RickS wrote: post #30

Bambu P1S, no question. Enclosed with filter for ABS fumes etc. Personally I've only used their A1, but it's the best printer I've ever used by far, and it's the first one that you can treat like a paper printer: plop it down, ignore it til you need to print, hit print and assume it works with no supervision. An absolute joy. It's also FAST compared to last gen printers. They do have a bunch of cloud service BS and p…

Except this person cares about privacy and openness, and Bambu is an awful VC funded push everyone out by undercutting prices and then enshittify company.

To all the people in the comments popping off about how "it just works". I have a Makerbot 2 running Sailfish, it's "just worked" for 12 years. I haven't replaced a single part on it. Ever since I started using the Prusa Slicer I've got dimensionally accurate parts every time I hit print. At least from my PoV "the printer just working" is a solved problem and has been for a long time now. PLA, PETG, PCTG, TPU. No issues with anything and I've been able to drive it at about 150% the speed I could with the original firmware/software.

Re: Ask HN: What's a good 3D Printer for sub $1000?

#105

Post by carpo »

OJFord wrote: post #72
multjoy wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does OP want to print, or do they want to tinker? Bambu make excellent machines. There is nothing comparable out of the box, especially at their price points.

OP stated the requirements I quoted above, AMS definitely doesn't make sense, and I don't think Bambu makes sense either. Before Bambu, Prusa was the 'no tinker just print' brand, though I haven't used one I agree Bambu's taken the lead now, but I think given OP's desire for more openness and repairability etc. Prusa makes more sense. Fwiw: I have a Prusa Mini, and I'd buy Bambu today, I'm continually tempted by an e…

An AMS is useful just so you can have 4 different filaments ready to go at any time. Doesn't need to be for multi material models. I have an A1 with the AMS lite and a Prusa mk3s, and manually changing materials is a chore.

Re: Ask HN: What's a good 3D Printer for sub $1000?

#106

Post by [deleted] »

bradgranath wrote: post #95

I picked up an Ultimaker 2+ with 15,000 hours on it at an ewaste junk shop for $100. Really was expecting it to need some TLC, but I plugged it in, leveled the bed, and it spit out an absolutely passable benchy in a couple hours. Cura (Ultimaker's slicer) isn't open source, but it is free, fairly unobtrusive, and works fine. The printer itself isn't connected to anything but mains power, and loads gcode from an SD ca…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What's a good 3D Printer for sub $1000?

#107

Post by jakemoshenko »

OJFord wrote: post #38
foobarkey wrote: post #36

After having owned many 3D printers I can recommend Bambu Lab X1C with AMS. It will be a bit over budget but does not matter, you will spend time just printing and not messing with settings or bed leveling, it’s a workhorse and just prints what you tell it to reliably, no tuning or tweaking required. When using official filaments it will automatically recognize them, switch them during print etc. After maybe 10 years…

> I do not need to print multi material models. I would prefer something that doesn't phone home and can work offline. Opensource firmware/software and repairability are important. And your suggestion is Bambu with AMS?

Not the OP, but AMS can be useful for loading and unloading filament, as well as automatically continuing a print job when you run out of one spool of the same filament. It's not just for multi-color prints, although that's obviously the primary use case.

Re: Ask HN: What's a good 3D Printer for sub $1000?

#108

Post by [deleted] »

stavros wrote: post #102
timw4mail wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of these options, I'd recommend the SV08, provided you are okay with some mods essentially being required for consistent, reliable use. These being: - Eddy sensor (for faster bed meshing, eddy-ng addon for Klipper adds auto z-offset) - Mainline Klipper/Kalico (required for eddy functionality) - Some motherboard fan replacement mod (the default is tiny, noisy, and always-on) Of the others listed: - Bambu printers and…

This is if you like tinkering with printers. I gave away my Wanhao and bought a Bambu, and I haven't thought about the printer since. Now I just print.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What's a good 3D Printer for sub $1000?

#109

Post by jwr »

Bambu Labs P1S, X1C or H2D if you want something that just works.

For printing ABS and ASA, insulate the enclosure with XPS and heat the chamber to above 55C for good results.

Printing Nylon is difficult. You have to control not just the temperature but also humidity.

Re: Ask HN: What's a good 3D Printer for sub $1000?

#110

Post by jasongill »

thot_experiment wrote: post #104
thot_experiment wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except this person cares about privacy and openness, and Bambu is an awful VC funded push everyone out by undercutting prices and then enshittify company.

To all the people in the comments popping off about how "it just works". I have a Makerbot 2 running Sailfish, it's "just worked" for 12 years. I haven't replaced a single part on it. Ever since I started using the Prusa Slicer I've got dimensionally accurate parts every time I hit print. At least from my PoV "the printer just working" is a solved problem and has been for a long time now. PLA, PETG, PCTG, TPU. No iss…

Yes, but you said it yourself - you had to replace the firmware with one that lets you run faster than the original, and you're using a different slicer.

With Bambu Labs printers, you just plug them in, turn them on, and feed them filament and your files. They work so well that you don't have to think about firmware or anything else.

I got my first 3D printer around a dozen years ago as well, and the comparison to the experience you get with a Bambu Labs X1C or H2D is absolutely night and day. It feels like with the previous generations of 3D printers, that operating and maintaining and tuning the machine itself was the "hobby". With Bambu Labs (and I'm sure some of the other competing printers that have come out since the X1C was released), the "hobby" is what you actually make.

It just works, requires no tweaking, no fiddling, no flashing firmware or bed leveling or hairspray, and it has totally changed 3D printing from a nerd hobby to something anyone can do (IMHO).

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