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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?

#111

Post by Symbiote »

baq wrote: post #94
chakintosh wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you don't care about business practices and general privacy concerns, Bambu. While I agree, I think it's heavily underselling Bambulab printers in terms of UX and print quality, they are the absolute best in the market and by a mile.

+1. Bambu is the difference between 'my hobby is 3d printers' vs 'my hobby is 3d printing'. The damn thing sits in the garage idle for months and then it just prints a whole spool of stuff perfectly without even a drop of oil (which it asked for in between plates, I'll grant it that).

A Prusa is equally reliable.

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

#112

Post by dangus »

chakintosh wrote: post #76
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…

> If you don't care about business practices and general privacy concerns, Bambu. While I agree, I think it's heavily underselling Bambulab printers in terms of UX and print quality, they are the absolute best in the market and by a mile.

Also, if you aren't Internet-addicted none of the supposed business practices/privacy concerns amount to anything tangible.

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

#113

Post by riknos314 »

cma wrote: post #103
lawn wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Fume hoods have an exhaust to outside the inhabited area, which allows the interior of the hood to operate at a negative pressure. This means air is drawn in through the gaps rather than allowed to escape through them.

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

#114

Post by hollerith »

dangus wrote: post #112
chakintosh wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you don't care about business practices and general privacy concerns, Bambu. While I agree, I think it's heavily underselling Bambulab printers in terms of UX and print quality, they are the absolute best in the market and by a mile.

Also, if you aren't Internet-addicted none of the supposed business practices/privacy concerns amount to anything tangible.

-- if all you care about is yourself and your family.

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

#115

Post by zdp7 »

Mogzol wrote: post #71
drnick1 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's incredibly frustrating that the majority of devices today report usage to the mothership without the user's consent. Does firewalling the device cause any issues? A printer (of any kind) should not reach the open Internet, period.

All of these printers can be run completely offline, although then you obviously lose any network-related features such as sending prints over the network. I know that at least the Bambu printers (and I assume most others) can also be run in LAN-only mode, where they only work with devices on the same network. In this mode you could definitely firewall them without causing issues. The main features you lose by being…

Lan Only works by making you use the Bambu connect software. If the Bambu Connect software isn't running, Orca cannot start a print job or control the printer. It doesn't sound too onerous, but it should be mentioned that LAN only wasn't added till users gave 'feedback'. I suspect the original intent was Bambu Slicer only.

https://blog.bambulab.com/updates-and-third-party-integratio...

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

#117

Post by woleium »

Mogzol wrote: post #71
drnick1 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's incredibly frustrating that the majority of devices today report usage to the mothership without the user's consent. Does firewalling the device cause any issues? A printer (of any kind) should not reach the open Internet, period.

All of these printers can be run completely offline, although then you obviously lose any network-related features such as sending prints over the network. I know that at least the Bambu printers (and I assume most others) can also be run in LAN-only mode, where they only work with devices on the same network. In this mode you could definitely firewall them without causing issues. The main features you lose by being…

surely they can all be run lan only with a clever dhcp server that doesn’t give a default gateway to the device?

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

#118

Post by Workaccount2 »

I have a Qidi plus 4, and have had good results with it and engineering materials.

Bambu is nice for the community, it's much more popular, but the specs for the Qidi are bit better for engineering materials and so far I am very happy with it.

That being said, it isn't quite open source, but I do believe it can be run offline.

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

#119

Post by thot_experiment »

jasongill wrote: post #110
thot_experiment wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 th…

Sure but the last tweaking I did on this printer was years and years ago, and it's been "just working" ever since. I haven't fiddled with anything, I haven't even leveled the bed, I don't use hairspray. I don't think you can even find the firmware I flashed onto it in 2014 anymore because of link rot. It's just a solid printer that makes the part I want every time I hit print. I use it all the time for mechanical parts. I do prints that pause to embed hardware. Heck I even have it clear the bed by hitting parts with the print head so I can make multiple copies of things unattended. (only works on parts with low bed adhesion)

It's not a brittle system. I don't deny that Bambu makes a good product, an excellent product even. If you can't afford to support the general ecosystem get one and do your thing.

I just think the reason Bambu is where it is right now is because they are VC funded vampires on the ecosystem and supporting them will make things worse in the long run. If you can afford to support someone else you should because it helps make things better for everyone.

FWIW until recently I championed Bambu as just the default easy solution, recommending it to my friends every time, but I had a long conversation with Josef about the future of 3D printing and it really changed my mind.

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

#120

Post by Symbiote »

dceddia wrote: post #62
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 love the idea of building a printer, but I know that my attention span is limited on these sorts of things. As in, I’ll be reliably obsessed until it’s done and tuned, and then I’ll forget everything until the next time I want to use it. So my big question, for someone who’s owned one a while: is the printer ever “done”? Is there a point after which it “just works”? Or is it always going to be more like “it’s great…

I assembled a Prusa Mk3 a few years ago, and other than swapping a nozzle that wore out (they don't last forever) it's still working fine.

I grease it about twice a year, and clean any gunk from the nozzle (takes a few seconds) every so often. I wash the print bed thoroughly about 3 or 4 times a year.

I'm interested in 3D printing, but not interested in fiddling with the printer itself. So, I have fiddled to print soft rubber filament for example, but for every experiment with something strange like that I have 50 or more routine prints in PLA or PETG.

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