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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?

#161

Post by lloydatkinson »

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 want relatively good support and to support a company that has a history of giving back, Prusa.

Someone in a HN thread a couple of weeks ago said when you turn one of these on the companies CEO's face is used as the boot screen...

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

#162

Post by _carbyau_ »

bb88 wrote: post #128
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.

> UX and print quality GUI and UX are not the same. Prusa has pretty good print quality too but not as good a GUI as the Bambu. UX would include the ability to easily tear down a hot end, replace a nozzle, tighten any belts, and anything else that would affect your ability to print high quality prints. For prusa, since that's the printer I have experience with the most. Replacing the nozzle and clearing filament jams…

I have and Ender 3 Pro I have done the :"Replacing the nozzle and clearing filament jams are pretty easy."

With my Bambu for 18 months, problem just doesn't exist. I have spare parts because previous experience said I'd need it. But not yet.

The most egregious operational issue is the occasional hairball, even then, the printer often catches the issue and pauses the print to let me check on it - automatic hairball detection.

I don't like the Bambu company and I wouldn't buy one now thanks to their lock in practices. My Bambu won't get the "fuck you" firmware update.

But as to their hardware reliability for "just printing stuff" - it's pretty awesome. If other companies have caught up to this, then the 3D printing world is in a much better place.

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

#163

Post by Wololooo »

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…

> I would prefer something that doesn't phone home and can work offline. Opensource firmware/software and repairability are important.

Bambulabs is out.

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

#164

Post by 7thpower »

shocks wrote: post #32

> I am ok assembling the machine and learning how to dial it in. Get a Prusa Core One kit, or build a Voron. Bambulab should be off the table for their bait and switch behaviour. AMS is not particularly impressive and very wasteful. Get a Bondtech INDX down the road if you want true multi material printing.

This is a great choice if you want to learn how to be a technician for your 3D printer. It will probably save you on filament cost as well.

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

#165

Post by _carbyau_ »

buzzergfxkjkl wrote: post #85
Mogzol wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I second this. I run an A1 on a separate IoT wifi network that doesn't have outbound connectivity and using nftables rules for forwarding can send prints from my normal network with minimal fuss. I did have to play around and use orcaslicer to get the printer set up using the network printing and camera feed working. The one issue I do have is that it seems I would need to connect the printer to a internet enabled Ne…

If the printer is functional, doing what you got it for, what do you need firmware updates for?

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

#166

Post by pfych »

shocks wrote: post #55
jamestimmins wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is their bait and switch behavior? I'm not familiar with anything shady they've done but am very curious as I've had my eye on a Bambu.

They pushed a firmware update which blocked direct use of your printer without using their proprietary “Bambu Connect” application - because ‘security’.

LAN mode still works on my A1 & I can access it from Orca Slicer just fine.

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

#167

Post by dceddia »

thanhhaimai wrote: post #69
dceddia wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> So my big question, for someone who’s owned one a while: is the printer ever “done”? The printer is never "done" :). But there are plenty check points where it's "pretty good". For example, here is my rough timeline: - I sourced the parts and built it. Took around 4 weekends. - The initial tuning took a while (like a month). But this was very fun. I tried almost all the Slicers. I fixed constructions issues (square…

Thanks for your insight! That’s great, seems like it’s been a fun project but not like a REQUIRED ongoing project. My first printer was a cheap i3 clone and it was more in the “never works right” category and I was hoping to avoid going back to something like that experience haha.

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

#168

Post by paulkrush »

lvl155 wrote: post #116

I would not print PC/Nylon/ABS at home. It’s really hard to make it work especially during colder months. Work with PLA to get the shape and order it online when you’re ready for advanced materials. I would also recommend HP MJF for nylons.

Why? He said he was going to enclose. Is this a fumes thing?

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

#169

Post by seltzered_ »

> Need to be able to print with more durable, temperature/chemical resistant materials such as PC/Nylon/ABS or infused materials.

I would double check what kind of air filtration setup you want. In the voron/sovol space there's the StealthMax filter system kit which is going to add on a couple hundred bucks at least.

As others said, you could consider a sovol sv08.

Another option is a used voron 2.4 or trident to meet your budget. My regret in going down the new printer rabbit hole was not waiting a couple months and checking used listing because theres usually a used printer that comes up, sometimes saving you quite a bit of money and assembly time.

The other factor to consider is you ever plan on having any expansions requiring a better MCU or additional motors. The sovol is a more 'integrated' electronics design so you'd need to possibly replace it if wanting to do certain mods later.

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