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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?

#171

Post by justtocomment »

rutierut wrote: post #11

The first part of your post sounds almost like an ad for the Bambu Lab P1S. The second part sounds more like the Prusa CORE One kit (build volume is not a perfect match). I really wouldn't bother buying anything else as a beginner. Pick between these two. It's a weird thing in 3D printing right now that if you don't have the open source stuff as a requirement you get better print quality and reliability for half the…

While I can't directly compare with BambuLab print results, the prints I get out of my Prusa Core One with current Firmware and Slicer are stellar and surpass even the prints of my MK4S (that being a benchmark in Quality in my bubble of the Internet).

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

#172

Post by atonse »

trenchpilgrim wrote: post #81
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.

I got a Bambu A1 Mini a few weeks ago and it's practically easier than 2D printing. Printed a whole tabletop game that I played with friends, and replacement parts for a gun that held up at the range.

Wow I’ve heard about these 3d printed guns mostly in the context of the gun control debate. I can’t wrap my head around “how does plastic stuff withstand the stresses of a bullet?”

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

#173

Post by nico »

metal_am wrote: post #59

I've been very happy with my Qidi Q1 Pro. I paid about $350 pre-tax off Amazon almost a year ago (Black Friday). For me, it was the most machine for the lowest cost I could find. It almost fits your desired print volume (245 x 245 x 240), but it is fully enclosed and has a dedicated chamber heater. I have almost exclusively printed ABS at a 60 deg. C chamber temp. It runs open source Klipper firmware, but I'd imagine…

Qidi Q1 pro is amazing, especially for the price

And the Q2 came out recently, looks even better, with multi-material feed support (similar to Bambu’s AMS)

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

#174

Post by thot_experiment »

jasongill wrote: post #150
thot_experiment wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 par…

> I don't think you can even find the firmware I flashed onto it in 2014 anymore because of link rot This is exactly what I am talking about - you claim to have a reliable and easy to use solution, but it's not a solution that someone who wanted to print dragons for their grandkids could use. Bambu Labs is (and Prusa's current offerings, to some extent, are as well, although that is up for debate as you can imagine).…

I think the point I'm trying to make here is that my printer is bad and old and it works every time, and I attribute that to Prusa Slicer, a free open source piece of software. The Makerbot was a finnicky piece of shit before Prusa Slicer, and now it's excellent and makes dimensionally accurate parts every time, I don't even remember the last time I've had a print fail and I use it all the time, tens of hours of printing per week recently.

The upfront ont-time cost to get to something that works reliably with a non-Bambu printer is real, but I am perhaps naively assuming that if my ancient makerbot has been working reliably for years now the same one time cost can be paid with any modern printer and amortized over hundreds of hours of printing to be nearly negligible, and you still have a reliable printer AND you're voting with your wallet for a better future.

I am not claiming that what I've done is the same as "go to best buy, plug it in and hit print" but I do think the alternative is really really not bad at all.

This isn't "For a Linux user, you can already build such a system yourself quite trivially...". I'm saying "surely if my ancient makerbot is like this with really minimal tuning, a modern non-bambu printer is worth the cost of a bit of extra setup in order to fund people who are improving the space".

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

#175

Post by dotancohen »

hollerith wrote: post #114
dangus wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[flagged]

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

#177

Post by mhb »

jacquesm wrote: post #96

I hate to say this. Bambu A1. I'm operating a farm of mixed plumage: 20 Prusa's, 12 Creality K1s and 24 Bambus. Of all of those the Bambus are by far the least troublesome and I would definitely recommend those to a beginner. That said, Bambu is a crap company and they can't be trusted not to do a rugpull sooner or later. We don't have them connected to wifi for that reason alone and tbh it doesn't really add anythin…

> Feel free to ask more questions.

What are you doing with all those printers?

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

#179

Post by brewtide »

trenchpilgrim wrote: post #81
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.

I got a Bambu A1 Mini a few weeks ago and it's practically easier than 2D printing. Printed a whole tabletop game that I played with friends, and replacement parts for a gun that held up at the range.

100%. Same feeling when we got our mini. It's neighbor on the desk is a cricut joy extra! (Or whatever) Which I'm always fighting with, to cut paper, in 2d.

Next door,3d items literally being built. No fight. No fuss.

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

#180

Post by dangus »

wpm wrote: post #141
dangus wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

The only thing I need the internet for to be disgusted by Bambulabs' practices is to learn about their practices in the first place.

I did read up on them when they and I feel like the Internet echo chamber inflated the issues and Bambu basically addressed all of them reasonably well.
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