221–230 of 295 posts
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…
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I haven’t tried the Prusa XL so I can’t say much about that and I’m a fan how Prusa supports OSHW. But let’s be real, Bambulabs printer are vastly superior. I don’t deny that a lot of “free” and open source work was used to make Bambulab printers today but their printers just work out of the box for less money. I’ve been 3D printing since the reprap days, had cheap printers like Enders, tried Prusa used upto the MKS2…
Truly meant without offense, but I'd say if you haven't had a Prusa since the MK2S (which I think predates Bambulab entire existence?) your opinion is outdated and not really relevant anymore. The out of the box experience between a Bambu printer and a modern Prusa is not noticably different. You'll be onto your first print in 10 minutes with either. Prusa's product history simply goes back longer to when 3D printers…
Depending on how easy you find it, it will take at least 10 hours to build. But that is part of the fun.
Software and repairability are there. Spares are cheap and klipper is open source. It can work offline but it works better paired with tailscale. You can upload sliced models OTA.
Slicing models will be the easiest part. I'd recommend the basic orcaSlicer set up for the printer of choice and go from there.
Good luck and have fun. 3D printing has become the most addictive hobby I have ever taken up. Be careful with your time!
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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?
He talks about it in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HD__e064_U4
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I hate this false dichotomy. Plenty of people like both. People that buy expensive consumer grade printers are just satisfied with mediocre results because they don’t know any better. To get great quality prints you need to actually know how the tool you are using works and what are its strengths and weaknesses.
If I can get great quality prints without having to tinker, I don’t see how it’s a false dichotomy.
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> 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).
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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?”
I had a buddy in high school who did competitive shooting, he did the same thing by carving these parts from wood, now it can be done for a fraction if the cost. Check out Olympic shooting pictures for an idea of the parts I'm talking about.
Voron would be my recommendation. It ticks all the boxes of what you need it to do. The only caveat is you need to build it, screw by screw (unless you buy a pre-assembled one such as siboor). It also requires printed parts which can be ordered via Vorons PIF program (high quality, printer-verified parts). Depending on how easy you find it, it will take at least 10 hours to build. But that is part of the fun. Softwar…
On the plus side your Voron won't become obsolete as you can just upgrade it to the next version.
I just upgraded my Voron 2.1 to have direct drive. Having build everything myself in the first place, the decision was easy.
Meanwhile we have a Bambu X1 at work and some of the time I just have no idea why it does not work.
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My Prusa has been very reliable over the years. However, it’s not as cheap as the Bambu. It’s going to be hard to justify supporting open source hardware at these prices.
I had used a Prusa MK3 in the past and had a good experience with it. When I went looking at printers again Prusa was what I assumed I'd get but after looking at Bambulab, their A1 is about 1/4th of the price while being better than the Prusa MK4. It's almost impossible to justify buying their printers today. The issues and concerns about Bambulab seem to be primarily driven by disappointment with how a new company t…
The only way to beat Bambu Lab is to be better than them at the 3D printer game, but most companies can't do that, so people have become resentful while grasping for straws to find things to criticize. Snapmaker got the message and decided to come out with the Snapmaker U1, the rest can wallow in their "open source" superiority complex to silence critics.