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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?

#271

Post by heywoods »

I suppose this is as good of a place as any to piggyback off the topic.

Can anyone share their experience with 3D scanner tools like the hand wands? I’ve seen a few kickstarter campaigns for these devices and they appear to be a godsend for someone looking to make a functional print (eg. Replace a broken hose handle)

I imagine these lower-end devices get you ~80% of the way and higher end devices get you closer to 90-95% ignoring technique and size/intricacy of the object being scanned.

How much time does it take to edit the 3D files from these scanners by the way? My only point of reference is the 3D wand my dentist put in my mouth to make impressions for Invisalign haha. The hygienist had to spend ~10 additional minutes after the initial pass scanning my mouth going back over several spots that were not up to par but overall it seemed very straightforward and easy. Tap the area of the mouth to edit —> shove the scanner back in my mouth —> review (software gave a red/green status) —> if green (ie. passing) —> save and done.

lastly, any recommendations for a 3D scanner in any form factor?

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

#272

Post by 5bolts »

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.

i have an x1c sitting next to an elegoo centauri carbon. i rarely use the AMS on the bambu.

potential print size is basically the same print quality is the same as far as i can tell..

i use the elegoo more often.

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

#273

Post by jkestner »

imtringued wrote: post #246
jkestner wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the way. Multijet fusion has ruined me for anything else and it’s cheap from print shops. I just need to find one in town and I’ll get the quick turnaround time that’s the only reason to have my own printer.

I tried to check this on Xometry and the cost went from 4,83 € for FDM (quite overpriced unless they print with 0.05mm layer height) to 35,88 € for a tiny insignificant part of a much bigger print. At those prices just the prototype alone will cost as much as an X1C. It's expensive enough that you'd rather print the prototype using an at home printer using random filament you have lying around and only print the end…

Good thing I live in a big city! Only problem is finding one with an automated online process.

Try JawsTec for MFJ. Haven’t seen cheaper prices. Granted, I work in small scales, where the fine resolution is needed and it’s a low material volume.

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

#274

Post by the__alchemist »

syntaxing wrote: post #256
rtaylorgarlock wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll counter: My Prusa mk2s I've upgraded to the point of Mk2.5s+. After ~10k hours, I'll call it as much of a 'product' as I need. I think the 'vastly superior' perception comes from people singularly want the print things without learning about 3dp. You know how Tesla fans and Soulcycle participants are like wildly enthusiastic about the things they enjoy despite some evidence that they should be a bit wary of supp…

What does “without learning about 3DP” mean? Why should a user need to know the in and outs of a 3D printer to enjoy 3D printing? I never really understood that gate keeping. From a technical perspective, Bambulab printers are cheaper and better in my opinion. Prusa just did too little and too late sticking with their i3 bed slinger. Of course they have the Prusa XL and Prusa Core now but they were late by over two y…

You are missing the subtext in discussions about 3D printing online. Many people who discuss 3D printing are doing it because they enjoy it as a hobby and skill. They value learning to tweak and upgrade the products, troubleshoot problems, and knowledge about brands and models. If you are just trying to make prototypes, enclosures, parts etc, you will get confused without this context.

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

#275

Post by rescbr »

AngryData wrote: post #231
SchemaLoad wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is why 3D printed guns have not been an issue in Australia. Since you couldn't easily buy all the metal parts you still need.

They aren't really an issue anywhere because if someone really wants a legit gun they are not that hard to buy on the blackmarket or even produce yourself. There just isn't much actual demand for 3d printed guns, people do it because its fun and an engineering challenge. If someone can buy a tabletop mill or lathe, or if they are patient with a file, we have 100+ years of well documented and engineered gun designs an…

Yeah, and while 3D printing a gun is cool and all, you can’t print bullets, so the person who is interested in printing guns is at the intersection of two hobbies: 3D printing and gun ownership. It’s a niche.

Everybody else who needs a gun for lawful purposes (i.e. self defense) is simply going to purchase one from a reputable manufacturer.

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

#276

Post by syntaxing »

the__alchemist wrote: post #274
syntaxing wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does “without learning about 3DP” mean? Why should a user need to know the in and outs of a 3D printer to enjoy 3D printing? I never really understood that gate keeping. From a technical perspective, Bambulab printers are cheaper and better in my opinion. Prusa just did too little and too late sticking with their i3 bed slinger. Of course they have the Prusa XL and Prusa Core now but they were late by over two y…

You are missing the subtext in discussions about 3D printing online. Many people who discuss 3D printing are doing it because they enjoy it as a hobby and skill. They value learning to tweak and upgrade the products, troubleshoot problems, and knowledge about brands and models. If you are just trying to make prototypes, enclosures, parts etc, you will get confused without this context.

This is the weird gate keeping I’m talking about. In another comment I mentioned about this, but I started 3D printing during the reprap ages. Chrome rods were cut yourself, LM8UU cost over $25 a pop from NSK, we use pololu A4988 (TMC wasn’t even a thing), and my hotend was a Jhead. I enjoy tinkering and sounds like you do too. But don’t get the factuation of 3D printers get confused with 3D printing . If new users can print right out of the box without needing to fix anything, that’s a net win for 3D printing and for them. The need for a user to know how to fix and tweak stuff to “truly” enjoy 3D printing is frankly full of shit.

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

#277

Post by xandrius »

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…

To be fair, phoning home for a printer shouldn't be ok for anyone, regardless of their spirit.

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

#278

Post by giancarlostoro »

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #133
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 wouldn't recommend a Creality to someone new to 3D printing. They can be a pain to work with. They're CHEAP, and there's plenty of aftermarket support, but that ends up turning the printer into a product for someone who sees the printer itself being a hobby, rather than the printer being merely an appliance that produces things. Buying a Creality printer is like buying a hobby-grade RC car (ie, Traxxas, Team Associ…

If you are going with Creality the K1 series is what you want. I am new to 3D printers and it absolutely was perfect for a beginner such as myself. I recommend just using their slicer to start, specifically the desktop one.

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

#279

Post by bradgranath »

mayoff wrote: post #100
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…

> Cura (Ultimaker's slicer) isn't open source Isn't it? https://github.com/Ultimaker/Cura

Color me corrected!

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

#280

Post by Baeocystin »

heywoods wrote: post #271

I suppose this is as good of a place as any to piggyback off the topic. Can anyone share their experience with 3D scanner tools like the hand wands? I’ve seen a few kickstarter campaigns for these devices and they appear to be a godsend for someone looking to make a functional print (eg. Replace a broken hose handle) I imagine these lower-end devices get you ~80% of the way and higher end devices get you closer to 90…

As someone who tried those kickstarter specials... They just aren't there unless you use a laser-based system, which are many thousands of dollars. You'll get a point cloud that is close-ish for whatever part you're scanning, but unless it's strictly decorative, you're going to find pretty quickly that it's faster to just re-create the thing from scratch if you need any kind of dimensional accuracy. The scans are somewhat useful as on-machine references, but that's it.

Also, scanning is a lot more work than you'd naively think. Reflections are the enemy, the matte spray used for scan prep is messy and expensive. It was fun to play around with, and I learned a lot, but my current advice is don't bother, you'll just be disappointed.

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