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Bambu Lab A1 Mini ($299-399) Excellent print quality out of the box Automatic bed leveling and calibration Very user-friendly with great software Compact size, perfect for beginners Creality K1 Max (~$599) 300x300x300mm build volume Fast printing speeds (up to 600mm/s) Auto-leveling and enclosed design Good balance of features and price Prusa MINI+ (~$429 kit, $529 assembled) Exceptional reliability and support Magne…
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.
What do you intend to make? Is your goal to earn or learn? How much time do you have to spend on 3d printing?
I do repair and modernizing of cars/motorcycles/dirtbike/ATVs, that kind of stuff. Fuel injection conversions are something I specialize in. That is why I would like durable/resistant materials as an option. I won't be trying to earn with it intentionally, unless I stumble upon a niche. There are already more than a couple 3d printing services around here, no need to compete there. I can do what I need to do in CAD,…
What kind of temperatures/pressures/chemical exposure are you expecting for your prints? You should probably start there, check for 3d printing materials that can actually handle those requirements, and then filter for printing technologies that fit the bill. I would imagine that would already break it down a lot.
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…
These being:
- Eddy sensor (for faster bed meshing, eddy-ng addon for Klipper adds auto z-offset)
- Mainline Klipper/Kalico (required for eddy functionality)
- Some motherboard fan replacement mod (the default is tiny, noisy, and always-on)
Of the others listed:
- Bambu printers and the Elegoo Centauri Carbon have locked-down firmware (possibly with hidden license violations).
- I think the only Prusa machine with that build volume is the XL, which is out of the price range
- The Creality Ender 3 V3 KE is okay, but the build volume is 220x220x240mm
Flashforge Adventurer 5M https://www.flashforge.com/products/adventurer-5m-3d-printer
After maybe 10 years of printing this is what I initially imagined it would be, now its finally there for consumer - I want this part in plastic let’s go
Oh and it’s also fast.
Hmm, I wonder if bambu gives me a cut for the sales pitch, but if not it is also ok - i just have to give credit to good engineering when I see it
PS: no prusa or clones, no creality, dont mess with that nonsense
I'm going to make an unpopular suggestion. Have you considered using a service that will print and ship to you, like CraftCloud? Depending on volume, your total cost would likely be lower. I know you mentioned privacy concerns so this may not be an option. But it significantly simplifies your work, letting you focus on the parts themselves.
Sure it costs more, but if you will only do it once that is still cheap. And some of the things they can do for you are not safe to do at home.
After having owned many 3D printers I can recommend Bambu Lab X1C with AMS. It will be a bit over budget but does not matter, you will spend time just printing and not messing with settings or bed leveling, it’s a workhorse and just prints what you tell it to reliably, no tuning or tweaking required. When using official filaments it will automatically recognize them, switch them during print etc. After maybe 10 years…
And your suggestion is Bambu with AMS?
If you want good prints and only care about the prints, get Bambu P1S. If you want to tinker with the machine and have a lot of free time on your hands then Prusa. although Prsusa starting to close up it's walls like Bambu.
What? Prusa used to be the most open company out there. I can't believe they are going to enshittify their products now. Anyway, I have a Bambu, and it is a nice printer, but it wants to phone home and it is difficult to use when you put it behind a firewall.
Prusa isn't fully opensource, but has the worst enclosed chamber printer imo.
Bambu isn't open source in the slightest (beside the slicer).
You are never going to print PC on a bambu either way, at least not Pure PC. Blends, sure, you need at least 100c chambers for pure PC.
diy kits are the way to go, but it is going take you a LONG time. a voron, ratrig, or annex k3 are your best bets with the requirements you want. each kit has their weaknesses, and most of them, are going to require upgrades from their BOM.