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

How many parts are we talking? I sounds to me like you are the perfect candidate for send-cut-send or one of the many many other services that take your CAD and build parts. You get to choose from materials your printer couldn't do (not matter what you have something cannot be done)

> Enclosed with filter for ABS fumes etc.

I agree that the Bambu printers are as good as it gets for plug-and-play printing, but I wouldn't trust the tiny carbon filter for toxic fumes in an indoor environment.

The better VOC filters use a larger amount of activated carbon and they recirculate a high volume of chamber air inside the chamber.

Activated carbon also needs to be replaced over time as it loses capacity to adsorb more VOCs.

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

I built myself a Voron, and it's an amazing learning experience. I learn how things work, and the trade offs. I get to pick and replace the exact parts I want. I design my functional parts knowing exactly the printer's capability. There is something very fascinating about it. You can look at a print, and can tell different issues at a glance because you have seen (and fixed) them while you built and tuned the printer. The majority of 3D Printing quality issue are due to Hardware constructions / trade offs, and not Software (slicer settings..). Without building a printer from scratch, it's hard to tell the root cause.

https://vorondesign.com/voron2.4

- Fully open sourced

- Repairability and updatability. Lots of fun mods.

- No phone home / privacy issue like Bambu

I think before going down the rabbit hole, it's best to make sure you have a clear answer for this question: Do you care about the learning / tinkering / optimizing part, or do you care more about "it just works" printing?

- Many recommendations in this thread is for the "it just works" printing case. The top candidates are Bambu, Creality, and Eiegoo. The quality is good for most cases.

- If you're an engineer and into tinkering like me, you would be much happier with a Voron v2. Depending on your effort, you can match Bambu's quality, or _greatly_ exceed it.

Regarding Slicer, don't worry much about it. You can learn one very fast. The top ones are Cura and Orca Slicer. I use them both, and they have pros / cons. Personally on my Voron, a well tuned Cura profile yield better result. But Cura is missing one important feature: it can't limit the speed based on Flow Rate.

Another quick tip:

- Take the advertised number with a grant of salt. For example, many printers advertised 600 mm/s print speed. The mechanical frame may be able to handle 600 mm/s, but the Hot End is the limit of the build (e.g. it can't melt material fast enough, friction, the ability of extruder motor to quickly change speed, etc).

Hope you have a great time!

I got a Sovol Sv07+ and it’s decently fast, large build space, and can crank out miniatures that are ‘good enough’ for table top.

Wish the resin printers didn’t have the toxic fumes problem though, then I’d get one of them too.

In this case the P1S without AMS is a better starting point.

Add an AMS later if valuable.

The step up from P1S to X1C isn't worth it for someone with a budget who doesn't need the incremental improvements of the X1C.