Help me choose the right 3D printer
January 15, 2020 11:35 AM Subscribe
I’ve decided it might be time to splurge on an entry-level home 3D printer, but there are so many options available. Which one would best suit my needs?
Here are my basic criteria:
-Budget: I’m aiming for something under or around $500. I don’t need anything professional-grade.
-Quality: My intent is mostly to make functional pieces (enclosures for electronics projects, pieces that can enhance another object’s use, etc). So I need prints that are strong, stable, and fairly precise, but not necessarily finely-detailed.
-Ease of use: I’m overall very new to 3D printing, so I’d like something that’s easy to use once the setup is done. I’m not averse to an initial learning curve or assembling the printer myself, but I don’t want to go through a lengthy process each time I use the machine.
Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!
Here are my basic criteria:
-Budget: I’m aiming for something under or around $500. I don’t need anything professional-grade.
-Quality: My intent is mostly to make functional pieces (enclosures for electronics projects, pieces that can enhance another object’s use, etc). So I need prints that are strong, stable, and fairly precise, but not necessarily finely-detailed.
-Ease of use: I’m overall very new to 3D printing, so I’d like something that’s easy to use once the setup is done. I’m not averse to an initial learning curve or assembling the printer myself, but I don’t want to go through a lengthy process each time I use the machine.
Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!
There's a monthly "What To Buy?" thread over on /r/3Dprinting.
posted by genpfault at 12:08 PM on January 15, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by genpfault at 12:08 PM on January 15, 2020 [1 favorite]
I also have an Ender 3 Pro and second the recommendation.
posted by Ruki at 12:19 PM on January 15, 2020
posted by Ruki at 12:19 PM on January 15, 2020
I work in 3D printing: a charity that makes open-source assistive technology. Normally, I'd recommend an Ender 3 Pro, but if you can get one, the Prusa MINI just knocked the bottom out the market.
I have a Prusa (i3 Mk3s) for work, and it's so lovely I bought one for home. I also have an Ender 3, and while it gives remarkably good prints, it's loud, difficult to get prints off the bed and needs a couple of essential and nerdy upgrades to be safe (firmware upgrade to include thermal runaway) and reliable (metal extruder). If the wait time for the MINI is bearable and you can manage with the smaller print bed, printing with a Prusa is just so much less hassle.
If the hobby really bites you, you're not unbearably far from the Midwest RepRap Festival, either. That's a mind-blowing weekend.
posted by scruss at 12:39 PM on January 15, 2020 [5 favorites]
I have a Prusa (i3 Mk3s) for work, and it's so lovely I bought one for home. I also have an Ender 3, and while it gives remarkably good prints, it's loud, difficult to get prints off the bed and needs a couple of essential and nerdy upgrades to be safe (firmware upgrade to include thermal runaway) and reliable (metal extruder). If the wait time for the MINI is bearable and you can manage with the smaller print bed, printing with a Prusa is just so much less hassle.
If the hobby really bites you, you're not unbearably far from the Midwest RepRap Festival, either. That's a mind-blowing weekend.
posted by scruss at 12:39 PM on January 15, 2020 [5 favorites]
I'll second the Prusa. My teenage son (13 when he got it) has hundreds of hours on our Mk2S and it worked out of the box and has needed only a few easy (because there is so much info online for it) fixes.
We also have a Monoprice mini (<$200 I think), but it would not have been as easy to learn had we not had the Prusa to begin on.
posted by OHenryPacey at 1:26 PM on January 15, 2020
We also have a Monoprice mini (<$200 I think), but it would not have been as easy to learn had we not had the Prusa to begin on.
posted by OHenryPacey at 1:26 PM on January 15, 2020
The hackerspace I am part of got a lulzbot mini for a bargain price (about 1000 pounds off). It is great to use. I am very jealous of the results from one of the members resin printers, but I couldn't tell you which model they have.
posted by adventureloop at 1:38 PM on January 15, 2020
posted by adventureloop at 1:38 PM on January 15, 2020
Yeah, thirding / fourthing either anything in the Ender 3 line (the differences are fussy and not super differentiating, feel free to choose by price or shipping speed or warm and fuzzies) or the Prusa Mini. Josef Prusa is really pushing the technology forward in user friendly ways and his company is legitimately probably the most beginner friendly company out there. Like, the Ender is a great printer, I love mine, but the amount of kind of ridiculous screwing around in what amounts to driver space (slicer config, here) it needed is depressing, 10 years into home FDM printing.
(for other home enthusiasts wondering what I mean about that: You'd think that Creality would have a stack of slicer profiles on their site, good baselines for every printer they make for commonly available open source and commercial slicers _and yet_ everything I found for my Ender 3 was some weird not-quite functional config. Like, they worked, but it was obviously not entirely right. Eventually I found Hellebuyck's Cura profile and it went from OK to _great_. C'mon, it's 2020, this should be a reasonable baseline expectation and yet the manufacturers seem more interested in selling the hardware than providing slicer profiles.)
The big thing, more than anything, is to investigate whether it seems like it's easy to get more information about whatever you buy online. My first major 3d printer was a Monoprice Maker Select, but naming hijinks and such made that into sort of a pain. The Ender 3 is still kind of in the sweet spot of cheap hacker interest without too many questionable value added "improvements" muddying the discourse.
posted by Kyol at 1:50 PM on January 15, 2020 [2 favorites]
(for other home enthusiasts wondering what I mean about that: You'd think that Creality would have a stack of slicer profiles on their site, good baselines for every printer they make for commonly available open source and commercial slicers _and yet_ everything I found for my Ender 3 was some weird not-quite functional config. Like, they worked, but it was obviously not entirely right. Eventually I found Hellebuyck's Cura profile and it went from OK to _great_. C'mon, it's 2020, this should be a reasonable baseline expectation and yet the manufacturers seem more interested in selling the hardware than providing slicer profiles.)
The big thing, more than anything, is to investigate whether it seems like it's easy to get more information about whatever you buy online. My first major 3d printer was a Monoprice Maker Select, but naming hijinks and such made that into sort of a pain. The Ender 3 is still kind of in the sweet spot of cheap hacker interest without too many questionable value added "improvements" muddying the discourse.
posted by Kyol at 1:50 PM on January 15, 2020 [2 favorites]
This is me also -- in the market and ready to buy, also looking to make functional parts with not an excessive amount of precision, though who will definitely end up tinkering with the machine. I am tending towards the Anycubic Kossel Plus, however. In the interest of better serving the OP who owns the question, is there a strong and compelling reason for them to avoid a Kossel/Delta type printer?
posted by seanmpuckett at 2:07 PM on January 15, 2020
posted by seanmpuckett at 2:07 PM on January 15, 2020
I'm another owner of the Ender 3 but I agree with everyone else that Prusa Mini looks great.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 2:11 PM on January 15, 2020
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 2:11 PM on January 15, 2020
My partner has a Prusa and has been really happy with it, after a previous dalliance with a Dremel model.
You probably already know this but in case not, there is a thriving subculture of 3D printer review videos on YouTube that might be a useful resource for you to see some options in action.
posted by Stacey at 2:12 PM on January 15, 2020
You probably already know this but in case not, there is a thriving subculture of 3D printer review videos on YouTube that might be a useful resource for you to see some options in action.
posted by Stacey at 2:12 PM on January 15, 2020
→ You'd think that Creality would have a stack of slicer profiles on their site, good baselines for every printer they make for commonly available open source and commercial slicers
Um, have you tried Cura 4 and the latest PrusaSlicer? Both come with fantastic works-straight-from-the-box profiles for Creality machines. This might be a situation where years of experience and expecting to tweak things might work against you: these profiles just work, zero fiddling. Apart from layer height and density, I don't use anything but stock settings for my work prints in both PLA and PET-G. Okay, I may very occasionally put an extra shell or two on a model if it needs exceptional strength, but temperature, fill pattern, retraction, … are things I just don't need to care about any more.
posted by scruss at 2:21 PM on January 15, 2020
Um, have you tried Cura 4 and the latest PrusaSlicer? Both come with fantastic works-straight-from-the-box profiles for Creality machines. This might be a situation where years of experience and expecting to tweak things might work against you: these profiles just work, zero fiddling. Apart from layer height and density, I don't use anything but stock settings for my work prints in both PLA and PET-G. Okay, I may very occasionally put an extra shell or two on a model if it needs exceptional strength, but temperature, fill pattern, retraction, … are things I just don't need to care about any more.
posted by scruss at 2:21 PM on January 15, 2020
I'll have to check that out, thanks! There's just so much about 3d printing that feels very early and unfinished, and some of it is definitely a resistance to change because... ugh, it works now, do I want to risk poking at it and breaking it and spending a half a day figuring out what changed?
To the OP: Congratulations! 3D printing is as much a hobby on its own as an adjunct to your other hobbies. It's still worth it. I think.
posted by Kyol at 2:41 PM on January 15, 2020
To the OP: Congratulations! 3D printing is as much a hobby on its own as an adjunct to your other hobbies. It's still worth it. I think.
posted by Kyol at 2:41 PM on January 15, 2020
→ is there a strong and compelling reason for them to avoid a Kossel/Delta type printer?
They work, but there's no compelling reason to have one unless you like really tall builds. The mechanism is more complex, but they definitely look nicer. My anecdata is from visiting makerspaces: the Enders and Prusas are printing, the deltas are in the corner with a "Broken" sticker on them (along with so many busted PrintrBot Plays: there was a company that burned out its welcome with a crappy consumer machine …)
posted by scruss at 3:14 PM on January 15, 2020 [1 favorite]
They work, but there's no compelling reason to have one unless you like really tall builds. The mechanism is more complex, but they definitely look nicer. My anecdata is from visiting makerspaces: the Enders and Prusas are printing, the deltas are in the corner with a "Broken" sticker on them (along with so many busted PrintrBot Plays: there was a company that burned out its welcome with a crappy consumer machine …)
posted by scruss at 3:14 PM on January 15, 2020 [1 favorite]
On the recommendation of folks at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, we got a FlashForge Finder. It’s got a small bed, and only prints one PLA at a time, but I’ve been pretty happy just for messing around at home. I wish I had a flexible bed, though, and I’ve heard a heated bed is nice.
posted by leahwrenn at 5:50 PM on January 15, 2020
posted by leahwrenn at 5:50 PM on January 15, 2020
I have a couple of 3D printers that I tinker with (read: take apart and try and improve; they were *very* cheap models) and I have to say that mini Prusa looks like a delight. I think the ease of use trumps the small build area - large builds take a long time and that isn't where you start. And Prusa as a company has a really good reputation.
/r/3DPrinting has a lot of people having fun with the Ender 3s.
You will learn this slowly, so I will say it now: filament absorbs water and when it does it prints *terribly*. It took me a long time to work that out. There are techniques for drying filament and for keeping it dry.
posted by How much is that froggie in the window at 9:04 PM on January 15, 2020
/r/3DPrinting has a lot of people having fun with the Ender 3s.
You will learn this slowly, so I will say it now: filament absorbs water and when it does it prints *terribly*. It took me a long time to work that out. There are techniques for drying filament and for keeping it dry.
posted by How much is that froggie in the window at 9:04 PM on January 15, 2020
I have an Ender 3 that I've modified quite a bit - it was my second 3d printer.
I'd recommend the Prusa Mini, for sure.
A lot of what I added to my Ender 3 was something the Prusa Mini already includes, and I find handy/relieving/life-bettering for me, but nearly essential for somebody new to 3d printing that just wants things to work, as they learn.
posted by destructive cactus at 11:29 AM on January 16, 2020 [1 favorite]
I'd recommend the Prusa Mini, for sure.
A lot of what I added to my Ender 3 was something the Prusa Mini already includes, and I find handy/relieving/life-bettering for me, but nearly essential for somebody new to 3d printing that just wants things to work, as they learn.
posted by destructive cactus at 11:29 AM on January 16, 2020 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by gnutron at 12:07 PM on January 15, 2020