I am interested in getting a 3D printer but I have no idea where to even started. Is there such thing as a multi-purpose printer? What’s a good source to read up on printers, software, filament?
I am thinking small replacements items like drawer guides, funnel for espresso machine, essentially little parts and pieces that break around the house and farm. Also maybe some device cases (including outdoor ones) etc.
Ideally I don’t want a closed system. I have a Cricut for 10 years or so and I hate being locked into the app so much. Unless there is a really, really good reason.
Edited to add: Thank you all! What an amazing community!
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I had similar requirements, and I was choosing between Prusa and Bambu Lab. In the end I chose a Prusa Core One. Here are my subjective reasons for choosing Prusa:
- It’s open (mostly) and hackable
- It’s proven and reliable, they use their own printers for production
- they make the slicer which bambu studio and others are based on
- it’s European
- Great support
- Upgrade kits for printers
A few cons of Prusa printers I’m aware of:
- expensive
- slower to innovate
- upgrade kit may cost close to the price of a new printer
Prusa is probably not the best value but as far as I know it is the only really open choice for a high quality printer. Feel free to correct me.
As an owner of a Bambu A1, I would not recommend any of Bambu’s printers. They print great, but they have been locking down their ecosystem for no good reason (at least, no good for us consumers). They are blocking both third-party software and hardware (stuff like the Panda Touch display) for “security reasons”, and you have to enable a special Developer Mode to continue using third-party slicers.
I have my printer stuck on v4.0.0.0 with LAN only mode, using Tailscale to remotely access, as I prefer using OrcaSlicer. They are really pushing to be the Apple of 3D printers by locking down their printers and restricting you to their software ecosystem. They already have tags to identify first-party filament, what’s stopping them from blocking non-Bambu filament like HP and 2D printer ink?
I would recommend any other brand over Bambu, I know the Ender V3 is a popular option. Sovol and Qidi both have good value options too. Prusa if you have more budget, lots of people love their printers. Haven’t used any of the other brands though, so I have no idea about how well they perform.
All your points are valid, but I’m not going to put in 3rd party hardware and their default slicer seems great to me. There’s a group of users for who this is all more or less not an issue.
My Bambu had also been soooo easy. So there’s that.
Bambus do print great, but Sovol, Qidi, Prusa, etc. also seem to print great while not doing any of the Apple/HP-esque anti-consumer practices.
What about software? Locked in? Can you design anywhere and load to print or do you have to design in their software?
All slicers, including bambu-studio (which, as a fork of prusa-slicer, is open source) work by loading .stl files from any source, so yes. You can also techniclaay use any slicer, and no network at all, if you put .gcode files on the printer’s sd card. Not convenient, but functional. But again, bamu-studio works great
Ugh that’s really my fear with Bambu. Has nobody hacked these yet?
One thing is for sure, their “security” that is Bambu Connect was compromised almost immediately after it was released (not very secure, is it?)
it’s bambu connect, right? that’s what the thing is called?
Just some thoughts:
- Printing has come a long way since I was where you are now. Today I’d say most fused deposition modeling printers are multi-purpose. The most common filaments, PLA and PETG, are pretty multi-purpose too. Personally I mostly use PETG due to its increased temp and UV resistance.
- Bambu seem to be trying to set up a walled garden. Prusa is doing the opposite for what I think are ideological reasons. Some claim that their printers are a but overpriced, but I’d claim it’s worth it. My toolchain is usually Blender - > Prusaslicer -> Prusa Core One, but there’s nothing stopping me from changing out one of those.
- In highly recommend assembling from kit if you can, as a learning experience, as it makes it easier for you to maintain, repair, and upgrade your printer later on.
Thanks. Good stuff to think about!
I’ll offer a counterpoint. If this is your first printer, don’t build it from a kit. Most printers will require some assembly, and that’s totally fine, but if you have no experience with 3d printers (and likely anything similar in size or technical requirements), it’s going to be way too easy to make some small mistake that results in days of diagnosing where you went wrong.
My advice would be to find a decent mid-range printer, and if you really wanna dive deep in to the hobby, build or buy a big fancy second one later. I’m still rocking my $150 Neptune 3 from like 3 years ago, I’ve thought about upgrading but haven’t really needed to.
For starters, you’re going to want an FDM printer. Resin printers can be nice, but there’s a lot more complexity to handle when you’re just figuring out how to print stuff.
I’ve been using an Ender 3 V3 KE for a few years. It’s been pretty solid. I can use any slicer I want, but the one from the manufacturer, Creality Print, has been pretty good for me. Most printers can use any slicer you choose, though the slicer designed for that printed will often give better results (until you figure out what specific settings you need).
Choose a budget, and then look for a printer with a direct drive extruder, auto leveling bed, and a heated plate. An enclosure is very nice, but I did fine for years without one. I recently bought an aftermarket enclosure after I started doing more PETG prints.
Multi filament is a cool feature, but that’s up to you if you want to pay for that. It does create a lot of waste, and you can always tell the printer to pause at certain points for you to change filaments for those times you want to do different colors.
Overall, I always recommend a simple-but-good printer at a reasonable price when getting started. Having convenience features will make the whole process easier, which I find makes it easier to learn.
Thanks. Right now I can’t see multi colour to be something that I need. I thought I need an enclosure if I am (eventually) aiming for something that’s used outdoors (UV protection?) but maybe I am getting ahead of myself here.
The enclosure just protects the prints from drafts, which can cause sharp corners to curl. The most common instance of curling I had was printing square shaped PETG parts that needed to be flat on the bottom. I got away with no enclosure for years by setting up my prints with tall, thick skirts close to the part (draft shield), and a thicker brim. I was basically tacking down the corners with extra plastic to keep them from curling up. However, PETG was just a bit too curly for this print.
The few times I absolutely needed draft protection, I used a trash bag. After I needed to do several batch prints for a cash job, I decided a $30 enclosure would be much more practical.
So far, my Ender 3 has met my needs very well. Any upgrade would be a “want” at this point.
Well, depends a bit on your budget. I would say the bambu P2S excels in all of your scenarios. However, the anycubic cobra S1 is actually the best deal for the euro standing somewhere between the Vambu P1S and P2S. All of them come with their variant of Orca Slicer.
If you want to use more prototyping materials the Qidi Q2 comes into my mind as well, but only worth if you go far beyond abs.
Thanks I’ll look these up too! Budget I would say around C$1000. However if you recommend to start with a cheaper printer I am totally fine with that too lol
First decision is if you want a resin printer or FDM printer. Resin let’s you get smaller details, but has less dimensuonal accuracy and less options for engineering material.
In practice this means that if you want to make highly detailed descriptive parts. E.g. figurines, jewlery, etc go resin. If you want to build functional parts, latches, anything that moves, or anything that is big go FDM
From your description it sounds like you want FDM
My only experience with FDM is BambuLab which gets called “The Apple of 3D printers” for better and worse. I can personally say they work fantastic, and “tuning and maintainance” of the machine is almost non-existant. HOWEVER there is a little proprietary schenanigans going on. Their system is still open for now, but people worry because hypothetically in the future they might take functionality away or something. (There is a long and boring list of controversies which could be a deal breaker or nothing burger based on your preferences. For me I find it an okay tradeoff for the performance)
I’d also note that resin printing is a huge pita compared to FDM. Resin has quite a few post-processing steps, plus it requires much more ventilation and handling equipment.
I just want to note that they recently did take functionality away. Home Assistant Integration and Panda touch and orca slicer for example, all of those have to either use lan mode, not update the firmware or jump through more hoops than before
I don’t even know what that all means but scary for sure. Do they put these features on subscription only or something?
Thanks for this. I didn’t even know about resin vs FDM. I am glad you are bring this up! And I think you are right FDM sounds more like what I am looking for right now.
I kind of heard about Bambu and that worries me. Sounds a bit like the Cricut and while it works, they are getting greedier and greedier and the software is a piece of shit. I just hate using it. I design in Affinity and just load finished designs into the Cricut software and still hate it. But maybe I take a closer look at Bambu to see where they are at and how I feel about it.
How would a Prusa compare? How do I know what size I need? When they say 10x10x10 inches build volume does that mean I can print anything that fits into that space?
Prusa is way more open, but significantly more expensive, especially when buying assembled.
If youbwant multicolor/multimaterial their current (fairly soon to be replaced) solution is not considered as user-friendly as the current bambu-solution.
Yes, when the build volume is 10x10x10 you can print things within that volume, but of course it still has to be a printable shape.A T shape for example would be difficult to print, printer print layer by layer and as the “Arms” on the top would have nothing to be “stuck on”, so you’d need what is called “supports”, a printed shape just there to support the actual object that you want to print. Usually were support meets object the surface quality of the print suffers to some degree.
In the case of a T shape, just print it upside down then ;)Oh ok. Good to know. Somehow the Prusa speaks to me but I better look into user friendliness first!
The first thing I was thinking when you said “T” shape is to print upside down ☺️ I learned how to maximize space with the Cricut by flipping, turning etc. They don’t make it easy because they seem to encourage wasting material (which they sell too) so I get creative.
Actually, the best way to print a T shape is lying down ;) You will get a much stronger piece, because of the orientation of the layers.
Fair. I guess I have to start thinking 3D too!
Whatever you decide, I would highly recommend you get a CoreXY printer as the standard old “bed slinger” style of printer, where the bed moves back and forth along the Y axis, is now quite dated, slow and leads to lots of print issues especially for beginners. With a CoryXY construction, the bed is stationary apart from moving up and down along the Z axis and the nozzle moves on the X and Y axis.
For Prusa, this would be the CORE One. For Bambu this is the P1/P2, X1, or H2 series. Bambu is actually offering a sale starting today with the P1S at $399 USD or $549 USD with the AMS system (multi material).
Sounds good! P1S is good enough I don’t have to go for a P2S if I decide for one of those?
P2S definitely has some nice upgrades but AFAIK isn’t available for sale yet. Between the two I’d get the P2S but if you want to take advantage of the sale the P1S is still a good choice. $399 is less than I paid for my old bed slinger printer that needed constant tinkering and hundreds worth of upgrades after buying the printer. I currently have the X1C and just saw that I’ve hit 2800 hours of print time and apart from one repair at no cost to me has been totally rock solid with the number of failed prints countable on one hand.
I just see the price for the P1S here in Canada and yeah, much cheaper! Might be a good choice for a beginner printer! Thanks for the input
For a “general purpose” 3D printer I would totally recommend FDM.
Resin is toxic, causes allergies, is a mess to handle, needs washing and curing after printing, is usually much less UV resistant, is less durable and more expensive. The only upside it has is much, much better quality prints especially for fine details.
So if you want to print miniatures go resin, otherwise go FDM.
In regards to FDM printers, you need to decide if you want to tinker or to print. Both options are fine, but depending on whether you want to spend significant times upgrading, modding and tuning (and want to have the ability to do so), or whether you want a fire-and-forget machine that just works but doesn’t let you upgrade stuff, you need to get different devices.
Bambulab printers are the fire-and-forget kind that gets ever-more locked down but prints perfectly out-of-the-box.
Prusa or Creality/Ender are more tinker-friendly.
In the end it comes down to what you want. Read some reviews.
If you want to test the waters, get a Bambulab A1 Mini, see if you like it, upgrade to a different printer in the future.
In regards to filaments: Most filament brands are decent nowadays. It used to be that some brands were much better or worse than others, but nowadays unless you buy the cheapest crap it’s going to be fine.
The biggest difference is the material type. As a beginner start with PLA (regular, not Silk PLA, Flex PLA, HT PLA, Tough PLA or any other type of modified PLA). It prints easily, doesn’t need anything special in regards to heating or drying.
Once you mastered that, you might want to get into PETG (more difficult but tougher) and/or TPU/TPE (flexible, rubber-like).
You will likely never need more than that.
I have done some resin crafting by hand and I agree. Finicky at best and while super cool it’s not my thing. FDM it is.
I want to print not tinker. So the Prusa isn’t great for out of the box printing? I tried to read up on it but I am not sure if I look at the right information. The Bambu mini? Not something like the P2S?
Thanks for the explanation on filament types. I have seen these but didn’t know which is which. I’ll go with PLA to start for sure then! No need to overcomplicate it in the beginning!
Prusa printers are also “turn on and print” nowadays, except if you buy it as a build-it-yourself kit. And even that is like a more advanced Lego kit, the instructions are very thorough, with community comments for every step. They’re very easy to repair, and you can usually buy upgrade kits to upgrade them to the next version.
I agree that If you don’t have a filter system or some way to vent the printers outside, stick to PLA for indoor items, PETG for things that might be in the sun, and potentially TPU for rubbery parts. You don’t even need an enclosure for those.
If you have the budget for it, get a Prusa MK4S or Core One. In my opinion, the only reason not to buy a Prusa is the price.
What about the mini? I see that Prusa does get quite expensive quickly with shipping and taxes.
The mini is OK, but starting to be pretty outdated.
Prusa’s work just fine out of the box. And if you have a problem, Prusa is well known for their support for their printers for years. But Prusa also allows a bit of tinkering if you decide you want to. But it’s not necessary.
I don’t know what kind of farming you do, but if you think you want to print some repair parts for farm machinery, you are probably going to want to use some of the expensive engineering filaments for best results at some point. Qidi is the only really accessible consumer grade printers really capable of high end engineering filaments. I would recommend the Qidi Q2. It’s capable of printing filaments that other brands can’t. Plus it has the first and only printer certified by MET, a testing organization recognized by OSHA.
That’s good to know. I think the openness of Prusa is really appealing as long as it’s not more tinkering than printing.
Re farming I am more thinking about small enclosures for sensors for example. I am just learning about Lora networking and such and it would be great to build some sensors e.g. for soil moisture. The boards are really cheap but they need a case to protect from elements. I assumed I would need a different filament for anything outdoors but I haven’t looked into it yet.
We also had some smaller things break on the quad, tractor, equipment like caps or covers and stuffs hard to find. Not actual parts though. I get your point though I might have to brain storm a bit more on what exactly to make a good call on what the printer capability needs to be.
