I can get one for a couple hundred. Is it worth it?
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I don’t think so. It looks like it lacks ABL, and the time savings from a core XY with ABL or auto first layer are MASSIVE. Also your print quality increases exponentially.
Take a look at the FlashForge 5M if you want a budget auto first layer printer, or the Qidi line for a slightly more robust printer (but needs more manual intervention).
And if you’d like to focus on printing and not tinkering forever, get a Bambu. Any of them.
Avoid creality.
Creality isn’t a bad company, they’re just hindered by the ignorant. The Ender 3, the baseline, old 8 bit model - was a perfectly fine machine if you knew what needed to be tight, and what didn’t.
The new 3v3 SE is a wonderful machine at like $180 with direct drive, magnetic PEI bed, dual Z screws, and the works. It doesn’t require all the knowledge that the old versions did. It’s a perfectly fine beginner machine.
The problem with Creality is just that everyone bought one as an enthusiast, so they told all the non-enthusiasts it was a great machine, and without that same level of knowledge, those people fell HARD. In doing so, they returned and claimed that creality machines were garbage. But they really weren’t. As far as bottom-of-the-barrel budget machines go, they were pretty alright.
The Elegoo Neptune 4’s are pretty good. Avoid Anycubic FDM machines, but their Resin printers are good. Avoid Dremel; their nozzles are literally a smaller MK10 nozzle from 12 years ago with nichrome wire wrapped around it. They are unserviceable. Nozzle clogs, and you just buy a $35 replacement everything. Avoid XYZPrinting. New-gen Creality is good for beginners in this new higher-expectation world. Old-gen Creality, don’t even bother unless you’re getting it for <$50 and know enough to repair it yourself. (Old Gen is Ender 3, CR-10, Ender 3 v2, Ender 3 Pro, anything with “Neo” in it. Yes, Ender 3 is a version number. Yes, Creality is basically calling their printer the Ender v3 v2. Only Ender worth getting is the Ender 3, v3 (SE, KE, etc)) - If you have the budget, the Creality K1 Max is really the only alternative to a Bambu if you need a larger build size. Possibly the Sovol SV08 - but as much as I love the Klipper team, it is NOT the most user friendly on that front. If you like techy-stuff, the SV08 isn’t as polished as a Bambu, but may be worth the price/size ratio.
Ignore people telling you to print carbon fiber, most of them are idiots. Glow in the dark is also destructive to your machine, avoid that unless it’s DAS filament (who ball-grind their glow powder, so it’s not abrasive to brass nozzles and other softer parts of your machine).
Sovol machines are a pretty good Prusa-alternative. They cloned the machines quite well, and are much cheaper.
Stick with PLA for everything until you find a situation in which it fails. Move up to PETG after that. Don’t get caught up in the “TPU Trap”. Great, you can print a phone case. What are you going to do with the REST of the roll? TPU doesn’t work in remote-drive systems. YES, some of us who are headstrong can force it to work, but generally just accept that it doesn’t, and if you MUST use TPU, make sure you’re using it on a direct drive machine. If you have an enclosed machine, feel free to move up to ABS/ASA, HIPS, and others. Be prepared for the stinky. They do smell like burning styrofoam depending on the mfg.
Anyone selling you a used machine - you are adopting their problem. They wouldn’t be selling it to you otherwise. There is ALWAYS a problem. Buy new when possible. Also, though I HATE Jeff Bezos, get your shit from Amazon. It’s not their product, and if it’s defective, they’re not going to give you the run-around in replacing it. I’ve seen lots of people even told to keep the old/busted machine (great for spare parts later!). Amazon don’t give a shiiiiiiiiit. This isn’t possible for some machines: Bambu for example. They just don’t work with resellers.
And don’t go getting the cheapest bullshit filament you can buy. Stay above the…eh…$18/spool range. Lower than that, and you start getting some crusty shit.
If you have pets - good…fucking…luck. Pet dander, and all the shit they add to the air, is cancer to 3D printers. There is not a single pet owner that I have met where they aren’t constantly servicing their machine due to clogs.
I kind of agree with what you’re saying on creality, but if you look at their core xy machines compared to other manufacturers of a similar price point, it’s just not worth it (K1).
To your point about larger size, Qidi XMAX3 is where it’s at. It’s rock solid and customer support is amazing. They’ve sent me free parts due to clogs and helped diagnose issues on the printer (this is what Creality lacks, support). It runs on Klipper and is easily modified, and it’s fully enclosed with a heater.
I also think a “beginner” machine has shifted. Most people want to print, not maintain. And now we have plenty of machines that need little maintenance.
Creality machines do excel at tinkering, swapping parts, and doing fun mods. But you need to know that’s what you want when going in. Even then for a beginner I’d say get something rock solid for your first printer, and get a tinkering machine for your second.
I agree with everything you’re saying about filament. The only thing to use CF with is Nylon if you need it to be a little more rigid, but it will eat your nozzle.
ASA and ABS won’t only smell, it will poison you. Do not hang out if you can smell it.
As per Amazon and their return policy, totally true. If you’re not buying there make sure they have a solid customer support, like Qidi and Bambu. Creality wouldn’t take a return for the world.
Absolutely on the K1. Nobody should be buying it. Only time I ever recommend them – is when referring to the K1 Max. And that’s only when people want: A - To Print Fast, and B - Something larger than Bambu. But I’m starting to move toward suggesting the SV08 if I can see they are at least a little bit technical.
The normal K1? Forget it. Don’t buy it.
Re: Pets. I have three cats and I’ve been doing well with my Qidi X-Max 3, which has a fully enclosed filament path even in stock configuration. And mine still does now in its current getup, where I feed it directly from my filament dryer.
The PLA I currently use near-exclusively is Elegoo Rapid PLA+ which at least when you buy it in the bulk 4 packs is $12.99 per 1kg spool. I’ve occasionally used other off brand sub-$15 PLA filaments and not gotten screwed. Cheap bullshit filament can be OK if you are willing to commit to thoroughly drying it out before use and can have its uses if you need one decorative thing in a particular weird color and don’t feel like shelling out for an oddball. For me, the Elegoo stuff is as cheap enough and is a known good quantity so I don’t see much reason to mess with success unless I have to.
You’re right about TPU being a specialty material, but for the times I have needed it, it has definitely come in clutch. Its unique mechanical properties have allowed me to make various weird gaskets (most recent being a replacement air intake gasket for an old motorcycle), adapter boots, bumpers, buffers, and most recently this thing. TPU exhibits incredible layer adhesion – you can make parts out of it that are basically completely isotropic, even with a bog standard filament machine – which turn out to be damn near indestructible provided you don’t need them to tolerate high heat or be rigid in any way whatsoever. It’s a rather silly choice to use for just making static objects, though. For printing your low poly Pikachus and Deadpool busts and Yoda bobbleheads or whatever the hell, PLA is much easier to use.
I think a lot of people get caught up in the trap of thinking of your material choices being a “ranking,” with the cheaper and easier to print polymers being lower on the totem pole and assuming that the more expensive and harder to print ones are “better.” This is not necessarily the case. Every material choice (excepting various strange exotic materials some of which have no realistic purpose other than showing off) has its advantages and disadvantages that may be a consideration depending on your application. Boring old cheap PLA, for instance, is actually the most rigid of the commonly available materials that are possible for ordinary people to print without non-industrial printers. It also confers the second best layer adhesion strength out of the rigid polymers in that same category (behind TPU which is not rigid, and arguably polycarbonate which is a pain in the ass to print and presents it own other problems). Really, the only failings PLA has is a very low temperature resistance and susceptibility to cold creep.
Obligatory anti-Bambu pro Prusa comment here for achieving goal of printing without constantly boring around with printer. With Lemmy generally being so conscious of data privacy concerns, I’m surprised to see so much pro-bambu talk here.
I like Prusa as a company but their products are nowhere near as competitive as they were 2 years ago when every printer was a bed slinger. The fact that they still want $1,000 for a fairly basic bed slinger is pretty ridiculous.
I chalk it up to not being able to drop prices to the level of the Asian market with a European work force. As long as they continue to innovate, build quality products, and have great customer support, I’ll consider it a cost and not a loss.
Bambu has community firmware.
I second the Qidi recommendation. Both of mine have been champions thus far.
It’s worth it if you like paying for headaches, living with outdated slicer software, and generally having to figure out how to achieve the things everyone else is doing with workarounds constantly.
I wouldn’t take a Dremel 3D40 if someone paid ME to take it from them.
3D40 at couple hundred bucks? Absolutely not. 3D40 for $50? No. 3D40 for free? Yeah. Just don’t expect much out of it.
