3D Printer Suggestions

[Lee DeRaud]

(Not sure if this is the right forum...feel free to move it if necessary. "Off-Topic" maybe?)

In any case, I'm considering a FDM 3D printer to augment my CO2 laser. 6"x6"x6" workspace is probably big enough, but a little bigger wouldn't be out of order if the physical footprint doesn't get out of hand. I'd like to stay under $500, but can go higher if there's a compelling reason.

Within those limits, I think I've found most of the usual suspects, but the reviews I'm reading seem (1) wildly differing and (2) not altogether trustworthy, so I'd love to hear any hands-on recommendations from the folks here.

[John K Jordan]

(Not sure if this is the right forum...feel free to move it if necessary. "Off-Topic" maybe?)

In any case, I'm considering a FDM 3D printer to augment my CO2 laser. 6"x6"x6" workspace is probably big enough, but a little bigger wouldn't be out of order if the physical footprint doesn't get out of hand. I'd like to stay under $500, but can go higher if there's a compelling reason.

Within those limits, I think I've found most of the usual suspects, but the reviews I'm reading seem (1) wildly differing and (2) not altogether trustworthy, so I'd love to hear any hands-on recommendations from the folks here.

My oldest son and I both bought Prusa kits, the Original Prusa MK3s. A little more than your $500 (a big savings from an assembled printer) but the quality and support is outstanding.
https://www.prusa3d.com/?gclid=CjwKC...hoCxucQAvD_BwE
The kits went together without a hitch. We both built enclosures to help stabilize the temperature and keep away dust and such.

first-print.jpg enclosure.jpg

One big advantage of building it from a kit is you get a very good understanding of the internals and working of the printer. If the need for maintenance comes up you already know how things go together.

JKJ

[Lee DeRaud]

Those look interesting. I built a CNC router some years back, so the 'kit' aspect doesn't bother me a bit.

What's the overall footprint of yours with the enclosure? I see the dimensions on their website, but I'm not clear how "XxYxZ" maps to "WxHxD"...

The Mini, even with some add-ons) is well within my price range, and still decent size at 7x7x7. It might be a better fit to my bench...

[EDIT] Oddly, the fully-assembled units have a much shorter lead time than the kits.

[David Buchhauser]

Lee - I've got one if these Monoprice Voxel printers, have had it for over two years now, and it works great. Fully enclosed with heated build plate. Very quite, high quality prints, and super easy to use. I use Fusion 360 to create my 3d solid models to print. I have printed nuts and bolts that thread together very nicely, as well as many other prototype items for my various projects. This printer is actually manufactured by FlashForge and rebranded as Voxel for Monoprice. Flashforge offers the exact same printer (with different colors scheme for the printer) at the same price. I most definitely recommend this printer.

I also have a Flashforge Creator 3 with dual independent extruders which allows for two different filaments at the same time. The cost was about $3200 and it is a nice printer, but I still use the Voxel for many prints and the print quality of both printers is very comparable. In fact, if I printed the same part with both printers, you would be hard pressed to see any differences between the two copies - pretty much identical.

David

https://www.amazon.com/Monoprice-133820-Voxel-Printer-Removable/dp/B07GV5GLLC/ref=sr_1_3?gclid=CjwKCAiA55mPBhBOEiwANmzoQtdDOy4ju m5BQViquLnCcofx8QcvOZllz9mmYgnu5WRKKrdjTnsGoBoCgfQ QAvD_BwE&hvadid=557420572543&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9030 244&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=17083682614236427726&h vtargid=kwd-886261323837&hydadcr=17732_13446995&keywords=3d%2B printer%2Bvoxel&qid=1642574868&sr=8-3&th=1Monoprice Voxel 3D printer.jpg

[Jim Becker]

Every time this comes up, the Prusa seems to get a healthy recommendation from other SMC'ers.

[Bob Falk]

Anyone have experience with a Creality printer? They seem to be recommended as a lower cost but quality printer.

[Lee DeRaud]

Anyone have experience with a Creality printer? They seem to be recommended as a lower cost but quality printer.

I've got a friend who has one and likes it...unfortunately too far away for me to get any hands-on time. I'm not thrilled with the enclosure options though.

[Brian Lamb]

I run a Creality CR10-s and it's a nice printer, mine is old, probably 5 or 6 year now and I use it a lot. Doesn't have bed leveling and it's a flimsy bed, but once set it stays ok until I whack it out of level for some reason. Got my son an Ender 3 for Xmas last year(2020) and he has had good luck with it as well and it was only a $230 printer.

[Rob Young]

Anyone have experience with a Creality printer? They seem to be recommended as a lower cost but quality printer.

I have a Prusa MK3i built from kit and I have two of the Creality ender 3 printers. We use the two Creality printers at work for prototyping cases for electronics, mounting brackets, etc.

The Prusa is far and away the higher quality and just simply produces better results. Also its flexible bed is great. The Creality printers came with stock beds made of a coated FR4 (i.e. fiberglass) material. The stock beds were not flat. Replaced with glass beds and while I get good results we had to do a lot of fiddling to find settings that prevent lifting of corners. Turns out that having the bed temperature ramp down during about the first 10 layers does the trick. Now items are difficult to remove and of course the glass doesn't flex so that makes it interesting some times.

With sufficient tuning and fiddling of feeds and speeds the Creality ender 3 printers work fine but I get overall better results from the Prusa. Also, the Prusa extruder pulls filament into the heater while the Creality push the filament. I'm drawing a temporary blank on the names of these two configurations... The upshot is that the Prusa is easier to load and unload if you need to mid-print. I've done several cases where we have say black PLA or PETG for the body of the case and then switch to a white filament for raised labels on the last two or three layers.

We also use the Prusa slicer for both.

If you are patient and OK with lots of experimenting, the Creality ender 3 (and now the 3 Pro is probably the one to get) is fine. You'll need to do some testing and experimenting to get best results. If you'd rather trade a little money for time, go for the Prusa.

[John Lifer]

Prusa..... MKS3. By far the BEST 3d printer on the market for the price. Order the kit and put it together in a day or so, take your time. Ignore any suggestions to do what I call changes that are out there on the internet. Just follow Prusa's instructions. Spend a bit of time getting the setting right, and then just Print. I've got a $150 Tevo that while it works, it is just a tinkering toy. I can turn on the Prusa, and just print.
I do jigs, and I sell an item that has 4 parts to it that are 3d printed from PETG, I haven't sold a million, but almost 300 and all printed on the one Prusa printer. It just works.

[Bill George]

Prusa..... MKS3. By far the BEST 3d printer on the market for the price. Order the kit and put it together in a day or so, take your time. Ignore any suggestions to do what I call changes that are out there on the internet. Just follow Prusa's instructions. Spend a bit of time getting the setting right, and then just Print. I've got a $150 Tevo that while it works, it is just a tinkering toy. I can turn on the Prusa, and just print.
I do jigs, and I sell an item that has 4 parts to it that are 3d printed from PETG, I haven't sold a million, but almost 300 and all printed on the one Prusa printer. It just works.

What John said... I purchased the factory built one because I want to print something, not spend time building and troubleshooting. But You can handle that kit without a issue. What he said again, it just works. Mine had set gathering dust for over 6 months, I designed and printed what I needed for a project, zero issues. Yes and use PETG no messing and it works. I buy filament from Amazon most of the time, Overture.

[John K Jordan]

…The upshot is that the Prusa is easier to load and unload if you need to mid-print. I've done several cases where we have say black PLA or PETG for the body of the case and then switch to a white filament for raised labels on the last two or three layers.
….

For those who haven’t seen it Prusa also has a multi-material printer that will let you automatically switch colors in the middle of a print. You can see it printing starting around 1:45 in this video:



I don’t know anyone who has one so I don’t know if there are any quirks to deal with. But the single filament printers we have just work and work; a messed up print is quite rare. I have a Raspberry Pi with a camera attached so I can easily monitor the print and get real time statistics on my iPad or phone while i’m away from the shop.

JKJ

[Rob Young]

For those who haven’t seen it Prusa also has a multi-material printer that will let you automatically switch colors in the middle of a print. You can see it printing starting around 1:45 in this video:



I don’t know anyone who has one so I don’t know if there are any quirks to deal with. But the single filament printers we have just work and work; a messed up print is quite rare. I have a Raspberry Pi with a camera attached so I can easily monitor the print and get real time statistics on my iPad or phone while i’m away from the shop.

JKJ

The MMU didn't get much love for the first year or so of its existence. It went through a lot of updates in re-printed parts and firmware issues. Now I'm seeing people posting more positive opinions and showing some pretty interesting work made using the MMU.

At the time it was announced I almost pulled the trigger but put it off. I still haven't picked up one because most of what I do is of a mechanical nature and so I don't care about the color. Although as I mentioned I sometimes use 2 colors. And any silly little things like "missile toads" that get printed are probably destined for painting anyway.

But I might still invest in one.

[John K Jordan]

The MMU didn't get much love for the first year or so of its existence. It went through a lot of updates in re-printed parts and firmware issues. Now I'm seeing people posting more positive opinions and showing some pretty interesting work made using the MMU.

At the time it was announced I almost pulled the trigger but put it off.....

I thought about it too. But I've learned to give anything new plenty of time to settle down!

[Cary Falk]

I have the Prusa MMU. I purchased it about 6 months ago. I needed an indoor project during the winter, and I like tech stuff. The Prusa MK3 is rock solid and I have used it about 1000x times more than I thought. The MMU seems a little finnicky. It might be my setup. I have only printed one multicolored print so far. It was a little sheep that I think had 4 colors. It was a little rough process with some feeding and unloading faults along the way. One thing that wasn't expecting was the increase in time to print multiple colors. I knew it would take longer but it was excessive. The sheep would have probably taken around 1hr to print in a single color but took 8 or 9 hours to print in multiple colors. It was fun to watch though. Most of my stuff I print is a single color so I have several filaments loaded and select the correct one in slicer. It is doing pretty well. Another consideration is that most files on the internet like Thingiverse are set up for single colors. You have to convert the files over to multicolor and I am still trying to find an easy and reliable software to do it. I have watched sever youtube videos on how it is done but they sure don't seem as easy as presented. It is probably me. I have a death trooper helmet that I want to print out in multicolor for my wife but I haven't got it converted yet. I have also added the Raspberry Pi to it and Octoprint is a great help at leveling the bed. All in all I have not regretted my purchase. The nice thing about Prusa is that future improvements will be upgradable.