Replacement 3D Printer

[shinegull]

So, last month, I got a 3D printer. a Tronxy xy-2 pro? and while i had a bit of a learning curve in adjusments in leveling and print settings, it did work decently.

for about 2 weeks. then it died. It would no longer heat properly, the bed started warping just a tiny bit, and it refused to print. Hence I returned it. Fortunately, still under warranty, so i got a full refund.

 

Now, I'm looking for a new 3D printer to pick up sometime in the next couple months. I've heard good (and bad) things about creality, and might go for that, but before i do, does anyone have any other recommendations or input on choices?

I did like the auto leveling function of my previous printer, but i'd also like to get a magnetic bed this time. Ive heard the Creality printers can be modded quite a bit so, i could probably upgrade over time?

[Radium_Angel]

What is your budget?

[Archer42]

To be honest everything apart from very expensive professional machines is not going to be "plug and play". The way it's all built it is not reliable and requires certain skills from user. You'll have to understand how stuff works, be able to troubleshoot it and fix the issues/tweak settings yourself, etc. Otherwise you'll be returning them all the time.

 

[shinegull]

5 hours ago, Radium_Angel said:

What is your budget?

currently about 300 cad, give or take a bit. also depends on how much extra income i may have on top of that at the moment.

[shinegull]

5 hours ago, Archer42 said:

To be honest everything apart from very expensive professional machines is not going to be "plug and play". The way it's all built it is not reliable and requires certain skills from user. You'll have to understand how stuff works, be able to troubleshoot it and fix the issues/tweak settings yourself, etc. Otherwise you'll be returning them all the time.

 

well its always been one of my dreams to idk, get an ultimaker or something like that. but i've got time to learn somewhat. i usually get 3 days off in a week, now. so time to learn?

[shinegull]

5 hours ago, James Evens said:

Normally this takes much longer. The heat cardrige within the hot end wears out as early as 500 hours but might hold far more then 2000 hours (depending on how you drive it, temperature, quality, etc.).  A indication of a ageing heater is limited max. temperature or thermal runaway protection randomly engaging.

Clamp it down on the edge. If you don't want this look at fixed bed or magnetic flexible bed (don't go above x degree or magnetism will go away. What x is depends on what you buy).

 

Everything can easily be modded (except uncommon propriety ones like XYZ printing) and basically everything uses a similar construction. The benefit of the Ender 3 is it popularity.

yea it did seem to die unusally fast. on the other hand, i did get it used... so maybe that was part of it as well. i kinda went for the cheapest option that still seemed good enough, in the case that if it really does fail sooner rather than later, it wouldnt hurt as much. but i've learned a bit from it as well. so hopefully, next time, it will be a lot better and easier. probably wont get it asap, as no a priority at the moment. going through redecorating, so ill probably get it in a month or 2, unless i see a sale or something.

[Archer42]

1 hour ago, shinegull said:

well its always been one of my dreams to idk, get an ultimaker or something like that. but i've got time to learn somewhat. i usually get 3 days off in a week, now. so time to learn?

Yeah, If you've got free time it is just a matter of patience, as long as you are willing to learn.

What I am saying is - at reasonable "consumer" prices 3d printing is not really a simple process, it always requires certain level of tweaking, experimentation and such. And stuff will fail a lot, but unlike modern consumer electronics it is also very modular and easy to fix, as long as you can find what's wrong.

 

I have anycubic mega at this point, from aliexpress since it's considerably cheaper than local shops, so essentially no warranty. Had to deal with failing temperature sensor pretty soon after getting it, thankfully it came with spare extruder assembly so i could steal one from there and then order a replacement. And yes, troubleshooting was a bit annoying because of all the uninformative errors, but in the end the cost of replacement part was so low it would not have been wort replacing whole printer because of this even it it had warranty. Shipping would cost more than whole pack of those sensors. Other than that been working pretty well, much better than self-built stuff I've had before, mostly because of much better structural parts (and that was the reason I bought it, just do not have either tools or skill to build something like this myself).

 

As for professional-ish stuff... I do not know... it would be nice, yes, but while 3d printing is fun it also does not produce anything to justify those prices for home use. And then it also requires certain skills in 3-d modelling to do really interesting stuff, beyond just printing a bunch of interesting things from thingieverse... which requires considerable amount of time and effort too, for someone who never did it before.

[Scheer]

IMO, and to keep it really simple, there are 3 price points of 3d printers you should look at:

 

$300 - Get an Ender 3 (or Pro) and a few upgrades for it (mainly BLTouch and a magnetic PEI build plate for convenience) Any less for a prebuilt and you are likely getting a POS, and a DIY kit for less is unlikely to perform as well as the Ender 3. On the other side of the budget, maybe consider the $500 ish to build a quality Prusa i3 clone, just know you'll likely spend a lot of time tweaking it.

 

$1,000-$1500 - DIY a really nice printer like a Hypercube, Voron, Ultimaker clone, etc. Go all out with ballscrews and linear rails. If you are going to spend $1000 on a prebuilt, I think you'd be much better off building a better one for the price. You're invested this much into it, so obviously you are taking the hobby fairly seriously and should learn the mechanics of the machine anyways. Maaaybe consider a Prusa here, but IMO they are pretty lacking for being nearly $1k.

 

$5k - "Professional" level prebuilt printer like an Ultimaker or Makerbot. This is where you want something that just works and has a tech support team who can help when you have problems.

 

Basically throwing all of this out there so you don't have to wonder "If I just spend $50 more will I get a way better printer?" because I really don't think you do, it takes a pretty major bump up in budget to get a noticeable quality improvement over the Ender 3. I did see a lot of good things about Anycubic when I did my research, but didn't look too much into them. This is all assuming you want to just print "normal" things with PLA/PETG. If you are planning on really tall or long items, or printing oddball filaments then its a whole different can of worms to look into.

 

Finally, in a nutshell I'd recommend you get one of the Ender 3 variants.

[shinegull]

9 hours ago, Scheer said:

IMO, and to keep it really simple, there are 3 price points of 3d printers you should look at:

 

$300 - Get an Ender 3 (or Pro) and a few upgrades for it (mainly BLTouch and a magnetic PEI build plate for convenience) Any less for a prebuilt and you are likely getting a POS, and a DIY kit for less is unlikely to perform as well as the Ender 3. On the other side of the budget, maybe consider the $500 ish to build a quality Prusa i3 clone, just know you'll likely spend a lot of time tweaking it.

 

$1,000-$1500 - DIY a really nice printer like a Hypercube, Voron, Ultimaker clone, etc. Go all out with ballscrews and linear rails. If you are going to spend $1000 on a prebuilt, I think you'd be much better off building a better one for the price. You're invested this much into it, so obviously you are taking the hobby fairly seriously and should learn the mechanics of the machine anyways. Maaaybe consider a Prusa here, but IMO they are pretty lacking for being nearly $1k.

 

$5k - "Professional" level prebuilt printer like an Ultimaker or Makerbot. This is where you want something that just works and has a tech support team who can help when you have problems.

 

Basically throwing all of this out there so you don't have to wonder "If I just spend $50 more will I get a way better printer?" because I really don't think you do, it takes a pretty major bump up in budget to get a noticeable quality improvement over the Ender 3. I did see a lot of good things about Anycubic when I did my research, but didn't look too much into them. This is all assuming you want to just print "normal" things with PLA/PETG. If you are planning on really tall or long items, or printing oddball filaments then its a whole different can of worms to look into.

 

Finally, in a nutshell I'd recommend you get one of the Ender 3 variants.

i think ill get the ender 3 pro then. thank you. any other mods/upgrades you can recommend that might be useful?

[Scheer]

I'd start with a BLTouch as it saves a lot of headache with first layer issues once you get it dialed in, then try out some build surfaces to see what you like best. For PLA/PETG I'll likely never use anything other than PEI because how well it has worked for me, however a friend swears by glass for PLA and hates PEI... so it seems to be a personal preference. 

 

Then just browse around Thingiverse, there are a million and one printable upgrades to try out. The Y cable chain is handy as I have had a print fail by the wires getting snagged mid-print, and the micro to full size SD adapter is a nice convenience of not having to deal with little cards.

[shinegull]

On 3/3/2021 at 5:52 AM, Scheer said:

I'd start with a BLTouch as it saves a lot of headache with first layer issues once you get it dialed in, then try out some build surfaces to see what you like best. For PLA/PETG I'll likely never use anything other than PEI because how well it has worked for me, however a friend swears by glass for PLA and hates PEI... so it seems to be a personal preference. 

 

Then just browse around Thingiverse, there are a million and one printable upgrades to try out. The Y cable chain is handy as I have had a print fail by the wires getting snagged mid-print, and the micro to full size SD adapter is a nice convenience of not having to deal with little cards.

got it. ill look around for mods once i get that printer. though, I'm still waiting for parts for redecorating my room. apparently, the supply chain issues isnt just in pc parts, but affects furniture as well.