any recomendations for a reliable 3d printer?

[Legolessed]

Hello, I have had 2 3d printers in the past and both broke very quickly and everything I did to fix them would work for maybe 5 prints before they would break again so that is my bias currently with 3d printing. I have a lot of experience with cad and 3d modeling and have a few random parts for my car that I couldnt find online and had the thought of, "oh if I had a 3d printer This would be really easy" and now im here.

 

What im looking for in a printer: I would like something more on the compact side with very good layer adhesion and print quality for mechanical components. I need to be able to print ABS and maybe nylon? I also would like auto bed leveling and the ability to be in the same room as the printer without it being very obnoxious or dangerous (so probably not resin printers). I am fine with assembly being required but I would like something with decent quality control so I dont get stuck with a dead printer. Build volume also isnt a high priority for me as well.

 

My budget is 300-400 USD but I would love to stay below that obviously if something fits my needs!

 

Printers I have heard about (excluding ender 3 because ive heard they have a lot of quality control issues)

https://flsun3d.com/products/flsun-q5

https://www.prusa3d.com/product/original-prusa-mini-semi-assembled-3d-printer-4/

https://flashforge-usa.com/collections/flashforge-3d-printers/products/flashforge-adventurer-3-lite-3d-printer

https://www.monoprice.com/Product?p_id=21711

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=21666

 

Thank you!

[tikker]

What printers have you had and how did they break?

  

50 minutes ago, Legolessed said:

with very good layer adhesion and print quality for mechanical components

This also hinges strongly on how well you set it up and keep it set up.

52 minutes ago, Legolessed said:

I need to be able to print ABS and maybe nylon?

ABS shouldnt be too much of an issue aside from liking to warp. Nylon is a big PITA to print with from what I've read though.

53 minutes ago, Legolessed said:

I also would like auto bed leveling

Keep in mind this does not remove the need for you to tram the bed properly yourself.

54 minutes ago, Legolessed said:

and the ability to be in the same room as the printer without it being very obnoxious or dangerous (so probably not resin printers).

ABS fumes aren't exactly healthy either so do keep adequate ventilation still.

 

My CR10-S upgraded with the Hemera extruder is still going strong, but if I were to buy one again I'd probably go with a Prusa so that one gets my vote.

[manikyath]

38 minutes ago, Legolessed said:

I have had 2 3d printers in the past and both broke very quickly and everything I did to fix them would work for maybe 5 prints before they would break again

even the anet a8 had no such reputation.. what the hell did you buy or what did you do to the poor printers

 

on topic: every budget-friendly printer is at least somewhat maintenance intensive. automatic bed leveling is a thing, but that doesnt mean it's a magical solution to everything.  hotend  components wear out,  stuff gets out of alignment, etc. replacement parts *are* gonna happen regardless, as long as you're not buying into a dead end platform they're usually quite well available too.

 

as for the smell side of things.. that's a problem of  specific plastics. you can add an air filter to a printer, but again.. not magic. if you dont want to suffocate yourself, print with PLA, at least that smells like cookies.

 

i've  got the predecessor of this one: https://wanhao.store/products/wanhao-i3-plus-mkii and it's  defenately a 'good base'...

rock solid frame, rock solid gantry, but the weight of the hotend does limit speed, and the build surface it comes with is shyte.

there's also no attempt at gentle movements, it goes from idle to full speed as fast as the belt will pull it. including the squeaks and rattles this brings.

but it's all standard parts, so if stuff fails you can replace it quite easily, it's easy to disassemble and reassemble, etc.

i've actually had my wanhao all the way to bits a few weeks back to do a PROPPER cleanup, it goes all the way apart and back together in an afternoon.

 

printing ABS on a wanhao is quite a chore though.. it can reach the temps required easily, but a ptfe hotend will melt in mere hours of print time, and a full metal hotend basicly requires assembly at 300°c to not fall apart during printing. it'll also make the feed stepper motor quite toasty if you dont have a lot of airflow across the printer (which you dont want for ABS, because warp).. so yeah.. good base, lots of potential for improvements.

 

for most of the problems you mention there's solutions available:

- not getting a dead printer: do maintenance, and check sources for replacement parts. learn how to maintain your printer, they're not complicated creatures.

- layer adhesion: get good plastic (dehumidify it, perhaps?) and tweak your print settings. when i want strong prints i just overextrude 5-10% and clean up the spills after the fact. it's a brute force method but it works.

- print quality: as long as it doesnt actually sag (why i dislike the one-side gantry printers..) this is all print settings and model tweaking. you can go with smaller nozzles and thinner layers, but that makes things take much longer. basicly, be prepared to do finishing on your prints.

- print materials: get a full metal hotend, it's a pain, but you can print pretty much anything. my wanhao reliably printed with both flexible fillaments and -freaking- colorfabb woodfill without issue on a full metal hotend. be prepared to basicly do maintenance every few douzen print hours though... printing at 300+°c is hell for the hotend. i've had an aluminium hotend block go so soft from thermal cycling that i could cut it with a knife. there's some tricks to not smoke your PTFE hotends quite as fast, but basicly.. see your entire hotend assembly as "consumables" either way.

- assembly required: in the $400 product range.. you're buying a project, the perfectly reliable stuff is another 0 at the end of that budget. be prepared to wear out a bunch of allen keys to keep it running.

[Legolessed]

1 hour ago, tikker said:

What printers have you had and how did they break?

  

This also hinges strongly on how well you set it up and keep it set up.

ABS shouldnt be too much of an issue aside from liking to warp. Nylon is a big PITA to print with from what I've read though.

Keep in mind this does not remove the need for you to tram the bed properly yourself.

ABS fumes aren't exactly healthy either so do keep adequate ventilation still.

 

My CR10-S upgraded with the Hemera extruder is still going strong, but if I were to buy one again I'd probably go with a Prusa so that one gets my vote.

The first one was used and was an xyz printing printer. Honestly can't remember the model name. It worked amazingly until the hot end broke and it was proprietary in every way and the company doesn't exist really anymore so I couldn't get another one. The second one was an anet A8 (I think) that I got for like 80% off during the holidays and the hot end never fit into the printer correctly, the directions talked about parts I didn't have and yeah. 

 

I'm not opposed to doing work on printers, I just want to be able to spend more time printing than fixing. I know it won't be perfect but it's my upmost priority, I'm willing to sacrifice almost every other feature for reliability essentially or ease of fixing anyway. 

 

I've had good experiences using someone else's prusa so I thought that one looked good too but it is much more expensive so I wanted to get other people's opinions. 

 

Thank you for the advice!

[tikker]

9 hours ago, manikyath said:

print with PLA, at least that smells like cookies.

I'd like to get some of this cookie PLA mine smells like nothing.

  

8 hours ago, Legolessed said:

The first one was used and was an xyz printing printer. Honestly can't remember the model name. It worked amazingly until the hot end broke and it was proprietary in every way and the company doesn't exist really anymore so I couldn't get another one. The second one was an anet A8 (I think) that I got for like 80% off during the holidays and the hot end never fit into the printer correctly, the directions talked about parts I didn't have and yeah. 

Yeah the A8 (at least when I followed stuff more closely) was basically the set-your-house-on-fire option, not a great rep, but having four of them break... talk about an unfortunate stroke of bad luck.

8 hours ago, Legolessed said:

I'm not opposed to doing work on printers, I just want to be able to spend more time printing than fixing. I know it won't be perfect but it's my upmost priority, I'm willing to sacrifice almost every other feature for reliability essentially or ease of fixing anyway.

I've had my CR10-S for 4 years now and the most actual work I've done besides building it, is upgrading the hot end. Apart from that it's just replacing nozzles and tramming the bed, which is all but inevitable. That's why I commented on auto bed leveling. They're only meant to accomodate small imperfections like a warped bed or some change in tramming due to thermal expansion/contraction from a change in environmental temperature and not to completely replace manual tramming.

 

[Legolessed]

7 hours ago, tikker said:

I'd like to get some of this cookie PLA mine smells like nothing.

  

Yeah the A8 (at least when I followed stuff more closely) was basically the set-your-house-on-fire option, not a great rep, but having four of them break... talk about an unfortunate stroke of bad luck.

I've had my CR10-S for 4 years now and the most actual work I've done besides building it, is upgrading the hot end. Apart from that it's just replacing nozzles and tramming the bed, which is all but inevitable. That's why I commented on auto bed leveling. They're only meant to accomodate small imperfections like a warped bed or some change in tramming due to thermal expansion/contraction from a change in environmental temperature and not to completely replace manual tramming.

 

I have heard a lot of good things and a few bad things about creality and the ender 3. Tbh the 2 printers im mainly considering right now are the flsun q5 and the prusa mini+. The flsun seems like a better version of the monoprice delta printer and the kit is literally 5 parts that you bolt together which is appealing too. Ive had massive headaches with bed leveling and the fact that a delta bed is completely solid gives me a lot of hope for that, and I could get 1.5 flsun's for the price of the prusa. But then again prusa has an amazing reputation so im not sure. I know no printer in this price range is going to be perfect but im trying to use the printer as a tool for another hobby if that makes sense.

 

Thank you so much for your help!