3D Printer Recommendations

[PenguinMaster]

Hi all -

 

I am looking to upgrade my 3D Printer experience from the standard Creality Ender-3's that I have now.  I bought them during the pandemic to help out first responders and hospital staff with face shields and other PPE that could be 3D Printed.  They have served me well but are starting to annoy me.  For starters the new 3D Printer must have auto-leveling.  I do not want to fiddle around with a plastic card trying to get the bed level for hours anymore.  I want it to be automatic.  That is really the only mandate I have for the new printer, other than the budget which has to be under $1000.

 

Some nice to have features would be the ability to network print, which both the AnkerMake M5 and the Prusa MK4 offer.  The ability to use multiple colors would also be nice, but not a must-have.  Mostly what I would be printing with is PLA and ABS, other materials would be nice but not mandatory either.  The printer is going in my basement so I am not too worried about noise level.  An enclosure for it would be nice, which the Prusa MK4 also offers, but is not mandatory.

 

I am open to all different printers as long as they are within budget, have good support, and they MUST have auto-leveling.  The ones I was looking at are the AnkerMake M5, the Prusa MK4 kit, and the Bambu Lab P1P.

 

I do not mind having to assemble the 3D Printer.

 

Any assistance would be appreciated!

[sprinteroz]

18 minutes ago, PenguinMaster said:

Hi all -

 

I am looking to upgrade my 3D Printer experience from the standard Creality Ender-3's that I have now.  I bought them during the pandemic to help out first responders and hospital staff with face shields and other PPE that could be 3D Printed.  They have served me well but are starting to annoy me.  For starters the new 3D Printer must have auto-leveling.  I do not want to fiddle around with a plastic card trying to get the bed level for hours anymore.  I want it to be automatic.  That is really the only mandate I have for the new printer, other than the budget which has to be under $1000.

 

Some nice to have features would be the ability to network print, which both the AnkerMake M5 and the Prusa MK4 offer.  The ability to use multiple colors would also be nice, but not a must-have.  Mostly what I would be printing with is PLA and ABS, other materials would be nice but not mandatory either.  The printer is going in my basement so I am not too worried about noise level.  An enclosure for it would be nice, which the Prusa MK4 also offers, but is not mandatory.

 

I am open to all different printers as long as they are within budget, have good support, and they MUST have auto-leveling.  The ones I was looking at are the AnkerMake M5, the Prusa MK4 kit, and the Bambu Lab P1P.

 

I do not mind having to assemble the 3D Printer.

 

Any assistance would be appreciated!

Click the arrow on the "top right of the post", this will take you to the topic. If you're interested 

[TVwazhere]

21 hours ago, PenguinMaster said:

The ones I was looking at are the AnkerMake M5, the Prusa MK4 kit, and the Bambu Lab P1P.

Creality just officially announced their K1 series, the K1 and K1max which are essentially Bambulab P1P's, but the max is a bigger build volume and the K1 is smaller. However these havent even gotten into reviewers hands yet, so it's unknown how much Creality-Tinkering you'd have to do with these. 

 

Both do come with a full enclosure like the X1, but neither come with any multi-filament feeder like the AMS found on the bambulab products. 

 

One or two other companies are also set to release similar designs, but I dont know when nor can I recall the specific companies (anycubic? Geeetech? Flsun?)

 

---

 

One option you could consider since you have willingness to assemble the printer as well as an existing printer already is a Voron. 

[Needfuldoer]

9 hours ago, TVwazhere said:

Creality just officially announced their K1 series, the K1 and K1max which are essentially Bambulab P1P's, but the max is a bigger build volume and the K1 is smaller. However these havent even gotten into reviewers hands yet, so it's unknown how much Creality-Tinkering you'd have to do with these. 

Ooh, that's tempting. I care more about manufacturing plastic parts than I do about tinkering with the printer itself, and while my Ender 3 Pro works, it's pretty slow. I know I could add automatic bed leveling, an enclosure, and Klipper for a few hundred bucks, but it's still going to be the same pokey, extruded aluminum bed slinger.

 

I've been eyeing the Bambulabs printers since they launched, but if Creality can get 90% of the way there for half the price...

[TVwazhere]

12 hours ago, Needfuldoer said:

Ooh, that's tempting. I care more about manufacturing plastic parts than I do about tinkering with the printer itself, and while my Ender 3 Pro works, it's pretty slow. I know I could add automatic bed leveling, an enclosure, and Klipper for a few hundred bucks, but it's still going to be the same pokey, extruded aluminum bed slinger.

 

I've been eyeing the Bambulabs printers since they launched, but if Creality can get 90% of the way there for half the price...

It's probably more like 80% of the way there for 80% of the price. (P1P is $700, K1 is $600) (X1C is 1200, K1MAX is $1000)

 

They claim both K1's have LIDAR (something only found on the $1k X1/X1C) But like  said, no one's even used their lidar yet to see if it's even any good. We also dont know if Creality will release profiles for the printer, as Cura defaults would simply make them print at normal speeds, and there's a LOT of tweaking involved to get printers to print at 300mm/s+ as they claim. 

 

Time will tell how much market share these claim, but I've already seen people with a full farm of X1C's 

[PenguinMaster]

@Needfuldoer @TVwazhere

 

Thank you guys both for the input and sorry for the delayed reply.  I ultimately ended up getting the Original Prusa MK4.  The deciding factor really came down to the parts availability for the printer, the reputation of the brand, the ability to print with multiple different colors with the attachment you can buy from them, and the ability to buy the different accessories over time instead of all at once which gives me the ability to spread out the cost more over time instead of all at once.  It should arrive around July LOL.

 

Thanks again!