Recommended entry level 2024 3d printer and normal printer?

[yepnew]

Setting up a whole "work section" atm in my room and i just finished picking components for my pc. So now i need to pick "peripherals" for it. I need a good modern printer (hopefully can be connected to my pc with usb behind the pc) and an entry level 3d printer (same with the usb thing) for personal use and small school projects. Im not trusting google or opinion pieces not to be bought though, so im asking here what you guys would recommend? They have to be available for purchase in norway or at worst scandinavian. Budget is 1500kr (150$) printer MAX and 2500kr (250$) 3d printer MAX 

[Needfuldoer]

For 2D printers, I always recommend small laser printers over any inkjet. Even if it's a 10 year old, used office all-in-one. Third party toner cartridges are inexpensive, and if you don't have to worry about the printer not working if you only use it infrequently. New they're not cheap, but they're "buy once, cry once" buy-it-for-life machines that will last you for years.

 

As for 3D printers, at your budget I'd recommend looking into an Ender 3. Not necessarily because it's the best printer for the money, but because it's a good printer with a huge community built around it. 

[FlyingPotato_is_taken]

If 18x18x18cm is large enough and find another 20€ budget the A1 mini at 270€ is a great option.

[Bananasplit_00]

I would definitely look at getting the A1 mini for your 3D printer if you want a tool rather than a project

[yepnew]

30 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

For 2D printers, I always recommend small laser printers over any inkjet. Even if it's a 10 year old, used office all-in-one. Third party toner cartridges are inexpensive, and if you don't have to worry about the printer not working if you only use it infrequently. New they're not cheap, but they're "buy once, cry once" buy-it-for-life machines that will last you for years.

 

As for 3D printers, at your budget I'd recommend looking into an Ender 3. Not necessarily because it's the best printer for the money, but because it's a good printer with a huge community built around it. 

Do you know of any that can do atleast decent colours you could recommend?

[mariushm]

I'd suggest brother laser printers, but at $150 you're not gonna get something new from any brand that's gonna be cheap when it comes to consumables. 

 

What I mean is you pay $150 and you get a drum that lasts 20-30k pages then you pay 100$ to replace it, and you get a toner with 1000 pages worth of toner which has a chip so you can't refill it, or you could pay $200-250 for a "workstation printer" with 100k-200k drum that costs $50-100$ to replace when it wears out and retail toners replacements that can be refilled. 

 

For example, BROTHER HL-L2445DW is relatively cheap at $136 uk pounds / $175 : https://www.amazon.co.uk/BROTHER-HL-L2445DW-Printer-function-Automatic/dp/B0CJV7P1C2/

 

but it comes with 15k pages lifetime for the drum, and around 1000 pages in the toner and genuine toners are up to 50 uk pounds each (for 1200 or 3000 pages)  - you can refill manually but there's a chip on the toner which will tell the printer the toner is empty and you can press some option in menu to ignore warning and keep printing. There's some reset chips but they're expensive at around 25 dollars 

 

or you could go at 233 uk pounds / $300 and get BROTHER HL-L5210DN  https://www.amazon.co.uk/BROTHER-MFC-L5710DN-Professional-Laser-Printer/dp/B0CNLV7H9W/

 

which comes with a drum unit rated for 75k pages, and then toners come in 3k/6k/11k pages worth of toner - still need a reset chip but you'd use a reset chip every 11k pages instead of every 3k pages  or you'd use third party toners (pre-filled) 

If you buy a genuine XXL toner (11k pages) you can then just refill and swap the reset chip for around 40-50$ a chip (instead of $200+ for genuine toner), the reset chips for 3k toner are cheaper at around $25 dollars 

 

 

[Needfuldoer]

Just now, yepnew said:

Do you know of any that can do atleast decent colours you could recommend?

I've used a couple HP Color LaserJets, and my personal printer is a Canon ImageRUNNER. Their color outputs are all fine, as long as you don't expect perfect glossy photo prints like a dye-sub printer can make.

[ToboRobot]

 

Brother for B&W laser printers
Epson EcoTank for colour inkjet

 

 

[OddOod]

If you can find a Brother HL-L2350DW, it's an absolute tank of a laser B/W printer. Little be expensive, but I've had mine for a decade with zero problems

[yepnew]

1 hour ago, mariushm said:

I'd suggest brother laser printers, but at $150 you're not gonna get something new from any brand that's gonna be cheap when it comes to consumables. 

 

What I mean is you pay $150 and you get a drum that lasts 20-30k pages then you pay 100$ to replace it, and you get a toner with 1000 pages worth of toner which has a chip so you can't refill it, or you could pay $200-250 for a "workstation printer" with 100k-200k drum that costs $50-100$ to replace when it wears out and retail toners replacements that can be refilled. 

 

For example, BROTHER HL-L2445DW is relatively cheap at $136 uk pounds / $175 : https://www.amazon.co.uk/BROTHER-HL-L2445DW-Printer-function-Automatic/dp/B0CJV7P1C2/

 

but it comes with 15k pages lifetime for the drum, and around 1000 pages in the toner and genuine toners are up to 50 uk pounds each (for 1200 or 3000 pages)  - you can refill manually but there's a chip on the toner which will tell the printer the toner is empty and you can press some option in menu to ignore warning and keep printing. There's some reset chips but they're expensive at around 25 dollars 

 

or you could go at 233 uk pounds / $300 and get BROTHER HL-L5210DN  https://www.amazon.co.uk/BROTHER-MFC-L5710DN-Professional-Laser-Printer/dp/B0CNLV7H9W/

 

which comes with a drum unit rated for 75k pages, and then toners come in 3k/6k/11k pages worth of toner - still need a reset chip but you'd use a reset chip every 11k pages instead of every 3k pages  or you'd use third party toners (pre-filled) 

If you buy a genuine XXL toner (11k pages) you can then just refill and swap the reset chip for around 40-50$ a chip (instead of $200+ for genuine toner), the reset chips for 3k toner are cheaper at around $25 dollars 

 

 

L5710DN and a1 mini seems right up my alley, i was thinking i could do a sidegig of printing and 3d printing so they seem good. I can let it go automatically while i do school work / game. First person to mention those two will get their message set as answer:)

[yepnew]

1 hour ago, mariushm said:

I'd suggest brother laser printers, but at $150 you're not gonna get something new from any brand that's gonna be cheap when it comes to consumables. 

 

What I mean is you pay $150 and you get a drum that lasts 20-30k pages then you pay 100$ to replace it, and you get a toner with 1000 pages worth of toner which has a chip so you can't refill it, or you could pay $200-250 for a "workstation printer" with 100k-200k drum that costs $50-100$ to replace when it wears out and retail toners replacements that can be refilled. 

 

For example, BROTHER HL-L2445DW is relatively cheap at $136 uk pounds / $175 : https://www.amazon.co.uk/BROTHER-HL-L2445DW-Printer-function-Automatic/dp/B0CJV7P1C2/

 

but it comes with 15k pages lifetime for the drum, and around 1000 pages in the toner and genuine toners are up to 50 uk pounds each (for 1200 or 3000 pages)  - you can refill manually but there's a chip on the toner which will tell the printer the toner is empty and you can press some option in menu to ignore warning and keep printing. There's some reset chips but they're expensive at around 25 dollars 

 

or you could go at 233 uk pounds / $300 and get BROTHER HL-L5210DN  https://www.amazon.co.uk/BROTHER-MFC-L5710DN-Professional-Laser-Printer/dp/B0CNLV7H9W/

 

which comes with a drum unit rated for 75k pages, and then toners come in 3k/6k/11k pages worth of toner - still need a reset chip but you'd use a reset chip every 11k pages instead of every 3k pages  or you'd use third party toners (pre-filled) 

If you buy a genuine XXL toner (11k pages) you can then just refill and swap the reset chip for around 40-50$ a chip (instead of $200+ for genuine toner), the reset chips for 3k toner are cheaper at around $25 dollars 

 

 

Can you explain the reset chip in more detail?

[mariushm]

Basically the toners have a chip and each time you print a page the printer increases a counter inside the chip - the data in the chip is encrypted and each chip has an unique ID and the printer keeps in its memory the last IDs used (some number, up to maybe 32 or 64 or 100, I don't know the exact number) - so you can't just alternate between two resettable chips for example because the printer will reject a chip with an ID that was previously memorized as having 0 pages left and which now reports more than 0 pages left. 

 

When the counter goes too high (for example above 3000 pages for the basic toner) the printer will tell you toner is empty and on some models you may be able to go into an option and select to keep printing, or the printer may not let you print at all even if there's still some powder in the toner. 

 

So if you print a lot, the best strategy is to buy the biggest genuine toner when the one that comes with the printer is empty, and buy reset chips for that big size toner to be able to refill when you've emptied it.

 

In the case of this printer, the TN3600 is good for 3000 pages, TN3600XL is good for 6000, and TN3600XXL is good for 11,000 pages 

 

Reset chips cost ...

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006973767085.html?src=google

: ~ 32$ for the XXL, ~29$ for XL, ~ 25$ 

 

in my country ... between 159 RON, 169 RON, 189 RON ...  5 RON = 1 EUR, so 32 EUR to 38 EUR : https://www.buzzprint.ro/catalog/chipuri-brother-636315/filtru-model-imprimanta-brother-hl-l6410dn-3282

 

but it's worth it, because genuine XXL toner is 200 EUR and you'll refill cost is gonna be 40 EUR + 10 EUR in toner powder.  You're dropping the price from 2 euro cents per page to a quarter of that.

[yepnew]

40 minutes ago, mariushm said:

Basically the toners have a chip and each time you print a page the printer increases a counter inside the chip - the data in the chip is encrypted and each chip has an unique ID and the printer keeps in its memory the last IDs used (some number, up to maybe 32 or 64 or 100, I don't know the exact number) - so you can't just alternate between two resettable chips for example because the printer will reject a chip with an ID that was previously memorized as having 0 pages left and which now reports more than 0 pages left. 

 

When the counter goes too high (for example above 3000 pages for the basic toner) the printer will tell you toner is empty and on some models you may be able to go into an option and select to keep printing, or the printer may not let you print at all even if there's still some powder in the toner. 

 

So if you print a lot, the best strategy is to buy the biggest genuine toner when the one that comes with the printer is empty, and buy reset chips for that big size toner to be able to refill when you've emptied it.

 

In the case of this printer, the TN3600 is good for 3000 pages, TN3600XL is good for 6000, and TN3600XXL is good for 11,000 pages 

 

Reset chips cost ...

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006973767085.html?src=google

: ~ 32$ for the XXL, ~29$ for XL, ~ 25$ 

 

in my country ... between 159 RON, 169 RON, 189 RON ...  5 RON = 1 EUR, so 32 EUR to 38 EUR : https://www.buzzprint.ro/catalog/chipuri-brother-636315/filtru-model-imprimanta-brother-hl-l6410dn-3282

 

but it's worth it, because genuine XXL toner is 200 EUR and you'll refill cost is gonna be 40 EUR + 10 EUR in toner powder.  You're dropping the price from 2 euro cents per page to a quarter of that.

I just realized the printer is monochrome lol. Im looking for colour but thanks for explaining. I will do that

[FlyingPotato_is_taken]

3 hours ago, yepnew said:

i was thinking i could do a sidegig of printing and 3d printing so they seem good. I can let it go automatically while i do school work / game.

BambuLab printer have three operating modes:

- off grid: All network connectivity disabled.

- local: Web interface run directly on the printer. No cloud connection.

- cloud: The 3D-printer connects to the BambuLab cloud. Starting prints, adjusting parameters, cancelling it checking the camera picture on the go (the A1 mini has a basic camera (aka. low frame rate) which is good enough to see if a print failed).

 

Personally I like local as this removes the cloud connection/requirement and meanwhile is possible to use the camera in this mode. If you want to keep an eye on it in school (only during breaks and just a quick glimpse) go with cloud.

 

The end game is to reach a reliability where it is possible to print without babysitting the 3D printer: Click run and wait 36 hours for the print to complete before picking it up/going into the room for the first time. Getting there is hard, even on industrial desktop machines, but rewarding.