3d printers

[TopNotchWoodworking]

Hello I am a woodworker. I have abit of tech knowledge but not a pro that’s for sure. 
I am considering buying a 3d printer approx $1000 budget for the printer. For doing shop things. And for projects for items for customers that is hard to find.  Small items

 

i am looking for a 3d printer and software that is fairly easy to use. 
 

Computer I will be using is a new m4 pro Mac mini 

[Potatoes__]

Hey, for the budget like this either look into Prusa (MK4 or new CORE one) or Bambulab (P1S). 

 

Prusa is a superbly made Czech machine, the company behind them is super wholesome, they have great support and accessible maintenance/upgrades. Like the only downside they have is the price. I've seen lots of print farms and professionals defaulting to Prusa devices just for sheer reliability. You may even order it fully disassembled and put it together yourself, and save a few hundred $.

 

Bambulabs have a shady reputation as a company (trying to lock users down in cloud infrastructure), generally not really upgradable and maintenance depends on Bambu's willingness or stock of spare parts, but they work absolutely great out of the box (and as long as there are no issues with the hardware) and generally super easy for beginners. Imagine this as a Pixel phone of printers - works wonders when all is good, steals some info on you, made by a shady manufacturer with less than stellar customer care, and may god help you if it starts having issues.

 

Slicers are generally interchangeable so you can use any slicer you like with any (regular) printer you have, some features like remote printing may be locked down though, like starting a print remotely on Bambulabs can be done either via their slicer (Bambu Studio) or a supported alternative with some caveats (Orcaslicer). Personally I recommend Orcaslicer or Prusa Slicer, and avoid Cura. Lots of people love it but I swear every time people report some weird slicing issues it turns out they are on Cura.

 

Edit: oh and by the way, if you want to put your printer in the same space you use for woodwork then prioritize closed printers. Dust and wood chips may accumulate on surfaces and mechanisms and clog something up. And having this stuff on the build plate will prevent the filament from sticking to it properly and that is a huge headache.