(3D printing guru needed) 3D printer and Filament purchase recommendation

[MrElectronic]

Hello fellow LTT fans, I just signed up, I have been watching Linus for years. I follow many techtubers and people making cool projects such as PeterSripol and Tom Stanton, so I wanted to get a 3D printer for myself

 

I have little practical knowledge of 3D printers as I've never owned on, I am pretty tech savvy and given that I already have some theoretical knowledge I think I can handle even a printer with a steep learning curve

 

Here are my requirements for your recommendation of a 3D printer and/or filament (Budget $300-$400):

• Materials which give out prints with good strength when being stretched, not just compressed? AKA tensile strength
  •    I want this because I will be printing stuff akin to plastic coat hangers, hooks to hang stuff around my house etc.
•     Fine detain/resolution: This is a function of the printer you use itself more than the material I think, but some materials MUST be the preferred for this right, and there are so many things to choose from
  •    I want this because I want to replicate Ton Stanton's Air Engine - his clever valve based engine designs are just so fascinating and I want to not only make his air engine but make a small air pump for blowing up balloons
  •    I want to make a cloud chamber with a slight vacuum in some distant future, and I want to be able to make the valve and pump via my 3D printer

Will resin be more suitable for these? Or some other thing? I want to be printing in open air in my work/study/game room so I need a filament which does not give off VOCs or other toxins. Since 3D printing tech has advanced so much I am hoping my budget (which is still a lot for me as a university student) is good enough to get a great quality printer for my use case, I do have a MicroCenter near me.

[strange13930]

9 minutes ago, MrElectronic said:

Hello fellow LTT fans, I just signed up, I have been watching Linus for years. I follow many techtubers and people making cool projects such as PeterSripol and Tom Stanton, so I wanted to get a 3D printer for myself

 

I have little practical knowledge of 3D printers as I've never owned on, I am pretty tech savvy and given that I already have some theoretical knowledge I think I can handle even a printer with a steep learning curve

 

Here are my requirements for your recommendation of a 3D printer and/or filament:

• Materials which give out prints with good strength when being stretched, not just compressed? AKA tensile strength
  •    I want this because I will be printing stuff akin to plastic coat hangers, hooks to hang stuff around my house etc.
•     Fine detain/resolution: This is a function of the printer you use itself more than the material I think, but some materials MUST be the preferred for this right, and there are so many things to choose from
  •    I want this because I want to replicate Ton Stanton's Air Engine - his clever valve based engine designs are just so fascinating and I want to not only make his air engine but make a small air pump for blowing up balloons
  •    I want to make a cloud chamber with a slight vacuum in some distant future, and I want to be able to make the valve and pump via my 3D printer

Will resin be more suitable for these? Or some other thing? I want to be printing in open air in my work/study/game room so I need a filament which does not give off VOCs or other toxins

on my robotics team we have two Bambu labs x1 carbons we using for printing parts for our robot.

[MrElectronic]

2 minutes ago, strange13930 said:

on my robotics team we have two Bambu labs x1 carbons we using for printing parts for our robot.

Thank you for the tip! Those look like great printers, I should have mentioned my budget is around $300-$400, and I do have a MicroCenter near me. I will make those edits to my post.

[manikyath]

30 minutes ago, MrElectronic said:

Will resin be more suitable for these?

generally resin is better at precision and strength, but printing resin at home is a choice you make. it's messy, you have to do post-processing, and you NEED to ventilate the room properly for health reasons.

 

as for an affordable printer, a friend of mine is fairly happyt with his elegoo neptune 4 plus. i sort of have a problem with bambu because they seem to be VERY anti-maker-culture. it sort of feels like buying an electric car made by BP oil.

 

as for what fillament to buy.. start with PLA. PLA doesnt do high temperatures, PLA isnt very wear resistant, but PLA prints easily, is cheap, and it doesnt smell like liquid death while printing. there's some better materials out there for specific usecases, but for every advantage there's a disadvantage. you'll find your way there when you're ready for that.

[Thaldor]

With tensile strength and 3D prints it's comes down more to design than material. Normal FDM plastics like PLA and PETG aren't as strong as resin or ABS, but they are still surprisingly strong as long as you mind your design (layer alignment, seam positioning, infill type and amount...).

 

Resin is probably out of question at that budget since not only you need the printer but you also need the wash and cure stations which are like $100-200 on top and then the ventilation (it's UV-resin, Epoxy, it smells like liquid death and that what it mostly is. Also for washing you need isopropanol, so more liquid death in quite open containers). And then the size, with resin printers at that budget, you are looking at printing a coat hanger in probably like 5-7 pieces. But with air tight designs, without any special post-processing (mostly coating) resin is your only way (again, you can design your way through it using caskets and ready made parts).

Also resin is a bit more expensive than FDM printing in materials.

 

I would also advice against getting any Bambu stuff currently, that company is going UltiMaker, Stratasys, Cricut -path and fast.

[Biohazard777]

1 hour ago, MrElectronic said:

Materials which give out prints with good strength when being stretched, not just compressed? AKA tensile strength

•    I want this because I will be printing stuff akin to plastic coat hangers, hooks to hang stuff around my house etc.

The choice of your fillament IMO is less important,
the orientation of your print is often more critical when it comes to strength.
This is because the layer lines in 3D printing naturally create weak points along the z-axis (height), so if the print is oriented in such a way that forces are applied along the layer lines, the print is more likely to fail.

Say you want to print this:

Printing it, as it is on the picture above and then stretching it along the Z axis (pulling on the ends of the long sides)... yeah your object will almost certainly fail along the layer lines:

(green:compressing = fine, but yellow: stretching = fail)

So, if you want to avoid that, simplest thing to do is to orient your object for printing differently, for example like so:

1 hour ago, MrElectronic said:

want to be printing in open air in my work/study/game room so I need a filament which does not give off VOCs or other toxins

All filaments give off VOC, some are negligible and some are a genuine health concern.
Besides VOC concerns, you should pick the filaments which are easy to print.
So with that in mind (VOC and ease of print):
PLA is a good choice (like @manikyath mentioned already), if you want something a bit more flexible and heat resistant: PETG.
That being said, PETG is a lot more hygroscopic... and wet PETG prints like ass.

Spoiler

not my picture, credit: https://www.reddit.com/r/ender5plus/comments/11nvesa/wet_vs_dry_filament_petg_wow/

So if you don't plan on using up your whole PETG spool in a day or two then you should also get a filament dryer (or DIY one yourself using a food dehydrator, cheaper and ironically often better).
PLA also absorbs moisture, just a lot more slower so you can get away without drying it in most climates.

[MrElectronic]

58 minutes ago, manikyath said:

generally resin is better at precision and strength, but printing resin at home is a choice you make. it's messy, you have to do post-processing, and you NEED to ventilate the room properly for health reasons.

 

as for an affordable printer, a friend of mine is fairly happyt with his elegoo neptune 4 plus. i sort of have a problem with bambu because they seem to be VERY anti-maker-culture. it sort of feels like buying an electric car made by BP oil.

 

as for what fillament to buy.. start with PLA. PLA doesnt do high temperatures, PLA isnt very wear resistant, but PLA prints easily, is cheap, and it doesnt smell like liquid death while printing. there's some better materials out there for specific usecases, but for every advantage there's a disadvantage. you'll find your way there when you're ready for that.

 

23 minutes ago, Thaldor said:

With tensile strength and 3D prints it's comes down more to design than material. Normal FDM plastics like PLA and PETG aren't as strong as resin or ABS, but they are still surprisingly strong as long as you mind your design (layer alignment, seam positioning, infill type and amount...).

 

Resin is probably out of question at that budget since not only you need the printer but you also need the wash and cure stations which are like $100-200 on top and then the ventilation (it's UV-resin, Epoxy, it smells like liquid death and that what it mostly is. Also for washing you need isopropanol, so more liquid death in quite open containers). And then the size, with resin printers at that budget, you are looking at printing a coat hanger in probably like 5-7 pieces. But with air tight designs, without any special post-processing (mostly coating) resin is your only way (again, you can design your way through it using caskets and ready made parts).

Also resin is a bit more expensive than FDM printing in materials.

 

I would also advice against getting any Bambu stuff currently, that company is going UltiMaker, Stratasys, Cricut -path and fast.

Thank you for your advice and experience both of you! I will rule out resin then, the weather does not permit keeping the windows open all the time, and I live in a university dorm. Given how involved it seems to run resin printing I am not going to bother. I still plan to ventilate the room with FDM printing.

 

@manikyath Sure, I will start with PLA. I want to further explain what I mentioned in the post to you and @Thaldor. For making some of the air engines, pumps to blow up balloons etc. I am thinking I'll need to make a valve akin to the one seen at 3:00 in this youtube video further, the STL files for the air engine are listed in the description, here is the link for the STL files.

 

This shows the level of intricate/high resolution/fine detail stuff I want to make, print speed, print size are not a problem as I am making small stuff. Given this, do yall have any recommendations for printers? I will try to avoid Bambu, but I still want to know if anything they have fits my needs within my budget.

 

Edit: Also I have noted the elegoo neptune 4 plus mentioned, will look into it, more recommendations welcome. I will also be coming back with more questions later.

[MrElectronic]

8 minutes ago, Biohazard777 said:

The choice of your fillament IMO is less important,
the orientation of your print is often more critical when it comes to strength.
This is because the layer lines in 3D printing naturally create weak points along the z-axis (height), so if the print is oriented in such a way that forces are applied along the layer lines, the print is more likely to fail.

Say you want to print this:

Printing it, as it is on the picture above and then stretching it along the Z axis (pulling on the ends of the long sides)... yeah your object will almost certainly fail along the layer lines:

(green:compressing = fine, but yellow: stretching = fail)

So, if you want to avoid that, simplest thing to do is to orient your object for printing differently, for example like so:

All filaments give off VOC, some are negligible and some are a genuine health concern.
Besides VOC concerns, you should pick the filaments which are easy to print.
So with that in mind (VOC and ease of print):
PLA is a good choice (like @manikyath mentioned already), if you want something a bit more flexible and heat resistant: PETG.
That being said, PETG is a lot more hygroscopic... and wet PETG prints like ass.

  Hide contents

So if you don't plan on using up your whole PETG spool in a day or two then you should also get a filament dryer (or DIY one yourself using a food dehydrator, cheaper and ironically often better).
PLA also absorbs moisture, just a lot more slower so you can get away without drying it in most climates.

Thanks a lot! This save me so much experimentation. When you buy the filament spools then, do they come in an air tight packaging? The weather now gets pretty humid for me so I suppose that is another reason to go with PLA. Please also look at the previous reply I made just now and pitch in your recommendation for a printer.

[voyager_]

Within that budget you'll be pretty limited but I would go bambu A1, you can add an ams later but for what you describe it's not needed. It's a very capable printer. I have one and an x1C. The x1c is my go to and workhorse but I use the A1 for smaller prints while the x1c is running or TPU since those prints tend to take the longest. I would look at some sort of enclose for it, it doesn't need to be perfect it's mostly to protect it from drafts and to help regulate the temp. Something like your ac kicking on and blowing near it can cause a print to warp of lift. 

 

Getting into filaments can take you down a rabbit hole but the main ones to consider are PLA+, PETG, and TPU and the a1 can print all of them. If you go with a fiber reinforced filament you will need a hardened tip but they aren't expensive to swap. Depending on detail level you may also want a .2 hotend instead of a .4  keep in mind fiber filaments can't use that small of a tip and it will extend print times by a surprising amount. Different filaments all have use case that they work better for. I use pla for test prints and stuff that will stay inside, petg will work well outside it has a higher working temp and can handle UV much better (Outside/high heat I go ASA though, but not with an A1), TPU is crazy versatile and very strong with still being pretty flexible. The strength is really down more to the design and way it's printed. You ultimately need to be realistic with what you print, you mentioned a vacuum chamber and a pump both tend to have have high friction and generate a decent amount of heat. 3D printing may not work well here, i'm not saying it can't but it's something to bear in mind. For making objects that can handle tension it's important to design around your print orientation and layer lines that way you are not relying completely on the adhesion between layers

 

As far as detail level goes a resin printer is much better for fine details but there is a lot more to using one then just loading it with firmament like a FDM printer. 

 

You may also want to look at buying a drier and filament vacuum bags. PLA isn't so bad with it but PETG and TPU will absorb moisture and can cause printing issues.

[voyager_]

15 minutes ago, MrElectronic said:

 

I will try to avoid Bambu, but I still want to know if anything they have fits my needs within my budget.

 

I would still consider bambu, I know people aren't happy with the recent firmware and software changes but they make great printers. I started with a creality ender and hated the thing and tried a creality k2 and had problems within a few days so i ended up returning it to microcenter and bought the x1c, It's been a workhorse and I added an A1 and both have been fantastic and just work. 

[MrElectronic]

2 minutes ago, voyager_ said:

I would still consider bambu, I know people aren't happy with the recent firmware and software changes but they make great printers. I started with a creality ender and hated the thing and tried a creality k2 and had problems within a few days so i ended up returning it to microcenter and bought the x1c, It's been a workhorse and I added an A1 and both have been fantastic and just work. 

Great, can you please take a look at the STL files I linked and let me know if the A1 can handle this, and would I need the 0.2 hotend for this? Can you get the new hotend at MicroCenter or do you need to order it online and get it shipped?

[Thaldor]

33 minutes ago, MrElectronic said:

Great, can you please take a look at the STL files I linked and let me know if the A1 can handle this, and would I need the 0.2 hotend for this? Can you get the new hotend at MicroCenter or do you need to order it online and get it shipped?

Easily. For air engine I would probably go with 0.15 layer height and add more perimeters just to be sure it really is air tight (which it won't be unless you coat the insides with thin layer or silicone or some lacquer or thin layer of CA-glue, with that you can remove some bulk mass from that also).

 

0.2mm hotend you probably won't need unless you want to start competing with resin printers in printing minis, but that is a lost cause. If you would need some other than 0.4mm hotend it would be 0.6 or even 0.8 because you will more come with the problem of not really needing that much precision and details but just pure speed through the printing volume.

[Biohazard777]

14 minutes ago, MrElectronic said:

When you buy the filament spools then, do they come in an air tight packaging?

They do, sealed and a small pack of dessicant inside, ready to go.
 

2 minutes ago, MrElectronic said:

Great, can you please take a look at the STL files I linked and let me know if the A1 can handle this, and would I need the 0.2 hotend for this? Can you get the new hotend at MicroCenter or do you need to order it online and get it shipped?

Lets start by reading the thingiverse thing details:

Quote

Print info:
Material: PLA (I prefer PLA as it's easy to get strong layer strength)
Nozzle diameter - 0.4mm
Print width - 0.5mm
Layer height - 0.2mm

0.4mm is the default nozzle diameter on most printers, including Bambu A1.
So you don't need to change/order anything.

I've taken a look at the STLs, and I've printed smaller things with a bigger nozzle (0.6mm) on an ancient printer (Anet A8, though heavily modified one).
So I don't think you will have any issues printing this whatever you end up buying in the $300-400 range.
That being said, I am against 3D printing gears in general... fine for a prototype or something you will rarely use, but for everything else... buy proper gears (it will perform better and last way longer).
 

3 hours ago, MrElectronic said:

Budget $300-$400
...
Please also look at the previous reply I made just now and pitch in your recommendation for a printer.

Bed slingers:
Sovol SV06 Ace
Bambu A1

CoreXY & Enclosed:
Elegoo Centauri Carbon

Each one has its strengths and weaknesses.
I’d suggest checking them out yourself before making a final decision, but overall, any of them should work fine for you.

[MrElectronic]

On 5/20/2025 at 1:08 PM, Thaldor said:

I would also advice against getting any Bambu stuff currently, that company is going UltiMaker, Stratasys, Cricut -path and fast.

Thank you @Thaldor, now that I have a range of choices, I want to circle back to this. Can you explain what exactly are they (Bambu) doing? 

 

I have never even heard of any of those other brands I think, I am still new to this, but eager to learn so don't be averse from spelling it all out. I want to know, are they asking for money to use software? Is their software invasive to your privacy/security? Any of those things would get a ding from me. I would prefer free and open source software for everything, but also I am going to go out on a limb and assume 3D printer open source software is going to have a much steeper learning curve with worse UI than OEM's proprietary software

 

On 5/20/2025 at 6:22 PM, Biohazard777 said:

Each one has its strengths and weaknesses

@Biohazard777 thank you for your list, I've researched and it looks like the Elgoo is great and aggressively priced, will be strongly considered, will have to see if the community has fixes for common problems this one seems to have

 

On 5/20/2025 at 6:22 PM, Biohazard777 said:

whatever you end up buying in the $300-400 range

yep, I would like to mention here, this is the absolute maximum, if I am sacrificing just print speed with no impact on fidelity, type of stuff I can print (as mentioned) I would still go for something in the 250-300 range, but I know I would end up losing whatever money I save in lost time tinkering etc. and I rather not lose more sleep and time than I have to spare - if the printer requires anything other than minor fixes I can deploy following online directions within a couple hours over a weekend to just get printing, chances are it will be collecting dust for weeks - so, suppose I instead go for a Creality Ender 3 V3 (going for $280), what kind of issues would I run into, drawing from your experience? From my research it looks like even in this price range, the A1 mini is better

[Thaldor]

3 hours ago, MrElectronic said:

Thank you @Thaldor, now that I have a range of choices, I want to circle back to this. Can you explain what exactly are they (Bambu) doing? 

 

I have never even heard of any of those other brands I think, I am still new to this, but eager to learn so don't be averse from spelling it all out. I want to know, are they asking for money to use software? Is their software invasive to your privacy/security? Any of those things would get a ding from me.

Spoiler

Stratasys is the OG 3D-printing company from the 80's, their patents expired in the early 00's and started the current 3D printing boom. That said, they make industry printers; 6 figure sums, completely locked down to the level that you need to pay the $100-200 for the around 1.5kg spool of PLA because RFID-tags in spools, their slicer is garbage, you can't even change their LAN IP-address without calling certified on-site service to do it for you, pretty much their saving grace is that they make even Bambu printers look difficult to use.

UltiMaker is another very old brand. Started as one of the first premium consumer printers and were their times Bambu Lab. Got bought by Stratasys and well, just read above. They are the "prosumer" line for Stratasys so it comes with a bit flexibility like you can get plastic to print from everywhere that still makes 2.85mm filament, you could basicly use any slicer to make the G-code to print with one but they do a bit their own things (heavily locked behind patents) and so you're basicly locked down to Cura Slicer with them. Of course, Stratasys is written all over it, the marketing is aimed towards the CEO's of companies rather than anyone really knowing a shit about 3D printing and... Let's put it this way. The current cream of the crop, you want the best in tech, in use and are ready to pay for it, Prusa XL with 5-tool changer with enclosure costs you assembled around 4,800€. The newest addition to UltiMaker lineup, the S8, doesn't even compete in the same league as Prusa XL, its "big" trick is that it has two extruders which with separately sold material bay can multiplex from 6 spools of stuff, its pretty much the same speed as current fastests consumer printers and... Oh, the price! 8,200€ and with the Material Bay 10,500€. Over twice the price and apart from its "trick"... Just... You get the cheapest CoreXY printer (Creality K1, Sovol SV08, Bambu X1/P1...) and you basicly have a better printer than the UltiMaker S8.

 

Cricut has made appearance on LTT videos. It's a vinyl cutter and probably fine in it. However why they are here is that their printers only work with Cricut Cloud and while it has a free plan, it has limited design uploads per month. Also their new printer is basicly just the same as the old one, just higher price and new ad campaign. I'm not 100-sure they went with the limited design uploads because they did backpedal and fast from it once the community got angry, but I got the image they did at least something that way from Cricut Maker 4 video on ShortCircuit.

Bambu Labs basicly have all the cards in the middle of the table for everyone to see. Their printers main conenction method is through the Bambu Cloud which plays the big role because it accepts to only talk with Bambu Studio, otherwise you go with the offline-mode with some hassle, currently not much since they backpedaled and a lot from the initial push for "It's our printer, fuck you!", they have RFID chips in their spools currently only for their AMS system can detect and automatically set up material for the slicer, and all of that is currently fine just because policy.

All they need to go full on Stratasys is to change their policy and go full anti-consumer. And sadly, nothing in this world is simpler than policy change, just push out new TOS, firmware update, close your eyes and ears, and done.

Oh, and if you think you will be save if you wouldn't update your Bambu printer, they have a part in their TOS stating that they can make your printer unable to print until you update the firmware. How fun is that?

 

Quote

I would prefer free and open source software for everything, but also I am going to go out on a limb and assume 3D printer open source software is going to have a much steeper learning curve with worse UI than OEM's proprietary software

Pretty much currently everything in your budget range is open source, except Bambu hardware and firmware. Even Bambu Studio is just a fork of Prusa Slicer which is based on Slic3r. Firmware side, unless you go with Bambu, you go with Klipper, everyone uses it or forks of it, Creality, Sovol, Elegoo, just about everyone except the few exceptions (Bambu, Prusa, and the way out of your budget).

 

And when it comes to really proprietary software, oh boy, it sucks, it really fucking sucks.

Anyone can install and register an account to use GrabCAD Print, the slicer only for Stratasys printers, but don't, because that is how much it sucks. Only real thing to take from it would be the probably heavily patented purge tower placement (it has its own little area on the build plate outside of the printing area). If you want to get a close call with it just use Cura, your can config your printer into it and get usable G-code but it still has a lot more options than GrabCAD and there's still big reasons why it's really fitting that "Kura" in Finnish means "mud" as wet dirt staining your clothes (or in slang also diarrhea).

I have used Prusa Slicer since beginning and really the only one that I have used and which I think really is par with it is Orca Slicer. Cura is probably made for ease of use, hiding pretty much every setting you could use behind a list where you must go and manually enable them to be changed in the main UI, especially the speed settings for your printer use different terms from everyone else for your confusion, and it's just a slicer. You need a spacer that in Prusa you just add a cylinder to the print table, set the size of it, add another cylinder as negative space in the middle of the first one and you have a spacer ready to be print, no no no, that's job for CAD programs. Cura cannot even separate and manipulate separately two objects imported from one file, let alone spawn a simple shape to test the settings on.

 

And GrabCAD is very much a downgrade from that. You cannot even disable it using a raft as adhesion for the print, you will be wasting a shitton of your very expensive water soluble support material to print a fucking raft under your print because the software is that much undeveloped. Stuff like configuration shapes (adding a shape within which some print options are changed like amount of infill), manipulating objects with objects (merging objects, adding voids to objects... You know, you need a hook to a thing so you just bring a model of a hook to the slicer with the thing, place it and the slicer happily makes you a print with the thing and hook merged), leave alone playing with settings like leaving out the top layers or anything more daring is like some futuristic Sci-Fi technology to Stratasys.

[MrElectronic]

On 5/24/2025 at 1:14 PM, Thaldor said:

  Reveal hidden contents

Stratasys is the OG 3D-printing company from the 80's, their patents expired in the early 00's and started the current 3D printing boom. That said, they make industry printers; 6 figure sums, completely locked down to the level that you need to pay the $100-200 for the around 1.5kg spool of PLA because RFID-tags in spools, their slicer is garbage, you can't even change their LAN IP-address without calling certified on-site service to do it for you, pretty much their saving grace is that they make even Bambu printers look difficult to use.

UltiMaker is another very old brand. Started as one of the first premium consumer printers and were their times Bambu Lab. Got bought by Stratasys and well, just read above. They are the "prosumer" line for Stratasys so it comes with a bit flexibility like you can get plastic to print from everywhere that still makes 2.85mm filament, you could basicly use any slicer to make the G-code to print with one but they do a bit their own things (heavily locked behind patents) and so you're basicly locked down to Cura Slicer with them. Of course, Stratasys is written all over it, the marketing is aimed towards the CEO's of companies rather than anyone really knowing a shit about 3D printing and... Let's put it this way. The current cream of the crop, you want the best in tech, in use and are ready to pay for it, Prusa XL with 5-tool changer with enclosure costs you assembled around 4,800€. The newest addition to UltiMaker lineup, the S8, doesn't even compete in the same league as Prusa XL, its "big" trick is that it has two extruders which with separately sold material bay can multiplex from 6 spools of stuff, its pretty much the same speed as current fastests consumer printers and... Oh, the price! 8,200€ and with the Material Bay 10,500€. Over twice the price and apart from its "trick"... Just... You get the cheapest CoreXY printer (Creality K1, Sovol SV08, Bambu X1/P1...) and you basicly have a better printer than the UltiMaker S8.

 

Cricut has made appearance on LTT videos. It's a vinyl cutter and probably fine in it. However why they are here is that their printers only work with Cricut Cloud and while it has a free plan, it has limited design uploads per month. Also their new printer is basicly just the same as the old one, just higher price and new ad campaign. I'm not 100-sure they went with the limited design uploads because they did backpedal and fast from it once the community got angry, but I got the image they did at least something that way from Cricut Maker 4 video on ShortCircuit.

Bambu Labs basicly have all the cards in the middle of the table for everyone to see. Their printers main conenction method is through the Bambu Cloud which plays the big role because it accepts to only talk with Bambu Studio, otherwise you go with the offline-mode with some hassle, currently not much since they backpedaled and a lot from the initial push for "It's our printer, fuck you!", they have RFID chips in their spools currently only for their AMS system can detect and automatically set up material for the slicer, and all of that is currently fine just because policy.

All they need to go full on Stratasys is to change their policy and go full anti-consumer. And sadly, nothing in this world is simpler than policy change, just push out new TOS, firmware update, close your eyes and ears, and done.

Oh, and if you think you will be save if you wouldn't update your Bambu printer, they have a part in their TOS stating that they can make your printer unable to print until you update the firmware. How fun is that?

 

Pretty much currently everything in your budget range is open source, except Bambu hardware and firmware. Even Bambu Studio is just a fork of Prusa Slicer which is based on Slic3r. Firmware side, unless you go with Bambu, you go with Klipper, everyone uses it or forks of it, Creality, Sovol, Elegoo, just about everyone except the few exceptions (Bambu, Prusa, and the way out of your budget).

 

And when it comes to really proprietary software, oh boy, it sucks, it really fucking sucks.

Anyone can install and register an account to use GrabCAD Print, the slicer only for Stratasys printers, but don't, because that is how much it sucks. Only real thing to take from it would be the probably heavily patented purge tower placement (it has its own little area on the build plate outside of the printing area). If you want to get a close call with it just use Cura, your can config your printer into it and get usable G-code but it still has a lot more options than GrabCAD and there's still big reasons why it's really fitting that "Kura" in Finnish means "mud" as wet dirt staining your clothes (or in slang also diarrhea).

I have used Prusa Slicer since beginning and really the only one that I have used and which I think really is par with it is Orca Slicer. Cura is probably made for ease of use, hiding pretty much every setting you could use behind a list where you must go and manually enable them to be changed in the main UI, especially the speed settings for your printer use different terms from everyone else for your confusion, and it's just a slicer. You need a spacer that in Prusa you just add a cylinder to the print table, set the size of it, add another cylinder as negative space in the middle of the first one and you have a spacer ready to be print, no no no, that's job for CAD programs. Cura cannot even separate and manipulate separately two objects imported from one file, let alone spawn a simple shape to test the settings on.

 

And GrabCAD is very much a downgrade from that. You cannot even disable it using a raft as adhesion for the print, you will be wasting a shitton of your very expensive water soluble support material to print a fucking raft under your print because the software is that much undeveloped. Stuff like configuration shapes (adding a shape within which some print options are changed like amount of infill), manipulating objects with objects (merging objects, adding voids to objects... You know, you need a hook to a thing so you just bring a model of a hook to the slicer with the thing, place it and the slicer happily makes you a print with the thing and hook merged), leave alone playing with settings like leaving out the top layers or anything more daring is like some futuristic Sci-Fi technology to Stratasys.

I see, like mentioned I have not heard of stratasys but glad I have not, from reading all this it is apparent they're very anti-consumer. I'm curious and want learn here, it is obvious that Bambu is trying to rug pull everyone into their restrictive policies, say you never connect your printer to the internet, then will it be able to stop printing based on their anti-consumer BS policy change? A bit of googling tells me I can use the device in offline mode, are there issues with this that you see? I will do more research on this before I buy a 3d printer but from what I have researched so far, it seems you can use the printer in LAN mode, am I right? I do not feel like trusting this company, this brings it down in terms of a potential buy but I want to know if there is still a way to use their hardware so they don't collect my data or send my activity to their cloud

[Thaldor]

On 5/28/2025 at 5:56 AM, MrElectronic said:

I see, like mentioned I have not heard of stratasys but glad I have not, from reading all this it is apparent they're very anti-consumer. I'm curious and want learn here, it is obvious that Bambu is trying to rug pull everyone into their restrictive policies, say you never connect your printer to the internet, then will it be able to stop printing based on their anti-consumer BS policy change? A bit of googling tells me I can use the device in offline mode, are there issues with this that you see? I will do more research on this before I buy a 3d printer but from what I have researched so far, it seems you can use the printer in LAN mode, am I right? I do not feel like trusting this company, this brings it down in terms of a potential buy but I want to know if there is still a way to use their hardware so they don't collect my data or send my activity to their cloud

TBH, it's not that big deal currently, but it's something to keep in mind when considering printers. Bambu will probably stay the same for a long long time if nothing drastic happens like they loose a lot of money or get acquired by someone who needs/wants a lot of money.

 

IMO (I have never had Bambu printer), cutting them to offline or LAN only sounds like bringing them to the same line as any Klipper printer out there. Actually, a bit lower because about the same price you're getting bigger printers, open printers (Klipper) and there's a lot to choose from. And with everything, I don't think my about a year old Sovol SV07+ or half a year old Voron 2.4 are missing any features Bambu has developed, both are running Klipper with Mainsail connected to my WLAN and I can monitor/control both of them from anywhere in the world by just starting a VPN connection to my home network. Probably the AMS system but I see all of them as gimmicks and waste of filament (is it cool, definedly, but the couple times I would use it ain't worth the shoebox full of 3D printer poopings, also I'm way too down the rabbit hole for just having one pooping toolhead, unless it's something like Mosaic which is like AMS but expensive, cooler and doesn't poop).

 

But something to really learn from all of this is that there's a lot of "talk" in 3D printing world.

Like the whole Bambu Lab thing, is it a bad, yes, is it really something bad that right here and now matters, no, should anyone really care about it, depends. Similar topics are the weakness of PLA (it's weaker than ABS and PETG, but the real differences are that it's super easy to print but it gets soft in rather low temperatures), ease of Bambu printers (they are easier than just the general consumer printers, but not really that much, you just don't need to manually bed level them and that job is like 5 minutes after whenever you have needed to touch the bed or the printhead so much they have gone out of align or like once a month, seriously, because all of the "talk" I was thinking my first couple of weeks with a 3D printer that wasn't the all mighty Bambu would be pain and failed prints, turns out reading the fucking manual and following couple general tips and I had my first Benchy with the first print), and a ton of others.