Interested in 3D Printing - Recommendations and Hype vs. Reality

[sz0k30]

I worked at an aerospace company and used 3D printing back in the 1980's when it was in it's infancy. It was called "Stereolithography" (SLA) or Rapid Prototyping at the time.

I worked for an Auto Manufacturer in that same time period when all that majic stuff started happening!

 

[Aaron_W]

I'm just going to mention Prusa.

Bambu has taken over the 3d printing market with affordable, easy to use printers and pushed a lot of the one time big players aside.
Prusa is made in the Czech republic, so more expensive than many of the other brands which are from China. Prusa was a leader for many years, still good but they have had to do some catching up when Bamboo showed up with their very user friendly machines.

There have been some concerns over closed systems with some of the brands limiting the options for software available.

I would also look at long term support. I have a Prusa so that is what I know best, and one of the things I like is that they offer upgrades to their printers, so when they release a new version you have the option to upgrade an older printer. Not always cost effective, but with the rapid advances being made in 3D printing, it is a nice option. Other brands do this as well, but not sure which ones since I don't own those.

 

[MooreGarage]

I have two Anycubic S1s that I have not used for 6 months do to all their issues, I would not recommend them at all.

Bambu printers are pretty much the gold standard for 3d printers that you don't have to mess with all the time.

I would suggest looking through this thread, same kinda question comes up a lot in it - https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/threads/the-everything-3d-printer-thread.384990

Or just buy this - https://us.store.bambulab.com/products/p1s?from=navigation&id=732843418674327566

What issues have you had with your Anycubic printers? I've had my Anycubic Kobra S1 with the Ace Pro AMS, and it has been pretty much flawless for 18 months. Other than the fact that it shipped from the factory with a piece of broken filament in the printhead that took a bit of troubleshooting for a newbie to figure out, any issues I've had have been totally self induced (for example, using Bambu g-code on an Anycubic printer, pretty much guaranteed to fail).

I get beautiful prints, with very minimal maintenance.

 

[LeonardY]

@LeonardY have you documented any of your resin printing on this board? I don’t think I have seen anything. I would be interested is hearing how resin printing works and what you use it for.

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