Recommend an inexpensive 3D printer please.

[gte718p]

Do you have any actual info to cite or just vaguely racist fearmongering about ThE ChInEsE!!1!

Zeonphobia is always fun, but Bambu's recent actions have been very anti consumer and pro Bambu. Very capitalist of them, but it is clear they are going to do what makes the most money for them. At least to me it is seems like they are positioning themselves up to transition to subscription model. If your device can't talk to the mothership, its a brick. They are pushing out the aftermarket. You can see it in their press releases. They market it as "security" and "quality assurance" but they are trying to lock out the aftermarket across the board, not just in the slicer. Two or three updates and you are going to have to use Bambu approved filament with the RFID tags and probably QR coded nozzles.

Bambu makes nice printers. I was about to go down that route. However, after the slicer debacle, I'm not willing to go down that rabbit hole and invest in that ecosystem.

My main printer is a RatRig v3 running clipper, and I'm currently rebuilding/upgrading my ender3 clone to run Klipper and be dual extruder. It is still a relevant printer after almost 10 years.

As for the CCP thing, just because your paranoid doesn't mean they are not out to get you.

 

[gte718p]

That hits WAY too close to home. Been fighting with stringing and retraction settings, printing endless test parts on my old Ender 3.

Order is in for a fullsize A1 combo kit.

Bambu makes good printers, however they are not a cure all. My coworker who sits on the other side of the cubical wall is currently fighting his Bambu. He is having random print failures and stringing. He started in the Bambu world so he doesn't understand how it works and how to adjust it. If you venture outside of the Bambu RFID tagged filaments you still have to get the setting tuned.

 

[ptt49er]

Bambu makes good printers, however they are not a cure all. My coworker who sits on the other side of the cubical wall is currently fighting his Bambu. He is having random print failures and stringing. He started in the Bambu world so he doesn't understand how it works and how to adjust it. If you venture outside of the Bambu RFID tagged filaments you still have to get the setting tuned.

We battled failures and stringing and it was a bad spool or two of filament.

The generic petg and generic abs material settings have treated us well.

 

[mike93lx]

For the folks against Bambu, what printer do you recommend that isn't a project itself?

 

[gte718p]

For the folks against Bambu, what printer do you recommend that isn't a project itself?

It depends.

What is the goal.

I still think the ender3 is a good gateway platform. Its cheap and can grow with you. While it doesn't satisfy the not a project category, it is there is a huge community of knowledge online. Parts are cheap and easy if anything goes wrong. You are looking around $200 to get into it. If you stay in the hobby you will likely spend another $200 upgrading it in the first year or so. You will eventual out grow it and it will be relegated to a backup or secondary printer. Working through that initial problem stage give you a better understanding of 3D printing in general and helps when you have problems with your fancy plug and play printer.

Creality and Qidi both make coreXY printers that are slightly more expensive but good to go out of the box. They have a lot more capability but $500 or so out the door.

Prusa is kind of the gold standard for hobby printers. They are expensive and probably don't justify their price, but the community is supportive and extremely active. Because of the community support, they are pretty dialed in. Settings are available for damn near anything you can imagine.

 

[mike93lx]

It depends.

What is the goal.

I still think the ender3 is a good gateway platform. Its cheap and can grow with you. While it doesn't satisfy the not a project category, it is there is a huge community of knowledge online. Parts are cheap and easy if anything goes wrong. You are looking around $200 to get into it. If you stay in the hobby you will likely spend another $200 upgrading it in the first year or so. You will eventual out grow it and it will be relegated to a backup or secondary printer. Working through that initial problem stage give you a better understanding of 3D printing in general and helps when you have problems with your fancy plug and play printer.

Creality and Qidi both make coreXY printers that are slightly more expensive but good to go out of the box. They have a lot more capability but $500 or so out the door.

Prusa is kind of the gold standard for hobby printers. They are expensive and probably don't justify their price, but the community is supportive and extremely active. Because of the community support, they are pretty dialed in. Settings are available for damn near anything you can imagine.

I want to learn a little 3D CAD and have a few ideas for things I would like to make. I do not want to develop a 3d printer modification hobby, though.

Best analogy I can think of is shooting. I enjoy the hobby/sport but am really not interested in building/modifying firearms...I want to pull a trigger and hit something far away. I tried reloading and generally disliked the tinkering and troubleshooting, so I buy factory ammo.

 

[Damon L.]

I don't have one yet, but I have a couple of friends with Elegoo Centauri Carbon printers, and I am considering the same. DO any of you have experience with these units?

 

[gte718p]

That is fair. Bambu may be for you. To be fair I think they make a good printer, they are just positioning themselves to bleed you dry. They are already messaging subscriptions are coming.

As much as people would like you to believe otherwise 3d printing is a skill. It is no different from woodworking or machining. You need to learn the fundamentals. There will be problems. I don’t care if you have a $100 ender, $1000 Bambu, or a $10k surface forge. Most problems are easy to overcome if you have spent the time to learn.

 

[aka Larry]

I want to learn a little 3D CAD and have a few ideas for things I would like to make. I do not want to develop a 3d printer modification hobby, though.

Best analogy I can think of is shooting. I enjoy the hobby/sport but am really not interested in building/modifying firearms...I want to pull a trigger and hit something far away. I tried reloading and generally disliked the tinkering and troubleshooting, so I buy factory ammo.

Mike, you and I sound like the same person. I agree with you 100% on both points.

 

[niget2002]

For the folks against Bambu, what printer do you recommend that isn't a project itself?

Qidi makes some really nice printers as well. Their new models sometimes take a few iterations to work some bugs out, but once they've been out for a while, they seem to do well. When I was fighting issues with the printer I built, I was starting to get close to picking up the Qidi Plus4. The only thing that kept me from doing it was waiting to see how their qidibox came out (their product to compete with AMS).

While waiting for the qidibox, I fixed the rest of the major bugs on my personal build, so I'm not in the market to buy one anymore.

 

[mike93lx]

That is fair. Bambu may be for you. To be fair I think they make a good printer, they are just positioning themselves to bleed you dry. They are already messaging subscriptions are coming.

As much as people would like you to believe otherwise 3d printing is a skill. It is no different from woodworking or machining. You need to learn the fundamentals. There will be problems. I don’t care if you have a $100 ender, $1000 Bambu, or a $10k surface forge. Most problems are easy to overcome if you have spent the time to learn.

Like running any machinery, I'd fully expect to need to develop some trouble shooting skills.

 

[mike93lx]

@jeepxj where are you on this one?

 

[jeepxj]

@jeepxj where are you on this one?

"If you want to get into 3D printing, get a Bambu. If you want to get into 3D printers, get an Ender."

.

 

[gte718p]

Like running any machinery, I'd fully expect to need to develop some trouble shooting skills.

Just my opinion but it is better to learn those skills on a cheap machine. The A1 is cool, but you will out grow it quickly and honestly don't learn much. The lessons you do learn are expensive.

If you enjoy it then you jump to something like an X1.

I'm currently working with my boss/coworker on how to trouble shoot his bambu X1. It worked great up until it didn't. Now he has a $1000 paper weight and doesn't have the experience or interest to make it work. I'm kind of hoping to pick up a good deal I've seen this play out a couple of time and it is why I recommend going cheap in the beginning.

 

[mike93lx]

Just my opinion but it is better to learn those skills on a cheap machine. The A1 is cool, but you will out grow it quickly and honestly don't learn much. The lessons you do learn are expensive.

If you enjoy it then you jump to something like an X1.

I'm currently working with my boss/coworker on how to trouble shoot his bambu X1. It worked great up until it didn't. Now he has a $1000 paper weight and doesn't have the experience or interest to make it work. I'm kind of hoping to pick up a good deal I've seen this play out a couple of time and it is why I recommend going cheap in the beginning.

Fair take.

 

[KwikFab]

It's been several days, I'm sure the author already purchased something?

My A1 Mini arrives today, and my spool arrived yesterday as I got a 1kg spool from Sunlu.

Don't know **** about **** so we'll see how it goes.

 

[tak1313]

Is the Bambu controversy "solved?"

 

[mike93lx]

Is the Bambu controversy "solved?"

Doesn't sound like it

 

[Mandres]

I don't have one yet, but I have a couple of friends with Elegoo Centauri Carbon printers, and I am considering the same. DO any of you have experience with these units?

I've been interested in the elegoo too. It seems like a competitor to the bambu p1 at a lower price. I would have already ordered a Bambu, but I don't like this "walled garden" ecosystem they seem to be pursuing. That's against the spirit of 3d printing and open source engineering in general. I'm not supporting that.

I don't know enough about the elegoo centauri to say if those concerns are valid on their platform. Reviews on the machine itself seem generally positive.

 

[KwikFab]

@gayler

What's the verdict?

 

[Firebrick43]

Do you have any actual info to cite or just vaguely racist fearmongering about ThE ChInEsE!!1!

Grow up.

One can be concerned about the back doors they have installed, quality, trademark, IP issues, and security issues of products made in the PRC and it isn’t racist. Chinese hackers have even regularly attacked this forum

Many of us are quite satisfied with products made in Taiwan, also ethnically Chinese. It’s not a race issue.

 

[jeepxj]

you can run the bambu series in lan only mode. its NBD.

 

[Cruzan80]

don't like this "walled garden" ecosystem they seem to be pursuing. That's against the spirit of 3d printing

Sorry, but this is just a line that Prusa started and has been pushed by others. 3D printing from the outset was never about being open-source. There are several companies and file-hostings that promote it, but not the overall industry. Look at how mad Makerbot was when others started making versions that were similar.

It would be like saying purchasing or subscription software was against the "spirit" of computer programming, because of free-ware/share-ware.

If you don't like how Bambu does stuff, you don't have to buy it. But please stop parroting this "free and open 3D printing from the outset" line. It is revisionist history at best.

 

[Cruzan80]

At least to me it is seems like they are positioning themselves up to transition to subscription model. If your device can't talk to the mothership, its a brick. They are pushing out the aftermarket. You can see it in their press releases. They market it as "security" and "quality assurance" but they are trying to lock out the aftermarket across the board, not just in the slicer. Two or three updates and you are going to have to use Bambu approved filament with the RFID tags and probably QR coded nozzles.

As has been stated, this is just speculation. I have X1C printers that have not seen a network connection in over 2 yrs, and still work just fine. Transfer files via Micro-SD, downloaded a copy of Bambu Slicer that was current when I unboxed the printer, and all is fine.

While it could happen that they continue to lock it down, I don't think it will happen. They were transparent about aftermarket mods from the beginning ("Hey, these may stop working as we change stuff"). When they did change something, everyone got upset, even though it had been a listed possibility for a long time. The slicer even has multiple brands of filament listed, so I highly doubt they are going to only Bambu filament.

 

[Citation]

For the folks against Bambu, what printer do you recommend that isn't a project itself?

Let's start by noting that the various V3 Enders are MUCH better than the older stuff. The older Enders needed things like manual bed leveling etc. Starting with the Ender3 SE the machines had full auto bed leveling, etc. Basically they started to become print and forget However, for lower price printers I've really liked the Flashforge printers. I have a 5M. Great hardware. However, the limit, which applies to many other printers as well, is you need to learn how to slice your own files and setup the filament settings. Bambu's overall software package is very good but if you are OK with generic Orca slicer, Flashfordge is more hardware for the same price as an A1 mini.

Quite a few other options are also good. Even with something like the Bambu you aren't dealing with print and forget like a modern paper printer. It's very easy to send a Bambu printer a print job that will fail.

 

[gte718p]

As has been stated, this is just speculation. I have X1C printers that have not seen a network connection in over 2 yrs, and still work just fine. Transfer files via Micro-SD, downloaded a copy of Bambu Slicer that was current when I unboxed the printer, and all is fine.

While it could happen that they continue to lock it down, I don't think it will happen. They were transparent about aftermarket mods from the beginning ("Hey, these may stop working as we change stuff"). When they did change something, everyone got upset, even though it had been a listed possibility for a long time. The slicer even has multiple brands of filament listed, so I highly doubt they are going to only Bambu filament.

Your right it is speculation. However, if you update your firmware to the latest version all previous versions of Bambu slicer and all external slicers magically stop working. They have already started messaging their subscription service. It doesn’t exist yet, but it’s coming.

The AMS originally required rfid tagged spools. They backed off after community outrage.

Trend analysis is a powerful tool. It’s not exclusively a Bambu problem. If you want to invest yourself in that ecosystem you should do it with your eyes open.

I have repeatly acknowledged they make good printers. They do. I just see it going down the road of Autodesk and Fusion360. It was and is great software. They advertised it would always be free to makers. After the community embraced it, beta tested and developed it, they turned on the community. While it is still technically available free, they make it harder and harder to find each year and take away features while pushing the subscription hard. It really seems like that is the exact tack Bambu is taking.

 

[Mandres]

As has been stated, this is just speculation. I have X1C printers that have not seen a network connection in over 2 yrs, and still work just fine. Transfer files via Micro-SD, downloaded a copy of Bambu Slicer that was current when I unboxed the printer, and all is fine.

While it could happen that they continue to lock it down, I don't think it will happen. They were transparent about aftermarket mods from the beginning ("Hey, these may stop working as we change stuff"). When they did change something, everyone got upset, even though it had been a listed possibility for a long time. The slicer even has multiple brands of filament listed, so I highly doubt they are going to only Bambu filament.

Well that's somewhat reassuring. I admit I haven't kept up with the news since the big dust up a while back.

 

[LopezBart]

Cory Doctorow coined a word for the behavior we see: ****************:

Here is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die. I call this ****************, and it is a seemingly inevitable consequence arising from the combination of the ease of changing how a platform allocates value, combined with the nature of a "two-sided market", where a platform sits between buyers and sellers, hold each hostage to the other, raking off an ever-larger share of the value that passes between them.

The basic behavior is predatory exploitation. Wikipedia (of course) has a good discussion with many examples: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/****************

 

[KwikFab]

As is tradition

 

[Shocker]

Do you have any actual info to cite or just vaguely racist fearmongering about ThE ChInEsE!!1!

I think that is one of the stupidest things I have ever read here. There is plenty of info regarding the CCP collecting info wherever and whenever they can. Anyways, I can't help you.

 

[pcrov]

Anyways, I can't help you.

Yep, that's what I figured. You make a claim that:

There is a ton of info on this all over the boards. You will not be able to update firmware if you want to print direct.

And when asked for actual info you hand-wave about the CCP? You're losing your marbles, bud.

 

[KwikFab]

Will add, after we got back from trick or treating with the kid, I printed this out using the new PLA I had purchased



Right out of the box this thing really performs

 

[Lorydr]

I need some non standard size pickup rings for my guitar and thought it would be cool to have a printer. Any input on this type of hobby . Like I need another hobby! Lol

If this works out decent for you, I would have some business for you, for guitar related bling-parts. From me anyway. Good luck!

 

[Lorydr]

Will add, after we got back from trick or treating with the kid, I printed this out using the new PLA I had purchased



Right out of the box this thing really performs

That looks like a decent quality, from a guy (me) that knows nothing about three dimensional printers. What part is it? Would one possibly do a project write-up, sticky type thread, about everything 3-D printing? Or suggest a book such as "3-D Printing for non-coders"

 

[KwikFab]

That looks like a decent quality, from a guy (me) that knows nothing about three dimensional printers. What part is it? Would one possibly do a project write-up, sticky type thread, about everything 3-D printing? Or suggest a book such as "3-D Printing for non-coders"

I don't know jack about 3D printing

So that's a "pocket copter" toy in that you pull the loop and the propeller goes flying up in the air

I will say compared to items I've had printed (purchased), these prints are the same if not better!

I printed these today before leaving the house, and got notification that the doors are also done (we're out of town)





It's a shipping container in 1:64 scale to go with Hot Wheel cars and the sort.

I uploaded 3 pictures but per my usual complaint in the Picture thread, it won't load.

 

[loganb]

That looks like a decent quality, from a guy (me) that knows nothing about three dimensional printers. What part is it? Would one possibly do a project write-up, sticky type thread, about everything 3-D printing? Or suggest a book such as "3-D Printing for non-coders"

You'll find better resources on video for getting started with 3D printing due to the speed at which the material changes and since the activity is done at a computer already, videos are generally easier to follow along with as it can walk thru the software step by step. A couple of my favorite channels/sources to recommend are:

This playlist some of the videos are now dated and could be updated but the entire channel is good

3D Printing 101

New to 3D Printing? Start here!

www.youtube.com

And for slightly more advanced but still exceptionally well explained and tested items:

CNC Kitchen

Hi, I'm Stefan and I create educating and entertaining videos for you which feature 3D printing, CNC, CAD, Lasers, Arduino and much more tec stuff! 🏆 Do you want to help me cover my running costs? Send me a dollar or two over PayPal. https://www.paypal.me/CNCKitchen 🌼 Even watching the ads...

www.youtube.com

And there is a rather lengthy stickied thread on the topic....but harder to find specific items in it:

The Everything 3D Printer Thread

So lilscorpion's Tooling (Re)Organization thread drifted off topic a few times with discussions on 3D printers so we'll start a thread here as a clearinghouse for all things 3D printing. Feel free to post your questions, comments, suggestions, tips, printers, projects, etc.

www.garagejournal.com

 

[Shocker]

So if anyone is interested, AliExpress has the Flashforge AD5X with multi color ability for $267.

If you add the code USDEAL44 it is supposed to bring it down to $223.37. It ships from the USA. Sold by the Flashforge store so warranty should be good to go.

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256809335172106.html

I would take a look at some reviews but reports from users say that it is a solid printer if you are into multi color.

 

[mike93lx]

Just ordered a Bambu P1S combo. I saw it was on sale at best buy for the same price as bambu directly and I get a $200 statement credit on a new citi card when shopping at best buy, so $350 plus tax. Couldn't say no

It's a Christmas present, so It will sit for a bit...

 

[wkndwarrior29]

Whatever printer you end up with, if you want high quality prints and without stringing you'll want a filament dryer and some vacuum bags or a way to store it with desiccant. The AMS can be outfitted with desiccant to print nicely with already dry material or AMS2 adds a drying feature that's good enough for PLA and PETG. I used to dry my new filament in the oven then vacuum bag it but the new dryers are just way easier.

 

[Citation]

There are reasonable ways to make diy filament dryers with plastic tubs/plastic cereal boxes + desiccant. I haven't had much need with my pla so I haven't bothered.