<TLDR> • Experience: none • Size: > 20x20x20 cm • Price Range: 800-1500€ • Print Medium: PLA </TLRD>
Hi all! I would like to join the group of 3D printer owners but I don’t have any experience. I don’t want to buy a cheap printer just to find myself buying a better one in a few months so I set my price in the middle segment (I think).
I am going to set it up in my office which has AC but direct sun light for some hours a day. Is a full case recommended?
What printer can you recommend for me and what software (windows) can I use to design and print some parts?
If you need any more info please let me know.
Kind regards in anvance
Before I can recommend anything, I have to ask you some questions.
Are you wanting a printer that you will spend more time tweaking and modifying than actual printing? Or do you want something that just works right out of the box?
Do you care about it being open source and upgradeable?
What’s your price range?
Do you want to print miniatures and other fine detailed objects?
I don’t mind spending some time tweaking the printer but I would tend to it should work!
Open source and upgradable would be great.
Price range is 800-1500€
I don’t know exactly what I’m going to print but it would be more functional than beautiful I guess ;)
Currently I think I will by a Prusa MK4 maybe even as a build kit.
My Prusa MK3S is a workhorse, and putting the kit together was a blast! It’s so nice to focus on designing and printing things without worrying about the hardware. Sure there will be issues and learning curves to get past but you’ll learn so much very quickly.
Yea, the prusa Mk4 is a great option for you, but honestly even an mk3s kit might be worth looking into. Save a bit of money and you can always buy the upgrade kit to the mk4 later down the line of you deem it necessary.
If you want a printer working straight out of the box and don’t care about it being closed source, I cannot recommend the p1p enough. it has been night and day change from my last printer. literally just set it and forget it.
I would definitely steer clear of the ender 3s or other i3 style clones. You spend 95% of your time trying to tune and fix your printer instead of actually using it.
Also, since you don’t care about printing anything other than pla, you shouldn’t need an enclosure. with any of the mk3s, mk4, p1p, or x1c you are going to be able to print pla and petg perfectly fine with minimal tweaking.
I have two i3 clones and fully agree the first month or so was just tweaking the machine and printing parts to improve quality.
My Monoprice Duplicator i3 Plus from 2017 is still going after a LOT of tinkering. My Anycubic Chiron is more or less stock for better and worse. The z-wobble on both is about that last thing I need to do for quality improvements but I’m lazy.