Hello, I’m a total beginner in 3d printing and I want to get into 3d printing for the sake of building small engineering projects. Considering this I probably won’t need a printer with alot of fine detail like for example small sized textures (I think). So would it make sense for me to just go for the cheapest one that somehow prints ok (I thought of an ender 3 or something like that) or should I spend some more money on a Presa mini (+) or a somewhat similar model. What experiences do you have with low budget printers (250€-400€) for my specific although not very unique use case? I’m very thankful for every answer I get.
As an Ender 3 S1 owner, and prior owner of Monoprice Select 3D V2, I’m really happy with the Ender. $299.
Just be aware that printers at this price are for hobbyists- and don’t confuse 3d printing like photo printing (push-button basically). 30+ % of your prints are going to fail until you get through a steep learning phase
My first printer was an Anycubic Vyper and I feel like it was pretty perfect for my beginner self. I was abke to put it together, do some very minor tweaking, and got it running decent quality with minimal to no issues. There’s also sales regularly on their site. I picked one up for 250 USD. And their customer service is truly spectacular. Once I started tweaking the printer for quality I found a few minor issues about a year and a half after purchase. They sent me replacements and I got them within a few days.
For your use case, it may be pretty good.i ended up changing/modding quite a bit eventually on it but I didn’t need to if I wanted to go with just printing test and consept parts.
I tried a Creality Ender 3 a couple of years ago. Struggled a lot, for me, it required a lot of aftermarket replacements to make it work well. I sold it about 6 mo later.
In Mar, I bought an Anycubic Kobra. Out of the box, worked like a champ and has continued to. None of the struggles I had with the Ender. Only add on was a sensor to let me know when I’m out of filament.
You’ll probably hear from folks who bought an Ender and had great success, and folks who struggled w/a Kobra, though. It’s like an automobile… you’re going to hear good and bad stories for each model.
Honestly, I read a lot of articles and just found what fit my use case, expectations and budget. Your first one will definitely be a learning experience.
Good luck!
As an ender 3 user, I fully agree with your comment.
I bought my ender 3 in 2019. I have great success with it, but I only achieved this level of quality and reliability by fine tuning it and upgrading it. My 150€ printer is now closer to 400€, with all the upgrades.
If I where to buy a new printer today, I would definitely go for something more plug’n’play.
Also if you got it in 2019 it’s likely from before Creality dropped their quality assurance. Back in those days they used high quality components, like genuine Meanwell power supplies, which were later replaced with cheaper noname parts.
Ender 5 pro and I agree. I quit for a while because I was having too many problems with it. I’ve gotten back to it recently and, even though I’ve fixed most of the problems, I’m looking to upgrade to a p1s. I want to be able to hit print and just walk away or use the app from whereever.
As an Ender 3 S1 Pro owner, I say buy a Prusa 😅
If you need to go cheaper, look at the Sovol SV06 - it’s basically a Prusa clone with surprisingly positive reviews for the price, and it’s Klipperable if you decide you want a performance boost down the road.
Here’s my take on buying a cheap printer:
FDM 3D printers are high precision machinery, and there are many parts where a very minor flaw can have negative effects on print quality, or cause issues with first layer adhesion, clogs, etc. So when we’re looking at products made by various Chinese companies competing to make the cheapest product, one shouldn’t assume they’re all good enough. I mean it’s not like buying a hammer, which is difficult to screw up either during design, manufacture, or assembly :) There are definitely good stuff made in China, but you have to know what to look for and not pick randomly.
When it comes to printer designs, there is no company that consistently makes good printers. Most brands have a few good/decent models, and several bad/flawed ones. I.e. try to find a good printer model, not a good brand.
When it comes to quality assurance and support, there are definitely worse and better companies. For example Flashforge, Creality, Tevo and Geeetech are known to be lacking in both. This changes all the time, Creality used to be a good brand a few years ago and they largely live on their reputation. Likewise companies that make good printers right now might lower quality in the future in an attempt to increase profits.
With that said, most flawed printers can be fixed if you spend enough time and money on them, but if it’s your first printer it might be very difficult to know if you’re doing something wrong, or if something is wrong with the printer itself.
It’s also possible to got a flawed printer from any cheap Chinese brand, but you reduce the risk if avoiding the companies known for bad QA. It’s also a good idea to avoid Amazon if possible, because people return the flawed printers which are then repackaged to look like new and sold to some other unsuspecting customer.
If buying from Aliexpress, only buy from stores that have the brand name in the store name. Most brands have multiple stores but as long as they actually contain the name of the brand and have existed for a longer time they should be legit.
Since you mention Ender 3, afaik currently the only good one is the S1. Other models are kind of outdated, and all of them are overpriced compared to competitors, and as I mentioned previously it’s a bit of a gamble with quality assurance when you buy Creality.
I like this list of 3d printers for buying advice. It is maintained by people on the 3D Printing discord who have first hand experience with a lot of different models, and to my knowledge are less biased than for example youtubers that will often skew reviews in exchange for new printers, or even money, from manufacturers.
I’m not massively experienced with 3D printing so take this with a grain of salt.
That said though, I would personally consider what you would be doing in the future: If you’re just going to use it occasionally for small projects then it probably isn’t worth spending more than about 300€, but if you’re likely to use it a lot and eventually start to print more complex / intricate things and/or more often then getting a slightly nicer one would end up being worth it in my opinion!
Personally I have an Anet A8 (about 200€), it’s very basic and needs a lot of manual fiddling. Fortunately though, with a bit of tweaking in a slicer, it can produce quite nice prints in a reasonable time which is just fine for me as I only print infrequently and mostly things that don’t need to be too precise. There might be something better for that price point but if you’re just looking for something cheap that gets the job done then it’d probably serve you well!
My Anet A8 lacked the aluminum bracket to which the extruder is mounted. Luckily I got refunded in total, got a friend to print me an E3dv6 carriage and went with bowden setup. I haven’t had but problems with that printer, I spent more time fixing it rather than using it in the past two/three years. There is always something not working, something about to break, something to be repaired. The board and the heated bed are an heat hazard, I’ve personally seen a friend’s a8 coming with an extruder which would clog every couple minutes. The frame is not stiff and vibrates a lot, the stock carriage is barely held up by the two z axis motors, weighs a ton and often unalligns itself during the print. Different extruders would randomly clog even with esteps and flow calibrated and no heat creep.
I got mine for 100€ and got refunded in total because a crucial piece was missing, but for 200€ you’re better off waiting for a nice offer on a ender 3. I wouldn’t recommended thatprinter to my worst enemy.
Also nice that my first lemmy comment is me crapping on my anet a8.
Disclaimer: Don’t buy an Anet A8 as a beginner!
Once the Anet A8 is fixed it’s a respectable machine. I am always surprised to see their print quality (800mm^2/s acceleration). What made a major difference for me was bolting the A8 down to wood.
Fair enough, i guess being that cheap it’s like many things - a roulette wheel of quality. Probably one of those things where I haven’t used anything else so don’t know what’s good and what isn’t!
Glad i recommended taking my judgement with a pinch of salt.
Gone through half a dozen of printers: The ender 3 and the like are great value but they aren’t foolproof for a beginner. At the other end of the spectrum ($1000+) printer work out of the box and the factory bed leveling is spot on. To answer your question: Buying used has it’s own risks. Comparing a used (300€) Prusa Mk3 or mini with a new Ender 3 I probably would recommend the used Prusa.
Other printers you might see on the used market:
Prusa MK3 clones (e.g. fystec): Don’t. The reason Prusa works so well is because they are tested and the QC. Those clones might look like the original but might have QC issues.
Bambulab: early units had QC issues so it’s a don’t.
Creality K1: Same issue: Bad QC.
Bambu p1p for a tinker free experience, ender 3s for a mega tinker experience, prusa for the inbetween experience.
I recently got a Sovol Sv06 for about $250 USD and I have been really happy with it. I’ve heard their customer support is not great but I have found tons of community resources online and the printer seems easy enough to work on for someone of my skill level (basically no mechanical background at all other than building PCs)
I did have to take it apart and re-lubricate the bearings but with lots of detailed videos online of how to do that it wasn’t hard.
I have already used it to repair RC car controllers and print desk organization bins, headphone holders, and some toys for the kids
I’ve had an Ender v2 Pro for a little over a year now. I feel like it’s the Honda Civic of 3d printers in the sense that it’s relatively cheap and reliable, and everyone has one. As a result, it’s really easy to get small upgrades for and get help in troubleshooting. You could probably spend more money right away and get something nicer, but then if you want to make a specific tweak later on, it might be harder if you have a more niche printer.
Agree 100% as a e3v2 owner. Regardless of what printer you get, it WILL break/lose calibration/dumbfound you at some point, at which point you will either be throwing time or money at it, or both. My suggestion would be to get the best reviewed and most popular printer that fits your expected maximum build volume, as there will be a larger user base to help you when something does go wrong, and despite what several people here have said, I’d avoid used at all costs until you have some experience under your belt and know what you’re looking for. As another commenter said, if you truly are o ly going to break it out occasionally, there really isn’t a need to drop a ton of money on one, you can get acceptable quality relatively cheap nowadays.
