I am looking to buy a 3D printer for my son (and for myself too). We want to print, not tinker, so it should be something that gives great results right from the start.
Can you guide me to a sensible choice?
My first choice would have to be the Prusa MK3S Plus but it is outside the price range I am shopping for, except if I buy used – would that be bad to do?
Realistic choices:
- €380 used Prusa MK3S+, with 10 days printing time
- €400 new Prusa Mini+
- €250 new Ender 3 V2 Neo
Criteria:
- High quality, no hassle. I want to print, not tinker.
- Preferably (semi)assembled.
- Auto bed leveling.
- Auto error detection (filament, power, etc.?).
- Budget up to 600 EUR/USD including extras, excluding filament.
- Speed is not important.
- Size is not important.
- Must not be cloud-based.
Questions:
- Surface?! Smooth, os satin, or textured? (Why) Should I have more than one kind?
- (Why) Do I need an enclosure?
The Prusa is what you want; it works straight out of the box and requires basically no tinkering. It’s just not at the price point you’re looking for. Given that, I would go with the Ender 3 v2. It’s a great printer, but you do have to assemble it first. It’s easy enough to do, mine had good instructions with it.
For a print surface, I live in an extremely dry climate and had a hell of a time getting anything to stick to the bed until I switched to a PEI sheet. It’s a textured, magnetic, metal sheet coated in PEI. It’s nice because it magnetically sticks to the printer and you can peel it off and flex it to pop off your prints. That single issue was pretty much the only issue I’ve had with my Ender 3 v2. Very little tinkering. It’s a great printer at a great price point. But you do have to put it together first.
I’ve thought about getting a BLtouch or something similar, but I just don’t have to really level the bed very often. The only times I do re-level it are when I occasionally have to pick up and move my printer.
I also have never used an enclosure, but I only print with PLA. As others have mentioned, there are other materials you can print with that create toxic fumes that you would want to vent outside. In that case, you would enclose it. They could also reduce noise, but that’s never been an issue for me.
I would also recommend sticking to PLA filament at first because it’s easy to print with and sticking to one material means you don’t have to change any print settings.
tl;dr The Ender is a great choice, unless you want to increase your budget and buy a Prusa.
I’m on a bit of a war path against these Creality recommendations. I got a CR-10, and their software is AWFUL. I don’t know if that’s a universal thing, but I’ve never seen a product that’s as poorly translated, hackishly constructed (the touch screen isn’t even secure, it just hangs there off some screws, and the diagonal supports aren’t even properly sized pieces, they just basically made a giant bolt that’s split in the middle and said “do it yourself”), with such horrid software (the damn thing can’t even connect to WiFi properly or use a freaking Ethernet connection properly), and worst of all, even if you get past all that other stuff it’s extremely unreliable at its most basic function, printing (I’ve still yet to get the dang thing to print something without the print detaching from the base).
Creality is junk, I can only assume Prusa is better because the bar is so low; literally the worst product I’ve bought in years.
This is very different than my experience with Creality, with the exception of having a hard time getting prints to stick. And as I said, that issue was solved by simply getting a PEI plate. I also have a few other friends and family who have Creality printers and I haven’t heard any bad stories. Maybe it’s that model?
Others commented also in this vein - apparently it is very much hit or miss. With luck it’s a decent unit, no luck with and it’s a unit like yours. That variation alone is enough to turn me off.
I got an old cr-10 from a friend, and yes, the software and screen have their issues. But, the thing is a workhorse. At one point I had it working almost non stop, creating thousands of prints, and it handled it like a champ. This is an old printer… I don’t know how things have changed since, but I wouldn’t blanket discount Creality. I’ll say this: based on my somewhat limited experience, any printer will work great out of the box. It’s keeping it that way that becomes challenging over time.
If any printer will work great out of the box, any printer is not Creality, because it certainly hasn’t ever worked great.
Have you tried wiping your old build plate (guessing it’s the standard ender one) with isopropyl alcohol? That’s a must before first use and every once in a while if the bed gets too greasy and dirty.
Yeah, I appreciate the suggestion, but I’ve tried every trick in the book and turned in all the settings. I had a pretty extensive thread on Reddit where people were trying to help me figure it out. In the end I just switched to a PEI plate and it instantly solved all my adhesion problems. Which is fine because I like the texture it puts on my builds anyway.
Just curious, did you try the isopropyl alcohol trick?
Yeah, a PEI plate is totally fine as well.
I did but with no luck.
I can 100% recommend prusa, I’ve got a mini and it really does just work. Maybe every month or so I’ll have to disassemble the extruder because of a filament jam, but that was fixed by upgrading the extruder, and also took like maybe 30 seconds.