Hi,
I just have some questions regarding 3D printing. Despite doing this for 2 years I still feel like a beginner.
Questions:
I’m looking at the Ender 5 Plus and Prusa MK3S, I’ve seen plenty of people say the Prusa is better because the Ender 5 Plus requires more “tinkering”. I just feel that the Prusa is overpriced and don’t know if I should just bite the bullet and get it or something else? I want to get back into the printing game.
I live in a trailer and my room is pretty small about 30ft x 30ft, would it be safe to use my printer in my room if all I print is PLA (I’m not talking about using it overnight either since I don’t trust it). Or should I leave it in my living room?
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Do you want a 3D printer to actually print things? Get the Prusa.
Do you want a 3D printer to mess around with, upgrade so it punches above its weight, and experience the high-highs and low-lows? Get the Ender.
I have an Ender 3 v2, and sometimes it’s amazing and sometimes I want to throw it out a window because that dang first layer just won’t stick. But I got a 3D printer because I wanted to mess around with a 3D printer, not to make high quality prints with minimal effort on my part.
I’m going to go against the grain here and say you should get a Prusa. I had an Ender 3 V2 as my first printer and it was an endless series of headaches with all of the little adjustments and tweaks I needed to make every other print. I nearly gave up the hobby and took a break for about a year because I was so sick of it. Furthermore, an Ender absolutely did not teach me everything there is to know about how 3D printers work, even with all the fiddling.
Eventually I got an i3 MK3S+ kit. The kit helped me to actually learn everything about what goes on inside a 3D printer. I would recommend staying away from preassembled printers, at least at first. Ever since building it, it’s basically been a fire and forget type of machine, barring routine maintenance and a shorted thermistor that was my own fault. It’s my main workhorse and I now use it to run a small 3D printing business.
On top of all that, Prusa’s designs are all open-source, their printer profiles are extremely well-tuned using PrusaSlicer, and getting official replacement parts is a breeze. It’s definitely something I would get if you want or need something that can’t have a lot of downtime.
As for your question regarding PLA, it should be okay, but if you’re really concerned about it, you can get an enclosure to help contain the fumes. I have the official Prusa enclosure with all the add-ons. I think you can get it bundled with a printer for a discount.
Yup, I’ve only had it for several days, but my MK4 kit I got “just worked” after I assembled it.
I did have to take a look at it yesterday as it was making a clicking/knocking noise. Turns out the applicator took they supply to pack the bearings with grease doesn’t work the best, had to repack the y-axis bearings, no more noise.
Hell, we use two MK3’s at the lab I work at, and they have about 2000 hours of print time between the two of them and they’re just now showing signs of wear (one of the printers had a hotend fail).
Between the fact that they’re open source, they’re damn near bulletproof, and that I worked with them already, getting my MK4 was a no-brainer.
Even a hotbed replacement isn’t that bad. I ended up swapping out the entire hotend when I shorted the thermistor because I thought I also broke the heater cartridge as well. You can partially disassemble the MK3S’s tool head and it’s basically remove-> insert the new part and close it up again - > rewire.
With the MK4 out now, you can find super cheap MK3S+'s on places like Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist (in the US). I have been seeing a ton of them listed locally lately. From what I have seen, you can pick one up for $400-$550 depending on whether prusa assembled it or it was a kit and what accessories it comes with.
I had an Ender 3 clone, and that is how I got into 3d printing. Would I buy one again, now that I have an Prusa MK3S+, no. Creality makes a good product for the cost, but it will cause you headaches and cost more in the long run. I probably spent $100 on parts my first year alone…more the following years. I have had my Prusa for 2 and haven’t spent a nickel on it and haven’t ever had to repair or adjust anything.
So take that for what it’s worth. From a SAFETY perspective, I trust the software and hardware on the Prusa over anything on the market. It has much more reliable failsafes and sensors looking for thermal issues. I never worry about my Prusa for safety. Just make sure you update it if they have any big firmware changes.
Its almost the same price? Easy decision between these 2, get prusa!
Ender cons:
- Larger build area - yeah this is con for shitty ender-like frame
- 4 point bed leveling - this is funny
- Wheels instead of smooth rods/bearings - this is acceptable for 200$ machine imo
- They still use shitty hotend where nozzle is sealed against PTFE? This is kinda unhealthy, dont use this thing in bedroom, and be careful everywhere else. Its scarry what “engineers” are capable to do just to save 5$
- Bad support, higher chance of getting faulty parts etc.
Prusa is expensive imo, but not overpriced if you are looking for reliable machine. Just check the prices of quality components, only smooth rods + bearings can cost more than some machines. Dont get me wrong, enders can make amazing prints, but you need more luck, time, tools, knowledge, patience, petting, upgrades, etc. Creality made 3D printing more available, they pushed other manufacturers to improve and decrease prices. Hats off, we all benefit from that.
Im not a fan of bed slingers at all, I think coreXY is way better for 3D printers, but Ender for 700$ meh…
Bambu printers look promising, but I wouldnt buy one just because its still “new” and closed source. If I wanted to spend $1K+, lot of DIY customizations and reliable machine I would probably build a Voron. For <$1k Prusa, for <200$ Ender 3 and probably something like sovol sv06 in between.
If you get all metal hotend you should be fine with it in the bedroom if printing PLA only. I would still try to get enclosure (it protects you from noise, helps with printing, protects printer from dust and more)
Just my 0.02
First of all, 30ft x 30ft sounds absolutely huge! Maybe you meant 30 square feet? If you’re not printing non-stop and can open a window from time to time, PLA should technically be fine from what I’ve read, although a well ventilated room would always be best.
As for the printer itself, I personally would advocate against Creality products. I would trust a Prusa MK3S with my life, but it is on the pricier side. I’ve read good things about the Sovol SV06 (not the 7), which looks like an MK3S at 1/3rd of the price. Can’t speak from experience though.
Lol yeah 30 square feet. Long day. And I’d be printing mostly on weekends for like a few hours
Also why against creality?
For your use it should be pretty safe then. As for Creality, the couple of printers I’ve worked with from them are an absolute nightmare (but in their defense it looks like they were discontinued the moment they came out). I have the impression that the only positive comments you get about Creality printers are from people who haven’t owned anything else, and joined this “tinkering” circlejerk. They’re unpredictable at best and an electrical hazard at worst.
I recommend reading this reddit post and the other (first) post linked there: https://web.archive.org/web/20230119045038/https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/w7o1pa/stop_recommending_creality_machines_blindly/
I would advocate Creality and tinkering for one very good reason… If you buy a fancy printer and it breaks, how will you know how to fix it?
At work we got a $2500 printer years ago. It has the sensors to self-adjust before every print, you pretty much don’t need to do anything except send your print jobs to it. Sounds great, right? Until it started failing… Around the same time things started to go wrong, I got my Ender 3 printer, and I spent a lot of time learning how to make adjustments, how to correct things in the slicer for better quality prints, and so on. Meanwhile the expensive printer at work sat idle for about 2 years because nobody knew anything about “fixing” it. I finally decided to take a crack at it and immediately recognized that even though this printer has auto bed leveling it was quite obvious the first layer was too close to the bed. Turns out the sensors had gotten dirty over time, I cleaned them and boom, we’re up and running again.
I have tinkered with my printer to the point of printing all kinds of custom parts for it including a direct-drive head. I can upgrade the firmware any time I want and set the defaults to match my custom hardware, but most importantly I know what everything does and can troubleshoot a variety of problems. Tinkering isn’t a bad thing, and you only have to get into it as far as you want to because the printer will work just fine out of the box if you take the time to set it up properly, but it does provide options if you want ‘better’.
While this is true, and I learned a ton on my Creality. Some people don’t want to tinker, or repair anything. Some folks aren’t comfortable or confident in their ability to do that. That is why you can find so many super cheap used creality printers. People buy them, and don’t want to work on them. It fails and they get rid of it. If you get a more reliable machine, like the Prusa, and it seems like Bambulabs is starting to join that club then you may never really need to repair it.
I have had my prusa for coming up on 2 years and haven’t adjusted or touched anything. I did build it as a kit, and have built and tinkered with Enders, but with my prusa I don’t need to. If people don’t plan on printfarming or selling, or having it run 24/7 chances are it will run for ages without needing to adjust anything. Thats not the case with the cheap printers.
I did mods on mine simply because it’s so easy to add things to make it look better, or in some cases make it easier to work with. I think the only significant improvements for printing were adding an arm to change the angle of the filament entering the extruder, and a fang duct which helped a lot with bridging and stringing.
I didn’t really do anything major until I wanted to print with NinjaFlex TPU so I printed and assembled a direct drive head, compiled a new version of Marlin to move the motors the right way, and included some extra features that help print more consistent lines. Yeah that’s going to be way outside the comfort zone for most people, but my printer always worked reliably for the three years before this change (I got it at the end of January 2019). I’ve been working on other projects this year so it’s been awhile since I printed anything, but I know I could clean the dust off the bed, load up some filament, and kick out a print job. It just works.
You can learn by building a printer from a kit, without getting something as unreliable.
Are you suggesting the Ender 3 is unreliable? That’s pretty funny.
I have a probably irrational disdain of anything Creality makes.
I mean yeah, they’re cheap, and there are definitely some production issues, but they’re pretty good about replacing bad parts in new machines. I think the biggest factor that got me off and running right away was following youtube videos to learn how to do the initial assembly including squaring up the frame, and videos on doing bed leveling correctly (if your spring aren’t almost completely closed then you’re going to have problems). Took me three hours to do the initial assembly but I’ve never had to do it again. I still stand by Creality because they helped me and countless others break in to 3D printing at home at a time when the next available model was around $500 (but that one was made by Creality too! 😀 ).
They definitely paved the way for more affordable printers! But I feel like there are better options at the same price today.
Compared to prusa it’s a dumpster fire.
Considering it costs four times as much, it’s easy to see the sunk cost fallacy coming into play.
If I was still living in a trailer, I would try to get the cheapest one I could find that works. I don’t think the fumes are all that bad for PLA. There is definitely an odor but falling asleep to the sound of the motors is worth it imo. It’s so relaxing sometimes.
If you want something in between ender and prusa, look at sovol. I went from. Ender 3 to. Sovol sv06 plus. It has all the bells and whistles, but is similar to ender.
Prusa is if you don’t care about messing with stuff, you just want it to work.
I don’t have any direct experience with either of the printers you’re referring to, but I have a couple of printers in the Ender 3 series (an Ender 3 pro that I’ve done some upgrades on and an Ender 3 V2 Neo.)
If you do end up going the Creality direction, I’d definitely recommend something with a CR Touch. I’ve lived without a CR Touch in the past and once I got my first taste of printing with a CR Touch, I now consider it a must-have.
And in general, I do feel like Creality’s great at “plug and play,” at least with the Creality machines I have.
Most folks I know who have bought the MK3S got it specifically for the 5-way extruder upgrade.
As for where to put your printer, I have seen some studies that found that PLA is vastly less toxic than basically any of the other filament material options. And what I’ve read about it has eased my concerns about printing in the same room I sleep in. (And my room’s smaller than 30x30. More like 10x12.) Of course, only you can make your own decision on that score, but for what little bit an internet stranger’s opinion counts, I don’t have any concerns with PLA printing fumes. (Other filaments, no chance I’d print in my bedroom.)
I would check out the Bambu Labs P1P or Creality K1. Both are about $600 and from what I have seen print very well right out of the box. I think MicroCenter even has a $200 coupon floating around for the Creality K1 (might have to find someone to give you theirs as I think they are individualized).
My recommendation is to get a bamboo lab printer. These machines are leap ahead of any other. There is almost not tinkering at all they just work. There are a few non bamboo that get close if your budget is not enough.
AFA having the printer in your room, PLA is safe if you can stand the noise.
A Bambu printer might be too loud for a bedroom, and you’re locking yourself to their proprietary cloud-based platform…
I have 5 printers. 2 monoprice, 2 reality abs Bambu. I have heard the argument is the proprietary concern. This printer is so amazing, fast reliable that it’s a great tradeoff. I have not touched the other printers since getting the Bambu. The cloud bases was changed in the last firmware. You can use them locally now. The way I see it you can keep away from Bambu for open source but you are locked in printers that are slow and constant tinkering. But to each his own.
If you can now use it without connecting to the Internet, I partly retract my comment :)