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?
I’ve owned 3 printers, all cheap. For what I spent fixing it upgrading them I could have bought a Prusa. More than saying my next printer will be a Prusa, I can say that I actually have one on preorder.
Also, I will never buy a fdm without a bed leveling function. No, it’s not necessary, but if you want a low frustration printing experience, it is - in my direct experience - essential. Prior to having abl I would keep an eye on every print start. With abl I send a job to the printer and check on it when I get around to it.
Some notes:
Auto bed leveling is completely overrated. On a decently calibrated printer on a decently flat surface with decent spring tension you need to level the bed maybe once every few months. Auto bed level can also only correct small misalignments and it does so by skewing the one surface of the print. It’s at best a small gadget to make the first layer overly perfect, and it’s totally not necessary.
Powerloss recovery can be enabled on every printer by using (or compiling) the firmware with that setting enabled or by using an external print server like octoprint or repetier server. But: if enabled in firmware (not on an external print server) it causes bad print artifacts and wears down the SD card rather quickly. I have had a single time in 6 years of printing where I accidentally turned off the power mid-print and not a single time where I had powerloss due to things outside of my own stupidity. It’s not a feature that I’d place any value on, unless you live somewhere where power outages are very frequent. Also, if you recover after a power loss and the hotend has cooled, it needs to be heated up in-place to basically melt the hotend free from the print. You will have a massive gash at that point.
Filament runout sensor is a nice gimmick, but again only important in special cases, namely you intend to print really huge parts that take multiple rolls to finish. Otherwise you’ll just use the last bit of filament to print small things.
Size: I’d recommend you a bed that’s 220x220 to 240x240 as this is the standard size. This means, you will be able to print almost anything you find online without issues. Larger only matters if you have specific use cases in mind. Prints that huge will take very long to print though (longer than a week), so you might not want print anything larger than a standard board anyway.
Without enclosure you can easily print PLA, PETG, TPU/TPE and filaments based on these materials. You need an enclosure if you want to print ABS or Nylon or other specialized materials. An enclosure helps to keep the air warmer and draft-less to avoid warping for filaments that tend to warp. Also it allows you to use air filtration to avoid the toxic fumes that ABS or Nylon tend to create during printing.
Surfaces are a solved problem by now. They will all work fine. The only difference is cosmetic. I personally would go with a textured surface since all the other sides of a 3D print are slightly rough and it looks a little dumb if one side is super smooth.
One thing to really watch out for: Before your first print (and if your prints stop sticking) wipe it thoroughly with a cloth rag soaked in isopropyl alcohol (IPA). This is a step that you really shouldn’t skip, otherwise your prints won’t stick to the surface.
Used printers are a massive gamble. There are many things that can be subtilely broken or damaged that you will not notice if you don’t know exactly what you are looking for. It will just print really badly and you’ll never figure out why without the propper knowledge. If you don’t want to tinker a lot, don’t get a used printer.
Both the Mini+ and the Ender 3v2 Neo are really good printers. The Ender 3v2 Neo will get you a bit more for your money, but the Mini+ is really cute and comes with free Haribo.
Largely agree, but two small counter points.
Active bed (or gantry) leveling, which actually squares the bed relative to the extruder, is very nice. I’m wrapping up a Voron 2.4 build and this was one of the features that motivated me to go this route. Sure it wasn’t the only one, but I was so tired of my Wanhao I3 clone maintaining bed level as you said then radically loosing it because one of the two z steppers randomly decided to misstep.
I haven’t built a filament runout sensor into my Voron, but probably will fairly soon. I tend to print larger prints and really disliked the constant game of “I wonder if I’ll have enough filament” as I got to the bottom of a spool.
Yeah, these are sure nice quality of life things, but also not super high priority for a beginner.
Regarding the active bed levelling, there are a few other options to get the same effect. First, if you have any of the TMC drivers with stall guard (and it setup correctly), random missteps just don’t happen. That’s maybe the best way to go since it fixes the issue at the source and prevents it from happening during the print.
A second option is to tie your Z axies together with a belt. That way they all do the same, and you can just replace all these motors with a single big one.
Or you go the creality route and just use a single Z axis, but that requires a really stable gantry/bed, depending on what hangs off your z axis.
Also, skipped steps (especially on Z) aren’t really a normal thing and point either to a mechanical issue (check bearings, belts, pully screws and obstacles), too weak motors (rare if you are using stock motors) or too little stepper motor current. Especially the last point. Turn the current up a little and see if that resolves skipped steps.
I haven’t had a single skipped step on my current printer, which I have had since 1.5 years. Did a motor current tuning when I got it (necessary because I swapped the mainboard) and that’s it.
The problem with dual Z is when you turn off the printer, motors lose power and can missalign. You can connect motors with belts or just print some brake-like part that makes enough friction to stop motors from moving under weight of printer itself. Idealy you will have 1 motor per axis
nice quality of life things, but also not super high priority for a beginner.
I disagree on the “beginner” part. Yes, I am a beginner, but that does not mean I want an entry level device, nor that I want to replace this device soon.
I want one solid machine that I will be content with for years. So any QoL details would definitely be useful, even or especially to a beginner.
As someone who’s started printing a few weeks ago (E3v2 Neo) i’m very happy with the QoL upgrades on it. Regarding auto bed levelling: I think you misunderstand what it does, as it’s not about maintaining Z stability/accuracy at all. It corrects slight bed level problems from the springs but also imperfections in the bed material itself.
Saying all surfaces are equal is wrong. Using PEI sheet with PETG or TPU (and no glue) is a nice way to destroy it.
I read about this so many times but I’ve printed with PETG a lot on both glass and PEI and never come close to experiencing this.
Speed is not important? Are you sure? Is this your first printer? I though that too at first, but trust me, you are most likely going to want speed more and more once you get going. Also, 3D printing is pretty much synonymous with tinkering unless you have some sort of business model in mind, but if you do… (see comments about speed).
My take, go with lightly used mk3. Market is primed for two reasons - first, in US at least there is just less of a sellers market lately for anything used and with recent Mk4 release people are looking to sell to upgrade.
Wish you luck with whatever you end up with and have fun and don’t be afraid to tinker!
Go for the used Prusa MK3S+. People used to pay a premium for assembled and tested printers. As long as you can get the printer to you without being banged up in shipping it’s good. Really shipping would be my biggest concern.
I have a MK3S+ and it just prints. I print for my Etsy shop and don’t really feel the need for a backup printer. I have 1600+ hours of printing on it. In that time I’ve had one nozzle clog and one blob. I do a little dust filter on the filament so i don’t often get clogs https://www.printables.com/@Fohn23_807562/collections/641537
I’m totally happy with just the smooth sheet. The textured sheet is supposed to work better printing PETG but I’ve been able to get perfect PETG prints on the smooth sheet using windex as a release agent.
Keep in mind that any hobby printer, especially those under ~$/€1k are subject to needing some level of tinkering to get reliable printing. If speed is unimportant, any of the options you provide will be a good fit. You will benefit from running some basic tuning for each spool of filament to get the best print quality. The speed can be dialed in to reduce failures but not take forever.
Build plate finish is more of a personal preference when it comes to PLA. Textured plate will provide slightly better grip to prevent the print from popping off mid-print, but it’s a visible and tactile texture to that surface. It would probably be best to have a both a texture and smooth plate on hand long term.
Enclosure mainly comes into play if you print high-shrink materials like ABS or ASA. If you don’t like to tinker, I wouldn’t try to enclose a prusa or ender and would save up for a design built for it. If you don’t mind tinkering a bit, you can always add the enclosure later.
Buying a used printer isn’t a terrible option, but I would get eyes on first to ensure it prints as-is, especially since you want it to be plug and play. People sell printers for a variety of reasons such as upgrading, lack of interest, lack of funding, etc.
A suitably large cardboard box can happily enclose a printer. Just cut the top flaps off and set it over the printer
Or some painters tape and foam board.
Just let the bed heat it up and consider slapping an enclosure thermometer (and or smoke detector on top) for fire safety,
Im not afraid of fire (that much), but check out Ikea Lack enclosures. You can build one for quite cheap and you will have much better experience. Its still cheap crap, but you will enjoy printing much more. While cardboard can do its job, I wouldnt recommend it to someone new in printing. You want to see your first layers to make sure its printing fine etc. QOL upgrades are prio #1, at least for me
I agree. The point of mentioning it is how simple enclosures can be. The creality enclosure is literally just a pop-up hamper with metalized nylon.
You don’t need to go hog wild with it or In any case…my FDM printer probably doesn’t fit a lack. It already barely fits on my workbench desk.
Though if you have something like a voron, where there’s vslot frame all the way around it… some thin plexiglass can just slide into the vslot. If you want a very tight seal, silicone caulk inside first. The front face uses ball bearings imbedded around a u-track edging that snap to small magnets imbeddd into some vslot slot covers (all printed.)
I’m still considering an enclosure but besides the novelty I don’t believe a Lack is really a cheap option. A tent will cost €50 while the Lack will cost €26 for the tables, €5 for the screws, and then €150 for the sides and door :-)
Can confirm, this is how I printed my ASA Voron parts. That said, my I3 clone was acting fairly flakey toward the end (stopping mid print despite progress still incrementing at the normal rate on the display). I wonder if it was because the electronics were inside the cardboard hat too.
It took quite a few boxes taped together to enclose the printer with the spool holder on top, but it worked.
This might get more fiddly, but an easy way is to add a shelf beneath the heated bed- or rather, 2 shelves that come together (or slightly overlap) with cut outs to accommodate any moving parts/things that pass through.
Also, I’d say that’s a reasonable assumption.
Though foam board is nice and cheap for prototyping or maybe corrugated plastic sign board, but that’s relatively hard to cut.), and if you print up some hinges, maybe a magnetic door clasp, you can fold the thing up when you don’t need it.
When you get a design you like, convert to acrylic or something.
