3D Printers...

[AirSniper]

Anyone got a 3D printer?

What make is it, how reliable and is it good build quality?

I just bought and sending back a Creality Ender 3 V2 which has a stupid fault created by the manufacturer.

 

No way for the power supply to stay cool...

 

Over the years I have tried 3 printers, Geeetech which is a total steaming pile, a clone of a creality by a manufacturer that does not appear to be in business anymore and can't recall the name and now creality that is meant o be a fairly good quality machine for the money.

 

I am open to suggestions on what members have here.

[mightyjebus]

I've used quite a few over the years, ANET, Creality, Anycubic and right now I have 2 FDM printers. I'm running a Creality Ender 3 MAX  for large sized prints but there is a shift in FDM printers for faster print times and I invested in a kickstarter for the AnkeMaker M5 which prints about 5 times faster than traditional 3D printers. I'm hearing good things about the Bamboo Labs X1 carbon however it's pricy and it's stripped down little brother the P1P is worth a look. These 2 will give you the fast print speeds.

To put it in perspective the Recoil part i designed and printed would have taken 5 hours to print on a tradition 3D printer but the Ankemaker did it in 56 minutes with the same level of detail you'd expect from a tranditional 3D printer.

 

If you want to go down the resin route then Elegoo or Anycubic printers are good value for money with very high detail. I had an original Anycubic Photon, then got a Anycubic Mono x and a Elegoo Saturn and now have 2 Anycubic M3 Max's as I found that I wanted the bigger build plates every time a new larger one was released. A decent mid range cheapish do all you need resin printer would be the Anycubic Mono X 6K or the Elegoo Saturn 2 8K. Very high level or detail, decent sized build plate and the price isn't crazy.

[Speedbird_666]

2 hours ago, AirSniper said:

I just bought and sending back a Creality Ender 3 V2 which has a stupid fault created by the manufacturer.

 

No way for the power supply to stay cool...

 

I have an Ender V2. I printed a new PSU cover and replaced the fan with a Noctua (there are plenty of files on thingiverse). Never had a problem with cooling thereafter and it was much quieter. Cost the grand sum of £15 at the time IIRC.

 

The printers do wear out though - my V2 worked happily for over a year before it started struggling with print quality. Gave it a full re-build (replacing the bowden tube, print head fans and nozzle), bought some new filament (mine was getting old) and it's been working alright still 8 or so months later - although I don't use it nearly as much as my energy bill is now just over £400 a month...😩

 

It's a very decent printer with a little bit of work. BL/CR Touch and a PEI bed do also help with the user experience.

[AirSniper]

I have decided to send it back, reported the problem to the company and requested that they uplift it from mine.

 

I am looking at a similar version only with the magnetic base and auto bed leveling.

 

I have had a 3D printer in the past from GEEETech but despite upgrades to it installed from the get go, its never printed anything successfully, despite adding Acme screws, its layer height even when set to the smallest kept on printing weak prints.

My son designed a pencil holder and it fell to bits coming off the printer. So I canned that about 8 years ago and haven't bothered again until now.

I thought I would get a semi decent middle of the road printer that according to many makers, creality has a good name, so here I go, buy a printer and its stuffed from the get go.

 

IDK if this is the universe telling me to not bother or some quirk of fete pranking me with duds.

[mightyjebus]

check out Unlce Jessie's reviews on youtube for these 2 printers:

https://www.elegoo.com/products/elegoo-neptune-3-pro-fdm-3d-printer-225x225x280mm

or

https://www.elegoo.com/products/elegoo-neptune-3-plus-fdm-3d-printer-with-larger-build-volume-of-320x320x400mm

[sp00n]

I have 4 creality printers at home, but my go too is my prusa 😎

[AirSniper]

On 21/01/2023 at 20:22, mightyjebus said:

check out Unlce Jessie's reviews on youtube for these 2 printers:

https://www.elegoo.com/products/elegoo-neptune-3-pro-fdm-3d-printer-225x225x280mm

or

https://www.elegoo.com/products/elegoo-neptune-3-plus-fdm-3d-printer-with-larger-build-volume-of-320x320x400mm

I had a look, not shipping to UK, only Japan.  

On 21/01/2023 at 20:42, sp00n said:

I have 4 creality printers at home, but my go too is my prusa 😎

I had a look at what price Josef is ripping people off with and instead of the i3 coming down in price, its gone up in price and it appears to have even more 3D printed parts in the build. £982 when they used to be £699 ready built. I'd rather spend that kind of money on new RIFs and still have the money for a 3D printer. 

 

My budget is £250 and have seen an Ender 5 Pro (32 bit silent) Auto leveling, heated bed, PEI build plate... looks like a reasonable printer for the money.

[leadly]

I've had an ender 3 pro for about a year now. Upgraded with a glass bed, CR touch and new bed springs. Really happy with it so far and havent really had any issues. Getting some nice consistent prints at the moment. It's currenty just printing off a sanding block that i need for tomorrow morning, as i've been laser engraving some signs for my mates airsoft site and they just need a bit of claning up!

[sp00n]

9 hours ago, AirSniper said:

I had a look at what price Josef is ripping people off with and instead of the i3 coming down in price, its gone up in price and it appears to have even more 3D printed parts in the build. £982 when they used to be £699 ready built. I'd rather spend that kind of money on new RIFs and still have the money for a 3D printer. 

 

My budget is £250 and have seen an Ender 5 Pro (32 bit silent) Auto leveling, heated bed, PEI build plate... looks like a reasonable printer for the money.

I too was sceptical about the price, but it keeps winning awards for a reason …. 
 

and there is a reason it’s my go to printer

[AirSniper]

On 03/02/2023 at 00:00, sp00n said:

I too was sceptical about the price, but it keeps winning awards for a reason …. 
 

and there is a reason it’s my go to printer

From what I understand, they still ship with 8 bit system when most are 16bit and newest ones are 32 bit.

 

I think I am going to save my pennies and go for a Voron 2.4, you can get kits for £690, so I think I will wait a little longer.

 

[Speedbird_666]

2 hours ago, AirSniper said:

I think I am going to save my pennies and go for a Voron 2.4, you can get kits for £690, so I think I will wait a little longer.

 

That's....a big step up from something like an Ender. Be prepared to learn Klipper/Mainsail and spend a quite some time tuning for best performance. Voron-based designs don't necessarily print better than cheaper printers, but they are a whole lot faster - and that's where the tuning and testing come in with factors like input shaping and resonance compensation etc.

 

I was considering a Voron Switchwire conversion of my Ender 3 V2, even built out and used the Voron fan duct assembly for some time. Once I did all the costings of the linear rails, belts and other sundries needed, I kinda lost interest because I could buy another printer for the same money.

 

I know the print are is smaller, but have you considered the Prusa Mini+?

[sp00n]

On 08/02/2023 at 06:23, AirSniper said:

From what I understand, they still ship with 8 bit system when most are 16bit and newest ones are 32 bit.

 

I think I am going to save my pennies and go for a Voron 2.4, you can get kits for £690, so I think I will wait a little longer.

 

If something works why change it?

 

also I read somewhere that they might be forced into changing chip as not many places make 8-bit (I thought they was 16bit tbh) 🤷‍♂️