3D Printer for home user, is it worth it ?
- Thread starter 2013
- Start date
Associate
I purchased a pre-owned Ultimaker S3 with a dozen or so new rolls of Ultimaker filament to sweeten the deal. I opted for pre-owned high quality 3d printer, but not invest too much on a hobby that may not last, however I found owning a 3D printer that's extremely easy to use as a beginner, got me addicted to the hobby almost immediately. I suppose the idea of being able to print literally anything that will fit on the build plate was too good to pass up.
It's not until one runs out of other people's 3d designs, does one realise designing 3D models from scratch is somewhat more difficult, time consuming and sadly where most home enthusiasts tend to lose interest and their 3D printer gathers dust.
Patience is a big factor when learning the differences between 3D printers and how they perform, studying YouTube reviews helped me decide what make/model and features I'd find most suitable and adaptable to my low volume, high quality needs.
I factored in what replacement parts and consumables would cost over time too, that's where the expense can soon mount up on some makes and models. Limited space was also a big factor for me personally and the smaller form factor of the Ultimaker S3 suited my needs perfectly.
In conclusion, I would recommend looking at the sizes and volumes you intend to produce and the types of printer/s that would most suit those needs. I found the Ultimaker S3's dual nozzle/filament option was the main deciding factor in my purchase. Nowadays all the latest gadgetry is sold with highly inflated prices, buying pre-owned equipment keeps it out of landfills longer and I found in many cases new doesn't necessarily mean good, or reliable, especially with cheap Chinese 3D printers.
This is my opinion, I could be wrong.
1. I would be looking at something that has the possibility to print larger items, It would be a little restricting if I can only print tiny items.
2. I'm not sure what I would print yet but mostly what other have been printing (clips, chess pieces and board, I would like to see what's possible, I've seen some make swords, masks, figures), but I'm assuming I would want something that would give me solid prints that will look solid but i would need to know what type I would need and what material it would need to use.
1. I think my route I would most likely would be a used model or a cheap new model mostly because I don't want to splash out on a new models and only uses it a few time to make something that would likely cost a few quid each, I cant seem to find many below £150 at the moment for used locally, I will consider looking on the bay and other places once I have a better idea of what I need,
2. You do make some good points, Ive always thought the biggest issue would be difficult designing 3D models from scratch, depending on the software mostly because ive never done anything similar, I also think it would be one of the most fun parts.
3. I would need to look at YouTube, my first and only thought was ask on here.
4. I never thought about the replacement parts outside the filament.
5. I would want something a little flexible on size, I dont want to be pringing something small most of the time, but im assuming a lot of modern printers to offer the option to print large items unlike the past. My big reason for considering one is curiosity, because I just want to know what they are capable of doing and would they be useful, I think it would be fun to have one but I dont think its something I would need, I think its just a want. just to see what my imagination could build, A few weeks ago i needed a car emblem and the cost was very high, I'm assuming I could have printed a custom one for lot less, Ive also always wanted a custom chess set and other custom items, that would be fun to create, ive also seen so fun things others have done. but I dont have enough knowledge yet to jump in head first.
Looking at some YouTube videos getting some more info.
I think something like a Creality Ender 3 V3, Kobra 2
or similar would be a good starting point, If i was to get something new its seam to have most of the basic feature you could want and the price is good.
for the filament the Standard PETG or PLA seam to be the best all round option.
Your thoughts
I think something like a Creality Ender 3 V3, Kobra 2
or similar would be a good starting point, If i was to get something new its seam to have most of the basic feature you could want and the price is good.
for the filament the Standard PETG or PLA seam to be the best all round option.
Your thoughts
Last edited:
Soldato
Ive had an ender 3v2 for a few years now. It was a cheap printer to buy and theres upgrades galore for it.
Ive added a raspberry pi with touchscreen to run octoprint. PLA filament is cheaper these days.
I used it constantly for the first 6 months selling bits on the bay. This paid for the printer and all the upgrades.
Since then ive been printing stuff that i need. Today i needed a kitchen kickboard joiner, jumped on tickercad. Designed one and its
now printing.
Once you've purchased one your soon find how useful they are and you'll be printing all sorts for around the house.
Ive added a raspberry pi with touchscreen to run octoprint. PLA filament is cheaper these days.
I used it constantly for the first 6 months selling bits on the bay. This paid for the printer and all the upgrades.
Since then ive been printing stuff that i need. Today i needed a kitchen kickboard joiner, jumped on tickercad. Designed one and its
now printing.
Once you've purchased one your soon find how useful they are and you'll be printing all sorts for around the house.
Thanks
what's the difference between the ender 3v2 and the v3 ?
Selling on the bay may not be for me, Im not a fan of selling on the bay.
Soldato
The v3 has auto levelling which the V2 didn't, I had buy a bltouch for this. To be honest I haven't looked at the specs much for the v3.
Mriscoc professional firmware makes the V2. His firmware is superb and takes away a lot of the hassle setting up and printing. I'm not sure if the v3 can upgrade it's firmware to this
Thanks.
I assume you have a Bambulabs, how have you found it compared to the others ?
180 x 180 x 180 mm³ Is a chunk smaller, I assumed it was a similar size.
Have you found it restricting due to the size ?
What is the repairability like ? I assume it also needs the same repair and maintenance.
Soldato
1. Are you a home user ? Yes
2. is it worth it ? Yes
3. Did you buy new or used ? New
4. Do you use the 3d printer ? Yes
5. what do you use you printer for ? Various things including models https://ibb.co/pX2swZz. Main use is practical things. Last weekend I needed 4 spacers for bolts and what I had were not the right size so I printed 4 of them in less than 10 mins
6. is it cost affective ? Yes but that's not what it's about for me
7. what pushed you to buy one ? Just fancied seeing what the fuss was about
8. what advice would you give someone considering getting one. Buy one with auto bed levelling, and not using turnable handles, as it's a ball ache I don't miss
9 is it still quite expensive ? Can be but it also starts at reasonable prices
10. how do you scan things ? I don't
11. How did you find things ? All the major stl/3mf websites
12. what is a good printer is a good printer to start out with ? Bambu Labs A1 Mini or A1 look like good, reasonably priced, printers (I have the original Bambu Lab X1C)
13. is it better to buy new or used ? Not sure as I've only ever bought new so I don't know what, potential, hassles you could get buying used
15. what mistake did you make when first starting out, any advice for other ? Biggest mistake takes me back to question 8. I had trouble levelling the bed on my first printer and even though I could, in theory, level a bed quite quickly now, I'd rather not. It's not a skill I give a toss about
16. How are things going so far for you with the printer, what was the learning curve, and what would you advice to do and avoid. I built a Voron 2.4 from scratch, including all the electrical wiring (I'm red/green colour blind) and that taught me a lot. When I turned it on for the first time and it all worked, to sday I was chuffed would be an understatement. I then had issues getting it to print, software not hardware issues, but that was relativly easy to work out once I got me head around the start up gcode in the slicer and what I needed to add, commands and syntax, to it.
17. Could I make large items or is it restricted to small items. Depends on the print volume of the printer
18. how much space would I need ? with a smallish house. Depends on the printer. Bambu Lab A1 Mini is compact but if you have the 4 filament AMS then that's extra space needed. The BL P1P and P1S with an AMS on top is a gopod way to save space if that was the route taken
2. is it worth it ? Yes
3. Did you buy new or used ? New
4. Do you use the 3d printer ? Yes
5. what do you use you printer for ? Various things including models https://ibb.co/pX2swZz. Main use is practical things. Last weekend I needed 4 spacers for bolts and what I had were not the right size so I printed 4 of them in less than 10 mins
6. is it cost affective ? Yes but that's not what it's about for me
7. what pushed you to buy one ? Just fancied seeing what the fuss was about
8. what advice would you give someone considering getting one. Buy one with auto bed levelling, and not using turnable handles, as it's a ball ache I don't miss
9 is it still quite expensive ? Can be but it also starts at reasonable prices
10. how do you scan things ? I don't
11. How did you find things ? All the major stl/3mf websites
12. what is a good printer is a good printer to start out with ? Bambu Labs A1 Mini or A1 look like good, reasonably priced, printers (I have the original Bambu Lab X1C)
13. is it better to buy new or used ? Not sure as I've only ever bought new so I don't know what, potential, hassles you could get buying used
15. what mistake did you make when first starting out, any advice for other ? Biggest mistake takes me back to question 8. I had trouble levelling the bed on my first printer and even though I could, in theory, level a bed quite quickly now, I'd rather not. It's not a skill I give a toss about
16. How are things going so far for you with the printer, what was the learning curve, and what would you advice to do and avoid. I built a Voron 2.4 from scratch, including all the electrical wiring (I'm red/green colour blind) and that taught me a lot. When I turned it on for the first time and it all worked, to sday I was chuffed would be an understatement. I then had issues getting it to print, software not hardware issues, but that was relativly easy to work out once I got me head around the start up gcode in the slicer and what I needed to add, commands and syntax, to it.
17. Could I make large items or is it restricted to small items. Depends on the print volume of the printer
18. how much space would I need ? with a smallish house. Depends on the printer. Bambu Lab A1 Mini is compact but if you have the 4 filament AMS then that's extra space needed. The BL P1P and P1S with an AMS on top is a gopod way to save space if that was the route taken
Last edited:
I have the Bambulabs A1, so the bigger build place. The A1 mini wouldn't be able to print the size of stuff I need. I've run approx 15kg of filament through mine, its asked me to lubricate the y-axis rails twice in that time, but they include lubricant or suggest WD40. No other maintenance has been required except for cleaning the build plate every few prints to assist with adhesion. Bambu has a wiki for any maintenance needs so it's all fairly transparent (i'm ignoring the bed recall here, that was sorted smoothly and the replacement took under 1hr and they reimbursed me over £100 for the inconvenience).
Only other printer I have used has been resin, so cannot compare to other brands... However, i've never had as many issues as I see people seem to have with the "traditional" filament printer brands. I don't level the bed, it does that, I've not needed to mess with temperatures (I did create a filament profile to turn the fan down a bit to stop the parts cooling too fast which has helped with adhesion). For me, it works amazingly, and can be improved if I wanted to spend the time tweaking speeds.
Soldato
1. Are you a home user ? - Yes
2. is it worth it ? - Yes its addictive
3. Did you buy new or used ? - New
4. Do you use the 3d printer ? - Yes
5. what do you use you printer for ? - When you get it will want to print loads of things. So Star Trek ships, Star Wars characters, pen holder, Webcam holder, Tools holder, Radiator Caps, Inner Hubs for my car, mini version of my 3D Printer, 1/4 Arcade Machine, Bartop Arcade Machine, Rubiks Cube Solving Robot, the list goes on. https://www.printables.com/model/787640-arcade-cabinet-for-raspberry-pi-approx-14th-scale
6. is it cost affective ? - Yes
7. what pushed you to buy one ? - been wanting one for years price of the Elegoo 3 Pro and I had the cash
8. what advice would you give someone considering getting one. - do your research on reddit etc. Do you want something that just works out of the box and produces great prints (Neptune Elegoo, Bambi) or do you want to be continually tinkering and modding it to get that utopia of prints (Creality).
9 is it still quite expensive ? - No
10. how do you scan things ? - Never done it apart from using an iPhone and an app
11. How did you find things ? - In general or life or 3D Printing ? - A bit of an open question ?
12. what is a good printer is a good printer to start out with ? - See answer to No.8
13. is it better to buy new or used ? - NEW
14. what is a good model and price range to look at for a first model to try out when I'm not sure ? Sub £200 - see answer to No.8
15. what mistake did you make when first starting out, any advice for other ? - dont run before you can walk.
16. How are things going so far for you with the printer, what was the learning curve, and what would you advice to do and avoid - once you get past the terminology its easy. See answer to no.15 for advice.
17. Could I make large items or is it restricted to small items. - Depends on the size of the bed on the printer.
18. how much space would I need ? with a smallish house - Look up Ikea LACK tables thats the size of space you need. Plus somewhere to store the filament reels.
https://www.printables.com/model/672619-lack-enclosure-for-elegoo-neptune-3-pro-remixed-re
19. For someone new, what advice would you give on getting a printer, New, used, types addons ? - Already answered this above.
Last edited:
The Arcade Machine, looks like a fun idea.
As for the printer, I I did look at a few option and short listed the following, I still need to reduce it.
Bambu Lab A1 mini (a little smaller than others)
Anycubic Kobra 2
Artillery Sidewinder
ELEGOO Neptune 4
I still have time, I'm now considering getting a new one (need to save up more), useless a cheap used one comes along with no issues but it seam unlikely .
As for the printer, I I did look at a few option and short listed the following, I still need to reduce it.
Creality Ender-3 V2 (maybe a used option)
Creality Ender-3 V3 SE
I've seen Creality models used by and for sale a few. So I assumed it would be a good option.Bambu Lab A1 mini (a little smaller than others)
Anycubic Kobra 2
Artillery Sidewinder
ELEGOO Neptune 4
I still have time, I'm now considering getting a new one (need to save up more), useless a cheap used one comes along with no issues but it seam unlikely .
Associate
For a newbie, I'd really strongly recommend one of the Bambu range (covered which ones in videos on my channel).
To start off on anything, frustration, bugs, lack of reliability and limitations are going to kill your passion, so it's definitely worth aiming for a cheap, simple to use and new printer IMO.
Only exception is if you truly know the buyer and can vouch for the device's limited use/reliability.
But having used loads over the years, the Bambu range are quite frankly a generation ahead in almost every dimension and so simple to use. This means you can build your skills using them and then if you wanted you could buy a more complex model later, although apart from large format printers, Bambu currently rule almost entirely.
I do wish Prusa would pull their finger out a bit, they were my recommendation for years, but got lazy/distracted and they really still can't compete with Bambu on price, features or ease of use....!
To start off on anything, frustration, bugs, lack of reliability and limitations are going to kill your passion, so it's definitely worth aiming for a cheap, simple to use and new printer IMO.
Only exception is if you truly know the buyer and can vouch for the device's limited use/reliability.
But having used loads over the years, the Bambu range are quite frankly a generation ahead in almost every dimension and so simple to use. This means you can build your skills using them and then if you wanted you could buy a more complex model later, although apart from large format printers, Bambu currently rule almost entirely.
I do wish Prusa would pull their finger out a bit, they were my recommendation for years, but got lazy/distracted and they really still can't compete with Bambu on price, features or ease of use....!
Soldato
Bambu is a good shout, definitely hard to beat on their ease of use, performance and most importantly, price.
It is worth spending a little more than the cheaper kits/brands for something like the Bambu, I spent £900 on a 2nd hand Ultimaker 2 10 years ago, that was a lot (although far cheaper than new!) but it's been reliable and although by todays standards its very basic, the fact I had such a wealth of support available due to its popularity meant everything, especially getting the best out of it and it's probably had a 95%+ uptime, very very little has gone wrong, and all the parts are readily available.
It is worth spending a little more than the cheaper kits/brands for something like the Bambu, I spent £900 on a 2nd hand Ultimaker 2 10 years ago, that was a lot (although far cheaper than new!) but it's been reliable and although by todays standards its very basic, the fact I had such a wealth of support available due to its popularity meant everything, especially getting the best out of it and it's probably had a 95%+ uptime, very very little has gone wrong, and all the parts are readily available.
Associate
I'm tempted by a Bambu myself tbh.