Hi All
I'm new to 3D printing, but I got some ideas, like a printed speaker enclosure, and I got some experience in 3D modeling. I would like to have some guidance on which 3D printer to choose, what to look for in such a printer and why. What accessories are good to have for home printing? Price range is between 200-300 EUR/USD.
Any replies or links to good articles would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Jukka
PS. My max budget is 500, not 300.
TronXY - and you didn't hear this from me - tend to offer fairly good discounts for a positive review on Amazon. I refused to do this as it's against everything I built my reputation on.
Now this is very much against the rules and I'm not a fan of shilling, but you might want to reach out.
You can get Creality Ender printers pre-loved too for a reasonable price if you look on the reseller sites and you're OK with getting an older driver board.
3D FDM printing is very, very tricky to get right. I know Matthew has one of the better ones but you'll have seen with his escapades that it can screw up royally just because ...
I've got a TronXY and a couple of Creality machines - none of which I can run right now as we're affected by the power costs in the EU due to the war.
TronXY give you the most bang for your buck with heated plates and quality machined parts - based on Crealtiy/Ender designs.
You'll probably want to budget for a small "remote" printer system like Klipper though. Now this IS a lot to learn but with Klipper you can drive an 8-bit machine (basically an Arduino) with a much more powerful 32-bit processor like a Raspberry Pi. This is faster and generally more reliable because it can do tricks that the slower machines can't such as acceleration/decelerations compensation.
it.
My machines are out of date now - new ones are released almost daily - but Ender 3s are about the most popular budget machine and you can get a mind-boggling array of upgrades to make life easier.
But caveat emptor - 3D FDM is still very much in its infancy despite the number of people doing it. (I made a replica of a GB1 Proton Pack) to scale in PLA and it cost me more than it would have to get a pre-moulded fibreglass shell.
I'm not trying to put you off, rather make you aware of the issues you WILL hit and they will take a fairly big bite out of your income.
Klipper is here and take it from me, it's well worth the extra learning curve:
Welcome - Klipper documentation (klipper3d.org)
Also make sure you get a machine with self-levelling. You'll thank me later (even though it's still hit and miss!)
Take everything I say with a pinch of salt, I might be wrong and it's a very *expensive* way to learn!