I recently got a Centauri Carbon and didn’t see a dedicated community on the Fediverse so I figured I would make one for anyone who is interested. https://lemmy.world/c/elegoo_centauri_carbon
Was looking at that the other week when the usual “what should I buy” topic came up and… I am a firm believer that nobody should buy a printer without an enclosure in 2025 and core xy is basically standard but the centauri carbon being about half the price of everyone else is more than a bit alarming.
Yeah not thrilled about being locked into an ecosystem but at least the cost of entry is less than others.
I typically only print in PLA but will branch out on this new machine. My others are all ender 3s with some upgrades so they will get a lot less use now.
Why? What about enclosure is so important for you? I have three printers and none of them with enclosure, what am I missing?
If you know what you are doing it isn’t a huge issue.
But enclosures generally provide the following benefits either by design or as knock ons:
- Temperature control. A heated bed or even chamber is obviously the optimal but even just having a big ass bag over there catching all the heat of the printhead goes a long way towards preventing rapid cooling of layers and all the impacts of that.
- Filament guiding/management. A shockingly common issue is that a rapidly moving printhead can increase kinking in the filament or even back feeding and “tangles”. Most enclosure systems come with some form of a bowden tube rig which helps a lot for that as the filament says mostly “stable” as the printhead moves
- This is less of a “guarantee”, but a lot of the enclosed printers also come with a camera of some form. Which helps a lot for when people suddenly get confident enough that they don’t immediately run to their printer at the start of every print and minimizes the “My entire printer is now a blob of ABS. How do I fix that?” posts.
- And… honestly? Bed slingers haven’t really advanced all that much in years. You can buy a brand new printer but it is still an Ender 3 (which I think is actually a Prusa something or another?) whether you bought that in 2015 or 2025. Whereas Core XY (and the few enclosed ender 3s that aren’t just a tent) actually has had a good amount of R&D and starts to highlight the differences between companies.
I am not saying people should throw out their printers and get a new one (although I did late last year but that is more becuase I hate anycubic with a passion. Qidi Q1 Pro is shockingly nice). But if you are buying a new printer and looking at like a 200 dollar difference between a rebranded ender 3 and an enclosed core xy? I would very much say to think that through. ESPECIALLY if you aren’t planning to heavily mod your printer (also if said mods are to basically provide the same functionality).
And for a newbie who doesn’t really have the built up skills and Opinions? There is a lot to say about being all but guaranteed a solid benchie and califlower right out of the box.
Enclosure makes printing some plastics much easier/safer, and it’s become common/inexpensive enough to be a “default” option, especially with options like the Carbon being so affordable.
But the tool has to fit its purpose. If you only print PLA/PETG, then it’s not really necessary. I mostly leave the door off my printer, and only attach it when I need to print ASA or ABS.
Is there a list of printer (brand) specific communities?
Not that I’ve seen. That would make for a good started pack though!
The issue with that is the fact that we already barely have enough users for the existing 3d printing communities.
Splitting it up more will not help but only generate empty communities with barely any content and traffic.
I can understand that sentiment. I think specific communities are important for troubleshooting, information gathering and support.
The thing is: 3D printing problems are often more manufacturer agnostic than you think - especially for new users.Especially for troubleshooting the broader approach is worth it - it’s better a new user gets some help and support from someone with a similar setup but different manufacturer but no or no timely support by a small or almost empty community. Sadly Lemmy atm isn’t that big.
Just pray you never need customer support from them. I’ve been dealing with three months of some of the worst service I’ve ever dealt with. Lies, false promises, offers that are taken back because they failed to check receipts, and no real apologies for anything they’ve done. Just be careful and prepared to handle your own issues. Especially with their motherboards, which are notoriously awful.
Tbh, the Bambu Lab service is as awful.
My personal favourite was them demanding a photo to prove I was not delivered my order fully. Six weeks after it arrived.
The part missing was a 23g replacement part…
Sure…
I’m not surprised. I’ve avoided Bambu like the plague due to their other issues with privacy and locking things down. I rolled the dice on Anycubic since they have a good Trustpilot score and it would be hard to be worse than what I’ve been put through with Elegoo. So far the Kobra S1 has been working pretty well for me.
Yeah, I got mine before it got as bad…
Oh yikes. I had issues with their warranty people seal when ordering. It eventually got worked out but I chalked it up to them being slammed with stuff with the new release. Here’s hoping I don’t have any show stopping issues.
I hope so as well. It definitely isn’t tied to their release. I’ve escalated four times and have gotten progressively worse customer service each time. I’ve never had to repeat myself so much before someone would actually read what I was writing. That includes Creality’s notoriously awful service.