So I’ve decided to get “back” into 3d printing. I was getting into it in 2012 and I started assembling a kit, but then life happened and I never had enough time or room to complete it.
However, now I’m in a much better place (both literally and figuratively), so I’ve decided to dive back in. However, last time around it seemed that almost everything was some variant of Prusa, and I think I want to go in a less DYI direction this time.
- Once calibrated, doesn’t need much fidgeting or maintenance.
- More or less prefabricated. Some assembly is fine, but I don’t want to sit there an dremmel a hobbled bolt again, or build a power supply.
- I prefer one of those enclosed printers, as it will be in a location with minimal climate control.
- Must not rely on any software that does not run on linux
- I’m not too worried about printing speed. Print quality matters more to me.
- Preferably one that is fixable if it breaks.
- Single filament is fine.
- Don’t need wifi
Any suggestions?
Oh, and I still have a spool of ABS around here somewhere… Is this still a reasonable material choice? Any other materials worth considering if I prefer the prints to be durable and not brittle?
This is where I could list a budget or preferred price range, but purchasing power parity and exchange rates probably complicates this, so let’s just say “reasonably priced”
UPDATE: I ordered a Prusa Core One. I went for the kit, as I will hopefully better understand how I can fix it later after assembly. I threw in a spool of PETG as well, as I’m curious about the material.
Qidi has some good value options with an enclosure. There’s also Creality’s printers that seem pretty good, and of course Bambu (but unfortunately, they are taking the Apple route of locking down their ecosystem…)
I print with the Bambu A1 (not the Mini, the bigger one) which has great print quality and the only downside is that I have to use the LAN only mode and keep it at firmware v4.0.0.0 since they blocked using third-party software with the newer firmware updates (such as OrcaSlicer). I have set up tailscale so I can access my local network remotely though, so it’s not all bad.
Sounds like Bambu is a brand I will avoid, then
Depends on how comfortable youd be with voiding the warranty. There’s a replacement firmware available for the X1C line, and there’s a board replacement for the P1 series that allows you to run klipper instead of the Bambu firmware. Fwiw, I couldn’t care less (at least for now) about having to run their slicer, its good enough, for Arch based distros you can install from the AUR and for others, at least Debian/ variants there are flatpacks
Can’t you turn on Developer Mode to enable third party slicers?
Yeah, and that makes it LAN only. I have my printer on the older firmware and don’t need to use this toggle, but in the newer firmware the regular LAN only mode doesn’t work and you HAVE to use developer mode.
I’ve got a Bambu A1 mini that I’m quite happy with. Bambu studio works perfectly fine on Linux, and I can import lots of different kinds of designs from anywhere, but I think you do really need Bambu Studio to prepare the print for this specific printer. I have no idea if there’s any way around that, but is that necessary?
The a1 mini is very good at small details. The main downside is of course that it’s not very big, so not suitable for large prints. It calibrates automatically and is very low maintenance.
They blocked third-party slicers for printers with a firmware update. I personally use OrcaSlicer (a fork of Bambu Studio with additional features, and Bambu Studio is itself a fork of PrusaSlicer…), so I had to set mine to LAN only mode to continue using it. That also means I can’t use their mobile app (it doesn’t work with LAN only mode, almost certainly to push people into their ecosystem of software) but I wasn’t really using it anyways.
I don’t like that Bambu are locking down on their ecosystem like this. Hopefully they don’t get any ideas from the 2D printer industry and make it required that you use their own brand of filament…
That’s indeed a bad development I wasn’t aware of. Even more so if they base their own software on others, and then block others from their platform.
One other thing i forgot to mention, the firmware update also meant that third-party accessories/upgrades like the Panda Touch display no longer worked. So that sucks.
I would love to see a competitor for the A1 mini, the prize while being hassle free makes it to me the perfect entry point choice, which I would use to figure out if that’s a hobby I can stick to.
The Elegoo Centauri Carbon was recently released with a price of $299 I think, and it has an enclosure too. The Centauri non-Carbon is $50 cheaper with no enclosure. Seems like a pretty good deal to me. And of course, there’s the Ender 3 V3. I think Sovol also has their SV06 Ace around the same price.