I bought an Anycubic i3 Mega 1-2 years ago as my first printer. Its somewhat similar to the Prusa mk3. It prints very detailed and repeatable. I only had to swap the PSU after a few weeks, other than that it is very reliable. Also for my skill level I don’t see anything else I would want. Except for less noise, an enclosure (which I could build) for ASA and stuff, or auto leveling (which is a possible upgrade for the i3).
When I move in 2 years or so I will probably look into a printer in the 500$ range.
From what I heard from friends I wouldn’t recommend DIY kits for absolute beginners. Yes, you will get to know your printer, but it will also take quite some time until you get your first successful print. And if they fail ot is hard to tell if it is because of settings or because the printer isn’t assembled or calibrated right.
I was thinking this too… man it would be so nice to not have to upgrade the thing. I spent the first year with my Duplicator getting it printing perfectly with all the quirks ironed out. I am weighing the extra $500, wether it’s worth having to upgrade and iron out kinks again and save $500 or just go with something that is supposedly solid and would just work after I put it together… dunno yet if it’s worth it or not.
I have a Original Prusa MK3S. Bought the MK3 kit, upgraded to MK3s.
Part cooling fan shroud (PETG) would deform while printing ABS. Reprinted in ABS, then later in PC.
Printing PC melted parts of the PETG extruder, so I had to reprint, eventually in PC.
I was having 1st layer troubles, which got a bit better when 7x7 auto bed leveling was added to firmware, but I ended up going a manual heat bed level with locknuts. 1st layer now mostly resolved.
Got the powder coated sheets. PETG is great, but PLA, small things don’t stick well. The PEI sticker sheet actually works better. LOTS of dicking around to get the PC sheet mostly usable.
I replaced the PSU with a slightly stronger one so I can add accessories like lights. The stock PSU is running very close to 100%.
Part cooling fan failures started popping up. Tried rebuilding the cable, no dice. Replaced the fan.
Lots of little things! This is not counting non-repair upgrades. I feel like cheaper printers come with even more fun things to fix/upgrade, but I dunno…
All you need is an ender 3. Glass bed, and a clone all metal metal dual gear clone bondtech extruder. Nothing more nothing less on the printer. Put your filament in drybox with a ptfe running directly from dry box to the extruder. You can print any filament(nylon, TPU, PETG for me) all day long.
I have it in an enclosure to maintain uniform temp while printing and don’t even have a cooling fan.
I forgot to mention 2 things: first, an ultrabase works magic for bed adhesion. If the bed temperature is high enough, every material will stick like hell when printing, and come right off when it’s cooled down.
Second, a direct drive extruder would be nice, but I would want that on a secondary printer only because I would be worried to continue printing at 100mm/s with a direct drive.
I still have a spare, new & boxed standard ender3 kit in the EU, anyone wanting to get into 3D over the holidays in Europe, €145 + shipping from Ireland
My form 2 (when accuracy is needed), and ender 3 w/direct drive& micro swiss upgrade (when i need to do rapid prototyping). Been looking to get a tevo little monster for even faster prints. Does anyone have it and would like to share your experience?
Ive got the Prusa I3 mk2s, going strong for 2 years now. I am noticing some overhang issues these days. Probably the print cooling fan? It makes some more noise these days.
That’s a lot of problems. I never had any with mine.
Original Prusa Mk3 kit which I recently upgraded to Mk3s. The upgrade kit included 300gr of PETG to print the parts but the cooling fan shroud was already printed in ABS and included with the kit.
The powder coated textured sheet as you wrote is great for PETG, anything else pretty much will not stick to it.
Printed 3kg of PLA on the powder coated sheet with no warping and now it starts to warp heavily during the print. Solution was to bump the heatbed temp to 65°C. And it’s warping again.
How old is the sheet? My glass beds with a coating have finally lost some tack to them and I have had warping recently. I sprayed a tiny bit of hairspray 2 weeks ago and have had no warping since.
Try the hairspray. I just used a piece of paper to cover the printer areas. Too lazy to remove the glass plate. I used a very small amount while the bed was hot so it dried quickly
