3DPrinting

15595 readers

31 users here now

3DPrinting is a place where makers of all skill levels and walks of life can learn about and discuss 3D printing and development of 3D printed parts and devices.

The r/functionalprint community is now located at: [email protected] or [email protected]

There are CAD communities available at: [email protected] or [email protected]

Rules

No bigotry - including racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia. Code of Conduct.
Be respectful, especially when disagreeing. Everyone should feel welcome here.
No porn (NSFW prints are acceptable but must be marked NSFW)
No Ads / Spamming / Guerrilla Marketing
Do not create links to reddit
If you see an issue please flag it
No guns
No injury gore posts

If you need an easy way to host pictures, https://catbox.moe/ may be an option. Be ethical about what you post and donate if you are able or use this a lot. It is just an individual hosting content, not a company. The image embedding syntax for Lemmy is ![](URL)

Moderation policy: Light, mostly invisible

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Advice on first 3D printer (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

34 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I am looking to purchase a 3D printer as a hobbyist, not for any commercial use. I have limited options with local 3D printers but that's good as they're mostly cheaper low end printers so I can look at them thoroughly.

When I'm comparing the different 3D printers I'm mainly looking at the following: Cost, nozzle diameter, layer height, volume, and viable filaments.

My question is, is there anything else I'm missing? Are there important things I should be considering or avoiding?

Different printers have different resolutions but for my purposes it looks like they're all highly accurate and way past what I need. Not worried about speed either. They all mention bed and nozzle temperatures but I assume they are all within the necessary range for the filaments they allow right? So does it matter?

Also, any advice for maintenance? How to make it last as long as possible any mistakes I should be wary of. Thanks.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I'd say support, whether it be official or unofficial is a thing you didn't mention.

Try googling any printer you're looking at + any random common error (not sticking to bed, not heating up, slicer options, etc...) and see what kind of results pop up and if they look helpful.
Look up parts costs and see how they look and if they're proprietary or not.
See if there are official maintenance recommendations, etc..,

One of my printers is one that has ZERO support from the community and what you can get from the manufacturer is limited and it kind of sucks when I have problems with it.

Enders for all their faults at least have an insane community support (note: in 2024 I would never recommend an Ender 3/5 as a first printer).

My most reliable printer is a Qidi Smart-3 ... vendor support has been great and the Facebook groups for it have been good too. The downsides: z-offset is manual & it's 185x185 which is pretty tiny and it's a bit of a pain to change the filament.
Upsides: core xy, fast, reliable, klipper
From what I've seen though, quality control is hit or miss, but the manufacturer seems to take care of you, so YMMV, mine hasn't had problems that weren't self induced.