Reliable printer out of the box ?

[dudz]

I have a CNC for aluminium but would like to have a stab at 3d printing. right now Id rather just buy one rather than build.

Can anyone recommend a half decent one for use with most types of filament with a self levelling bed ?

My budget is probably up to 800 usd. . Not sure if that will get me anything

[Neale]

How about Prusa? Can't remember latest model number but good reputation. Save a bit building from a kit. Lots of cheaper clones around but the real Prusa gives you best chance of just "assemble and it works." At a price...

Reports from people buying the clones often say things like "once I had fixed the problem with..." You hear of the odd Prusa with a problem but their customer service is pretty good. I'm happy with mine.

[dudz]

Ok thanks. Sounds good. Seen this one :
https://shop.prusa3d.com/en/3d-print...SAAEgJeWvD_BwE

I don’t ever run out of things to mill on the CNC but I do struggle to imagine many useful products I can produce out of plastics. Maybe that will change once I have one.

[Doddy]

Look at your build volume requirements. That pretty much constrains your choice of printer or what you can usefully do with it.

The technology is evolving quickly and models (and filaments) improve on each other year on year. I moved from a home-built RepRap (similar to the prusa) through the Qidi models (Chinese knockoffs of the Flashforges) - just recently replacing a Qidi Tech 1 (dual extruder) with a X-Max (outside your price range) - these have been solid printers that out-performed each other.

My motivation for the latest printer...

1) Build volume
2) LAN support (the tech-1 introduced problems with unsigned USB drivers on Mac which meant I had to print via SD-Card which I couldn't be arsed with)
3) Flexible magnetic build bed - fantastic invention that I'd now never be without. If you've ever swung a hammer to remove an item from the build bed then you'd appreciate being able to remove the bed, lightly bend it and watch the article pop off with ease.
4) Single extruder (rarely/never used dual - and dual introduces build issues with unwanted additional collisions with the item under construction),
5) Physical build - you'll know the benefit of rigidity with a router - the same applies to the 3d printers. More is better.
6) Enclosure - more of an issue with cats and wife - but it's whisper quiet (she's complain at 5am if it's still printing, but.... compared to the earlier models it's do-able), and some passable attempt at filtering odour.

Re. use?, I agree - I hate 3d printed items - generally wrong material and wrong construction for whatever you're building but they can provide a quick, cheap (ignoring printer cost) and nearly-neat solution in many, many situations.

[Muzzer]

I had an Ultimaker 2 back in 2013/4. I now have a Cetus3D which is just as good as the UM ever was. No experience of other brands but certainly, for £300 shipped from the UK, it seems a good deal. It comes 90% set up and needs very little effort to get it printing https://www.cetus3d.com/.

They do various offers from time to time and mine shipped with a variety of nozzles, filaments etc. I like the wifi connection which allows you to start and monitor jobs remotely.

I've used it to make junction boxes etc that are suitable for real applications - it's got applications that you can't sensibly achieve with conventional machine tools.

Here's one I dd earlier:
https://mightyshiz.blogspot.com/2018...ne-driver.html

[m_c]

I've got a Creality Ender 3 Pro.

One of my mates has been into hobby 3D printing for a while, and that's what he recommended. He reckoned it was the minimum you could spend to have something that just works straight out the box without endless fiddling.

Since having it, and having looked at a few other options, I'd agree with him. There is a lot of support, and upgrade parts should you need them. I've got a new controller/touchscreen to install, which I might get installed this weekend, but I only bought it because I want to see for myself how much more silent the 'silent' stepper drivers are, and I fancied a touchscreen. The original controller however does the job perfectly well.

IIRC I paid about £190 for the printer via Creality's AliExpress store, including the glass bed option, as it was on special offer at the time.

[JAZZCNC]

I've got a creality 10S and I'm very happy with it.

[dudz]

Doddy. Great input.

I see that most if not all have not got a very big build area. What if I wanted to build something at say 400mm long ,150 wide and 150 tall ? I suppose the material would cool too much before the next layer was put down ?

[Doddy]

With the build volume I have I can expect more than 5 minutes to put down a layer, so I think the argument about material cooling is moot. With decent settings you're depositing filament onto the existing structure and re-melting it to form the bond.

400x150x150?, material-wise shouldn't be an issue. It's the damned bed that's the issue on that. The CR-10S that Jazz has would fit that (rotated), and that's where you'll often find yourself with an insufficiently-sized printer - trying to rotate the job to fit the available envelope. Or building in sections and bolting together, but only if the design supports that.

There's a strong argument to building your own if you have a specific volume in mind that isn't easily addressed by commercial jobs, but I think a lot of us just want a printer that works out-of-the-box.

One further bit of advice - if you come across resin printers - caution - build volume sucks, curing technology is immature compared to filament deposition, all sorts of problems with flat surfaces on build films, need drain holes for resin, material handling sucks and it does hit your respiratory system. Been there, worn the tee-shirt, gave the printer away.

[diycnc]

It's been a while since I used my scratch built 3d printer. Not because I dont have anything i want to print, but because one of the 3d printed parts broke and I never got around to fixing it.
There are a few things a alway tell people who are considering getting one.

Firstly they are very slow! Large prints with standard nozzles can easily take days. For large prints I suggest looking at e3d volcano hot ends, they cut print time massively and even produced stronger parts. I hardly ever used anything other than a 0.8mm volcano. You wont find one out of the box with a volcano, but it's a very easy upgrade.

Secondary, dont underestimate the strength of a well designed and printed plastic part. Especially the fiber reinforced stuff.