3DPrinting
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
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No bigotry - including racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia. Code of Conduct.
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Be respectful, especially when disagreeing. Everyone should feel welcome here.
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If you see an issue please flag it
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The Prusa is what you want; it works straight out of the box and requires basically no tinkering. It’s just not at the price point you’re looking for. Given that, I would go with the Ender 3 v2. It’s a great printer, but you do have to assemble it first. It’s easy enough to do, mine had good instructions with it.
For a print surface, I live in an extremely dry climate and had a hell of a time getting anything to stick to the bed until I switched to a PEI sheet. It’s a textured, magnetic, metal sheet coated in PEI. It’s nice because it magnetically sticks to the printer and you can peel it off and flex it to pop off your prints. That single issue was pretty much the only issue I’ve had with my Ender 3 v2. Very little tinkering. It’s a great printer at a great price point. But you do have to put it together first.
I’ve thought about getting a BLtouch or something similar, but I just don’t have to really level the bed very often. The only times I do re-level it are when I occasionally have to pick up and move my printer.
I also have never used an enclosure, but I only print with PLA. As others have mentioned, there are other materials you can print with that create toxic fumes that you would want to vent outside. In that case, you would enclose it. They could also reduce noise, but that’s never been an issue for me.
I would also recommend sticking to PLA filament at first because it’s easy to print with and sticking to one material means you don’t have to change any print settings.
tl;dr The Ender is a great choice, unless you want to increase your budget and buy a Prusa.
I'm on a bit of a war path against these Creality recommendations. I got a CR-10, and their software is AWFUL. I don't know if that's a universal thing, but I've never seen a product that's as poorly translated, hackishly constructed (the touch screen isn't even secure, it just hangs there off some screws, and the diagonal supports aren't even properly sized pieces, they just basically made a giant bolt that's split in the middle and said "do it yourself"), with such horrid software (the damn thing can't even connect to WiFi properly or use a freaking Ethernet connection properly), and worst of all, even if you get past all that other stuff it's extremely unreliable at its most basic function, printing (I've still yet to get the dang thing to print something without the print detaching from the base).
Creality is junk, I can only assume Prusa is better because the bar is so low; literally the worst product I've bought in years.
This is very different than my experience with Creality, with the exception of having a hard time getting prints to stick. And as I said, that issue was solved by simply getting a PEI plate. I also have a few other friends and family who have Creality printers and I haven’t heard any bad stories. Maybe it’s that model?