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Darren

Darren

Ultra Member
Premium Member
Thinking about buying a 3d printer for a family Christmas gift. So a gift to myself , to make shop stuff , and my 10 year old boy would probably want to make some toys.

I'd like something easy to use out of the box. I don't want a project. I don't have time for a ton of learnin'. I'm a noob, so i'm guessing a lot of projects would be downloaded off of thingaverse. I will learn cad if i really need to make something. I am tech savvy, if need be.

I care more about quality than cost. I can't stand buying cheap junk that won't last. I have been doing research and it seems like a lot of people end up buying printer after printer. I'm more of a buy once, cry once kinda guy. I''d rather buy one good unit, learn it, and have it last 5+ years. That said, If i can get a great unit that meets my needs for a better price, I'm good with that.

I've been looking at the Bambu Labs P1S, Creality K1 Max v2, Bambu Carbon (more than i really want to spend)...etc.

Which one would you pick? Are there better options?

Thanks!
 
I understand that the Bambu Mini A1 is a great starter printer at a reasonable cost. If the size is appropriate for the things you'd like to print, here's two sample reviews, and the point at which conclusions are discussed:

To save time, start at "Pros and Cons" at 19:00


Modbot is a Canadian 3DP guy I trust. "final thoughts" at 18:13 will save time also.



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I keep putting off buying a 3D printer... Partly because I have someone that does the odd print for me. They are getting better and cheaper so fast I've won (so far) in waiting. If Creality fixes the few blemishes in the K1 and K1 max, I an attracted to them because they aren't a closed ecosystem. Sovol is catching up to Creality and Bambu.

You might consider buying the upgraded Prusa bedslinger - Janger has had a great user experience with it also.
 
I can't answer any of your questions or provide any advice. Your assessment of your needs sounds like me of mine.

I know I want one but I'm scared of it. No interest in a cheapo. Rather buy once cry once too.....

Things a verse??? Just download and print??? Seriously???

I'm watchin the responses to your thread like a hawk......
 
all of the printers now are easy to use, the software and hardware has been well developed, even cheap 200$ printers work well

no matter wich you buy there will always be some tinkering, bed levelling, nozzle changes, adjustments for different material types....dont be deterred, if you stick with pla and a .4mm nozzle these things will be minimal

of the 3 you listed i would go with the creality, not because of price (although that doesnt hurt), creality has a massive user base, finding support videos, getting replacement parts, upgrades if you so desire for anything creality is easy peasy....
 
If you are looking to start a new hobby of 3d printing I would recommend the Creality. Creality is a great entry point for a lot of people, the hardware is cheap enough to get you in and you can upgrade parts to improve the quality or functionality as needed. But Creality will usually need upgrades, and while popular due to the price point has a reputation for releasing half baked products leaving the community to troubleshoot. You will save money with Creality and learn a lot about your printer and 3D printing in the process as you troubleshoot along the way.

If you are just looking to add 3D printing capability to your shop with minimal time investment in learning about 3D printing I would recommend one of the Bambu lab printers.
 
In the past couple years I would have suggested the latest revision of an ender 3, but My knowledge is admittedly outdated, and I know there are better ones out there now for the same money or cheaper. I'm about a year or more behind what current models what, but my only suggestion is to not buy into something that is proprietary control and consumables. IMO open source is the way to go.

My last impressions were that Sovol was blowing the ender 3 out of the water on everything. Speed, print quality, price. I'm sure that has chanced since I last payed attention. Things move fast in that genre. I've never been one to reccomend a Prusa, as I honestly don't think they provide the value for dollar that they claim, but they do have a massive cult like following. I've always equated them to apple. They're not the most technologically advanced, but they have a huge loyal following, and for the most part they will do what they say. There are other brands that will blow them out of the water tech and quality wise for less money. But you may have to do a bit of work to tune them in, and find support if there are issues.
 
Thanks for the suggestions guys. One thing that i saw was that Bambu uploads your designs/content to a cloud and therefore isn't safe. Any thoughts on this?
 
Darren said:
Any thoughts on this?
Click to expand...
The workflow they are promoting includes the cloud. The P1P has a new option to make the network local only, but it still has a few bugs in it. Frankly they want to support your printer through the cloud and a connection to Bambu -- so you have to swim against the current a little to use it without their cloud.

It is why I'm waiting for the Creality K series to get the roughness knocked off. No cloud commitment, and open source. I have the option of waiting!

The Sovol SV07 is positioned similarly to the Creality K1 and Bambu P1P - it has some rough edges too, but it is selling at a lower price point. All this depends on how much you value privacy versus user experience versus cost....
 
The k1 max V2 is supposedly the fixed version and is what is now shipping. One thing I read was that creality has pop up ads in their app, which is a total turn off for me.

The out of box experience with Bambu seems better.

I will look into the Sovol SV07
 
Darren said:
The k1 max V2 is supposedly the fixed version and is what is now shipping. One thing I read was that creality has pop up ads in their app, which is a total turn off for me.

The out of box experience with Bambu seems better.

I will look into the Sovol SV07
Click to expand...
My Creality Ender 3 was the typical for its time printer. You essentially had to print parts for the printer once you had the printer set up. I did a lot of upgrades and modifications to it over the years, and while it was fun at the time it got to the point where all I wanted to do was press play and have something get printed rather than twiddle and adjust first. The Bambu Carbon X1 is expensive and somewhat cloud based and somewhat proprietary and I love it. Find a file on Printables or Thingiverse, or build your own in Fusion or whatever and press play. It's done well and prints fast. I'm not designing parts for NASA or GM so I'm not worried if someone steals my vacuum cleaner hose adapter elbow thingy design and sells it on ETSY. Once I find a file I want to print it takes all of 5 seconds to send it to the cloud and have the cloud send it to the printer. By the time I walk to the shop it's already printing. The speed of the print is impressive in itself but one of the other of benefits of the printing speed is faster failure. If my design is borked then I find out before I have to wait 12 hours for the part to finish like I did on the Ender. If someone in Shenzhen is waiting to get rich off my designs or data, it's going to be a long wait.
 
I haven't tried them but I am really curious about the Snapmaker J1. it was a Kickstarter from an independent that then got the rights bought by Snapmaker. It has some great stats on it. I have an Ender 3 pro and mentor with a kids club that has the Ultimaker and Tinkerine Ditto Pro printers. I find these printers maybe a bit more robust then the Ender (less fiddling) but when they go wrong you can't do much to fix them and we have to bring them in.

just another option to throw in there
Snapmaker J1.webp
 
My next printer will be a voron build (or similar). When i'll get to that i have no idea, but the Bambu X1 is tempting....I really want to build my own though.

I want multi material, full enclosure, fast speed, and network connectivity. A few other wants and needs, but I've played around with the hobby level grades for long enough now to have a list of demands for my next one lol. I know it wont be cheap. (which is why I don't have one yet...). The Bambu would do it, but I really, don't like all the cloud and proprietary stuff. Not that I'm doing top secret stuff, I just don't like those business practices of locking you in to using some service that doesn't really add value aside from giving the company access, and a way to hold you hostage.
 
Dan Dubeau said:
My next printer will be a voron build (or similar). When i'll get to that i have no idea, but the Bambu X1 is tempting....I really want to build my own though.

I want multi material, full enclosure, fast speed, and network connectivity. A few other wants and needs, but I've played around with the hobby level grades for long enough now to have a list of demands for my next one lol. I know it wont be cheap. (which is why I don't have one yet...). The Bambu would do it, but I really, don't like all the cloud and proprietary stuff. Not that I'm doing top secret stuff, I just don't like those business practices of locking you in to using some service that doesn't really add value aside from giving the company access, and a way to hold you hostage.
Click to expand...
I wish the Bambu P1P wasn't $1000 delivered :(
 
One note to remember. Unless you only want to print what is already out there the key to successful use of a 3D printer is CAD. And the techniques for making something that is 3D printed is different from what will be machined by say CNC.
Susquatch said:
I can't answer any of your questions or provide any advice. Your assessment of your needs sounds like me of mine.

I know I want one but I'm scared of it. No interest in a cheapo. Rather buy once cry once too.....

Things a verse??? Just download and print??? Seriously???

I'm watchin the responses to your thread like a hawk......
Click to expand...
Its https://www.thingiverse.com/ I even made a whistle from there. The ball is initially printed inside but held by one small tag. Once the print is done you stick a small screw driver into the slot and break the ball loose. After that your daughter-in-law's son can wake up your son early in the morning with a piercing loud whistle. Needless to say my son was not pleased...

Just search for whistle. Amazing what is there.
 
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