Hi all, I want to buy my son a 3D printer for his 20th birthday. He is a third year computer science major, so has no issues with the software side. I have no idea where to start, or even what questions to ask. Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Bambu has great marketing: they have given printers to a lot of well known makers who in turn now feature them on their YouTube and the like. If you just want a printer that prints standard stuff with standard work flows they are probably good. However they are in the long run likely to be expensive since they require their supplies (which are reportedly good, but expensive). If you want to print something and not think about the printer they are good enough. However if you want to hack a printer, save money, or experiment they are going to limit you.
Everyone recommends Prusa for a reason: most of the things that make printing good and easy were developed by Prusa and then the others used the open source license to put their own name on it. Some of the others have done some innovation, but the major hard work was done by Prusa and he should be supported for that.
They’re literally not expensive at all. You can get good quality PLA for as little as $13/KG if you buy in bulk (4 rolls or more) and all their replacement parts are dirt cheap. Bambu didnt take over because of great marketing, they took over because they build a great product at a great price as well as thinking about every little creature comfort one might want and including those too. I do think they’re going down the same road as Apple, but so will every other successful company, so you might as well enjoy it while it lasts.
If you want something to tinker and expirament with, you should build something like a Voron and not a premade commercial product.