I have found a creality ender 3 pro on facebook marketplace for $75, would this be a good 3d printer at a good price for my first time?
I probably wouldn’t be printing too often, but I have a number of ideas for things that I’d like to try making.
Ender printers are good if you want your hobby to revolve around “constantly tweaking and managing and redesigning the printer”. A bit of a hot take maybe, and I’m not just throwing shade, some people legitimately enjoy that aspect of the hobby. It’s a fun printer to tinker with, low stakes, and sometimes the challenge of getting perfect prints out of the cheapest jankiest available 3d printer is a goal unto itself and developing that skill can be very rewarding and educational. But if your goal is to actually reliably and repeatedly print 3d objects in a variety of filaments, in my experience the Ender is an aggravating and limited waste of space.
Personally, I want the 3d printer to mostly “just work” and I enjoy the part design and 3d modelling and then actually seeing how those parts perform in real life, and for that, I want something that is reliable and easy and works across a broad range of parts and filaments with very little effort needed on my part.
I spent the moderate number of bucks required to buy a Prusa MK3S, which is just as open and expandable and tweakable as the Ender, the difference is you don’t have to. The options are all there, but as designed, out of the box, it just works. It prints, without any significant errors or issues almost every time, it’s not a constant fight to get a single thing printed. It’s a well designed machine, the company stands behind it and provides everything you need to upgrade it and there’s a huge community building addons if you want them. But you don’t need them. And that’s the nice part.
Not got any experience in this field myself yet, but I did see this kickstarter that looks rather promising! Its a printer called Snapmaker U1.
If you want to tinker with it (probably quite a bit until you get it nicely tuned), the Ender 3 pro for $75 is a good deal. I’ve got one, and with some minor upgrades (raspberry pi running Klipper+Mainsail and a bed leveling sensor) it’s been great. I saw you mentioned using Linux and tinkering with that, so you’d probably be able to get things working well.
After you’ve got a bit of experience, I definitely recommend connecting it to a Pi or other computer to run some kind of web interface for printing, it’s much nicer than messing with an SD card every time. Klipper (firmware alternative!) isn’t too hard to set up (I’m using Mainsail as the UI) and it’s been great. Before that I had Octoprint with the stock firmware which was super easy to set up but more limited.
If you want to just plug it in and have it work perfectly right away, I’ve heard Bambu labs is best for that, but they’re much more walled garden than other brands.
Ender 3 pros are about as entry level as you can get. $75 is a good price for one, but honestly I do recommend getting a nice one if you know 3d printing is gonna be something you enjoy. If you just want to print an occasional part and don’t mind tinkering, an ender 3 pro will get it done.
I personally have a Bambu A1, but in hindsight I would not recommend Bambu’s printers, since they are going the Apple route of locking down their ecosystems, blocking things like third-party slicers and accessories. Not very nice of them. My A1 will be perpetually stuck on firmware v4.0.0.0 for this reason as I prefer using OrcaSlicer over Bambu Studio. There is no reason why they should block OrcaSlicer, it’s a fork of Bambu Studio (which itself is a fork of PrusaSlicer, rules for thee not for me?)
The Creality Ender 3 seems to be the most recommended budget beginner printer. I have never owned one myself, but I have used one before in school, and the print quality is great. No idea how difficult it is to maintain though.
If you can stretch your budget a bit, you might also want to look at printers from other brands (Sovol, Qidi, possibly used Prusas, and the new Elegoo Centauri Carbon + non-carbon).
FWIW, OrcaSlicer isn’t blocked (except on the H2D, and that may change eventually) on newer firmware, it just has to go through Bambu’s network protocol, same as their own slicer. But OrcaSlicer installs that for you.
(I’m not defending Bambu Lab’s practices here, just want us to be accurate.)
Ender 3 is great for a project printer. You will update it over time and learn all the ways that a printer can have problems. But at least you are able to fix it yourself, and there is a huge online user base who can guide you with issues.
If you want an 95% works, and 5% hobby/tinkering printer for an extremely low budget. It’s the only one I recommend
(agreeing that bambu story btw, would not go that route)
I know your budget us $300ish but I’d try to get your hands on a prusa. Used mk3’s might be near that price point. But the mk4 prints so much faster.
The entire prusa ecosystem is awesome, almost every part is printable or easily replaced.
I’d totally suggest looking for used prusas personally, something like a mk3s is definitely slow by today’s standards but they’re super capable, very simple and easy to maintain. I’ve modded mine to the point that the rails and axis steppers are the only original components and planning another mod right now. If you could find one for a reasonable price it’s a great platform.
If you are willing to spend a bit and want a kit/something new, I really like Vorons and other open source printers, I’ve seen decent reviews of some of the formbot kits for something like a v0.2, includes a bunch of mods you’d probably look at eventually anyhow, I’m not sure if this is in USD or localised to CAD but with printed parts and a dragon hotend (highly recommend, v6 hotends are a pain imo, they work but having the block fixed is so much nicer) is $429 from china. It’s capable of printing every part for larger Voron models (and obviously stuff like abs) and is more importantly enclosed.
Add something like a nevermore micro to it (component kit) and you’re solid (recommend enclosed and filtered, ideally you don’t print in the same room you’re in without good fume handling, I’ve done unenclosed abs in my office back 12 years ago, abs these days doesn’t stink as bad but from experience it’s super unpleasant, 0/10 do not recommend, I did it exactly once)
Fume hood and exhaust system.
Yea this is the main thing stopping me. I don’t have a place outside my living areas to fill with fumes and microplaaics
You first have to determine what you want.
- Do you primarily want to print or do you want to tinker? An Ender 3 is not an out-of-the-box printer, especially not an used one where you have no idea what the last owner did to it. So if you want to tinker, that’s ok.
- Do you want great quality or a great price? An Ender 3 is quite outdated and compared to newer devices the quality isn’t great. If you are ok with that, it might be ok for you.
- Do you want a fast printer? An Ender 3 is slow by modern standards. It prints around 60mm/s stock and you might be able to get it to 100mm/s, maybe 120, but quality will suffer hard. Most modern printers do around 300mm/s stock and can be pushed to 600-700mm/s. This can reduce print times from 5h to maybe half an hour.
- Just to double check: are you ok with buying a potentially abused device with worn-down components that might cause hard to debug and costly to fix problems as your first printer?
If all that fits for you, then the Ender 3 will be good for you.
If it doesn’t, spend €200 and get a Bambulab A1 Mini.
Just got a sovol sv06 ace and it was very easy to set it up and get going. Had it printing like two hours after I got the package. Also has a wifi card which is nice for CADing up something on your computer and sending it over to the printer.
Had a slight issue with it throwing a fan exception after starting a print but a firmware update seems to have solved the problem.
Hummm, lots of good suggestions. Honestly what I would do is get something cheap that works. Then learn what your needs are.
3D Printers are a tool, and like all tools there are cheap ones which break in 30 seconds if you are actually using them. And tools which will last a lifetime but cost a fortune.
As someone who started with the (at the time) budget printer, the MonoPrice Select Mini. My suggestions are are follows.
200mm x 200mm x 200mm heated bed. This is common for printers who are clones of the i3 and isn’t hard to get cheap.
Doesn’t require proprietary software or can use open source software. Back in the day some printers would only take gcode from their proprietary slicer software. Flashforge comes to mind. But just check if what you are buying has a profile (even community made) for you slicer. Prusa and Cura are the 2 popular ones everything else is based on.
Automatic bed levelling. Whether it’s magnets like a MK3 or a touch sensor like the ender 3. So long as it can mesh bed level out of the box it’s fine. So long have I tried to dial in my printer only for it to need to be dialled in again.
Finally check Amazon or other sites for replacement parts. This is a machine and parts wear down. You don’t need to replace everything, but belts hot end assemblies, print beds and sensors are a going to break and need replacing.
For my recommendation is for a ender 3 s1 or the elegoo Neptune as they meet my spec and look fine. Though triple check with reviews
First you must answer the most important question:
Do you want working on your 3D printer as a hobby or 3d printing as a hobby? Both are perfectly valid, it’s just about personal preference.
I want 3d printing as a hobby and less tinkering. I have 500 to 1000 dollar budget. What’s that get me?
What budget and how much time are you willing to tinker with it?
I have a very high budget, but I’d like to stay under $300, I already use Linux, I’m used to spending weeks tinkering with things.
If you can stretch that a tiny bit perhaps the Anycubic Kobra S1 is an idea (I think I saw that machine for 369€). Apparently not much for tinkering, but a cheap “just works” device with probably the cheapest upgrade path for multi-colour printing. Its enclosure also enables you to immediately try out more demanding materials like ASA (for UV resistance), ABS or Nylon. And of course PHA, the only truly compostable material (not yet too common, but f.e. Colorfabb sells those).
I see a lot of people recommending Creality. Be aware that Creality is about to go public. There already are signs of enshittification since they announced that plan (incl. a website for 3D models filled with stolen work and AI trash), so I’d avoid them as much as Bambu.
For filament I’ve had some really bad experiences with cheap stuff as well (tangles, air bubbles, dirt etc.), so I’ll add some recommendations too. Mind that this is just my personal experience.
tl;dr
Cheap printer: Anycubic
High quality printer: Prusa
To avoid!: Bambu, Creality
Cheap filament: TINMORRY, eSUN
High quality filament: extrudr, Prusament, Colorfabb
Recycling filament: Recyclingfabrik (EU), Prusament
To avoid (filament): DasFilament, GEEETech
Can a Bambu printer not be hacked to get full functionality yet?
The older ones can get mostly hacked (not sure about their newest devices), but given Bambu’s increasing reliance on closed source code, custom parts that are not easily replacable and their financial need to lock people into their ecosystem (they’re backed by Venture Capital) it will be a constant fight. And you never know if they’ll lock down something with the next patch. Not to mention that, by using their services, you’re forcing others into soft-dependencies as well (e.g. their model website “MakerWorld” requires everyone who wants to download more than 5 individual parts to register = more data and ads for Bambu).
There’s no reason to buy into something like that.
Thingiverse is just a way to steal IP by Ultimaker. No one buys those shitty printers any more. You have to register with Prusa’s site as well. All 3D printing that is practical is backed by VC. These cheap hobby printers went nowhere until Bambu started up.
I think a bunch of garage hobbyists need to wake up and realize the tech will not advance on the free model. See CNC technology.
My guy, first off: the current most powerful printer is the T250, which is 100% open-source. Secondly: Neither Printables (Prusa) nor Thingiverse (Ultimaker) needs a registration for people to download stuff. Not defending Thingiverse or Ultimaker, they definitely also did shit. But that doesn’t mean you have to step right into it (unless you’re into such things). Prusa also made some weird choices (by far not as much as others though). Thirdly: even modern printers with fancy new tech like toolhead switching can and are being build with Klipper as their control software (Snapmaker U1), and Sovol based their company around offering easy-to-use printers with off-the-shelf parts closely based on Voron designs. And I probably don’t need to explain how Prusa operates. None of them are perfect kof course, but there’s zero need for the kind of enshittification Bambu and Creality now stand for.
These cheap hobby printers went nowhere until Bambu started up.
You have to be trolling. There’s nothing special about Bambu printers, except perhaps their (by now) awful failure rate and printer recalls. Although it might indeed be special to build printers where the hotend successfully melts itself, the newest problems with the A1 (not the first time Bambu printers are suffering from thermal runaway due to bad thermistors, literally the most dangerous failure there is). The one thing they do like a pro is marketing and capturing marketshare by selling underpriced hardware with increasingly closed software through influencer campaigns.
To call everything that already existed when Bambu was created “cheap hobby printers” is just absurd.
All 3D printing that is practical is backed by VC.
Rofl, so Prusa printers aren’t practical. Noted.
I started with anet a8, For the price pretty much everything is diy or propietary I would say the ender 3 pro for 75 would be good as that leaves you with 225 left for spare parts or upgrades. But if you want it to work out of the box search for used prusa’s.
For around $300, there are some newer models that are significantly better than an Ender 3. The Elegoo Centauri Carbon has been getting good reviews. I started with an Ender 3 V2, spent much of my time dealing with bed adhesion issues, then moved on to a Sovol SV06 which has a lot fewer issues and in some scenarios printed better than the Prusa MK4Ss I have at work. I recently upgraded to a Prusa CORE One, which is great, but I wouldn’t recommend spending the money if you don’t think you’re going to print much.
FWIW, I bought a new Ender3 as a kit not too long ago, it was $150 IIRC. And by being forced to assemble it, I learned a good bit too. It might be worthwhile to watch their store & see if they put it up for sale again.
The only upgrade I’ve done that I really felt made a difference was buying an enclosure for it. Nothing fancy, it’s a fireproof bag over an aluminum frame. Even more than controlling the temperature, it also keeps it dust free when not in use - that’s probably the biggest win for me.
As for buying the used one - these things do wear down. Start by checking the feed gear & the PTFE tube. If the filament feeds well, then also check the belts, rollers, & nozzle. Those are really the common wear items imo. Perhaps obvious, but make sure the seller gives you a copy of the slicing software (should be free on their webpage) and also the little USB-A to Sim card doo-hickey that you need to move files back & forth.
Ive had an ender 3 pro for about 5 years. Setting it up was straight forward I just followed a YouTube video which had some tips to help make sure the frame was square.
Ive never used the included slicer. Only Cura which is pretty great.
It’s definitely not the fastest but it’s a great beginner 3d printer and there is no requirement to tinker with it. I just level the bed and print each time. No problems 5 years in. (I did have to replace the removable print bed top at one point but that was partly because I’d gouged it before I learned how to level it)
