Comment on Looking to get my first 3d printer, any suggestions?
sbeak@sopuli.xyz 2 months ago
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).
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
TheRealKuni@piefed.social 2 months ago
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.)