For a “general purpose” 3D printer I would totally recommend FDM.
Resin is toxic, causes allergies, is a mess to handle, needs washing and curing after printing, is usually much less UV resistant, is less durable and more expensive. The only upside it has is much, much better quality prints especially for fine details.
So if you want to print miniatures go resin, otherwise go FDM.
In regards to FDM printers, you need to decide if you want to tinker or to print. Both options are fine, but depending on whether you want to spend significant times upgrading, modding and tuning (and want to have the ability to do so), or whether you want a fire-and-forget machine that just works but doesn’t let you upgrade stuff, you need to get different devices.
Bambulab printers are the fire-and-forget kind that gets ever-more locked down but prints perfectly out-of-the-box.
Prusa or Creality/Ender are more tinker-friendly.
In the end it comes down to what you want. Read some reviews.
If you want to test the waters, get a Bambulab A1 Mini, see if you like it, upgrade to a different printer in the future.
In regards to filaments: Most filament brands are decent nowadays. It used to be that some brands were much better or worse than others, but nowadays unless you buy the cheapest crap it’s going to be fine.
The biggest difference is the material type. As a beginner start with PLA (regular, not Silk PLA, Flex PLA, HT PLA, Tough PLA or any other type of modified PLA). It prints easily, doesn’t need anything special in regards to heating or drying.
Once you mastered that, you might want to get into PETG (more difficult but tougher) and/or TPU/TPE (flexible, rubber-like).
You will likely never need more than that.
TheYang@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Prusa is way more open, but significantly more expensive, especially when buying assembled.
If youbwant multicolor/multimaterial their current (fairly soon to be replaced) solution is not considered as user-friendly as the current bambu-solution.
Yes, when the build volume is 10x10x10 you can print things within that volume, but of course it still has to be a printable shape.
A T shape for example would be difficult to print, printer print layer by layer and as the “Arms” on the top would have nothing to be “stuck on”, so you’d need what is called “supports”, a printed shape just there to support the actual object that you want to print. Usually were support meets object the surface quality of the print suffers to some degree.
In the case of a T shape, just print it upside down then ;)
bowreality@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
Oh ok. Good to know. Somehow the Prusa speaks to me but I better look into user friendliness first!
The first thing I was thinking when you said “T” shape is to print upside down ☺️ I learned how to maximize space with the Cricut by flipping, turning etc. They don’t make it easy because they seem to encourage wasting material (which they sell too) so I get creative.
anguo@piefed.ca 20 hours ago
Actually, the best way to print a T shape is lying down ;) You will get a much stronger piece, because of the orientation of the layers.
bowreality@lemmy.ca 20 hours ago
Fair. I guess I have to start thinking 3D too!
CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
Whatever you decide, I would highly recommend you get a CoreXY printer as the standard old “bed slinger” style of printer, where the bed moves back and forth along the Y axis, is now quite dated, slow and leads to lots of print issues especially for beginners. With a CoryXY construction, the bed is stationary apart from moving up and down along the Z axis and the nozzle moves on the X and Y axis.
For Prusa, this would be the CORE One. For Bambu this is the P1/P2, X1, or H2 series. Bambu is actually offering a sale starting today with the P1S at $399 USD or $549 USD with the AMS system (multi material).
bowreality@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
Sounds good! P1S is good enough I don’t have to go for a P2S if I decide for one of those?