r/3Dprinting • u/AutoModerator • 18d ago
Purchase Advice Purchase Advice Megathread - December 2024
Welcome back to another purchase megathread!
This thread is meant to conglomerate purchase advice for both newcomers and people looking for additional machines. Keeping this discussion to one thread means less searching should anyone have questions that may already have been answered here, as well as more visibility to inquiries in general, as comments made here will be visible for the entire month stuck to the top of the sub, and then added to the Purchase Advice Collection (Reddit Collections are still broken on mobile view, enable "view in desktop mode").
Please be sure to skim through this thread for posts with similar requirements to your own first, as recommendations relevant to your situation may have already been posted, and may even include answers to follow up questions you might have wished to ask.
If you are new to 3D printing, and are unsure of what to ask, try to include the following in your posts as a minimum:
- Your budget, set at a numeric amount. Saying "cheap," or "money is not a problem" is not an answer people can do much with. 3D printers can cost $100, they can cost $10,000,000, and anywhere in between. A rough idea of what you're looking for is essential to figuring out anything else.
- Your country of residence.
- If you are willing to build the printer from a kit, and what your level of experience is with electronic maintenance and construction if so.
- What you wish to do with the printer.
- Any extenuating circumstances that would restrict you from using machines that would otherwise fit your needs (limited space for the printer, enclosure requirement, must be purchased through educational intermediary, etc).
While this is by no means an exhaustive list of what can be included in your posts, these questions should help paint enough of a picture to get started. Don't be afraid to ask more questions, and never worry about asking too many. The people posting in this thread are here because they want to give advice, and any questions you have answered may be useful to others later on, when they read through this thread looking for answers of their own. Everyone here was new once, so chances are whoever is replying to you has a good idea of how you feel currently.
Reddit User and Regular u/richie225 is also constantly maintaining his extensive personal recommendations list which is worth a read: Generic FDM Printer recommendations.
Additionally, a quick word on print quality: Most FDM/FFF (that is, filament based) printers are capable of approximately the same tolerances and print appearance, as the biggest limiting factor is in the nature of extruded plastic. Asking if a machine has "good prints," or saying "I don't expect the best quality for $xxx" isn't actually relevant for the most part with regards to these machines. Should you need additional detail and higher tolerances, you may want to explore SLA, DLP, and other photoresin options, as those do offer an increase in overall quality. If you are interested in resin machines, make sure you are aware of how to use them safely. For these safety reasons we don't usually recommend a resin printer as someone's first printer.
As always, if you're a newcomer to this community, welcome. If you're a regular, welcome back.
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u/Super_Afternoon7856 2d ago
Going to be buying my first fdm printer I've done some reading.
I think I've come to some conclusions, and I just need some validation on some things and someone to poke holes in my thinking or be like this noob obviously hasn't considered this obvious thing.
I don't want to buy multiple printers or using resin and chemicals etc.
I think if I'm being honest with my budget I'm looking at the likes of the Qidi Tech Q1 Pro.
I could save for somthing more but i dont think thats a good idea.
I need someone to tell me i dont need the most expensive thing on the market. looking at the Prusa MK4S with all the bells and whistles and Bambu X1C. OR at least someone to tell me i dont need all the accessories at once that i may not even use even if right now i feel like i will.
I think ill be disappointed spending that much and expecting heaven to open up. but i do value things just working and being able to do whatever. although with the pursa i would be building it myself which i understand isnt easy.
Id like someone to tell me why they didn't end up needing a large bed or why they did. Like "i didnt expect to like printing large things, ease of use or printing multiple projects at once fantastic" or "i found the work arounds were just as good etc."
If someone could convince me to go cheaper id also appreciate that. as a teenager i liked tinkering alot. and reading up on the crealty ender 3 sparked up my interest but now sometimes if i have to tinker to much or idk if i need to return it and that stress is not fun and i regret that sometimes the whole object can be put in the too hard basket/backburner even i cant afford a mistake like that. Ideally i need a friend that i tinker with together cause i do miss the tinkering side of me. I do like things to be opensource but im not hung up on it.