So I have a birthday coming up and am debating getting a 3d printer. I haven't used one before, but have built computers and am just generally techy. My questions are which printer would be best for a new hobbyist?

I'd like to be able to print stuff without it looked obviously 3D printed, which I know has to do with layer height along with nozzle size. Any tips, tricks, good filaments, etc. yall can provide is greatly appreciated.

I am currently looking at a Longer lk 4x for my Printer, money isn't necessarily a problem if the printer is worth it.

Thanks!

Curious how you landed on that printer. Never heard of that brand before. If you want something more on the budget side, i would stick with the bigger name stuff; Creality Ender 3, Sovol SV06, Elegoo Neptune, Anycubic Kobra. There's going to be WAY more information and resources out there for those more popular printers.

If you're up for spending a little more, the "go-to" printers these days are the Bambulab printers. The A1 Mini is down to $250 right now. That's a crazy deal for what that printer is capable of. The P1P, P1S, and X1 are all great too. Don't buy the regular A1. There's been issues with one of the power cables shorting and possibly starting fires..

If you want a kit where you can build your own printer (and willing to spend more $$$), look at the Prusa MK4. The Prusa Mini is a great printer too.

It's really just a question of what you want out of your printer, and what's your budget. Do you like to tinker, or do you want a printer that just prints when you want it to print?

Highly recommend Bambu Labs line 3d printers! You are going to find it hard to get a consumer level 3d printer that prints items that don't look 3d printed. Any printed piece I have seen still shows layers visually and/or texture even when printed at slow speeds.

I just print things off of thangs.com and have the AnkerMake M5C and really like it. It is stupid proof!

I just recently got a Bambu P1S with the AMS. It's easy mode. Great prints from the start.

I saw a YouTube video on 3D printing for beginners and he was using that printer and it seemed like a good size and worked rather well from what I saw. I am totally open to other brands of course.

It's hard to go wrong with BambuLabs. If you're going to print with a variety of filaments or do large prints, you'll want to either get a printer with an enclosure, or print or buy one. The X1C is about as fire and forget as you can find today, it has great support and a good slicer (derivative from Prusa). It's also expandable with their AMS (you can add as many as 4) but just know they waste a lot of filament in how they manage filament changes.

Many of the Prusa printers are great as well and their support is excellent (absolutely unrivaled). As an aside, the XL I have does a better job with filament management than the X1C but it requires more hands-on than the Bambu.

I've heard good things about the AnkerMake from friends.

Have you researched your needs against a bed slinger, cartesian, delta, or a core XY? Do you want to do mulit-color or multi-material prints?

92_Ag said:

---

Have you researched your needs against a bed slinger, cartesian, delta, or a core XY? Do you want to do mulit-color or multi-material prints?

---

I have not researched any of those, I just started looking into this stuff yesterday. I probably am going to want to do multi-color prints, not necessarily mutli-material tho.

Doing more research I am starting to really like the Bambu Lab P1S that someone mentioned above.

Well crap now I just saw the Bambu X1 Combo, while pricier I do like the 1080p camera and the Lidar features. Has anyone by chance used both the X1 and P1S?

All I do is Nguyen said:

---

Well crap now I just saw the Bambu X1 Combo, while pricier I do like the 1080p camera and the Lidar features. Has anyone by chance used both the X1 and P1S?

---

I bought the X1 as part of their kickstarter so I don't have a need for the P1S, but you can go to any of the Bambu forums or Discord channels and see that it's very well received. The lidar on the X1 is a little hit or miss, but when it works it's a nice feature. BambuLabs is also continuously releasing updates so I've seen dramatic improvements from the launch.

You can always print a camera holder and use a 3rd party - the X1C camera placement and lights are really not much more than utilitarian. I had to print a riser and add externally powered LEDs to get the chamber illumination up, but that interferes with the Lidar if you turn them on before it completes its first layer inspection.

The spaghettification indication process is still not working great either.

All I do is Nguyen said:

---

92_Ag said:

---

Have you researched your needs against a bed slinger, cartesian, delta, or a core XY? Do you want to do mulit-color or multi-material prints?

---

I have not researched any of those, I just started looking into this stuff yesterday. I probably am going to want to do multi-color prints, not necessarily mutli-material tho.

Doing more research I am starting to really like the Bambu Lab P1S that someone mentioned above.

---

Just note that the AMS for the Bambu is very very resource inefficient. It's why I invested in a Prusa XL, but it's multi-tool, not just multi-filament and it's a lot more expensive.

The other Prusas, like the MK4 and MK3+ are great printers.

I have a Bambu X1 Carbon. It's my first 3D printer. When I got it, and began immersing myself into the 3D printing world (reading forums, watching YouTube videos, etc.), I felt like I was cheating. It's so well dialed in. There is still room to learn and tweak, but you can produce quality prints on day one.

I've had mine for about 15 months now. It gets used often. I've printed cookie cutters for a friend of mine who sells custom cookies. I've printed car parts, golf cart parts, several around-the-house fixes, coasters, lamps, lithophane lampshades, nightlights, vases, decorations and trophies for parties and other events, QR code signs, and the list goes on. It's a lot of fun.

I'm doing my research phase now, which I usually do before any big purchase, so I have a good idea what I'm Getting myself into before I buy it.

The one thing that's kind of making me hesitant is all the different settings you have to change depending on filament type, nozzle size, if there's any layer separation or other defects from a print. Like how easy is that stuff to diagnose and fix?

It's not that bad. And a lot of it is dependent on proper printer setup and calibration, but by all means keep researching. Just watching tons of YouTube videos really helped me get enough in my head to get going. And I'm sure you understand that with any hobby, no matter how much research you put in, you're going to run into some kind of issue or problem that leaves you scratching your head. Just post pictures here or to the relevant subreddit locations and generally you'll get some decent advice.

Incidentally I'm rocking an Ender 3 V2. It's a decent enough printer, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it (or even the V3) given the other options on the market now.

All I do is Nguyen said:

---

I'm doing my research phase now, which I usually do before any big purchase, so I have a good idea what I'm Getting myself into before I buy it.

The one thing that's kind of making me hesitant is all the different settings you have to change depending on filament type, nozzle size, if there's any layer separation or other defects from a print. Like how easy is that stuff to diagnose and fix?

---

Some printers are for the "I want to be able customize about everything" crowd. Some advocate for building or at least assembling your own to learn all about the mechanics and setup so you can diagnose and repair issues.

Make no mistake, this is FDM small scale manufacturing so there will be issues. If you get something like the Bambu, they've done A LOT to minimize the manual effort that can impact the quality of prints. BambuLabs printers self level the bed, can do flow calibration, and help detect defects just to name a few. Self leveling is something a few other manufacturers are now doing as well. Depending on where you search for models, most projects you download have print settings embedded in them tailored for your printer (e.g. MakerWorld.com for BambuLabs and Printables.com for Prusa.), but a lot of the settings and suggestions are also available within the slicer software. They'll provide warnings for things like using the wrong print plate with a particular filament, etc.

However just last week I ran into an issue with a brand new silk PLA filament that not only clogged the hot end, but locked up the extruder to the point I had to disassemble the entire print head as well as force out the gearing to remove the jammed filament. The good news is that companies like BambuLabs and Prusa have great online help to walk you through a lot of it, including how to do things like cold pulls to clean out any debris in the nozzle.

You'll have to be somewhat mechanically inclined and not afraid of working with somewhat delicate electronics regardless.

Also be aware that melting plastics is not without hazards, not just limited to toxic aerosols (especially if you're going to print with ABS or TPU), but many hard core print farms install fire suppression units (Google BlazeCut if interested) as destructive fires are uncommon but do happen.

It is a lot of fun and you're going to have a big learning curve but it's worth it if you enjoy making useful things. Just go into it knowing that failed prints happen, and you'll get frustrated with filament drying, measuring humidity, storage, etc. as well. With the right mindset it's an enjoyable endeavor.

You have probably seen unboxing videos of many of the available printers and BambuLabs, no joke, is pull-it-out-of-the-box, perform some very light assembly/remove packing material, power it on and print.