Edit 2: I purchased the Bambu A1 mini. If I regret it, there will be more chances in later years. Haha. Maybe by then I can work with resin and make the really fun minis. Thank everyone who responded for your advice and help.
Edit: I am leaning against resin printing due to the lack of sufficient ventilation in my current work space and the potential for injuring my cats. I also do not plan to do exclusively miniatures; they were just the thing I was most excited for when making this post.
I looked around for a pinned thread or purchase wiki type thing, but didn't see one. I apologize if this is the wrong place.
After visiting a family member, I have decided that 3D printing has finally gotten affordable enough for me to maybe add to my list of hobbies. My primary use cases would be making miniatures (no particular scale necessary, as I just like to paint them at the moment), making parts for other hobbies (including cross stitch), and just generally making gifts and fun knick nacks. My budget is no more than $250 for the machine itself. I have not-insignificant computer experience, and some training in CAD programs.
Several seem to be on sale in the US for Father's Day (today), and I was wondering if anybody had some advice or suggestions on some specific ones.
- Creality Ender-3 V2 is what my family member has had for a while now and enjoyed, and less than $200 is very nice. It does seem to be dated at this point, and Creality support seems to be lacking.
- There's also the Neo of the above for the same price, but I am honestly having a hard time pinpointing the difference.
- Sovol SV06 seems to be a common recommendation for the price range, but I've heard similarly negative things about their support, especially on Amazon (although I no longer trust Amazon reviews very much).
- Flashforge Adventurer 5M appears to be on a significant sale on their official eBay (240 USD), but I have only really seen it recommended in almost spammy manners, which seems like either excitement for the sale or an ad campaign.
Any help you can give is greatly appreciated, even if it's just not getting into the hobby at this price point.
You have to choose the one without AMS color changer: https://us.store.bambulab.com/products/a1-mini?variant=41513493627016 It should be 199$
Yep, right there. Missed it entirely. Haha.
That model appears to be the most frequently recommended one for beginners, from my couple hours of research. Is it just the ease of use, or is the quality there, too?
Both quality and ease of use. It's main downside is closed platform. No switching to klipper or prusa slicer, stuck with bambu studio. It's more of a deal if you ever wanted to tinker. For a beginner or someone who just wants to print it's good.
Bambu Studio does appear to be open source and available on Linux, though, which were my first concerns. I'm not sure I would need to switch to Klipper or something similar in that case even if I could.
Yeah Bambu Studio is available and works fine on Manjaro (I'm too lazy to build arch from scratch nowadays), obviously ymmv on another distro.
TIL cool! More to mess around with when I get back to my p1s.
You can use OrcaSlicer, another Prusaslicer fork
Oh cool I'll have to look into that!
I agree with the suggestion, Bambu A1mini is the only printer in that price range I would be willing to purchase and expect for it to work properly. While there are plenty of people happy with their Creality and Sovol printers, they often end up being project printers that require a lot of tinkering to keep them running well and those that aren't prepared for that shouldn't buy them.
I like to say there is two different hobbies here, if you want 3D Printing to be you hobby, then spend the money on a known reliable printer, if you want 3D Printers to be your hobby, then buy a cheap printer and get ready to tinker.
A couple other people have recommended resin printers, which are probably better for that you want to do. But be aware that resin is pretty nasty stuff and you need to have the printer in a very well ventilated area and should wear all the recommended safety equipment. You shouldn't get into resin printing unless you are aware of safety requirements which are often downplayed by people who own them.
My space to work is not extremely well ventilated, and my cats could get in if a door is properly closed, so I'm leaning heavily against resin. I understand 3D printing is not without its risks no matter what material or type you use, but resin seems to be more than I can handle in my current setup. In several years, potentially in a new house with a garage, I may reconsider.
Its good to hear another recommendation for this one. It sounds like a good one.
Yes, it can be pretty impressively good. It 'just works' and can print at amazing speeds. Note the small bed size and lack of ability to tinker though.
I don't know about this particular model, but the brand is well liked for their higher end printers. At budget price points there's only so far you can stretch the BOM cost so I don't know how much more I would expect of this printer vs other budget entries.