What's the most key point when you decide to get a 3D printer

[stephenleeeyan]

As the title said, what's the key point when you want to get your first 3d printer? Speed or others?

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[Red Ryder]

I do not own one yet, but I have co-workers that print at advanced levels. Based on conversations with them, I would determine what you intend to produce and research filament vs. resin printing.

 

[commadorebob]

Ask yourself, what is your intent? It is in expensive hobby if you only plan to ever make two things. But if you plan to really get into it, it is worth it.

 

[BuddyS]

Only you can answer that based own your intent, budget, plans, space, etc. I bought an Ender 3 because it was inexpensive and I've been learning a lot (both with modeling and printing). It's been fine for the little things that I tend to tinker around with.

 

[grumpyunk]

Microcenter had/has a coupon that will reduce the price of a new Ender 3 Pro to $99.95. At that price I could not resist. Ender is known as a good manufacturer and their printers deliver above their price point from all I have read. They work right out of the box(after assembly) but you can customize from here to next year with all the available gizmos and gadgets.
I am very positively impressed with the prints produced.
Support of a large user group is a pretty important factor. Having the best printer and being unable to get it to work as desired and there being no group to query makes it less valuable, IMO.
tom

 

[Don806]

According to my son (he's the one getting the printer, Dad is just fronting the cash to get him to make me FITS stuff for the truck for free):
you want good resolution, really good resolution. There are two types. we went the better but more messy route. Resin, you can do plastic spools but you get lines and rough edges, the resin is messier but smooth finish and more details.
If you want to just print things like cup holders and all that do plastic but if you wanna do statues, models, or anything else in the genre and do the cup holders do resin

 

[Darnon]

A lot of it depends on your tolerance for having to fiddle with or troubleshoot yourself. Prusa is generally considered one of the more 'foolproof' entry points if you don't mind the price. A bit more at the other end of the spectrum an Ender 3 V2 is cheaper but takes a little more work setting up and may need some extra debugging/tweaking. The advantage is the Ender has a lot of hobbyist/aftermarket support if you want to engage with the part of the hobby that is upgrading your printer.

Resin is a whole other can of worms. More PPE requirements and post-processing cleanup. The uncured resin is a skin irritant, the fumes can be noxious (although that's a concern with some filaments as well), and the waste products need care to dispose of. Print area is a fraction of that of filament printers unless you really lay out the cash. And you'll need to learn the fine art of having to set up model supports which is especially critical for resin.

 

[Phil0110]

I use Flashforger printer #2 from https://43dprint.org/dual-extruder-3d-printer/ came out on top for the best entree lv printer and quality for my needings. After using it for a while I must say I am very pleased with it. It all depends on what you want to do with it. You can compare printing speeds and layer height with a few printers this will affect the printing quality. I use mostly PALE because it is very strong and doesn't really have a smell to it. Printing with abs requires a more closed printer casing for the smell and to even keep the heat in.

 

[Darnon]

Even printing with ABS (and Nylon, for that matter) are somewhat "old school" aside from very specific use cases. They were used early on in the hobby because they were what was available for the few commercial uses or getting real hack-y like using weed trimmer line as readily sourced nylon filament. Now that the market has evolved there's been the work put into developing/improving PLA+, PETG, ASA, and polycarbonates more specifically for printing to where you don't need to mess with the hassle of Nylon/ABS. Kind of like how a few years ago hobby resin printers were initially using phone-tech LCDs for the shadow mask which had poorer UV transmission and eventually deteriorated from it. Modern generation resin printers have monochromatic screens purpose-designed for UV which is why they can print faster, longer, and at higher resolution and/or scale.

 

[TCPTX65]

A lot of it depends on your tolerance for having to fiddle with or troubleshoot yourself. Prusa is generally considered one of the more 'foolproof' entry points if you don't mind the price. A bit more at the other end of the spectrum an Ender 3 V2 is cheaper but takes a little more work setting up and may need some extra debugging/tweaking. The advantage is the Ender has a lot of hobbyist/aftermarket support if you want to engage with the part of the hobby that is upgrading your printer.

Resin is a whole other can of worms. More PPE requirements and post-processing cleanup. The uncured resin is a skin irritant, the fumes can be noxious (although that's a concern with some filaments as well), and the waste products need care to dispose of. Print area is a fraction of that of filament printers unless you really lay out the cash. And you'll need to learn the fine art of having to set up model supports which is especially critical for resin.

I agree that the Ender 3 takes a little fiddling, but there is a huge online community out there that has seen just about every problem and has a solution.

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