What is the best 3d printer for beginners

I have been very happy now for two years with my Ender 3 Pro, using it almost daily to make commercial items.

there will almost certainly be an updated model.

cheers, Martin

It depends on what you want to make, practical items suit a filament printer like the Ender range, whilst decorative items and models might require sanding, filling and priming, On the other hand, resin printers (Elegoo and Anycubic both have good reputations) produce much finer detail which is great for miniatures, but the prints need washing and curing.

Brian G

Edited By Brian G on 16/06/2022 17:57:23

Assuming you want the "squeeze plastic filament out through a hotend in layers" type of printer, then my advice is don't, they are all rubbish

If you must, then you need to make an assessment of how capable you are of taking a printer to pieces and fiddling with it. Even some quite expensive "FDM" type printers need rather a lot meddling to keep them going satisfactorily, the difference between expensive and cheap printers is often more the quality of the support available than how good the printer actually is.

If you want cheap, then the ender 3 (or any of the inumerable copies of it) is the way to go.

Not technically much better would be a printer from Prusa, but it is part of a cohesive ecosystem with something approaching a support system, and will be be more reliable. Quite a lot more money than an Ender, for many the extra hand-holding is worth every penny. Most cheap printers are basically a less good Prusa with no support.

Then you have more commercial suppliers, like makerbot, more like an out of the box device which can be expected to "just work". A lot more expensive again.

For the technically adept there are self build options which can have very good performance and reliability, but costing similar or a little more than a Prusa. An example would be the Voron 2.4.

Edited By Cabinet Enforcer on 16/06/2022 20:44:04

If you don't have a specific need that pushes you to another printer, then the Ender 3 Pro is reasonably well-made and reasonably cheap. Most important, not too difficult to assemble or use. Mine worked first time by printing the test puppy provided with default settings - I haven't had to fiddle with it.

Negatives: slow, perhaps several hours, and don't expect objects printed from plastic filament to be strong. The finish may need tidying up.

The software is probably the main challenge if you want to design your own artefacts rather than just download and print other peoples. I guess most on this forum use CAD packages because we're into technical objects rather than artistic stuff. They take a bit of learning - don't expect instant results. Until recently the main use of my Ender has been prototyping - printing designed parts in plastic, usually 75% full-size, to confirm the design is right before making a real one in metal. I mostly used FreeCAD. Another common use is printing moulds for making castings.

I've printed a few real things like board game pieces and supports for electronic project innards, and am inching in another forum thread towards printing a working compressed air engine. I won't be surprised if it doesn't work!

I bet other members print miniature engine drivers, signage, and other bits and bobs to complete models and dioramas etc. That usage is getting closer to 3D printing as arts and craft, for which software other than CAD might be more suitable. A friend of one of my nephews does dragons and sci-fi imaginations: I've no idea how he does it. What sort of thing do you intend to print?.

Provided it's fairly up-to-date your computer needn't be high-powered, but don't expect the software to run on a ancient Windows XP box!

Dave

I started last year 3D printing and bought an Artillery genius. It came almost fully assembled and It took an hour to assemble and print the first test cube.

I started printing using PLA (the easiest filament) and after some time PETG. I am very happy with the results. I use it to print prototype parts (in stead of milling and turning) and it works like a dream.

I make the designs in FreeCad and use Prusa Slicer to make the files for the 3D printer.

I wished I started 3Dprinting years earlier, it had saved me a lot of time.

Ender 3 or one of its variants.

It is reasonably priced and works. If you find you are using it be in anger then upgrade. I am not really doing that yet so it still does what I want.

If you find 3d CAD is not your thing it will still print stuff off the internet.

Buy Moderator Neil's book on 3d printing for model engineers - it gives lots of useful information.

Another vote for an Ender 3 Pro. I use mine just as it came, out of the box. A bit of care assembling to make sure it was all square, and regular bed levelling keeps it working fine. Cosmetically what I produce is not brilliant, but as I use it for functional items (boxes, racks, covers, mounts for bits of electronics and even a pulley set for my watchmakers lathe) it meets my needs well.

typo

Edited By Peter Cook 6 on 16/06/2022 23:13:43

i picked up a creality 3dp, seems reasonable for the money

I am very happy with my Ender 3 V2.
The V2 has some worthwhile improvements over the Ender 3 Pro, but only if there is not a significant difference in price. When I bought my printer there was only a few dollars difference

Off the top of my head the V2 improvements are:

• Carborundum glass build surface
• A "silent" motherboard which makes the stepper motors a little quieter.
• Belt tensioners
• Colour LCD - purely cosmetic
• A built-in accessory storage drawer.

When I first got my machine my first few prints were really disappointing until I realised just how critical bed levelling is. After faffing about for ages with bed levelling I installed Crealty's CR Touch bed levelling probe along with updated firmware to support it - an upgrade I can highly recommend, it has made an enormous difference.
The machine is now truly plug-and-play. After installing the probe I have done dozens of prints without making a single adjustment.

I am using the Jyers Marlin firmware from **LINK** this adds support for the bed levelling probe along with a number of advantages over the stock Crealty firmware.

Clive

I have a Prusa i3 Mk3S (there is now an S+) which I find eminently usable. For more info have a look at my website *** Journeyman's Workshop *** where I explain a bit about why I chose this model as an upgrade over my original 3D printer.

John

+1 for the Prusa gift from my son and it worked straight off the bat, have printed various size components and with different filaments with no issues at all

Very simply to use and their software is very easy to use to manipulte the models for size and alterations

Trevor

yes! I did too, the Ender 3 has a good support base but requires a lot of input from the user in terms of upgrading, great if you like to tinker.

the Artillery Genius is na different beast altogether, it comes in two parts that takes 5 minutes to assemble (4 bolts and a few connectors and you are ready to print, it has a direct extruder, colour touch screen, Volcano hotend and was available for around £180 (around half price if you look around). The Ender 3 does not even come close. There are lots of 3D printers around now to choose from, I go on best bang per buck principle.

I chose, after much deliberation, the Artillery Genius at a price of £340 over the Ender 3 at £280, but then stumbled across Banggood where price was £180 ish, sent from UK warehouse arrived in less than 48 hrs. Definitely a no brainer.

BUT, it is down to you and what you want out of it, you must make your own mind up depending on what you want out of your printer,

Just a point to note, Resin printers have been mentioned, without telling you the problems of mess and smell which can overide other considerations in a domestic environment.

Whichever printer you get, there will be a steep learing curve, despite what people may tell you, to get the best out of it.

Oh! and one final thing, you may have heard of automatic bed leveling, there is no such thing, it is nothing more than a software fudge - bed leveling is the ONE thing you have to get right (manually).

Edited By Howi on 17/06/2022 09:24:24

Ender 3 v2 (what I got) - cheap entry. Plenty of routes for upgrade if you like fiddling with software, firmware, hardware.

Prusa - hassle free, easiest route in. the Mini isn't much more than an Ender 3 but it is limited by size.

My opinion is that auto bed levelling is well worth getting. A slight bother to fit for Ender 3.

Choice is cost vs hassle.

I have a Sovol SV01 which is similar to the Ender 3 but has a few enhancements, the main ones being a direct drive extruder and dual z axis steppers. I've had it for about 18 months now. It has required some tweaking to get it to my satisfaction but now I am really pleased with it considering it is a budget machine. Perhaps I don't have high expectations but for me the quality of the output is really good. For simple designs I use Tinkercad, a first sight it appears extremely limited but in practice it can produce some quite complex models. It doesn't have a steep learning curve like many of the mainstream CAD packages. I wonder about peoples definition of "strong", I mainly use PLA and strength has never really been an issue with the parts I have made.

Peter

Just to balance with that, I have an FDM printer and have made hundreds of prints, many of which are still functioning, for example I have a Yagi antenna that is held together by PLA parts and is 5+ years old. My electric toothbrush lives on a PLA stand to stop it making toothpaste rings on the shelf. This has survived years of daily wetting and washing. I have decorative items, model parts, jigs and even a couple of functioning telescopes with lots of 3D printed parts.

Neil

Good point, always good to put numbers on material properties. The Make it From website has lots of data provided you don't mind looking up American equivalents, and it does comparisons. For example, PLA versus ASTM A36 (a mild-steel):

Shear Modulus A36 = 73GPa, PLA = 2.4GPa
Ultimate Tensile Strength A36 = 480MPa, PLA = 50MPa
Max Working Temperature A36=400C, PLA = 50C

So mild steel's tensile strength is roughly 10 times greater than PLA and it can be allowed to get much hotter!

Dave

Hello

I have been printing for a while and at one time had 4 printers.

The Ender 3 was and still is my recommendation if you are new to all this. Buy the cheapest refurbished unit. There is a company that sells them. Learn how to use it. Hammer the life out of it and decide if 3d printing is for you then buy something better.

The Ender 3 pro had a lot of credit upgraded this that and the other, Meanwell power supply etc. Meanwell is a recognised maker of power units.

Creality are now shipping Own Brand power supplies on the pro. You may not get what you are expecting for the extra money.

Video here from the TH3D lot **LINK**

Which is bad why?

Another satisfied Ender 3 Pro user as meets my needs

Surely auto bed levelling is just the creation of a calibration offset file to compensate for any mechanical tolerance buildup in the manufacture of the machine. Robots would not be interchangeable if they were not measured after final assembly and a file of the required offsets created to correct the errors. This process does add to the cost of the robot and is optional. Robots are usually able to perform a task program in any space within their work envelope and in any orientation. I gave a friend a hand to unpack and assemble a 3D printer and from unpacking to printing the test nut and bolt was under two hours, it was the second one he had assembled so it went well. The construction of the machine used 3 vertical ball screws with a linkage system to position the head so they needed referencing to the table as part of the setup routine.

Mike