Hi all.

My venerable ender 3 has likely printed it’s last benchy. Plus side, the tech has advanced significantly since I bought it. Down side, I’ve not kept track of the newer options.

Can anyone give me a rundown of which are worth looking at, and which to avoid?

I’m mostly concerned with reliability, but a speed boost would definitely be welcome. A heated chamber and/or multi material would also be very nice to have.

I would like to keep the costs closer to £500 ($680) but can stretch that, if there is a machine worth it.

I also have a complete no on bamboo printers. I don’t like what they’ve done regarding abuse of the open source movement.

Thanks all!

Edit to add. I’m not against non open source printers. I just have an issue with companies trying to burn the ladder behind them and lock their customers into a bubble.

Double edit: The snapmaker U1 seems like my best option. Ticks all the boxes, while remaining well in budget.

  • voicesarefree@lemmy.worldEnglish
    9·
    17 hours ago

    None of the manufacturers have been great with open source, other than Prusa, to my knowledge.

    You can get a heck of a lot more capable printer than an ender3 at that price point, even with multi material. If you want to keep waste down though you would need at least a dual head machine, or a toolhead switching machine which I think goes above your price range.

    If you don’t need a big printer, and can pass on multilateral (unless you want to get a small INDX system for it later… for a bunch more money), at that price I’d spring for a Voron v0. Doesn’t get more open source than that.