The thing is that they’ve dropped the ball. There are quite a few companies putting out printers that are objectively as convenient as a Bambu, for a third of the price, and others, like prusa and Snapmaker that have upstaged them with tool changers, which are way better than MMU machines, with negligible material waste, and orders of magnitude faster for multicolor. The maker scene is also alive and well- Vorons, VZbots, etc. allow you to make impressive machines, if you have some skills.
I heard that the Centauri Carbon by Elegoo is a really good enclosed CoreXY printer for the price. The Qidi Q2 is the upgraded version of the Q1 Pro (which lots of people love very much), and it’s s little more expensive than the Elegoo but it has additional features like a heated chamber. Those two would probably be my go-to picks if you want something good value.
However, if you have a higher budget, Prusa’s machines are very reliable, have great customer support, and are upgradeable too! If you get them as a kit you can also save a bit of cost. Their Core One+ prints very well. You also have the Prusa XL, which is large and expensive and has six toolheads if you need it.
Avoid printers by Bambu, as they have been locking down on their ecosystem and blocking third-party software and hardware, and as Jeff Geerling recently mentioned, they have also been very hostile to open-source developers. Additionally, I’ve heard that Creality is also pretty shady company with not-so-great QC.
Another important thing to consider is what filament you want to print with. The Centauri Carbon will work just fine with PLA, PERG, or similar, but engineering-type filaments need a heated chamber like that on the Qidi Q2. The Centauri Carbon also currently does not have a multi material unit while both Qidi and Prusa do
The thing is that they’ve dropped the ball. There are quite a few companies putting out printers that are objectively as convenient as a Bambu, for a third of the price, and others, like prusa and Snapmaker that have upstaged them with tool changers, which are way better than MMU machines, with negligible material waste, and orders of magnitude faster for multicolor. The maker scene is also alive and well- Vorons, VZbots, etc. allow you to make impressive machines, if you have some skills.
Can you recommend me a 3d printer or a few different ones to look into?
My applications will predominately be structural things, ie:
I heard that the Centauri Carbon by Elegoo is a really good enclosed CoreXY printer for the price. The Qidi Q2 is the upgraded version of the Q1 Pro (which lots of people love very much), and it’s s little more expensive than the Elegoo but it has additional features like a heated chamber. Those two would probably be my go-to picks if you want something good value.
However, if you have a higher budget, Prusa’s machines are very reliable, have great customer support, and are upgradeable too! If you get them as a kit you can also save a bit of cost. Their Core One+ prints very well. You also have the Prusa XL, which is large and expensive and has six toolheads if you need it.
Avoid printers by Bambu, as they have been locking down on their ecosystem and blocking third-party software and hardware, and as Jeff Geerling recently mentioned, they have also been very hostile to open-source developers. Additionally, I’ve heard that Creality is also pretty shady company with not-so-great QC.
Another important thing to consider is what filament you want to print with. The Centauri Carbon will work just fine with PLA, PERG, or similar, but engineering-type filaments need a heated chamber like that on the Qidi Q2. The Centauri Carbon also currently does not have a multi material unit while both Qidi and Prusa do
Snapmaker u1
Prusa core one
Creality hi combo