Hi, I am totally new to 3D printing and want to have a printer. Budget is 400€. My background is computer science and programming and I want to be able to hack the device if I want but it should work fine OOTB (or with minimal effort). Which device would you guys suggest to me?
Prusa is top of the line for open source and very much falls into “works out of the box”. The other bed-slinger style printers like Ender are cheap but tend to have issues and are a money-sink for upgrades to get them working (lots of mods there). If you’re into hacking and modding stuff though, look into Voron printers. I’m not sure if any of the Voron versions fall into your budget, but you can buy a kit or do open-source. They’re self-built, extremely fast, customizable, and really meant for the people in the printing community who like to program and mod things.
You can get a Voron 0.2 kit from formbot for like $400 USD fyi. If I didn’t already have some of the parts I need for a 0.2 I’d probably just get a kit from them. As it stands I plan on self sourcing mine at some point.
I was in a similar position recently, but also valued OpenSource (see meel being here ;) )
I went with the Prusa Mini+ semi assembled kit.
it’s been chugging through filament for a few months.I got a Prusa (MK2s) six years ago and it’s been really, really great. Unfortunately, your budget restriction rules out the current model.
If you can get access to a printer at a friend’s house, a library, a school, a workplace, a makerspace, etc., I would suggest not buying a printer while totally new to 3D printing. Do some 3D printing for awhile. Then, on the basis of that experience, decide if you want to commit to having a good printer at a slightly higher price point.
400€ is really very restrictive. Commercial 3D printers are 10,000€ to 100,000€. Prusa’s printers are extremely good for their modest ~900€ price.
If you do decide to get a Prusa, I recommend the kit over the assembled option. It’s cheaper, and the familiarity you get with its components and construction during assembly gives you the power of fearless repair and tinkering – you’ve already assembled it once, so disassembling it and reassembling it for repair or upgrade is no big deal.
If you want something that just works out of the box, consider increasing your budget and look at the Bambu P1P.
I recently picked up its big brother, the X1C, as my first foray into 3D Printing, and I’m very glad I spent the extra money after first looking at the offerings in the $300 range.
Edit: I see you want to hack it. Bambu probably isn’t for you, then - it’s closed-source, and commonly compared to the Apple of 3D printing. But it also “just works.” 🤷♂️
There is the Sovol SV07 for about 300€-ish. It comes with Klipper and should check all your boxes. I bought the SV06 Plus two months ago it works OK. You have to tighten all the screws and actually read the manual, but that’s it. If you want a guaranteed problem free OOTB experience, you have to buy Prusa (top quality control and software) or Bambulab (not really hackable but runs well) for 600-800€.
I picked the SV06 Plus this past weekend as my first printer, so I’ll be back here later this week probably with a host of questions or (hopefully) successes.
On paper it looks like a fantastic first 3D printer to experiment with a variety of filaments and get a feel for what I actually need from a 3D printer, but I guess we’ll see.
