Best 3D printer under 350?

[dillon_mitko]

What’s the best 3D printer under 350... looking to have a fairly large print size and easy to setup and easy to work with as it would be my first printer. I was looking at the creality ender 5 as it’s on sale for 330 right now but the sale ends before I would be ready to buy.

 

[Camaroboy383]

don't forget you will need filament, as well as extra ptfe liner.. i recommend the capricorn ptfe, the xs line....

that being said, i beleive this will be your best entry..? when your ready to upgrade to a bigger build volume you can do so by simply purchasing a kit to convert the ender into a large format printer...?

 

[jondilly1974]

I would grab that one @Camaroboy383 listed above as it already has upgrades included. If you’re on a budget, don’t get a base E5. It needs quite a few upgrades to be reliable. You will spend more on wasted filaments than anything trying to dial it in. You want a glass bed and the above has that. You will also want a BL Touch to automatically level the bed. It also sounds like the above has an updated board running newer Marlin firmware because it says runaway protection.

 

[dillon_mitko]

don't forget you will need filament, as well as extra ptfe liner.. i recommend the capricorn ptfe, the xs line....

that being said, i beleive this will be your best entry..? when your ready to upgrade to a bigger build volume you can do so by simply purchasing a kit to convert the ender into a large format printer...?

That’s the reason the budget is 350... the actual budget is 450 but I know I will need filament.

 

[LibertyMKiii]

I totally understand budgets so why not get this one?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/CREALITY-C...033164&hash=item5d8aacc0e7:g:szIAAOSwtDVcyDTu

 

[Camaroboy383]

That’s the reason the budget is 350... the actual budget is 450 but I know I will need filament.

well, its still the best route.. hands down.. your not going to get a large format printer in that budget and still have loot to buy material and parts.. you still have the ability to turn it into a large format printer in the end.. ? you don't get that option with any other printer really.. not for the price anyway..

 

[jondilly1974]

I totally understand budgets so why not get this one?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/CREALITY-C...033164&hash=item5d8aacc0e7:g:szIAAOSwtDVcyDTu

That is a nice unit for sure. Larger build volume too. ????

 

[fpvmiller]

I was caught up on print volume when I got my first 3d printer. Then a built a 300x300x300 3d printer which is a cr10 clone. I still print most of my items on my 230x230x200 printer

I built my first two printers by hand before the kits today were readily available at reasonable prices.

When you say easy to setup and easy to work with that kind of increases the kit price. Easy to work with would be a kit that already has an auto level (technically auto tramming) setup on it. Easy to work with would be a direct drive extruder setup versus a bowden setup. I have used both and I personally prefer bowden.

Easy to setup would be Creality kits from what I have seen or anything that is partially assembled. There are kits that are full DIY and would cost a bit less but you have to really work for it.

Geetech makes some kits too (A10 and A20) that are very similar to creality builds. I have had/used the A20M and I was able to find a more efficient way to do multiple filaments versus the A20M so I gutted it for parts

The 3d printer kits are vast and narrowing it down will really require alot of compare and contrast on your part. Budget shouldn't be the only factor

 

[Camaroboy383]

I totally understand budgets so why not get this one?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/CREALITY-C...033164&hash=item5d8aacc0e7:g:szIAAOSwtDVcyDTu

the pro had great promise, and crashed upon release.. there were some major flaws in the probe of that machine... with some sorting they werent bad at all, but the regular open frame cr10 performs the same for a fraction of the cost.. ? the cr10 pro and the crx were rushed through the process and left with some major hangups upon release.. my crx needed alot of warranty parts and alot of attention before it would even print, let alone print well... ?

 

[dillon_mitko]

I was caught up on print volume when I got my first 3d printer. Then a built a 300x300x300 3d printer which is a cr10 clone. I still print most of my items on my 230x230x200 printer

I built my first two printers by hand before the kits today were readily available at reasonable prices.

When you say easy to setup and easy to work with that kind of increases the kit price. Easy to work with would be a kit that already has an auto level (technically auto tramming) setup on it. Easy to work with would be a direct drive extruder setup versus a bowden setup. I have used both and I personally prefer bowden.

Easy to setup would be Creality kits from what I have seen or anything that is partially assembled. There are kits that are full DIY and would cost a bit less but you have to really work for it.

Geetech makes some kits too (A10 and A20) that are very similar to creality builds. I have had/used the A20M and I was able to find a more efficient way to do multiple filaments versus the A20M so I gutted it for parts

The 3d printer kits are vast and narrowing it down will really require alot of compare and contrast on your part. Budget shouldn't be the only factor

Alright thanks for the help man!!

 

[fpvmiller]

Just to put it out there this is one US based shop I have acquired parts from.

https://tiny-machines-3d.myshopify.com/

Haven't had issues with them through multiple orders

 

[jondilly1974]

Just saw Chep talking about the E3 V2

 

[drjim]

These cost considerably less than the ones I was looking at. Since I don't know what I "need" because I don't know what I'll use it for, I aimed kind of high and wound up looking at $2k printers.

If I can make decent quality parts with a $350 machine, that might very well be in the near future!

 

[fpvmiller]

The quality comes from the slicer settings, the filament quality, and the attention you pay to the printer.

If you want to see a printer that just makes your brows pop at both price and function take a look at the e3d tool changer
For myself I am using a pallette 2 pro for multi-color/multi-material printing. So much more efficient than messing with tool change scripts.

But yes, a sub $600 printer can hammer out quality prints. You just have to "tease it there" but you come away with "my printer can do that"

 

[suchtragedy]

I started with a basic Ender 3 pro ($220) and once I got the basics it perfoemed really well. Over time I've updated many individual components to make it slightly better over time and by better I don't necessarily mean print quality, but also ease of use, maintenance, features, convenience, etc.

What's great about printers running on Marlin (the base machine language) is that it's open source, so that's why there is so many variations of printers with very similar base hardware but with differences here and there in both software tweaks and hardware. It's also why most any printer can be changed/modified/upgraded to suit ones needs and there is a ton of resources online to help you along the way.

Honestly 3D printers are much like RC in terms of hardware and feature customization, but straight of the box they still perform very well even at the lower end price point. As previously said the quality is mainly determined by the filament material and slicer software parameters which takes a little time to dial in starting out but once you do you're golden.

 

[Aive]

What about Ender 5 Pro's? Comes with what seems to be some basic essential upgrades - metal extruder, capricorn tube. I think that's in his price range too.

 

[jondilly1974]

I’m gonna be the first one here to say it...

I don’t like Capricorn tube! ?????

It is too narrow and restrictive. Every time I’ve installed it, which has been three times, I end up with a clogged nozzle. Swap out for the standard white PTFE and we are back in business.

If you follow CHEP on YT, he confirms this in a recent video. He still uses a small chunk of it in the hot end, but uses standard PTFE for the bowden tube.

 

[fpvmiller]

I'm with jondilly on the capricorn tube.

I use all metal legit e3d v6 hot ends with standard ptfe tubing and bondtech extruder. From flexible to nylonx to carbon infused filaments (carbon infused petg is soooo much fun ) I almost never have issues with feeding filament during printing.

Sometimes the simple solutions really are the best

What about Ender 5 Pro's? Comes with what seems to be some basic essential upgrades - metal extruder, capricorn tube. I think that's in his price range too.

It is a coreXY machine so naturally the footprint will be a bit larger than the build volume. Other than that coreXY machines are fun albeit a bit finicky sometimes. Mainly around the belts and the bed being held at a slightly uneven load angle. The bed requires more attention when leveling which is why I prefer beds moving on the y-axis.

But, if I were to do a coreXY machine I would probably build the viking or the v-baby over at https://vkingprinter.com/

 

[drjim]

Besides consumables like filament, what tends to wear out on these? When I buy *any* new machine, I tend to grab a bunch of spares for it at the same time.

And besides wear-out items, what things am *I* likely to break in the beginning? Even though I try and be careful, and I always RTFM, there's that fumble-fingered OH SH1T! moment when I accidentally break something.

Been reading lots of things online about this, and me being me, the more I learn the more questions I have.....!

 

[jondilly1974]

Besides consumables like filament, what tends to wear out on these? When I buy *any* new machine, I tend to grab a bunch of spares for it at the same time.

And besides wear-out items, what things am *I* likely to break in the beginning? Even though I try and be careful, and I always RTFM, there's that fumble-fingered OH SH1T! moment when I accidentally break something.

Been reading lots of things online about this, and me being me, the more I learn the more questions I have.....!

It would be nice to have some spare bowden tube and some replacement nozzles on hand. This is just what I find usefull to have on hand for issues I've had.