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.

  • ivan@piefed.socialEnglish
    3·
    3 days ago

    I’d recommend trying some budget-y CoreXY-type printer, but I’d be very careful with Creality lineup on that, as many of their options didn’t really turn out well, basic K1 is straight up dogwater, but some later revisions like KE might be better.

    Mentioned already Elegoo Centauri is cool. If you want multi-filament system as well - take a look at Centauri Carbon 2, although it gets a bit less efficient with keeping temperature inside the enclosure due to big silly hat, and using different materials (e.g. different ones for supports) is going to be quite tricky.

    • Jo4ted@lemmy.zipEnglish
      3·
      2 days ago

      I have an Ender 3 V3 Plus. Huge upgrade from my Ender 3 V2, but either print locally or flash custom firmware before connecting it to the internet. The app/website is so locked down I had to publish a private model to my account before printing anything not on Creality Cloud.

      Edit to add: flashing custom firmware can be dangerous and brick your printer’s mobo, please exercise caution. I can’t provide any advice, as I have not flashed mine yet, but it’s on my to-do list.

      • ivan@piefed.socialEnglish
        2·
        2 days ago

        I’ve had Ender 3 V3-SE, which had been an upgrade from basic Ender 3 Pro, which, funnily enough, got glitchy from firmware flashing gone wrong.

        And on topic of Creality Cloud - I’ve just used Octoprint on RPi as the latter was simply cheaper at that moment. 🌚

        • Jo4ted@lemmy.zipEnglish
          3·
          2 days ago

          OctoPrints what I’m also looking towards. Had a friend deploy it with his Ender 3 Pro, and it was so smooth compared to CC.