I’m shopping for my first printer, I don’t have any experience with 3d printing but I’m vaguely familiar with the whole process and I understand there will be a learning curve and I’m looking forward to that part.
I’m leaning towards the Creality S1 Pro because I remember the huge hub-bub about the Ender 3 when it first came out and it seems like everyone and their brother suggests it as a good first printer but then when I read reviews it seems kinda janky and I’m an adult with a job so I don’t mind fussing a little but I don’t want to fuss a lot.
I picked the S1 Pro because I think it has an auto-leveling print surface and the name recognition from the previously mentioned Ender 3, but when I try to research other printers I’m completely overwhelmed by the options.
You must log in or # to comment.
Depends on your budget and how deep you want to dive.
I bought Ender 3v2 as my first 3D printer, and it traumatised me to the point I’ve not printed anything in a year. 3D printing has it’s learning curves, but Creality gives you no ropes here. Which is great and ultra frustrating at the same time. You will learn a lot about 3D printing, even stuff that you don’t really need. But it will take you a long time and loads of sweat and tears for your first successful 3D print (unless you are lucky and your printer will be good to go from the box).
This makes me feel so much better. I had the same start as you and was pulling my hair out a bit. I knew there would be some learning curves but not this hard. I just felt like a moron for a bit. Some things would be fine then the next print would be spaghetti for no reason. Don’t even get me started on the 4 contact points for balance/ leveling.
Don’t even get me started on the 4 contact points for balance/ leveling.
One feature I definitely want is auto-leveling. I hope it softens the learning curve at least a little bit.
I mean it wouldn’t even be so hard if they just put a small level bubble and just 3 points of contact so you don’t have to worry about the center being convex or concave
This is one thing that just boggles my mind about 3d printers.
How the fuck has no printer maker figured out that four points don’t always make a flat surface? This shits like one of the most basic concepts of mechanical engineering, and yet it appears to be completely absent from 3d printing. Apparently no one in the industry has ever heard even of it.
If you look how cheap creality printers are, they are amazing. I never owned one, but I like S1 Pro much more than ender 3. It has all metal hotend, direct drive extruder, cr touch, filament sensor, magnetic pei sheet so actually it has what most people buy for cheap machines. Even tho they both are cheap, I dislike wheels instead of proper rods or rails, 4 point bed leveling and bed slinger design. Ive seen loads of perfect prints coming from ender, but Im sure you need some luck and loads of skill and patience for that. If you are prepared to recieve faulty parts and fix whats broken you can enjoy this hoby with creality. Dont expect much support from creality, but there is loads of people that can help on lemmy im sure. I heared good about sovol sv06 (prusa clone) so check that out, its same price range.
Better one but much more expensive is prusa, same kind of machine but better support and build quality.
Other than that most people recommend bamboolab p1p but thats not open source and also more expensive.
Whatever you buy have fun
Dont expect much support from creality,
I’ve been running Fedora Core on my laptops for years and my cell service is tracfone…support is for the weak :P
Consider getting a job at creality support center, exactly what they are looking for hehe
If you are looking for minimal fussing about, get a prusa or a bambu. You will spend more money that route though, and the bambu is a closed system so you buy official parts from bambu when something breaks. Personally I am a fan of sovol and elegoo printers over reality, if you are looking for a bed slinger design. (creality is the name everyone recognizes so they have market share, but really they aren’t making anything better than (or in many cases even as-good as) anyone else.)
I’m also a big fan of flsun deltas, but don’t think I’d go for the v400… Super racer is a great machine and the q5 is a fantastic starter printer and cheap to start, if a bit limited in build area. But if I had the money to spend on a v400 I’d likely buy a bambu (or build a rat rig or voron, actually) instead.
what makes a sovol or elegoo better than creality? I just get so overwhelmed because they all look pretty much the same and seem to be priced the same too
Generally better features out of the box, and generally better build quality and QC. Basically the only thing Creality has going for them is name recognition among people outside the hobby, which means they end up being a LOT of people’s first printer.
I have only one printer and it is a sovol sv06 so I can’t compare it to any creality printers, but it has been great. My understanding is that the sv06 is a clone of a prusa printer. I have had extremely minimal tinkering with mine (other than lubricating bearings once) and I have been printing most days for the past month. I’m sure the prusa has better QC and better customer support but the sovol was less than half the price
My advice is to buy based on the availability of replacement parts. A red flag to me is a brand where there are no third party nozzles or hot end components. Because inevitably something is going to go wrong and you’re gonna have to fix something. Some printers make it really hard to get at the hot end components which will make it really intimidating to troubleshoot for the first time.
What is a good example of a brand that has parts vs one that doesn’t?
I’m a fan of the aftermarket parts offered by micro swiss (store.micro-swiss.com) so I check there before taking a printer seriously. Hope that helps!
