Looking for a good mid grade 3d printer to get started with.

[nlancaster]

I have had a Prusa Mk3 and now a Bambu X1Carbon

Both are excellent machines, Prusa support and customer service is excellent.

I have not had to deal with Bambu Support or customer service, other than initial order and shipping being very fast.

Both machines make excellent parts with very little "tinkering" to keep the machines working.

The Bambu multi material system, AMS, has been working great for me though I have seen others saying they have had issues.

I never had the Prusa multi material system, some of my friends have had nothing but problems with it.

The PrusaXL looks amazing once you get it dialed in, apparently it takes some tweaking but it is still early days yet for frimware/profiles for that printer.

 

[dgfoster]

I have had a Prusa Mk3 and now a Bambu X1Carbon

Both are excellent machines, Prusa support and customer service is excellent.

I have not had to deal with Bambu Support or customer service, other than initial order and shipping being very fast.

Both machines make excellent parts with very little "tinkering" to keep the machines working.

The Bambu multi material system, AMS, has been working great for me though I have seen others saying they have had issues.

I never had the Prusa multi material system, some of my friends have had nothing but problems with it.

The PrusaXL looks amazing once you get it dialed in, apparently it takes some tweaking but it is still early days yet for frimware/profiles for that printer.

FWIW, I pulled the trigger last week for a Prusa XL Twin Head. I have to wait 'til May. But, in the meantime, the MK3s keeps on printing. I did have a "scare" the other day when I was printing a dozen identical thin parts and it looked like my bed was not level. The problem was (not surprisingly) operator error, not mechanical as I had a loose piece of extruded filament under a corner of the bed.

Strong factors in my decision to continue with Prusa are:
1) They are a "real" company based in Europe contributing open source to the 3D community not a Chinese megaplex government surrogate.
2) On the few occasions I needed assistance figuring out nuances of the MK3s they have provided immediate, clear, and complete help delivered by someone whose first language is English. Good luck with any help you need from Bambu.

I think of it like buying a Mitutoyo "real" caliper as opposed to a generic clone. Both work but the Mit is a whole lot better experience in so many ways and is clearly worth it to me.

Denis






Denis

 

[nlancaster]

Denis,

Yeah never had to contact Bambu for support, it just works. I have heard both types of stories good and bad about their support.

The only time I had any need to contact Prusa it was excellent.

I to have had the loose filament fragment under the bed on my printers. lol

 

[LOTT]

Yeah never had to contact Bambu for support, it just works.

How long have you had it? Call me a skeptic, but I'd like to see some track record before switching from Prusa. The MK3 doesn't have to be cutting edge as long as it's reliable.

 

[604Pook]

Been to busy working to clean up it's new home, and to setup the printer. Hoping before the end of the week.

 

[nlancaster]

Lott,

I have had my Bambu Labs X1C for a little over a year. No major problems beyond some old filament breaking in the AMS.

AMS has been reliable for me beyond the old PLA breaking.

I have not had a failed print because of something the printer did, I forgot supports on a few things and caused some issues.

It has been as reliable as my Prusa Mk3. So reliable I sold my Prusa MK3 because I wasn't using it anymore.

 

[GiroDyno]

Been to busy working to clean up it's new home, and to setup the printer. Hoping before the end of the week.

Stop making excuses, there are sample parts to print loaded on the machine ready to print!
Just set the damn thing on your coffee table and print a bed scraper tool or dinosaur. After watching it whizz around for 5 minutes you'll wish you'd gotten it running sooner.

 

[604Pook]

Stop making excuses, there are sample parts to print loaded on the machine ready to print!
Just set the damn thing on your coffee table and print a bed scraper tool or dinosaur. After watching it whizz around for 5 minutes you'll wish you'd gotten it running sooner.

So I went out the shop last night after the youngest kids went to bed, and got the Bambu setup, Didn't take long. Did my first test print, and it turned out decent I think. Have never used a printer before, and haven't even really been around to many 3d printed parts, so i don't have much to judge by. the printer itself seems easy enough to use, hopefully the slicer software is as well when I go to use my own designs.

Can't wait to start printing some more things. I have wanted some new collet storage trays that fit in my tool box drawer properly and make a better use of the space, so think that will be my first self designed part. Something simple and useful.

In the mean time while I am working on work stuff, I may print a few kids toys to surprise my kids with.

 

[GiroDyno]

That wasn't so hard now, was it?!
FYI The prints they provide with the printer are not the best representations of how your prints from the software will run. I think the "Benchy" model you printed probably runs 50% faster than if you sliced it using stock settings... But IME the stock settings work well enough I haven't done much tweaking.
You also have get to learn to design parts for printing vs. machining now!

 

[604Pook]

Yeah. I have made a few toys for the kids from some downloads. Need to learn how all the settings affect things. They explanation wiki page from Bambu does a decent job of explaining things.

Going to start today with my own design for some collet holders today in solidworks and pull them into the slicer and will see what happens. At least making learning mistakes are cheap and not to time consuming for myself on the actual running of parts end of things. Easier then first runs on the machines

 

[604Pook]

Well I haven't made the collet holders yet, haven't had time to design what I want. But I did make some wall mounted battery holders for my cordless tools, adapting some found on the internet designs to what I wanted, designed a tv, apple tv, sound system, remote control holder for my wife that worked out well, and have mad a few different flexi toys for the youngest.

Teaching myself about the layer and infill selection and how it works. Currently printing a mount for my battery charger for the cordless tools, I designed in solidworks. First print I messed up by not reinforcing the top layer or the pegs for mounting the charger correctly and they broke off with my first test fit. This taught me to look at how the item has been sliced more closely and where the infill is and how it lines up with important features needing strength.

Glad it's just some plastic filament wasted, not metal and broken tooling.

Definitely a learning curve for properly designing things for 3d printing and how all the slicer options work.

 

[GiroDyno]

First print I messed up by not reinforcing the top layer or the pegs for mounting the charger correctly and they broke off with my first test fit. This taught me to look at how the item has been sliced more closely and where the infill is and how it lines up with important features needing strength.

Instead of sticking with uniform wall thickness and leaving infill up to the gods I shell models and adjust wall thickness where required.
I've printed a lot of molds for carbon bike frames and this was the method I settled on for keeping my molds sturdy while not wasting too much time/material. That was using resin printers but it also applies to the typical glorified hot glue-gun printers.

A quick search brought this up:

 

[604Pook]

Instead of sticking with uniform wall thickness and leaving infill up to the gods I shell models and adjust wall thickness where required.
I've printed a lot of molds for carbon bike frames and this was the method I settled on for keeping my molds sturdy while not wasting too much time/material. That was using resin printers but it also applies to the typical glorified hot glue-gun printers.

A quick search brought this up:

Awesome Thanks. Just the kind of techniques I need to learn.