this post was submitted on 18 Nov 2023
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Asklemmy
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3d printer. I can make custom things that just can't be bought fairly easily.
My washing machine's motor went out while it was full of water. I designed and printed an adapter that let me manually run the pump that drains the washer off of a cordless drill and successfully drained the washer. (Actually, the adapter broke in the middle, but I had the foresight to print a few spares. It only took a couple to drain the whole washer.)
A lot of the other stuff I print is custom wall mounts for things. A Raspberry Pi NAS that hangs on the wall, a mount for a SAD lamp, a mount for my Nintendo Switch Joycon charging base, etc.
Where did you buy your 3d printer and how much does it generally cost to get one?
Prices can vary wildly depending on how simple or advanced you go. A classic, tried-and-true Ender 3 can be found for $100 in some places, and something like a Bambu X1 Carbon can go for $1,400.
If you're just starting out and don't want to invest most of your free time to tweaking and maintaining a bare ones printer, look into something like the Bambu P1P. Not top end, definitely not low end, and does a lot of the tedium for you so you can go right into enjoying 3D printing.
Oh wow! I wasn't expecting them to go as cheap as $100. I'm definitely getting one then, thanks!
Just be aware that these $100 printers are great if you want a HOBBY. If all you want out of a 3d printer is a tool to print things, plan to spend more.
The cheap ones need a lot of time tinkering and you'll easily spend more time printing parts for the printer than printing anything else.
Atoro's answer is pretty much what my response would be, but I figured I'd add a little more here.
I have an Ender 3 Pro that IIRC I spent about $250 on and an Ender 3 V2 Neo for about $285 (both made by the company "Creality"). I'm a huge fan of both and would recommend Creality any time. Most of Creality printers are really solid performers but without a ton of upgradeability or bells and whistles. In other words, really good beginner printers but also with limited upgradeability. They're quite "plug and play" in the sense that you can unbox it, assemble it (the instructions are simple and straightforward), and and be printing in like 2 hours. You will for sure have to learn how to maintain your printer (replace a nozzle, configure the z-probe offset, etc), but there are so many resources for that and the processes aren't terribly complex.
If you want any fancy features (multiple extruders so you can print complex things with multiple colors, faster printing, support for harder-to-print materials like HDPE, really high resolution, etc), there are of course options out there.
In general, I'd say before getting a printer, definitely spend some time doing research first. If you haven't learned at least the basics, it's easy to end up with a printer that's hard to use or whatever.
I said I have two printers; I lied. I have three, but the third one is half-disassembled gathering dust on a shelf. I got my first printer second-hand and immediately fucked it over to the point of unrepairability. Lol. It wasn't all a loss. I did learn a ton trying to fix it. But I do wish I'd done more research before I bought one.
There are tons of videos on YouTube that are great primers on the basics of 3d printing. They'll have you salivating about all the cool things a 3d printer will let you do as well. And if you have issues with your printer, there are lots of communities to ask for help. And my experience has been that even maintenance info doesn't need to be learned before you get the printer. It'll chug along for quite a while before it starts needing maintenance.
Beyond that, the only thing I can think to say is that when I upgraded to a printer that had automatic bed leveling with a z-probe, I immediately decided I'd never mess with a printer that didn't have it. It seems at first blush like it's probably non-essential, but my experience has been that without a z-probe, you can't use but a small portion of your print bed, which limits what you can do with your printer quite a bit.
If you do decide to embark on 3d printing, all the luck to you! I've found it extremely rewarding!
I personally use and recommend a Prusa i3, which I bought the kit for directly from Prusa for for mine. It's a bit more expensive than something like an ender but strikes the best balance for price to performance and reliability - Not super cheap at $700 but but definitely worth it in my experience from the quality and lack of trouble alone