Which printer to buy

[Edward Hyde]

Hello everyone!

I'm looking to get myself a printer which is fitting for printing props, household item, general stuff and things I can build and print with my 7 year old son.
The technology has developed extremely fast and doesn't seem to stop, even though we seem to have hit a plateau for the time being, but I haven't been watching very close for the past 6 month.

I'd like to get one for myself for the mentioned reasons around Christsmas this year. It can be one or more printers and budget is 2000€ max (with a little bit of wiggle room).
AI suggests Creality K1 Max + Bambu Lab A1 Mini.
Another option would be to start with the Mini and the move on to the PS1.

Both would land me below 2000€. Both would give me the option to start with a small printer to measure whether I like it or not. But the few friends I have who have a printer never stopped using theirs.


So I'm looking for recommendations.

Best,
Edward

 

[SgtSaint]

"What's your printer?" thread on the 405th forum:
What's Your Printer?

I wish I knew this about printers before buying discussion:
"I wish I knew" Tips When Starting to 3d Print

• My favorite section of any YouTuber's channels is the recent post by Frankly Built who is well regarded in this genre - about taking some time to learn before doing:

• He also just added this one about sanding and smoothing where it leans in to the same thing I keep saying: Just sand it (as opposed to the 'slather with thinned bondo magic shell' approach).

 

[Edward Hyde]

"What's your printer?" thread on the 405th forum:
What's Your Printer?

I wish I knew this about printers before buying discussion:
"I wish I knew" Tips When Starting to 3d Print

• My favorite section of any YouTuber's channels is the recent post by Frankly Built who is well regarded in this genre - about taking some time to learn before doing:

• He also just added this one about sanding and smoothing where it leans in to the same thing I keep saying: Just sand it (as opposed to the 'slather with thinned bondo magic shell' approach).

Thanks for the links, even though I checked the threads beforehand. The "I wish" thread doesn't answer the printer question itself, and the "What's your printer" doesn't usually go into detail why people choose a specific printer, at least not to the detail I need at this point.
I already spend a lot of time on the internet, but all this can't replace hands on experience, hence the reason for me asking.

 

[SgtSaint]

The A1mini is... well... Mini. Its only 180mm³
The K1max is 300mm³

180mm is basically a toy within our context of props and especially armor. You probably don't want to have to carve up a helmet into 10 pieces just to print it, then the associated 200 labor hours of glueing it and hiding all those seams.

At 300mm the K1max will mean fewer parts, of larger size; which means less labor and less weak points and well.. 'less bad looking' larger parts.

 

[Bucky]

Please stay away from the K1 Max. I've owned just about every Creality machine and the K1 Max was poo poo. I'd rather use an old CR-10 and level the bed myself again before I ever use another K1 Max. LOL.

I suggest looking at Bambu Lab. Given how well they developed a corexy for the price, it's almost a no brainer. Look at the P1S, P2S and X1C models. These are all very good printer models by them.

Good luck my friend!

 

[Spartan J114]

Please stay away from the K1 Max. I've owned just about every Creality machine and the K1 Max was poo poo. I'd rather use an old CR-10 and level the bed myself again before I ever use another K1 Max. LOL.

I suggest looking at Bambu Lab. Given how well they developed a corexy for the price, it's almost a no brainer. Look at the P1S, P2S and X1C models. These are all very good printer models by them.

Good luck my friend!

I agree, i recently bought a K1 max new in box off a friend and I cannot believe how much a core xy printer has let me down

 

[CaminusPrime]

Bambu P1S is a robust choice and easy to set up printer, great for a first machine also.
Can recommend it from experience personally, I used to be full Creality but now I wouldn't go near any new models. (Not here for anyone to try and sell me against that either). Bambu's quality control is probably best in class overall.

For the fact you also have a 7 year old, I would say go the P1S over the A1 series machines as there'll be less chance small fingers get caught in moving parts with the enclosed system.

As for size, Splitting things is more than viable and typically better than wasting material on support. Because this is also a first machine though, you will likely benefit from not going as full send on something like a H2S or H2D in the Bambu series so that it gives you an opportunity for you to know your way around a machine because no matter what you have maintenance is inevitable and learning on something more expensive might not as beneficial if not concerning to work on. Eventually if you really get into it and want a larger machine a P1S would absolutely compliment it in my opinion.

 

[Bucky]

I agree, i recently bought a K1 max new in box off a friend and I cannot believe how much a core xy printer has let me down

Not all corexy's are created equal it seems. Creality definitely jumped the gun with the K1 series as a whole, but they wanted to compete with the Bambu boys and girls... The K2 Plus has been a decent machine for me, but I still prefer Bambu Lab, especially now. I absolutely hated manually leveling the bed on older machines. BL Touch's were a god send for me, but still... I'm lazy.. Womp womp. In my honest opinion, Bambu Lab definitely set a standard for turnkey 3D printing even if they are a closed source platform now.. Their quality control is also light years better than Creality. Lorddddd! Hahaha. I'm done glazing BL. Sorry everyone. LOL.