First, the printer's MSRPs are listed, making it easier to compare the printers. Voron has been added to the top of the subjective ranking, I left it out completely beforehand.
Qidi has been added, they are very good actually! The SV06 ACE has been added as well as the "Plus" variant, and the SV08 is corrected as a voron CoreXY kit rather than a prusa clone. I've also added the Prusa Mini+, but with a note saying that Sovol, Qidi, etc. have better value printers. I've also got BoxTurtle as an alternative to ERCF.
If you have any other suggestions, please lmk!
edit: really sorry for cross-posting the same thing 17 times, I won't do it again. I just wanted to share a cool project I made, but I should not have done what I did. Sorry for spamming your feeds. whoops!
I would like some feedback on bestof. Mostly relating to the 3D printing section as this is a 3D printing community, but also the site in general.
What things are missing or should be changed? How can I improve bestof?
After some comments in other communities, I've decided to start working on a better colour palette for higher contrast as well as adding more details to WHY I recommend the "best" things. A lot of categories don't neccesarily have a "best" (such as software) and I definitely need to improve on that front. I might even add a "reviews" section for more in-depth information about each thing.
I would really appreciate any feedback you have, and I'm really sorry about the spam! Promise I won't do it again!
original post:
This has taken quite a long time for me to make and now I can finally show everyone! Please lmk if you have any questions or think my picks should be changed to something else!
Sovol sv08 is a voron based printer, not like a prusa at all. And not a bed slinger.
And voron as a project, might be a self build from kits, but are better than what you’ve suggested in terms of listed as best of anything, in capability and in terms of open source.
Seconding kit Vorons. While they certainly aren't the cheapest option, they aren't that much more expensive than other higher end core XY machines. Fabreeko* has the 250/300mm Trident kit at 1.2k and 350mm 2.4 at 1.4k + an extra $150 or so for printed parts. Compared to the new Core One at between 950 - 1.2k or the X1C also at 1.2k you're looking at an extra $150 to 350, but that also comes with build volume increases (both the Prusa and Bambu are at roughly 250 mm³). Definitely wouldn't recommend them as a first printer, but Vorons are shining examples of what's possible with open source (and they're absolute workhorses too).
* Highly recommend them with glowing praise for being all around fantastic (they also run sales on the regular, though kit deals are usually reserved for special occasions like black Friday, or Clee day)
And what about Qidi? Everyone misses this brand. But they offer some well priced core xy printers with features no one else does. And the ability to print high end engineering filaments right out of the box.
For what it's worth I absolutely love my q1 pro, I just printed cf nylon for the first time this weekend and it was absolutely a piece of cake with the default settings.
I'm convinced Prusa and Bambu pricing is very simular; their printers just aren't always an apples-to-apples comparison. When considering enclosed, metal framed, coreXY printers, the Prusa Core One can be purchased as a kit for $950, but the Bambu X1C is $1150. (I highly recommend the Prusa kit options for new owners so they can get familiar with maintaining their machine.) At the mini end, you have the same $200 difference, but in the other direction.
The Prusa Mini+ kit is $430 while the Bambu A1 Mini is $220. However, these Bambu prices are currently shown as discounted and I'm not sure if they ever go up to their higher MSRPs. Therefore, I don't like how Prusa is the only printer brand in this guide with an "expensive" warning.
Edit: Perhaps it would add more clarity to instead include the MSRP in parentheses beside the individual printers listed below.
The new hotness in the open source MMU space is ArmoredTurtle's BoxTurtle project, which seeks to be an open source equivalent of the Bambu AMS. I'm still working on the parts for mine, but from everything I've seen the build is way less fiddly (and as a result more reliable) than the ERCF.
oh yeah that's probably a good idea. When I wrote that section, maybe reviews hadn't released yet or something. Btw, what is improved with the "ACE" models that make them worth it over the SV06 and SV08?
I like the Prusa mini. Good entry level printer. Not cheap with ~500€. But it is also easy to repair and upgrade compared to the MK3/4. The Bowden system means slower print speed but also easy repair. I upgraded mine with the Bondtech Gears.
I don’t know if it fits on your list. Besides that it is small and one of the cheapest Prusa Printers, I see no benefit.
(I have it because it fits in my room with the enclosure, now the CoreOne would be technically better but much more expensive)
What's so terrible about the user experience of the Ender 3?
Also, you should be more specific about it: there are several different printers with "Ender 3" in the name, and the one that's typically recommended for people who want a cheap printer is the "Ender 3 V3 SE" specifically, not the original.
i’ve seen many stories online about people getting very frustrated with it. Oh yep, I should mention to prefer the newer model, I didn’t know there wad a difference.
i've fixed it! now it's specifically the V3 SE. also, I've also included the "KE" which seems to be a slightly better version with klipper-based firmware
update: based on the feedback, I've added Qidi printers high on my list (I never knew the Q1 Pro was such a good value!), reorganised the list a little bit and included Voron as a build-it-yourself option, and also added BoxTurtle and Tradrack as MMU systems. I've also added OctoPrint, turns out it's a seperate thing from OctoEverywhere
also btw why can't you edit posts properly on lemmy? when I try to edit the main post, it doesn't work. strange. maybe the instance is slow to update or something?