3D printer.

Might as well get 300°C hot end, then you have some other materials as an option later.

Standard nozzle diameter for most printers is 0.4mm, and printing with a

Get one with Klipper firmware (which means it has a rPI-class processor, rather than an Arduino-class microcontroller) so in turn will mean you get ethernet or wifi connectivity with a web GUI and decent LCD screen, rather than USB/SD card for file transfers and a 2x20 character based LCD screen.

I have an Elegoo Neptune4 Pro ... if I was buying today I'd probably go for an Creality Ender3-V3 KE, kind-of similar but just because it'll become a more widely owned/used device ...

If you generally don't like Apple products, then Bambu printers are probably not for you either ...

Depends where it's going to go - if it's somewhere well ventilated then ABS or other materials can be a good option if you have an enclosure. If you have to run it in your dining room then you probably don't want to deal with the fumes.

Be prepared for every item you print taking hours, and days for longer parts.

I tend to print in 0.6mm because it is quicker for larger volume parts (by which I mean more than 5cm on a side), at the expense of resolution (doesn't bother me since they're functional).

(I have a 400x400x300mm print volume but dread to think how long it would take to print anything that size)

Things have moved on a lot since 2021 when I bought a secondhand 2019 printer. That said, you may be able to pick up a used older model for not much, and many of them are eminently hackable.

Definitely helps to have something mass market, there's more info and mods available. Although some of them are clones of others, so less risky to buy a clone of a popular model (although the cost cutting isn't always good).

Most of them are like bicycles, in that you can change out parts to customise however you like. It would be sad to lose that ability, but I can see the appeal of 'just works'. Although many of them 'just work' in recent years.

Theo

What about this one?

That's the one I was looking at before the Neptune came out, but when K1 first arrived there were a couple of issues with them, probably all corrected by now though (and early versions of many printers do have issues).

New kid in town ... a Voron2.4 based printer, that's been tweaked to suit factory pre-assembly rather than a month on your dining-room table.

Now $499 not $9999 (the pre-launch placeholder).

I'd get the touch screen too ($90), as KlipperScreen is much nicer to use than the click wheel interface.

Theo

I got it some tine ago. Creality K1

Odd the machine plus a camera cost less than the machine supplied with a camera Its pretty good, except the slicer software on linux crashes, so I set up Orca slicer instead. That is where all the real magic happens.

But its all highly networkable and although I have made every mistake in the book i have made them only once..

I've just installed Orca v2.0

I cant tell what I have. There is no start up splash screen nor 'about' tab that I could find :-)

Oh. Apparently I downloaded version 2.0 a few days ago. (in browsing history)

Its RAM gobbler though. Since my CAD is in a windows virtual machine the gobbles 3G, orca takes up most of what's left of the 8GB.

So I ordered another 16GB off an ebay seller

I also rooted the printer and installed mainsail/moonraker, but the only thing it does really is allow orca to upload and print directly. The moonraker web screen on the printer is total s*it and the camera doesn't work, whereas creality's own port 80 web server is fine for almost everything.

I might buy Simplify3D in due course...

I'd not heard of it, but I just installed it. I normally use Cura, but it looks like Orca integrates better with Klipper. It looks like it's really a browser running a web app, which would explain the memory.

Unfortunately the 'generic Klipper' option only has a setup for a 0.4mm nozzle. I tweaked it for 0.6mm (there are a lot of settings). Tried a calibration run and the layers were offset by centimetres, so I think it'll require quite some messing with the settings...

Theo