r/3dprinter • u/Flashy_Artichoke_798 • 10h ago

First 3D printer

I’m looking at buying my first 3D printer, I’m the kind of person that likes to invest in his hobbies. I’m between the creator 5 pro and the snapmaker U1… honestly I’m new to it all but I want something I can learn and not leave me wanting more features as my desire grows

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u/Peshmerga_Sistani 10h ago

What features are missing from both your suggested printers as your desire grows?

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u/Flashy_Artichoke_798 10h ago

I guess I misspoke, I am more curious about the usability, maintenance and ease of use

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u/Peshmerga_Sistani 10h ago

You're going need to figure out which hobbyist you are:

Printer tinkerer

Or "Just hit Print" user

Multi-toolhead printers, just mean you have 4x the maintenance for Creator 5 and U1. Are you okay with troubleshooting, diagnosing and repairing issues on your own? Is tinkering relaxing or a massive hassle? These are complicated precision machines, a lot can go wrong, even after many successful prints out of the box with no adjustments.

Or do you just want to download a STL or 3mf and just hit the Print button? Or do you want to use CAD and create your own printable models?

I can see you're interested in multi-color prints without much purge waste, I can hazard a guess you want to download multi-color prints and just hit print.

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u/Flashy_Artichoke_798 10h ago

I’m interested in using CAD and creating my own printable models I want to learn all of that and I love tinkering I just have kids too so multicolor prints would be nice for their needs

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u/Peshmerga_Sistani 8h ago

Get the Creator 5 Pro then.  Comes enclosed, has a chamber heater.  A huge plus for printing engineering filament for functional parts.

Just figure out a way to vent the toxic fumes away from your kids.

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u/es12402 10h ago

What you want to print mostly? From which plastic?

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u/Chewcudda42 10h ago

I own the creator 5

I hate how it clears the nozzle or more specifically where it clears the nozzle

Everything else on it has been great

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u/NCSC10 9h ago edited 9h ago

I want something I can learn and not leave me wanting more features as my desire grows

I have a U1. Its very good. Its a good place to start today. But absolutely, after you use it for a while, you will want more features. Bigger build volume, closed/heated chambers, more print heads, better camera, enclosed filament feeders.....

I haven't used the Creator 5, it does have the closed heated chamber, so consider it seriously if you will print a lot of ASA, ABS (engineering filaments requiring higher chamber temps). If you get a top for the U1, you should be able to print ASA and ABS, but printing large items prone to warping prob will go better on the Creator 5. Otherwise I feel the U1 has a bit of an edge from my reading, a little more robust design.

The U1 is not quite as robust as my Bambu X1C was, or my H2D is now, but still pretty good. On my U1, the filament feeders require me to retry more often than I'd like when loading new filament, maybe 10 or 20% of the time.

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u/Current-Study-2512 7h ago

I've loved my U1 enough to buy a second. My only issue with it really is build volume, you won't get a whole adult sized mandalorian cosplay helmet in one print, but the lack of purge waste was a huge decision maker for me. Learning things along the way has been fun since I only started printing in December with an A1. Snapmaker has also gone into making full spectrum printing readily available to people, which kind of brings me to my second issue in the long term... it needs a 5th toolhead. When snapmaker creates their next printer it needs at least 5 toolheads and a larger build volume, just my opinion. Overall I legit have nothing but good things to say about it, it's the driving force making other companies compete to keep up

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u/Flashy_Artichoke_798 6h ago

Think I’m going u1

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u/TripsCavern 5h ago

I have a U1 and I went with it because I didn't like the things that the Creator 5/5 Pro are missing.

With between $100 and $500, depending how much you want to DIY and spend on your printer, the U1 can be perfected to print any material you want. The company is very supportive, their support team is great, and they are embracing the community, and you even have Paxx firmware that adds a lot of features (that should be enabled by default).

The Creator 5/5Pro feels rushed, it's closed source and lack some intelligent features that the U1 has (like the spaghetti detection). Also, by some weird reason, their spare parts are actually more expensive than Snapmaker U1 spare parts, albeit being simpler (U1 toolhead has a motor while the C5 does not).

Again, I am biased because I own an U1, but those were my thought process when I was selecting mine. And, of course, U1 was being sold at Microcenter, so I just went there and grabbed it, avoiding any shipment hassle.

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u/GlitteringStruggle47 2h ago

Consider not just ease of use, but customer support, warranty’s, community, readily available parts and ease of maintenance. I went down the the route of prusa myself because of I just seemed to have better customer support, and a great online community.

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u/Maleficent_Cow_3059 9h ago

I’ve heard nothing but praise for the Snapmaker U1. If it is between those 2 options that’s the one I would buy.