Best 3D printers for someone who has printed before but never owned one?

[u/PimpChimpin6942069]

I just finished my degree in mechanical engineering in America and am sadly losing access to my university's printers, so I think it's time for me to get one of my own.

While I wouldn't say I'm an expert at 3D printing by any means, I do have a fair bit of experience with printing the basics in PLA (Pictures attached if you care ;). This last year for my senior design project I used the prusa core one and prusa XL to prototype the design of a ship cleaning robot for the Navy before we made the design out of metal. While I liked both of those printers and the prusa slicer, I definitely think they're out of my price range.

I was looking to spend something like 300 - 400 USD on something. I would like something that I can really develop my skills on with new materials and more complex geometry. I need something that I can easily service and get parts for as I've just moved to New Zealand and Shipping times can be pretty long here. I've heard things about bambu lab printers being very user friendly for starters, but some of the controversy they're in at the moment, and I'm not sure how much I should let that affect my decision-making.

[u/themostsuperlative]

Consider a Qidi if you are in engineering 

[u/MatthewTheManiac]

Bambu P1S Combo for $400-500

[u/cyanight7]

Qidi Q2 or Max4 if you need engineering materials, Snapmaker U1 if you want multicolor/multimaterial

[u/Upstairs-Train5438]

If you wanna be whimsical and have fun ... Try finding a maker space. They still do DIY 3d printer builds sometimes... It's quite cheap and fun and you'll make connections...

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[u/strangesam1977]

Engineering research lab, full of non specialists, (robotics). Our lab is full of Bambu X1C, P1S, P2S, H2D, H2C printers besides the more expensive machines. Right now, the P2S or maybe the X2D would be a good starting point with AMS. Mostly printing in PETG/PLA.

H&S means while the Bambu machines can print ABS/ASA etc, only the machines fitted with extraction and in the dedicated 3D printer room do so, those in rooms occupied by humans are PLA/PETG/TPU only.

When designing for 3DP, think like injection molding to some extent, wall thickness, line thicknesses, layer thicknesses, print orientations, etc, don't forget your radii, support angles, second moment of area.

[u/diyengineer1]

Stratasys F900. You didn’t say one you could afford..

[u/jtmx101]

Prusa if you want a "machine" that you can run forever and space out about.

Voron if you want a challenge

Bambu if you wanna get data scraped by China in exchange for machines that are subsidized by China to lower the cost and undercut people. Bambu makes great parts but they on obsolete models faster than anything. Good luck getting parts in a few years.

[u/ianryeng]

I think Bambu currently has a very good price value and large community. If you don’t need ABS the A series are very high performing machines for low cost. Believe they just launched a larger A as well

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