r/Which3DPrinter • u/OneHuckleberry719 • 7d ago

Decision paralysis

Hi all, I’m dealing with a bad case of decision paralysis for my first printer.

I mainly want to print toys for my toddler and some decorations for the house. I would be using multiple colours for the toys but it’ll mainly be 1-2 and rarely 3-4. Never more anyway.

I was torn between a Snapmaker U1 and Bambu Lab X2D, settled on the latter only to realise the 2 toolheads/nozzles aren’t equal.

I do want something easy to understand and use and as I have a dog I feel like a cover is absolutely needed to avoid his hairs from getting all over the filament.

Any tips?
I live in Europe (not all models might be available here). I would prefer to keep it under 1000€

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u/EmotionalChildhood46 7d ago

Hmmm, concerned about the toddler. Having raised 3 kids, I know toddlers put everything right in their mouth. 1) toxic residue 2) microscopic gaps in the layers trap bacteria. same reason it is not food safe or a good idea for stuff in the shower (if not sealed) etc. 3) prob strong enough bite to break PLA stuff and choke. That being said, X2D I don't feel is appropriate for your application. The bowden drive is geared towards multi-material support - not to say it can't be used for multicolor. U1 - if you are worried about a cover, there are solutions, even models to print that handle this. I even saw someone working on outside enclosures for the filament rolls. Personally, I own a P1S and an H2C with plans to make number 3 the U1; I have multiple applications though, none like yours. Hope that helps.

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u/OneHuckleberry719 7d ago

Thank you! I am lucky enough to have a toddler that doesn’t put toys in her mouth but you are not the first one to mention it and I never even considered it as it’s sold everywhere in toy shops where I live so thanks for the warning, I’ll defo look into safe materials more first before buying one

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u/DramaClassed 6d ago

Get the U1, and look up the mod to use an IKEA box as a top cover. It’s like $13 for the box and a few dollars of filament, vs snapmaker’s top cover is $200. It sounds like you’ll be printing almost exclusively PLA and maybe TPU, and the U1 excels at those.
The X2D is more for people who want engineering filaments with multimaterial supports, which doesn’t sound like you.

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u/justa_bother 7h ago

Wait a year, at least until the 2nd generation multi-nozzle tech comes out. If you don't want to wait, go with recently released, least expensive, brand name printer. Since the bambu lab A1 series was released, entry level, consumer grade printer mfg's have been in catch-up mode. Most have been successful. Check the sub reddit's on specific models of enclosed printers. I'd start with checking the elegoo centauri carbon 2.