Quoted from plasticbugs:This is not a criticism, but I really don't believe you folks put up with all this.
In one very short post, BrewNinja talks about:
- replacing a plastic part with a metal part (whichever one that wore out for him and broke on gdonovan 's Ender3)
- upgraded bed springs (not sure what that is, but sounds like a hassle)
- used one of those springs in the extruder (what in the heck?)
-- just looked this up the bedspring stuff, holy shit balls. there's all sorts of stuff going on here in a 10 minute simple upgrade video. Just skipping through that video made me wince. Obviously, he's doing more than bedsprings, but holy smokes. That is a TON of stuff he's doing there to make his machine work better.
- mentioned bltouch (???) what the heck is that? I assume something else you had to buy separately and install to get your thing to work correctly
- mention leveling the machine (hopefully some automated, push a button thing - probably not)
- resetting the zero offset (again, not sure what this is, but I guess it's more tinkering)
- A capricorn tube melted. I have no idea what a Capricorn tube is, but I can pretty much guarantee it doesn't come with the Ender3 based on what I've seen in this thread about the Ender 3
- replacing a nozzle
Holy sweet mother of god. This is what I think scares people off the hobby. It scares me! After all that, I still see folks recommend the Ender to newbies. How can this be? I assume it's fun to do this stuff like working on a car. I mod old Game Boys, so I definitely can relate.
I have had my Prusa Mini for more than a year - I may have paid more than the Ender 3 for it, but I don't think this is a money issue because I've seen what people spend on the pinball hobby.
I have made tons of functional prints with PLA and gifts for friends, toys for my kids, designed little additions to my pinball machine, and I haven't had to do or even research any of the things above.
Edit: holy jesus. I just looked up bed leveling on the Ender 3 and immediately regretted it.
You are taking all the things out of context though. Half that stuff you do no matter what. You need to bed level any printer or set a z offset for example. You also make it seem like a prusa never needs a new nozzle. You may not have run into it, but they do.
That video "upgrade" is to put on a whole new hotend. Thats apples and oranges. The only things I said could use an upgrade on a stock ender3 are the bedsprings ($6 part on amazon and takes about 2 minutes to install if you are drinking a beer at the same time), and the extruder ($12 upgrade from amazon that takes all of 5 minutes to install). Ender 3 plus 2 upgrades is still a hell of a lot cheaper than a prusa. A lot of people mention a bltouch, but thats really un-necessary IMHO. I had one, got rid of it. Its more hassle than its worth. Upgrade the bed springs, level the bed and bam, you are good.
The reason you see the Ender recommended is because of all the basic 3d printers, it's the best value. It's pretty decent out of the box and 1/4 or 1/5 the cost of a prusa. Not saying the Prusa isnt good, its just really expensive and IMHO, not worth the money. They do have great support though, you just are paying for that.