So I have a friend who wants to buy her 13 year old son a 3D printer for Christmas. She was thinking something between $200-300. She wants something that he can learn using and grow into. All I’m familiar with are my personal Prusa and PolyPrinters. That’s out of her price range.

What are some good 3D printer suggestions that I can send her within her budget? I’m sure she’d be willing to go up to $350 if there’s a jump in quality at that price. I don’t know where to begin since there are so many options these days.

Are there any good beginner/intermediate printers in that price range that you recommend? Ideally, it would have a heated bed and self leveling.

What have you looked at already? What specifics about the options are you not able to navigate yourself? This thread just went through the "what printer should I get?" a couple of weeks ago, and these discussions are not very useful if the person asking hasn't already done a fair amount of research and can help explain what specifically about the available options they are considering that they need help navigating.

IMHO, in that price range, about any printer you get will be serviceable, and no printer you get will be really great. I agree with the need for a heated bed. Without that, they will be stuck pretty much only being able to print PLA and still getting reasonable results.

Self-leveling is a real luxury at that price point; I wouldn't worry too much about it. Better to use the budget for better quality components, and just be prepared to engage in some fine-tuning manually to get things level.

You might consider starting by engaging with your local 3D printing community. Having someone you can talk to locally is very helpful, and you'll be better off sticking with the hardware they like, even if technically there's something better. There's a Micro Center in Dallas, one of the last remaining chains in the US where you can find the whole range of computer tech, including 3D printing stuff, so getting a printer that's sold there would be a good idea. Then you have a local store who can provide support and advice, and you'll be using components that should be readily available through them.

I know all about 3D printing. I own multiple myself and am part of a Makerspace with numerous 3D printers. I just have no experience with the $200-300 range of printers. I've only printed on $700+ printers, so I can't give what I know as suggestions to my friend. That's why I'm asking people. It's not like it used to be where the only printer in that range was a i3 clone that you had to build from scratch. There are tons of options now and I don't know what manufacturers in that range build reliable printers. That's my issue. As you well know...specs on paper don't mean it's well built or a good machine for a beginner. I want her to get her son a printer that is reliable and won't turn him off from 3D printing. The other issue is she lives on the opposite side of the country, so I can't help her other than giving suggestions. Her son isn't going to have the community I have here in Dallas.

Someone in another forum suggested a Creality Ender 3 (which I also saw mentioned here), but that doesn't have self leveling. I noticed on Micro Center's website that there is also a Creality CR-6 SE within her price range that does have self leveling. Is that one any good? I don't know anything about Creality, so I need people with experience to let me know if they're reliable or not.

Creality is always highly regarded. I started with a Wanhao i3 and it was decent enough and had lots of room for enhancements which is a fun project for someone new.

I see there is a wanhao i3 mk2 with auto bed leveling for $339. Might be an option.

Every time this question comes up, Creality and Prusa are the main manufacturers that people recommend. Since Prusa doesn't have a printer in your target price range, Creality seems like the best choice.

There are several versions of the Creality Ender series that have auto-leveling - there are WAY too many versions but they are $350 and below. I couldn’t find a feature matrix on their site but most of the printers now seem to include auto-leveling. I believe they all have a heater bed

There is a filter on the Creality web page for auto-leveling. I wonder if more printers support it, but you'd have to buy as a (inexpensive) option. I recall the newer CPU boards had a connector for the BLTouch. I'd probably wait until the Black Friday deals pop up at the end of the month. Looks like they have some new models I'm not familiar with.

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If I knew someone was looking for a printer for a 3d printer in the $300-$400 range, I’d go Prusa mini before Wanhao i3. Especially for a kid (assuming old enough to work around hot plastic).

Thanks!

I’ve had this creality ender 3 S-1 for a almost a week now. Don’t know what to do! The instructions on this unit are so bad!

It’s assembled and ready to go but not sure what to do as far as heating the bed, nozzle and what filament to get.

Is there any video you guys recommend that would be helpful? Thanks!

Lots of resources online to find with your favorite web search. Sure, some are better than others, but most any targeting beginners should give you info you can use.

That said, I like the YouTube Teaching Tech channel. He's not perfect, but he has a pretty good approach to education/teaching, I enjoy the way he presents information, and I always get something useful out of his videos.. He's got a "beginners" playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGqRUdq5ULsOwW9G08jV43YTdMyqJ6xGB. Looking at the playlist, I'd say that for now, only the very first video is likely to be of the most use to you. He quickly goes off into more esoteric topics that are not just targeted at beginners, but rather the hobbyist/3D-printer-hacker audience, i.e. people who don't just want to print things, but who want to actually mess around with the hardware itself.

At a minimum, you need to understand the basic workflow: design, then slice, then print. Design software (there are lots of options) produce the 3D model, very similar to the triangle-based geometries used in 3D games and similar contexts. This is given to the slicer (there are several options here too, but PrusaSlicer and Cura are probably the most commonly used, especially if you count their derivatives that are used by specific printer manufacturers), so named because it translates the volumetric model defined by the triangles into layer-by-layer "tool paths" that the printer's print head will follow (i.e. the model is sliced into layers). This tool-path data is then sent to the printer; depending on the printer you can use a memory card or thumb drive for this, or the printer might connect directly to a computer or your home network.

It's in the slicing step that you specify things like bed and nozzle temperature, as well as filament type. Other commonly adjusted parameters include things like "infill" percentage (for most models, it's a waste of filament and time to print them completely solid, or even anywhere close to solid), support material (i.e. what throw-away structures are printed underneath overhanging parts of your model), and skirts, brims, and rafts (many prints won't need any of these, but for some, including a raft or a brim is needed to provide stability and a reliable foundation to start the print on).

Any decent printer ought to come with a small sample of filament, usually PLA, enough to run through some basic calibration and then print a small model, such as the popular "Benchy" boat model. It should also come with instructions for which slicer the manufacturer recommends, and that slicer should have available, either built-in or provided by the manufacturer, "profiles" that contain a host of printer control parameters suitable for your printer and various filament types. Typically, you should be able to just select the printer make/model and filament type in the slicer without worrying about the other stuff, including bed and nozzle temperature. Later, when you have more familiarity with the process, you'll find yourself tweaking some of these parameters to fine-tune your prints, but for the purpose of just getting started, these are things the software should be taking care of for you.

I guess you could get by with a printer that doesn't come with these things. But for someone just starting out, it seems to me that there's real value in getting a printer that comes with plenty of documentation and manufacturer support. Time is money, and why waste your time having to dig through the Internet of 3D printing looking for scraps of information, when for a little extra money you can get a printer that holds your hand right out of the gate.

Mine came with a small memory card and a bit of PLA thread. I fit the card into the slot on the front and selected "print" from the little screen menu, there are a couple of sample files ready to go on the card. You should be able to at least get something going with the rabbit.

I recommend purchasing a roll of "PLA" filament - i was having trouble getting the stuff that came with the printer to work very well, as soon as I switched to better stuff my problems went away.

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Bro, thanks for the info but when did I say I expected to just open and print? I was asking for a good source of videos so I can LEARN!

I already calibrated the bed and other stuff. Thanks!

Thanks! I’ll send you a PM if you don’t mind

Thanks for the info brother!

Best to level the bed when everything is up to temperature.

Back to your original question of what do once assembled. Have you selected a slicer yet? Cura Slicer has default settings for a Ender 3. Are you going to initially use PLA (you should)?

I leveled the bed first using a small level then I used the self-leveling software.

The machine came with a small white roll. Not sure if that’s PLA? It doesn’t say! Bummer….

And I’m stuck, basically….Don’t know what temperature to set things at, X,Y, Z axis, and how to do a test print. Will that white roll be enough for a test print?

I have not gotten a slicer yet….

It's probably a safe bet to assume it's PLA since it's sort of the 'go to' filament. Lower temps, no smell. But not as strong as other materials. As hoby1 mentioned: 60C bed and 210C nozzle temperature for starters.

So what I would do next is to download Cura: https://ultimaker.com/software/ultimaker-cura

Then go here:
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Then here to finder the Ender:
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Then here for the heater, bed, etc. settings (you can see my settings are a little different than hoby1's numbers):
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I should add, this is off of the top of my head and I'm probably leaving out some details. But short posts w/baby steps might be better than writing writing a long post. So bear with me. Others can chime in to help.

Looks like a lot of info on this thread. I'm gonna be putting a 3D printer on my Christmas list for my family. While I read through some of these posts, any recommendations for a beginner printer?

What is your budget? Under $300 - Creality Ender 3

$700 or so - Prusa MK3

Depending on the size of stuff you want to make, I'd go with the Prusa Mini. It has a smaller print bed than most other printers in its price range. However, it's as set it and forget it as you'll find. You can always upgrade to the MK3 if you're enjoying the hobby and need larger print volumes. Rarely do I find myself needing a larger print bed for the things I want to make.

I don't want to tinker with my printer (modding it, leveling the thing, figuring out adhesion issues, z-wobble, bowden tubes, blTouch etc, etc.). I just want to make stuff and the Prusa Mini lets me do that without knowing about any of the stuff in the previous sentence.

Having been through this same thing a few years ago, I've bought 2 qidi's and one prusa. For a beginner, 100%, go qidi like this:

amazon.com link »

The CR printers and prusa's are printers for hackers. Great if you want to piecemeal together things into the greatest printer ever, awful out of the box experience and error prone. Qidi just prints right off the bat. No hassle, no issues. Has a touch screen instead of a cheap knob and character display.

Buying a qidi is like buying a dell pc, it's going to work and be pretty good. Buying a prusa is like building your own pc, it might far exceed what a dell can do but you also might have a lot of tweaking and issues to work through.

I just ordered a Bamboo carbon x-1 so I'm interested to see what it can do.

https://www.printables.com/model/224383-hadley-an-easy-assembly-high-performance-newtonian

Anyone here tried printing the hadley telescope yet? I've got it all printed out, just waiting for the hardware to arrive. It's a pretty neat design, seems like it works pretty well for what it is. You can even see the rings of saturn and the details on jupiter.

Thanks! Not at home at the moment but will do that. How about the bed temp and all that stuff? How do you know which settings to mess with and to what extent?

I vehemently disagree with this characterization. I'm not interested in hacking my printer at all, haven't had to tweak it, no issues to work through. Yet, my Prusa MK3S+ has worked flawlessly for over two years now. Not error prone, and a great "out of the box" experience.

Frankly, this sort of comment is exactly why "which printer is best" questions are useless in a forum like this and why people who want recommendations should go to a site dedicated to 3D printing. I'm sure you've got your reasons for lambasting Prusa printers, but there's no context and no feasible way to provide sufficient context, and so the discussion either just winds up being a pointless exchange of contradictions, or people get away with making unfounded comments without any pushback at all, and either way it's not helping the person who wanted advice.

Experience. There are so many variables at play with 3D printers, it's not really possible to answer that sort of question without writing a whole book.

As has already been explained, as far as bed and nozzle temps, those are already defined in the filament profiles that come with or are otherwise available for the various slicers. If I have a filament for which there's no profile, I just use some other similar filament's profile. That said, all filament comes with their own temperature specifications, and you can use those, but they are often a wide range and so not as helpful as they could be.

For my own part, if I'm testing out a variation on a profile for a filament (which usually I don't even need to do) I tend to try to work at the lower end of whatever nozzle temp is given and the higher end of the bed temperature. The former minimizes "blobby" artifacts and "stringing", while the latter helps keep the part flat and stuck to the print bend. But there are tradeoffs, especially with nozzle temperature where too low a temperature can hinder the strength of the print.

I feel like you might be getting ahead of yourself. Your printer should've come with some basics to get you started, and there's already been info about slicers posts here you can follow up on. For now, just use the temperatures that the slicer provides for you. Once you see how the printing works and have a better feel for what is actually going on, then you can start thinking about if and how you might modify the temperature settings that have already been programmed.

Besides temperatures, there are lots of other settings too. Supports, rafts, brims, skirts, layer heights, infill, to name some of the basic ones, then you get into more esoteric stuff like fill patterns, support patterns, support styles, travel speeds, print speeds for various elements of the print, like perimeters, interiors, bridges, first layers, top layers, filament retraction distances and speeds...3D printing involves all these variables and many more, and if you want to you can really get in the weeds trying to understand and fiddle with them all. I advise that for now, until you have at least a basic understanding of the fundamentals and have actually printed something, don't even think about all this other stuff.

After that, then you might want to think about this other stuff, but only to the extent that you have prints that don't go the way you want. Unless you want to turn this into a full time hobby -- and presumably you've already got pinball, so you don't need another one -- taking a more reactive approach is more efficient. When you have a problem with a print, then you can start asking questions about how to fix that specific problem. The more problems you run into, the more questions you'll ask and have answered, and the more you'll learn. But it's important to have the problems first, so you know what to ask, what to focus on. Otherwise, the topic is way too broad and you'll never get anywhere at all.

Any recommendations on a reliable but inexpensive filament brand folks are using? Anything on Amazon people are happy with? Cheap brands to definitely stay away from?

I refuse to buy anything from Amazon, at all.

So far, I've gotten most of my filament from MatterHackers. They sell their own brand, along with others. Other than NinjaTek stuff (TPU), I've stuck with the house brand. They have mostly been good, though I am right now working with a roll of PETG that seems "stringier" than I've had from them before, not sure what that's all about, but dropping the nozzle temp 10 C has pretty much resolved that. Otherwise, even that roll prints as well as the others.

In my admittedly limited experience, I've found that the two big factors that are most important are 1) uniformity of the filament, with better filaments having diameters that more closely match their spec (variations in thickness will cause similar variations in the print), and 2) moisture absorption (most filaments absorb water vapor from the air to some degree, then this water gets boiled during extrusion and causes irregular pockets/bumps in the print).

On the first point, I don't worry too much because almost all my printing is for functional parts, appearances don't matter as much. The second point can be more problematic; I keep my filament in plastic bags with desiccant packets, and if I find a roll that seems to be behaving wet, I stick it in the oven at around 160 F for 4-6 hours, which usually clears things up.

I hate to say that you can judge by the price, because I'm sure that's not always true. But I would say to stay away from any filament that looks like a really awesome deal, because that stuff probably has something wrong with it. The commoditization of 3D printing filament means that for the most part, most filaments of equivalent characteristics and quality will cost about the same, so feel free to try whatever brand is most convenient for you to get or has the colors you like or whatever.

I was using GST3D but apparently the US business went bankrupt, could get 10 rolls of PLA+ for $100 free shipping. freemover.net bought out the last of their stock.

I just ordered 6 rolls from llldmax.com a couple weeks ago to try out. Great quality and no spool tangling. Only downside is they often have colors go out of stock.

It's typical to have recommended temperatures listed on the filament spool. Or you can just google it.

Slicers have a place to set those temperatures. Cura has a panel on the right side of the screen that has parameters you can set (or leave at default). You can see just the most common ones, or you can go bonkers and have the more obscure settings visible.

Here's the temperature and fan settings:

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And here's a zoomed out view of more settings:
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You load a 'stil' file into a slicer, adjust parameters if needed, hit the 'slice' button, then save it to a SD micro card. Plug that memory into the printer and hit 'Print' somewhere on the menu (I use a aftermarket CPU board, so my setup is a little different)

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The slicer generates gcode which tells the printer what to do. It's just an ASCII file that sets the printer parameters and tells the printer 'what to print where':
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I think the fact that I own one, have burnt out a main board and hot end in just basic use, and even hacked the source code to work around the main board short would lend credence to the fact that I'm not just making stuff up here. Glass bed on a qidi > the sheet on the prusa as well. I have nothing financial to gain by ripping a printer I own other than stating my experiences with it. It is not a good first printer because if you have issues it can very hard to solve them.

The majority of prusa users are doing all kinds of tweaks and upgrades to their printers, very few leave them at the base level. Qidi is horrible for upgrading, and I wouldn't recommend it for anyone who's trying to do anything like that. But if I compare the two printers just straight up:

qidi:
cheaper
has enclosure for better temp control, more materials
touch screen
easier to level
better user interface

prusa
bigger build area
can be upgraded in tons of ways

I was so excited when I bought the prusa (I think I have the same mk3s+, I'd have to go back and look, I may have misstated it before). I even bought the mmu2s+ with it, but sadly I've never taken it out of the box because I had so many issues with the base printer. I've probably printed 3000 to 4000 hours worth of stuff the past few years. I would love the prusa to be awesome but mine is a lemon evidently, and feels very overpriced in comparison to the qidi just from a build quality standpoint.

I'm not saying you're making stuff up. I'm saying that your solitary experience isn't justification to malign the entire product line. Too many people have had great experiences with Prusa printers for there to be any reason to accept your generalizations.

If you want to say just that you personally have had trouble, there's no problem with that. But you're making broad generalizations that aren't supported by accordingly broad evidence.

Same here. The Prusa has been the most plug and play experience of any printer I’ve had.

I agree. Love my prusa

Id disagree with this too. My brother is running half a dozen prusa mini's as part of his business and he got them because they were plug and play and his creality's were giving him issues. He's been running them basically nonstop for 6 months with no issues and not having to tweak anything.

I've been running my Mk 2 for about 5 years and have only had to replace the wires going to the bed once because they ended up fraying. And it was a kit so more likely my mistake when assembling it than the design. I almost never touch it, once it's set up it is good to go until consumables like the nozzle wears out.

I built a helper post for Star Wars for that hungry left outlane.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5625687

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Streamed building a set of diy “Pinstadium X-Stream” lights last night. Highlights a technique you can use to connect a multi-part 3d print as well.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1651198495?t=416s

Nice. The welding of parts together with some filament and a soldering iron is a novel approach. Thank you for sharing!

This is exciting. I never really thought about why every slices slices in layers the way it does, it seems there are much smarter ways it can bed done without needed a multi-axis head. I can't wait until the major slicers start incorporating this.

Just keep in mind it's not a panacea. One of the biggest challenges with these alternative slicing schemes is clearance for the nozzle. Many hot ends include fans or sensors that are positioned in a way that assumes all of the already-printed material will be lower than the nozzle.

There's another experimental printer out there that slices and prints in a 45-degree cone, but in that case the printer has been specifically modified to accommodate the unusual orientation. You can use the same slicing with your own printer, but it won't be able to do all the same shapes the experimental one does, because the print head will get in its own way.

That said, yes...I agree it's exciting. 3D printing in general, for all the strides it's made over the past decades, including finally coming into the hobbyist's world, is still in its infancy. These individual advances on their own are limited due to the hardware we're working with at the moment, but they are important explorations into the alternatives, and the most promising will wind up seeing new hardware designs to maximize the potential. Eventually, and probably not far in the future -- 10 years or so, maybe -- we're going to start seeing all these difference novel ideas coalescing into a single printer design that is way more flexible and reliable than what we're using today.

Really cool. Can you show this installed? I have a Pro and I am a bit confused on where it goes other then near the left outlane.

hobbyists are really pushing the envelope. I've been watching the reprap festivals every year and there's always something neat someone created. The infinity Z axis belt printer that creality is making was originally done by a hobbyist. Just this year someone created a 5-axis printer from a prusa

And this guy turned one of the E3D tool changer kits into a pick and place machine

It’s for the left outlane. I had issues where it would drain when auto plunging. This helps stop that, and makes the left outlane the same size as the right.

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Oh yeah I forgot about the nozzle clearance. That must be why he printer in the video has a longer, needle-like nozzle. Ah well, baby steps. I think eventually we'll have 6 axis printers like CNC machines and it will become a lot less of an issue.

That's awesome! I saw the prusa one, and I love the conveyor belt designs. I'd get one if I could come up with an excuse as to why I need it. My brother prints a design that he sells in decent quantities and I tried to convince him to get one but he's satisfied with his prusa mini's since he can usually bang out two every 24 hours on each printer he has.

I might as well plug his product, it's a 3d printed trumpet mute that is much cheaper but produces a similar sound to much more expensive mutes.

https://www.austincustombrass.biz/divitt-trumpet-practice-mutes-fantastic-new-product/

That's really cool. Some might complain about modifying the game difficulty, but hey it's your game, and anyway, who can complain about adding an R2D2 to the playfield. I guess the basic idea behind this mod is not unusual for owners of the game anyway.

I guess the rubber ring takes most of the heat when the ball hits it, but still I'm curious if you have an expectation about longevity for the part, and what material you printed it with. Also, what size ring are you putting on it? FWIW, would be nice if you added details like that to the Thingiverse page.

There are already some similar post versions for this game on thingiverse (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4857256) to address what many other would consider a geometry problem with the game, i.e. auto plunger throws the ball directly into the right outlane and drains. It’s for use in a home environment so I’m not worried about the change in difficulty. It’s printed with eSun PLA+ With a 0.1 line height and 100% infill but someone could just as easily print print it with ABS or high strength resin if they so choose. I haven’t bothered to do an SN calculation or an FEA on such a small part to find out the cycles to failure. In a home environment it should last for years of normal use since it’s not really in a spot that takes a beating.

I forgot to add there is a 5/16" ring on there. I used silicone because that's what I had laying around.

I also meant to say it plunges into the left outlane.