Best 3D printer

Hi all. I’m looking at 3D printers and it seems like the Creality Ender has lots of good reviews. I notice there’s already a post here somewhere on that but does anyone have any rave review of another budget printer?

I like my Creality CR-10

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I have a CTC that I’ve modified, it does the jobs I need, it seems they are not being manufactured any more.

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I have an anet a8. It’s a fiddle at first to get right, but been going strong for 3 years.
I have heard that the ender 3 pro is the best budget one.

i have had an anet a8 (killed it within 9 months (yes it caught fire because anet are dicks). i then replaced that with somthing bigger. an flsun cube with a chimera head. Iv had that for a year and now im having problems with keeping the bed level and the hot ends keep blocking i may put this up for sale as tbh i just cant be arsed to spend the time fettling with it!
im currently looking at delta printers, the anycubic predetor

It’s a bit out of my price range although I like the larger bed. I’ve just ordered the Creality Ender for £149 from HobbyKing. Not a massive problem if I grow out of it fairly quickly at that price.

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What’s the advantage of the delta configuration? The resolution is about the same isn’t it? 50 micron.

Faster print speed amazing to watch

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Someone I know through another forum has two, he was so impressed with his first he bought another within a month and runs a small business through eBay.

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Iv just ordered a Prusa mini. Lead times are astronomical tho

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LOL, this one’s going to get some different views I think.

For me, I started with a Wanhao Duplicator i3 v2.1 about two years ago. The build quality was suspect, getting repeatable quality was a constant challenge. I blamed it all on the Melzi board supplied by the factory of course (which was probably the least likely candidate in why it didn’t work very well :weary:). Last year I did a huge upgrade and added a Duet3d Wifi board. That was an upgrade to a 32bit board with inbuilt web interface and lots of control.

It also introduced me to RepRap, which I can’t say I enjoyed that much.

This year I ditched the whole thing and bought a Creality Ender 3 Pro. I have also done alot of modification (including a board upgrade) on this thing, but it has been like night and day to the Wanhao. I get reproducible print quality and a stable X,Y,Z system thanks to the v-slot rail system.

Actually just finished printing a Saturn V this morning :sunglasses:

When I was researching my next machine I saw alot of folks comparing the Ender 3 with the Ender 3 Pro and commenting on whether the extra money was worth it. I got mine from 3DPrima for a little over 200ukp (they quote in Euros), which is a steal for this machine.

So, the long and the short of it is that if anyone I know asks what I would recommend, it would be the Creality Ender 3 Pro.

…sorry, waffled on a bit there :flushed:

oh, and I just checked, according to the site they have them in stock now.

I’m sure it won’t stand the heat of the rocket motors! :rofl:

Do you think the Ender 3 Pro is substantially better than the Ender 3? The Ender 3 is £149. I can always cancel the order if you think I should go for the pro.

TBH, it’s partly political. When the inevitable question comes “How much was that”. I can say it was only £149 so a reasonable price for a tryout!

I was worried about the limited build size compared to the CR10 but that’s a whole different budget.

Well, it’s not “substantially better”, but what they have done with the “pro” is resolve some of the issues with the Ender 3. For example. It comes with a magnetic build plate, it uses a better, quieter power supply. They have implemented many of the community fixes, like a metal lined extruder inlet hole (these used to wear into a groove as the filament fed through). The centre v-rail that carries the bed through the Y axis is double the width of the Ender-3 (I think that’s right, anyways) so there’s less movement when the bed is moving. I think there are other little fixes Creality have made to resolve known issues.

I paid the extra 50 or so quid because when I added up all the fixes I would have wanted to make it came to more than the extra at 3DPrima for the Pro version. So I could focus on printing and less on the modifications I would have felt had to be done.

As mentioned, I have been very happy with this machine and there is a huge community if I need to shout for help. Which I haven’t yet.

In either case, I would recommend (highly) looking at the build and config videos on YouTube (it’s basically the same machine.) just to get you up and running and feeling confident with your new printer.

If you are interested in this I can point you to a couple that I found particularly helpful. :+1:

Ok, I am really interested in purchasing a 3d printer preferably a Creality Ender.
I have done some homework on software which I am playing with FreeCad but my brother is looking at getting me autocad from work for free, also looking at ultimaker Cura. This is quite indepth not as easy as I thought but still really interested.
I have already read some previous older post regarding a good 3d printer and they rate Creality Ender 3 pro as a beginner machine. I just wondered can anyone rate a good printer to buy as a beginner which is quite good and reliable…

I do understand these 3d Printers need tinkering with over time…

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Yes, lots of people can.

@PingSpike Thanks That’s good to know…

I was referring to people whom own one, but I will take my question elsewhere…

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Taking it to one of those existing threads that’s full of people that own them will help you no end :slight_smile:

Yes, I have looked at all the threads but they were back in April last year…

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Sorry, you didn’t say you had a specific time frame in mind for the recommendations :confused:

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Unfortunately technology does not stand still with time, what was good then has probably been superseded now by a newer or better product …

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