Looking to get a 3d printer

[afrokobe]

im not huge on printers, but im surprised no one is recommending bambu p1p. barely more expensive than a prusa and from the reviews it seems much better

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

So I’m looking at getting a 3d printer but I know nothing about them. I was looking at the ender 3 as I read that one is really good. I’m wondering if I would also need to buy AutoCAD to build stuff or if I could just get files from online? How hard is it to learn how to do? Also what kind of filament would I need? I appreciate any help!

There is a company called Tiny Machines 3d in Houston that tunes up ender3's (a few different versions) and some others as well. They also install much better firmware. Then ship them out. It's for a slightly elevated price but way worth it.

It's where I bought my ender. It ran right out of the box. After I got the bed level.

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

Is it the pro version? Debating on if it is worth the price jump to the pro

I have the pro. Yes it's worth it. I opted to have the auto leveler removed. They are in a drawer somewhere around here. I use a feeler gauge to get close. Then print a 1 layer 3/4 inch brim. I fine tune manually while the brim is printing.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

im not huge on printers, but im surprised no one is recommending bambu p1p. barely more expensive than a prusa and from the reviews it seems much better

Admittedly, I'm not up to speed about everything bamboo printers can do. The biggest turn off is the decision to have their software proprietary. Which isn't a bad thing, but you're now bound to changes that they feel are necessary and not what you feel are.

Open source like marlin, kipper etc. allows for someone or a group to define how the printer works. For someone that is pulling stl's off the internet and clicking print, this isn't a deal breaker. But that cuts your market down dramatically when you realize the people that prefer open source.

 

[Jasongtr]

im not huge on printers, but im surprised no one is recommending bambu p1p. barely more expensive than a prusa and from the reviews it seems much better

I mentioned i bought an 1xc, bit more than the p1p or enclosed p1s though

 

[BeanAnimal]

I pre-ordered bambu but never completed order. Decided I don't have time or room.

 

[Jasongtr]

I pre-ordered bambu but never completed order. Decided I don't have time or room.

Love mine, never thought it would be so handy having one with a tank

 

[theatrus]

Love mine, never thought it would be so handy having one with a tank

I now have 2. And... more AMSes on the way. Its an addiction

 

[Jasongtr]

I now have 2. And... more AMSes on the way. Its an addiction

Indeed, i seem to be constantly buying filament

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

I'm a fan of prusa, I have quite a few of their printers.

However, recently I bought the sovol sv06 and for 1/3 the coat it's a fairly decent printer, far exceeding any ender product.

Trying not to hijack, but this thread got me searching the webernet and running out of coffee. Are you (or anyone else here) using Cura with any printers? I ask as I have exhausted myself downloading and playing around with different slicers before I buy a printer as I use a screen reader for the blind and visually impaired and Cura seems to be my only option. A printer without connectivity that requires the use of a printer mounted display/control is not something I could use. I would need to have full control of the printer via a computer/tablet/phone over Ethernet/Wi-Fi. I sent emails to Bambu, Prusa, and Creality, only Prusa responded but they didn’t know if their slicer worked with voiceover on Mac and went on to say that they didn’t feel a 3d printer could be operated without sighted assistance. That turned me off to them, although that’s better than taking my money and saying sorry Charlie doesn’t work for you and no returns. Anyway, Cura does seem to work with voiceover on Mac. I can hear all the different settings and drop down menus, option, etc. None of which worked in Prusa slicer or Bambu studio despite being based off of Cura. Downside is there is no dark mode or theme available, I’m super sensitive to light. The Bambu handy app seems to fully work with voiceover on iPhone and I did like that it and studio had dark mode themes. To me a P1S package sounds perfect if the slicer worked out for me, or there was a profile in Cura but there’s not. A Prusa mk4 would be my next thought but would have to run on Cura as well. From what I heard in Cura the mk4 wasn’t an profile option either. Last would be the Creality K1 but the reviews have not been good. While the Sovol and Ender options sound great pricewise, I do not feel I could use either as I think I’d have to use the devices control panel which doesn’t talk.

 

[((FORDTECH))]

Trying not to hijack, but this thread got me searching the webernet and running out of coffee. Are you (or anyone else here) using Cura with any printers? I ask as I have exhausted myself downloading and playing around with different slicers before I buy a printer as I use a screen reader for the blind and visually impaired and Cura seems to be my only option. A printer without connectivity that requires the use of a printer mounted display/control is not something I could use. I would need to have full control of the printer via a computer/tablet/phone over Ethernet/Wi-Fi. I sent emails to Bambu, Prusa, and Creality, only Prusa responded but they didn’t know if their slicer worked with voiceover on Mac and went on to say that they didn’t feel a 3d printer could be operated without sighted assistance. That turned me off to them, although that’s better than taking my money and saying sorry Charlie doesn’t work for you and no returns. Anyway, Cura does seem to work with voiceover on Mac. I can hear all the different settings and drop down menus, option, etc. None of which worked in Prusa slicer or Bambu studio despite being based off of Cura. Downside is there is no dark mode or theme available, I’m super sensitive to light. The Bambu handy app seems to fully work with voiceover on iPhone and I did like that it and studio had dark mode themes. To me a P1S package sounds perfect if the slicer worked out for me, or there was a profile in Cura but there’s not. A Prusa mk4 would be my next thought but would have to run on Cura as well. From what I heard in Cura the mk4 wasn’t an profile option either. Last would be the Creality K1 but the reviews have not been good. While the Sovol and Ender options sound great pricewise, I do not feel I could use either as I think I’d have to use the devices control panel which doesn’t talk.

I will say that I own 3 printers and the number 1 thing a person who 3d prints is concerned about is first or initial layer being printed properly and this is only done by eye. Every print I do I stand there and watch it start and watch the first 5-10 min before I walk away. 1 out of every 10-20 does not start properly for different reasons and must be restarted. Also I use creality wifi boxes on all my printers and check in to them every few hours with the web cam making sure print is still working. Also many printers have auto leveling but most the time the final tweaking to get perfect is done by test print and adjusting on the fly while you look at it. Not sure how someone with trouble seeing will do this.

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

I will say that I own 3 printers and the number 1 thing a person who 3d prints is concerned about is first or initial layer being printed properly and this is only done by eye. Every print I do I stand there and watch it start and watch the first 5-10 min before I walk away. 1 out of every 10-20 does not start properly for different reasons and must be restarted. Also I use creality wifi boxes on all my printers and check in to them every few hours with the web cam making sure print is still working. Also many printers have auto leveling but most the time the final tweaking to get perfect is done by test print and adjusting on the fly while you look at it. Not sure how someone with trouble seeing will do this.

That’s why I was looking at bambu, Prusa mk4, and k1. All three tout perfect first layer with fault detection and automatic settings based off LiDAR and or Ai. Everything seems impossible until it’s done. I’m trying to find things I can do that interest me and not just say ef it, life sucks and jump off the Empire State Building. There are tools available to help. Seeing ai is an app that can read print, scan barcodes, etc. Be my eyes is an app where a volunteer can look through my iPhone camera and describe things to me. I use to joke about doing things blindfolded with one arm tied behind my back….. now I have to try and prove it to myself.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

That’s why I was looking at bambu, Prusa mk4, and k1. All three tout perfect first layer with fault detection and automatic settings based off LiDAR and or Ai. Everything seems impossible until it’s done. I’m trying to find things I can do that interest me and not just say ef it, life sucks and jump off the Empire State Building. There are tools available to help. Seeing ai is an app that can read print, scan barcodes, etc. Be my eyes is an app where a volunteer can look through my iPhone camera and describe things to me. I use to joke about doing things blindfolded with one arm tied behind my back….. now I have to try and prove it to myself.

The mk4 is absolutely awesome with 1st layer.

I wonder if you've reached out to the folks that hang out in GitHub. With prusa being open source, I would imagine it would be possible to attach some sort of audio to tell you what you're doing as you scroll through the menu. It might also be possible with bamboo, but that's all proprietary software, good luck getting them to do something with their firmware that may only benefit a handful of people.

I'm quite naive when it comes to the technologies that are out there to aid the visually impaired. But it doesn't seem like it's impossible to add some sort of existing tech to a 3d printer.

Maybe GitHub might not be the best starting place, maybe forums centered around open source concepts. But again, I'm only speculating to the idea that such places exist.

 

[theatrus]

Trying not to hijack, but this thread got me searching the webernet and running out of coffee. Are you (or anyone else here) using Cura with any printers? I ask as I have exhausted myself downloading and playing around with different slicers before I buy a printer as I use a screen reader for the blind and visually impaired and Cura seems to be my only option. A printer without connectivity that requires the use of a printer mounted display/control is not something I could use. I would need to have full control of the printer via a computer/tablet/phone over Ethernet/Wi-Fi. I sent emails to Bambu, Prusa, and Creality, only Prusa responded but they didn’t know if their slicer worked with voiceover on Mac and went on to say that they didn’t feel a 3d printer could be operated without sighted assistance. That turned me off to them, although that’s better than taking my money and saying sorry Charlie doesn’t work for you and no returns. Anyway, Cura does seem to work with voiceover on Mac. I can hear all the different settings and drop down menus, option, etc. None of which worked in Prusa slicer or Bambu studio despite being based off of Cura. Downside is there is no dark mode or theme available, I’m super sensitive to light. The Bambu handy app seems to fully work with voiceover on iPhone and I did like that it and studio had dark mode themes. To me a P1S package sounds perfect if the slicer worked out for me, or there was a profile in Cura but there’s not. A Prusa mk4 would be my next thought but would have to run on Cura as well. From what I heard in Cura the mk4 wasn’t an profile option either. Last would be the Creality K1 but the reviews have not been good. While the Sovol and Ender options sound great pricewise, I do not feel I could use either as I think I’d have to use the devices control panel which doesn’t talk.

While the SuperSlicer/PrusaSlicer/Bambu stack is already ruled out due to screen reader issues (and rightfully so), some of the LIDAR/Camera functions could be useful. It inspects the first layer, and also uses the camera to look for spaghetti artifacts (when your print has gone wrong). They are, however, not infallible, and also have false positives.

Worth considering that angle.

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

The mk4 is absolutely awesome with 1st layer.

I wonder if you've reached out to the folks that hang out in GitHub. With prusa being open source, I would imagine it would be possible to attach some sort of audio to tell you what you're doing as you scroll through the menu. It might also be possible with bamboo, but that's all proprietary software, good luck getting them to do something with their firmware that may only benefit a handful of people.

I'm quite naive when it comes to the technologies that are out there to aid the visually impaired. But it doesn't seem like it's impossible to add some sort of existing tech to a 3d printer.

Maybe GitHub might not be the best starting place, maybe forums centered around open source concepts. But again, I'm only speculating to the idea that such places exist.

i didn’t even think about that. Might be worth a shot. I did find a dark theme for Cura, downloaded a file from thingverse, and was able to go through all the motions. It seems to work great with voiceover. Cura just seems to get a bad rap on the internet and Prusa slicer seems to be the favorite…even with non Prusa machines. I did find an article written by a completely blind person that was able to have someone setup octoprint on a pi connected to an ender 3 that he was able to use. Albeit with a lot of waste and trial and error and the comment that it really wasn’t viable but more for the satisfaction of doing it. That was three years ago, the machines have come pretty far since then, and I do have some very limited remaining vision. I’ve Posted in some forums and will go to GitHub. I wasn’t really considering this until i came across this thread last week and then googled these newer machines.

Edit. Searched GitHub and just last month a blind Bambu user reported the issue on windows screen reader. I replied with the same issue on Mac. So I’m not the only one!

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

While the SuperSlicer/PrusaSlicer/Bambu stack is already ruled out due to screen reader issues (and rightfully so), some of the LIDAR/Camera functions could be useful. It inspects the first layer, and also uses the camera to look for spaghetti artifacts (when your print has gone wrong). They are, however, not infallible, and also have false positives.

Worth considering that angle.

Yeah, that’s a big deal. In reality the Bambu sounds perfect (aside from being somewhat new, going through the cloud, data privacy, and proprietary equipment stuff) but if the slicer worked it would be a no brainer for me. I emailed them but I doubt I’ll get a response for awhile, and even then I’m sure it won’t be the response I’d like. It is close though and the handi phone app seems to work (can’t do everything without a printer) so in theory, if I was printing something already sliced like a duplicate of a previously printed item, it would be very simple through the phone app. It’s the initial slicing that I can’t do, and I’m not looking into manufacturing so everything would probably be a one off to start. I completely forgot about the LiDAR and camera Ai not working outside of their slicer.

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

After listening to a bunch of YouTube’s and perusing the web I landed on the Bambu P1S Combo. Most all of the reviewers have stated that the LiDAR on the x1c isn’t really worth the extra money as Bambu has been using that data from all existing x1c users to tune the software for every one. Plus if you use textured plates it doesn’t work anyway. Pretty much all say the difference between the p1p/s and the x1c print quality is really not noticeable. The ai spaghetti detection on the x1c sounds perfect for someone like me but with everyone saying that they’ve never had an incident on the p1 series even on farms with a ton of hours behind them, I felt it was with the gamble to save five hundred bucks. I can say that I’ve printed several things on it and it’s been fantastic, as long as one remembers supports….oops Having the ams read the filament by rfid is a major plus for someone like me, having it switch to a new roll automatically when one runs out is another bonus. Have to stick with Bambu filament for the rfid but no biggie. The slicer doesn’t really work with screen readers though so it will take me a long time to figure things out using seeing ai on my phone, a fifty inch monitor fully magnified and in high contrast with a pointer as large as a Volkswagen! But it is doable, difficult as it may be. But if you want a printer for dummies, the Bambu is it. I also got the hardened nozzle and gear set, parts are super cheap currently, so I can print whatever once I get help swapping those out. I have zero worry about not being able to see the first layer and watch for problems. Press print and let her rip. I’m very sensitive to noise and was a bit worried as so many have complained about how loud it is but was surprised that it wasn’t horrible. Similar to a dot matrix or plotter if you’re old enough to remember those.