I saw this thread and thought about a recent conversation I had on 3d printers and the first one to get...
https://www.reddit.com/r/3dprinter/comments/1kz7idk/whats_the_best_3d_printer_to_buy_right_now/
A few years ago I recommended a Prusa mini to my brother as his first FDM printer.
https://www.prusa3d.com/product/original-prusa-mini-semi-assembled-3d-printer-4/ ($460)
Since then, Bambu has come on the scene...
Here is the Bambu equivalent:
https://us.store.bambulab.com/products/a1-mini ($250)
Here's my first printer I got 4 years ago... It lasted for 3 years and many, many prints before I retired it for parts/scrap.
https://www.3dprintersbay.com/flsun/flsun-qq-s-pro ($270)
https://www.3dprintersbay.com/flsun/flsun-super-racer ($200) This is the updated version from that generation, and it's cheaper too.
The current iteration from flsun is: https://us.store.flsun3d.com/collections/3d-printers/products/flsun-t1 ($450)
I know some people have ended up on FlashForge or Qidi for their first printer. They are also worth looking into:
https://www.flashforge.com/products/adventurer-5m-3d-printer ($315)
https://qidi3d.com/products/q1-pro-3d-printer ($420)
Glue sticks, masking tape, fine adjustments are the first round of it.
Current generations of printers auto level really well, and stick without much issue.
PEI plates add a slight texture to the bottom layer, almost guarantees perfect adhesion.
Take your time, watch YouTube videos, and do it right.
TL;DR, my overall choice from the last year or so has been PETG.
PLA is the defeactofilament to buy initially. I went monochrome for a long time. Dark gray, black and white.
If I buy off Amazon, a 1KG spool, it ends up being around 17 to 22 dollars.
If I buy off eBay, there usually is a close shipping company for the same or similar brand that I can get for 20% cheaper. Shipping sometimes takes a day or two longer, and I end up buying more at once to get a steeper discount, I get the price down to $14 per spool.
PLA melts at a lowish temperature and sticks on the first layer pretty easily.
PLA+ or Silk PLA melts at a higher temperature, and is slightly stronger, or doesn't string as much.
PETG is quite a bit tougher. It bounces instead of breaks when it falls off the table. It also prints at a higher temperature. It's very similar to PET water bottle and soda bottle plastic. There are people online that recycle water bottles into 3d printer filament.
ABS is like legos and outdoor piping. It prints at bit higher temperature than PETG, and is better for 3d prints that live outside or in a car.
Other plastics will droop after a hot summer.
ABS has a big downside of stinking really bad (cancerous VOCs) when at printing temperatures. You either need to print it outdoors, or have a sealed print area with a carbon air filter running.
I thought I would get into this at one point, but it has a few downsides... It grinds away the nozzle over time. So if you use a stainless steel nozzle, it lasts longer. But the texture of the end product has some micro hairs of carbon fiber that sticks out that can leave residue on your fingers that doesn't wash off. So you should coat the final product with something like Shellac or clear coat.
I haven't tried these, but I've heard good things about them.
I started wanting to do more colors, and not having to manually switch colors between layers.
TENLOG Hands 2 - Dual extruder setup, but has a nasty issue with the proprietary cords bending too far after the first couple hundred hours of printing, and getting extruder problems.
AMS - Bambu's Automatic Material Switcher.
MMU - Prusa's Multi Material Unit
HD2 - I haven't got it, but their marketing team is working over time... Bambu's Dual extruder setup, and has laser cutter/etcher and drag cutter vinal cutter.
I looked down the barrel of a Prusa MKS4 with MMU and the Bambu X1C with AMS. Each were in the $1000 to $1300 price range.
I ended up gettiong the X1C with antivibration feet, a PEI plate, and the AMS combo. So far so good. But I do feel like I was influenced by some YouTubers a bit.
Time to setup, unbox, assemble.
Location in your house/basement/garage to run it. Kind of noisy, should be low on dust on a stable table.
Time to level the printbed.
Time to refill plastic, runout halfway through a print.
Time to fix binding in the filament spool (knots, swelling)
Time to find and select models, pick orientation, and send to printer.
Time to clean the print bed. Use some rubbing alchol to remove fingerprints from the print bed every month or so.
Time to lubricate the screw rods. Use some white lithium grease to keep the vertical axis happy and running well. About once ever 2 months.
Time to fix adhesion errors, stringing errors, knock down/layer shift errors.
Buying more filament. The first year of printing is at least $100. It can easily go up to $500+.
Replacement nozzles. Older generation nozzles are small, and cheap, but clog more often. Newer generation nozzles are longer, and almost never clog, but are more expensive.
Buying a filament dryer. Unless you live in a desert, you need to dry out your filament once in a while. You can use an oven or a dedicated dryer, or just the heated bed of your printer and a cardboard box. You can also store your filament with a bunch of Silica gel beads with color changing dye and then microwave out the water once in a blue moon.
Thingiverse – the original, owned by MakerBot
Printables – owned by Prusa
MakerWorld – owned by Bambu
MyMiniFactory – mostly paid models for resin printing
Cults3D – lots of paid models for FDM or resin printing
Yeggi – an aggregator/search tool across most STL repositories
Ultimaker Cura – mature, open-source slicer from Ultimaker; widely used
PrusaSlicer – open-source, maintained by Prusa; feature-rich and actively developed
Bambu Studio – proprietary slicer for Bambu printers; modern and fast-growing
OrcaSlicer – fork of Bambu Studio with broader printer support; fast and customizable
ChiTuBox – popular resin slicer, especially for ChiTu-based printers; partially free
Lychee Slicer – resin slicer with strong community and polished UI; freemium model
Meshmixer – discontinued but still useful for mesh editing; from Autodesk
2010 - Lasercut, wooden RepRap Mendal
2020 - FLSUN QQ S Pro
2021 - TENLOG Hands 2
2021 - Halot ONE - Resin printer
2024 - Bambu X1C + AMS