I made my own 3D printer in 2014 (E3D, Core-XY, oversized Nema motors, …), but it has been sitting in the garage for too long and it’s a bit bulky, finicky and so on. A good first try IMO back when crappy chinese ones was 700-800€ on AliBaba… But because my kid asked me if we couldn’t buy one, and this one specifically, I checked it out, it’s ~300€ which I thought was way too cheap for something reliable but things have changed in the 3D print world it seems, and I haven’t kept up.
So I’m mostly looking for something reliable (or easily fixable, I do have printed a bunch of stuff so I know how things work, at least I have had all the basics problems :-) ) and in a box, no need for anything fancy.
I read that the hotend isn’t interchangeable, or you go third-party, but I will mostly (only?) use PLA which is not very abrasive.
I also read that you can use other slicers, which is nice. Future proofing is nice.
Thoughts / recommendations ?
Thanks!
Edit: Kid just sent me the " 3D Bambu Lab P1S" too, but I think I don’t like the closed echo system of the Bambu… is it a legit concern ?
I love my CC, but it’s the only printer I’ve ever owned so not the most helpful opinion. My only complaint has been that it’s quite loud, but there are a lot of mods to help some.
As an owner of a Bambu Lab machine (the A1, the big brother of the A1 mini), they print great, but the closed ecosystem is pretty bad and I would not recommend Bambu printers anymore. Plenty of other companies make great printers without the annoying Apple-like restrictions.
A year or so ago they released a firmware update that bricked third-party software (like OrcaSlicer, which I use) unless you set a “LAN only” mode that meant you couldn’t access your printer remotely without stuff like Tailscale, and they also bricked third-party hardware (like the “Panda Touch” display for the P1 series models) because screw us consumers I guess? And given that they already have RFID tags in their filaments, they could easily flip a switch to make it so that Bambu printers require first-party filament and then jack up the prices of their filament like what HP did with 2D printers (which everybody hated). What’s stopping them? Or what if they make third-party hotends, replacement parts, etc. all incompatible?
The Centauri Carbon seems like a neat option, haven’t used it myself, but reviews suggest that it prints pretty well (though try to evade to super sponsored ones that came out on release, it’s the same with all tech) and it looks like many people have good experiences with it.
If you decide against Elegoo’s printer, there are plenty of other options available. Sovol makes the SV06 line which seems pretty neat, and Qidi has a bunch of good value options (the Q1 Pro has been mentioned a bunch, for instance). You might also want to look at Creality with their K1 series, but some people don’t like Creality as a company. If you truly want something that can last, constructed in Europe, etc., then there’s also Prusa, but all that costs extra. Prusa’s printers are really cool as they sell upgrade kits so that you can turn your old printer into the new model for less money!
If the kid is looking for colour changing, make sure they really want it, since it wastes a bunch of filament in the form of “poop” when changing colours (there’s a bunch of videos on the topic). If they insist on it, the companies that offer colour changing systems that aren’t Bambu are Creality and Prusa. If the printer you are looking to purchase runs/supports Klipper, there are also a bunch of DIY options that you build yourself (there’s BoxTurtle, EnragedRabbit/ERCF, etc.)
The price of a capable printer has come down quite a bit over the last few years. I haven’t got any experience with Elegoo printers myself, but I’d expect it to at least work well enough at first. Longevity could be questionable though.
Bamboo printers have proven to be very capable, easy to use, and reliable, but they are locked down quite a bit. If you want a printer you can tinker with, Bamboo is not the way to go.
Depending on your budget, a Prusa would be the best of both worlds, excellent print quality, reliability, and they’re about as open as modern consumer printer get. If you go this route, I would recommend against the Prusa Mini. I’m sure it’s a good printer, but it’s quite outdated now. If you can afford it, I’ve heard the Core One is a great printer, plus you’ll be able to add a Bondtech INDX system later for multimaterial.
The most open option (though the one with the most commitment) would be to build a kit printer like a Voron or a RatRig (Prusa also offers their printers as kits, which I would recommend if you go that route). Building a printer allows you to truly understand the machine, plus, I find it to be a lot of fun.
Prusa kits will come with everything you need to build a printer (except for some tools, I would assume).
Voron kits are all unofficial, but most who build Vorons use a kit. The LDO kits are the best, but I’ve also built from a Formbot kit and it was fine. Voron kits typically won’t come with the printed parts, though some do. The parts need to be printed with either ABS or ASA, so not all printer will work.
I haven’t got any experience with RatRig printers, but I think the kits are official, so I would expect them to be good quality. Not sure if they come with printed parts or not.
Sorry for the wall of text TLDR: Elegoo: Cheap, open-ish, questionable reliability BAMBOO: Affordable, very closed, reliable Prusa: Expensive, open, reliable Voron: Expensive, very open, large commitment RatRig: same as Voron, with a little less commitment
I will never recommend an Elegoo printer after the last two I had. Both broke in unique ways and I got no support for either one. It took MicroCenter going above and beyond to resolve the issue with one by doing a return well past the return period. The manager was horrified when I gave her the extremely long and exhausting story of dealing with their awful support. The other printer is just a pile of parts now.
I picked up an Anycubic Kobra S1 and its been pretty great so far, though my bar is pretty low at this point, TBH.
That being said, they do use their own version of OrcaSlicer, but it works well enough for me, and you can flash some additional firmware into the printer to open it up more.
I have had a similar horrible time with their support. My machine died in August, took weeks for parts to arrive. Finally in January they offered me a refurbished replacement machine. Replacement machine was in significantly worse shape than the nearly brand new machine I shipped them back.
The replacement machine had a frozen bed as they neglected to install the bed retaining screws when they shipped it. I was able to unstuck the bed, machine is now requires a z-offset of 0.9 to even operate properly. Heat bed is very warped on the left hand corner. I suspect this is due the absolute garbage job they did on the packing for shipping.
Support is sending me parts but I have zero faith now in elegoo as a company.
God that sucks. I’m sorry you have to deal with that. They truly are racing to the bottom.
To give another perspective, I had a main board go out on my Neptune 3 right after a year of owning it, and they sent me a new one for free 🤷🏽♂️ the resin printer I have from them has seen much less use but has been rock solid every time I’ve used it.
The mainboards are unfortunately the common thread with all the issues I have with their printers. My Neptune 3’S mainboard has a well documented fault that they refuse to admit to and would not replace.
The Mars 5 Ultra that MC took back had a faulty board, and the replacement board was also faulty. It was three months of arguing, pics, video, and escalations before I told MC the story and they took pity on me and returned it. Elegoos concession was to send me the smallest bottle of their cheapest resin for a printer I no longer had.
I own multiple CC now, they are good for almost every material you can throw at it, pretty reliable as well. Hotend can be changed pretty easily, dunno if there are any third party ones, you can buy third party nozzles but stock ones are good enough for me.
I’ve had the Elegoo Neptune 2S, Neptune 3 Pro, and now the Centauri Carbon and in general I am really happy with it. I’m not happy at the company in regards to their promises regarding the color changer for it, but for the most part they’ve been a decent company.
Centauri Carbon has a flaw with the USB cable that connects to the print head breaking due to constant mechanical wear.
I don’t have one these but this is the issue I found when searching about it. I don’t know how serious it is but if you search it’s a main topic of this model.
9I have the cc2 and had the Neptune 4 pro before that.
My honest view on elegoo.
While you get some amazing deals on their latest machines. When things go wrong. As in bad design issues. You will often find the community is the only real help. And that can take some time.
Elegoo seems to have a release a new version fix strategy rather then help existing customers.
They will stand by warremtee as far as replacement parts go. But their prices honestly mean any design issues are built in for the model you buy. (Given as a company. They do work on small margins. I. A field where such issues are common. It’s hard to blame them.)
That said, the community is pretty darn good. And they are fairly open with their software etc, So alternatives etc are possible given time.
On the whole as an occasional user with a little technical ability. I consider them a good buy. But would hesitate if I needed them to be reliable for any form of business. I’m poor and find the fiddling fun sometimes. And can wait a bit and struggle when I have a project. If you do not think that way. Spend more on a printer with more support.
ATM the CC1 is likely the best deal on a core xy out there. But many community upgrades are advisable.
The CC2 fixes many of those needs. But it’s lack of internal website introduces more. IE Linux is a pain. And their website has occasional issues.
Orca are openly working on support for CC2 web issue. But ATM generating it’s GCode and moving via usb is required.
