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 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.