
Ask HN: Best 3D printer recommendation (budget: $1K) - lsllc
I&#x27;m in the market for a 3D printer, my budget is around $1K.  My goals are partly to learn the technology (I&#x27;ve been designing parts in Fusion 360) but to be able to prototype cases &amp; components for embedded &#x2F; IoT devices.<p>Any recommendations for summer 2020?<p>(FWIW, I&#x27;ve been considering at the Prusa i3 MK3S in kit form which with shipping and an RPi et. al. for OctoPrint is right at around $1K).<p>Thanks!
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zxcmx
+1 for Prusa. I don't think you'd regret it.

As an activity, 3d printing involves "part design", "printing" and "3d printer
tuning and maintenance".

I've used a Wanhao D6 and a couple flavours of CR10. I also have 3 Prusa minis
and a friend with MK3S. The Prusas require the least "fettling" of any
consumer level printer I've come across. They just pump out parts with minimal
supervision.

My non-Prusa printers are all "for parts" now because I found myself spending
more time on printer maintenance and modification than making useful things. I
do keep a CR10-S5 around because I enjoy tinkering _sometimes_ and it can be
fun to make giant things.

There are plenty of great FDM printers on the market right now (Ender 5, CR10s
Pro v2) which are not far off, but at your budget I think the MK3S is still
the best choice.

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idoh
I bought the Creality Ender 3, then the Prusa Mini. Both will eventually print
out excellent objects if you are patient enough.

I totally recommend the Prusa though, for the following reasons:

\- Prusa has better safety features, making it much less likely that the
printer will burst into flames. The Creality actually does not ship with key
safety features, you have to flash in an update to make that happen.

\- The Prusa has automatic bed levelling, which doesn’t sound like a big deal
but is an epic hassle to do it all the time. The Prusa also has MESH
levelling, which takes into account the warping of the print bed, which is
impossible on an Ender.

~~~
atlet
Ender 3 has also MESH bed leveling. You need to enable it by flashing the
firmware.

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econcon
As for the printer, ender3 and ender5 are good budget buys, if you add a ABL
sensor it's as good as prusa if not better while I'd argue my ender5 prints
better than my prusa.

Here is the filament extruder I built:

[https://medium.com/endless-filament/make-your-filament-at-
ho...](https://medium.com/endless-filament/make-your-filament-at-home-for-
cheap-6c908bb09922)

You might find this interesting as many people end up spending thousands of
dollars in filament and lots of wasted printed parts as getting accurate part
takes several attempts.

~~~
mrfusion
What do you mean by adding an abl sensor?

~~~
econcon
Auto bed leveling sensor if it already doesn't come with one. Mine didn't come
with one.

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throwaway889900
I'm of the opinion that it's a tool and you should buy the cheapest tool; if
you use it enough that it breaks, you buy a better tool. That being said, I
recommend the Ender 3 Pro, to avoid cheap PSU fires. It's good enough for a
beginner and dimensionally accurate enough for the work you seem to be doing.
Octoprint hooks in just fine via USB, I've got it running on a Cubieboard2
even.

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mikecoles
For FDP, Prusa is the way to go.

SLA printers also look promising, but I have zero experience with them.

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girishso
If you’re just starting 3D printing, don’t choose a delta printer. I’ve got
one and even after spending endless hours on calibration, I never got it to
print precise dimensions.

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serf
buy a prusa mk3s, use it to print all the fancy upgrade parts[0], and have a
blast.

By far the cheapest printer to get 'dead-nuts' precise. There are better
options, but they are all more expensive.

[0]: [https://www.thingiverse.com/jltx/collections/taurus-for-
mk3](https://www.thingiverse.com/jltx/collections/taurus-for-mk3) lots of
other options out there, but these designs are tried-and-true.

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billconan
based on my research, prusa seems to be the best with that budget.

