Recommendations for my first 3D Printer

[neilljj]

Ok so i want to get a 3D Printer and from reading up and watching lots of YouTube videos it seems the Bambu labs A1 is a good one to go for.
Could any of you guys on here who know about these things and print stuff think this would be a good one to buy as my starter?

At the moment it's £299 including the ams lite which seems a good deal.

 

[Calimori]

Look, you are standing next to a can of worms and asking for help to open it.
1) Us lot can’t all agree on which printer make but you can’t go too far wrong with a Bambu or Prusa. They are very capable and easy to get started with.
2) It is highly likely you will get carried away and within a year own a machine double or three times that. Or one three machines…

I have a Bambu P1S, and before had a Prusa.

 

[neil1637]

My first saw my dipping for a Bambu A1 mini. Wasn't long before I was looking to upgrade.

Bambu, from my experience, have really nailed the out of the box printer. Flawless prints from the get go.

Software is decent too.

Go for it.

 

[Wayne J]

Without doubt it's Bambu. I've got 4 (3xP1S & 1xH2D)

Unless budget is an issue, I'd go with a P2S (Although its on back order until the 29th Dec). If you need it for Xmas, you won't go wrong with a P1S.

Bambu is VERY user friendly for beginners, as well as giving enough for more experienced users

 

[neilljj]

Cheers guys I do like the bambu lab printers they do look very good for what you are paying and after I put this post up I saw the P1S so I may go for that instead seeing as its all inclosed.
Although I can see the Mrs getting confused and putting her ready brek in it thinking we have a new microwave!

 

[Judderman]

The P1S is a belter - head and shoulders above the other 2 I had, and even better with the AMS for multicolour printing. P1S it £329 in the Black Friday sale - AMS not included.

 

[neilljj]

Yeah I like the look of that one I think I'll get it with the ams as well

 

[HomerRamone]

Get a Bambu P1S and be done. You will only want to upgrade a mini in 6 months or so
P1S is also enclosed which is good.

 

[neilljj]

Yep thats what I've gone for, cheers for helping me decide guys. I appreciate it

 

[johnh]

Hey folks. Tagging on to this post, I’ve been debating for ages about getting a 3d printer, this thread and the Black Friday offers got me convinced on a P1s. Quick question- the filament and accessories are on sale as well. What extras are worth picking up while I’m shopping?

 

[HomerRamone]

Probably with getting a spare nozzle - depending on the kinds of things you want to print a finer maybe a 0.2 nozzle - depends on if you want to print small detailed stuff. Though I must admit - even with a 0.4 one that comes with the printer you can get pretty good results - and I generally print larger not smaller myself
For ages I only used bambu filament in mine - but I eventually crumbled and now put in whatever

 

[russdx1]

Look, you are standing next to a can of worms and asking for help to open it.
1) Us lot can’t all agree on which printer make but you can’t go too far wrong with a Bambu or Prusa. They are very capable and easy to get started with.
2) It is highly likely you will get carried away and within a year own a machine double or three times that. Or one three machines…

I have a Bambu P1S, and before had a Prusa.

Does appear everyone have indeed agreed on a printer… lol

 

[Wayne J]

Don't go crazy with spares.
I bought spares of everything when I first bought mine 2 years ago. I've still got the vast majority and have never needed them - other than nozzles.
It's worth buying the whole hotend rather than just the nozzle as they're quite fiddley to put together until you know what you're doing.
I'd also get at least 1 spare build plate.

As for filament - unless you've got something specific in mind there's no need to buy more than 1 spool of any colour EXCEPT black and white - you'll use those significantly more than anything else. (I've just done a mini audit and I've ordered 330kg of PLA alone from Bambu)

I use Bambu only, it's just simpler. Buying 18 rolls at a time gets the price down to £9 per 1kg for a refill. Obviously you'll need to buy with the spools initially. Again, I'd stick with the Bambu for that to start with for ease & simplicity.

 

[HomerRamone]

I think the reason I "strayed" from bambu is because the dual silk they do can cause clogs. When I contacted them to complain they said "you need to use a hardened nozzle with that filament". I pointed out there is no mention of this when purchasing so they sent me another spool of filament to make up for it.
But the dual colour silk looked great - so I bought some from a 3rd party ! I mean this is rainbow silk but looks great !