I thought I'd humor everyone with my experience thus far --- I'd also like to add that I've learned how to curse in 4 different languages since the beginning of this journey.... I hope this gives anyone interested in 3d printing a view into what it can be like. I have an Ender 3 pro I grabbed on sale for $120 from Hobbyking, and also grabbed a few upgrades.

• Day 1: Open the box and close it with several curse words and wondering if I've made the wrong decision. Realize return shipping isn't covered and put it up for sale locally.
  
• Day 2: Stare at the box, Macewen 3d flexibles extruder kit comes in. 
  
• Day 3: Stare at the box. Hobbyking PLA filament comes in.
  
• Day 4: Stare at the box , open the box, pull out the manual, and close the box again
  
• Day 5: Stare at the box, open the manual, realize its shite, and then log into  youtube for a walkthrough
  
• Day 6: put together most of the ender 3 pro with some help from a Youtube Video
  
• Day 7: Print the test dog file that has an aneurism on the last layer 
  
• Day 8: Print the dog with the Silk PLA from hobbyking and finishes great. I also print a random pikachu and a button from thingiverse with great results
  
• Day 9: Raining - decided to install the Macewen 3d extruder kit so now I have direct drive.
  
• Day 10: Every print fails and requires cleaning the nozzle. I begin to string curse words together like fine calligraphy and once again wonder if I made a bad             decision, but I'm in way too damn deep now. 
  
• Day 11: Google every expensive extruder kit I can find and read reviews.  I scour Reddit to figure out what the issue is with no avail. I contemplate dragging it behind my SUV on the concrete for IG and Youtube views
  
• Day 12: Take apart the whole thing another 5-7 times behind failed prints and realize the tubing with the kit wasn't long enough, so I was letting off filament in the heatsink where it was melting and clogging. I cut some tubing to length, and magically no more jams. Prints still look pretty ugly though
  
• Day 13: I try and level the bed with the Chep bed level code and a piece of paper. It works reasonably well although hardly scientific. I'm mostly pleased
  
• Day 14: Print first TPU items with success, but they're pretty ugly and I have string cheese everywhere
  
• Day 15: Sick baby
  
• Day 16: Sick baby
  
• Day 17: Start to teach myself tinkercad to create my own TPU parts
  
• Day 18: Really get the hang of Tinkercad and remix some cool ish
  
• Day 19: Realize I need to print TPU slower, print the walls faster than the infill and inner walls, and begin to get pretty prints (from my view)
  
• Day 20: Order more PLA and TPU - I'm printing dumb ish for no reason at this point just because I can
  
• Day 21: Fabricated a missing part for an item in my house - it fits and looks good. I've got to be a pro now
  
• Day 22: Still getting string cheese on my TPU parts. Someone recommends a retraction tower test. I look it up and start doing all the callibration tests
  
• Day 23: I callibrate my E steps and prints start looking great
  
• Day 24: Sick baby
  
• Day 25: Sick baby
  
• Day 26: No time
  
• Day 27: I get in some Leoplas Blue TPU - amazing stuff and high quality. Says 95A but is definitely softer than Sainsmart. I'd guess it is closer to 92/93A. 
  
• Day 28: realize in 30 days I've learned how to completely take apart and put back together my printer, remix and model things in Tinkercad, and I'm beginning to be able to nuance profiles for each brand to get the best prints. All of my prints are coming out well, but I want them perfect.
  
• Day 29: Work keeps me from tinkering
  
• Day 30: I write this post to give everyone a laugh. This has been a journey, and I didn't expect to spend nearly as much time or energy tinkering, but I'm beginning to really enjoy it. I'm no longer afraid of my printer, and I feel I can remix any design I find online to fit any other need, and I can print it as well.
  

Sounds very familiar

Day 90: watch youtube video and realize all your print settings are beyond wrong and it's either a miracle anything printed at all or all the bad setting somehow counteracted themselves and worked sort of.
Day 91: redo all setting this time properly.

Day 200: new cura release makes you realize all your settings are beyond wrong...
Day 201: redo all your setting this time properly.

Day 300: failed print makes you realize all your settings are beyond wrong...
Day 301: redo all your setting this time properly.

(30-Mar-2022, 09:19 PM)EVILsteve Wrote: Day 90: watch youtube video and realize all your print settings are beyond wrong and it's either a miracle anything printed at all or all the bad setting somehow counteracted themselves and worked sort of.
Day 91: redo all setting this time properly.

Day 200: new cura release makes you realize all your settings are beyond wrong...
Day 201: redo all your setting this time properly.

Day 300: failed print makes you realize all your settings are beyond wrong...
Day 301: redo all your setting this time properly.

This all sounds very familiar......  and the cycle will continue once you start experimenting with different materials.

After 3d printing for 10 years I will say that I realized fairly early on that I do not want to make 3d printing a hobby but rather help facilitate my hobbies.

After the first month or so of upgrades and tuning the printer, I have not tinkered around with my current printer for over 3 years now (no firmware upgrades, no changes in hardware) because I want things to be consistent.

I do some maintenance work like lube the bearings, shafts, replace filament tube push fittings or nozzles but that's about it.

(17-Jun-2022, 04:23 PM)kafie1980 Wrote: After 3d printing for 10 years I will say that I realized fairly early on that I do not want to make 3d printing a hobby but rather help facilitate my hobbies.

After the first month or so of upgrades and tuning the printer, I have not tinkered around with my current printer for over 3 years now (no firmware upgrades, no changes in hardware) because I want things to be consistent.

I do some maintenance work like lube the bearings, shafts, replace filament tube push fittings or nozzles but that's about it.

I share the same mentality, 3D printing isn't a hobby but rather a tool I use to compliment other hobbies.  PLA/PETG I am at the set it and forget it point.  I have Cura profiles setup for each and a decent setup/maintenance procedure I follow to keep things consistent.  I've done many 24-36 hour prints without much trouble.  

FPV drones have pushed me into some new materials I haven't printed yet, mainly TPU's.  So now I start the process over again, hopefully I can get to the same point as PLA/PETG in a relatively quick time frame. 

-Ryan

I took the easy but expensive option. I also didn't want 3D printing to turn into another hobby that sucked up hours of my time so back in July 2019 I decided to bite the bullet and stump up almost $1000 USD for a Prusa i3 MK3 kit.

• Day 1: Open the box and stare at all the parts wondering if I made the right decision to buy a kit. Only the hot end is already assembled. Everything else is literally just individual bits of metal, bits of plastic, and umpteen bags of screws. Oh, and a bag of Haribo Gold Bears
  
• Day 2: Still looking at all the bits and trying to muster up some courage to actually start building the thing.
  
• Day 3: By mid afternoon I decide to get on and actually start the marathon build. By the end of the day I had managed to complete building the frame and installing the PSU. No other electrics or mainboard installed yet.
  
• Day 4: Complete the mainboard install and wiring up of all the electrics, then performed a successful first layer calibration print. Total build time was almost 10 hours which is about the norm (8-10 hours was stated for a first time build). It's no wonder they include a bag of gummy bears
  
• Day 5: Perform first success 3D test prints with no issues.
  

The build thread is HERE. One thing about buying a bare bones kit is that much like building a quad from the ground up, it taught me a lot about how a 3D printer is actually constricted and how it works.

Ever since day 5 I've had no issues whatsoever (knock on wood) other than some headaches trying to print with what turned out to be some cheap substandard quality TPU in conjunction with an incompatible slicer profile for that particular TPU, and an issue with the linear bearings a couple of years ago which just needed some re-lubrication after which it's been fine ever since. It has "just worked" without any tinkering needed. I load up PLA, PETG or TPU and just make use of one of the pre-defined PrusaSlicer profiles for the material loaded along with some minor tweaks to layer height, infill type and supports if required, then slice the model, then just print the STL knowing with confidence that I will get a decent print at the end of it. It was an expensive purchase, but it's turned out to be one if the best high ticket item purchase decisions I've ever made.