Here I am... Now tired of paying 50 here and 50 there for prints. I just wanna be able to do my own at this point.

For someone who's never 3d printed anything, has $2-400 to spend , has a powerhouse pc, and wants to be able to print petg and tpu, what would you recommend?

I imagine I'll likely never print anything larger than a GoPro mount. I would like to be able to blend one color into another if that's possible.

TPU works well on a direct drive printer but people also have good success with a bowden setup.

I have not kept myself with the latest offerings and you might have better options in your location.

The Creality Ender 3 series seems to be a common favourite in the budget range and has a wide user community support.

I think you should first decide if 3D Printing is going to be a hobby or just another tool in your workshop.

Difference here will be similar to difference between a DJI drone and an FPV drone.
Both fly and record Video from the air. The amount of time you spent on the maintenance and evolution of the drone, instead of flying and recording is the key difference.

3D Printing is not like printing on paper, there are multiple things that have influence on the result - i.e. every filament (plastic used to print) is different and you have to tune printer to it.
Having a good but cheap printer adds randomness in the parts quality, thus additional care and knowledge is required to keep things going smooth.
In this very moment it becomes a hobby or a nightmare. ...No longer just a tool that you just use to get the job done.

Middle ground seems to be something like printers by Prusa. They are made in Europe, provide good quality and good ecosystem around it, while still being hobby grade ...also in prize.

The more expensive/professional grade printer you take the more it will be able to handle by itself and when also using professional materials from the printers manufacturer you can strive to achieve ease of use of paper printer. But it comes at a prize at a company budget level, rather not reachable by individuals.


Don't get me wrong - You can achieve great results with cheap printers, with enough care for them. You will also learn a lot along the way.
Just that it will need to become your hobby, not to become your nightmare.

(18-Jan-2022, 09:12 AM)Sherghan Wrote: I think you should first decide if 3D Printing is going to be a hobby or just another tool in your workshop.

For me...I just wanna make enough money off selling prints to cover my irrational want to change the colors on my drones and maybe fund a flight controller here or there. If I can make back the money from selling prints over a year to break even, I'm happy. I have a budget of about $600 or $700 total but I was thinking of doing an ender 3 pro with direct drive and updated bed for a tpu machine. Is this a good route or is there better for $600 ??

I have not read every line posted so far but if I share my experience having a 3d printer for almost a decade now, I doubt I can claim I have recovered the costs.

The biggest drawback with printing for money is time and repeatability. 3d printing is a fairly time consuming process and failed prints or printer maintenance/repairs are common even for advance users. Unless you setup a printer farm and can run multiple jobs with capacity for last minute mishaps, customers will find it hard waiting too long for their prints.

Another investment is filament spools: types and colours

Last but not least troubleshooting designs and parts tolerances. There is a lot at play here that you should not take lightly.

(19-Jan-2022, 01:48 PM)kafie1980 Wrote: I have not read every line posted so far but if I share my experience having a 3d printer for almost a decade now, I doubt I can claim I have recovered the costs.

The biggest drawback with printing for money is time and repeatability. 3d printing is a fairly time consuming process and failed prints or printer maintenance/repairs are common even for advance users. Unless you setup a printer farm and can run multiple jobs with capacity for last minute mishaps, customers will find it hard waiting too long for their prints.

Another investment is filament spools: types and colours

Last but not least troubleshooting designs and parts tolerances. There is a lot at play here that you should not take lightly.

I appreciate the advice. What I heard is... Do it for fun and if I happen to make some money in the process then great. I'm ok with that mindset, and honestly even if not for more than me being able to print my own sh*t , I'd be pretty happy. I'll lower my expectations for myself and just enjoy the journey and the learning process that comes with it...kind of like fpv as a whole.

Thanks again for the words of wisdom.

Just wanted to let everyone know, I grabbed a new creality ender 3 pro, a silent board skr mini E3 v2, and a direct drive kit, all for under 180 because of a few great sales going on at the same time. Wish me luck !

Great value for that price.

What I will suggest is that you first configure and use the printer on stock setup with PLA so you can quickly dial in some slicer settings and do some calibrations etc. This way if you have any issues you can have help from the community on a standard platform.

Next do the silent board mod. This is probably just a drop in and will only require firmware update to the new board but your slicer settings will require almost no adjustment since bed shape/size etc will be the same just that you have new stepper drivers that are quiet compared to the original Creality board.

Finally do the direct drive upgrade. This will require some slight work mechanically in terms of aligning the parts and ensuring everything is parallel (basically the bed and nozzle alignment and height is key here). Another important part is the adjustment of slicer settings now that you will move from a bowden setup to a direct drive. Get this right for PLA first as this is easier to do.

For TPU, get a known brand as filaments such as Sainsmart TPU also come with suggest slicer settings for Creality printers or else you can seek help from the community.

It is going to be a steep learning curve but you will eventually get there.

(27-Jan-2022, 04:29 AM)kafie1980 Wrote: Great value for that price..
It is going to be a steep learning curve but you will eventually get there.

Thanks for the tips. That makes a lot of sense. I'm sure it'll be a lot of learning, but eventually night becomes day. Thank you again for the input.