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Modernizing an Ender 3
(lemmy.world)
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this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2023
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Here is my take. I have an Aquila (Ender 3 v2 clone). I really had to keep that thing tuned in order to get decent prints. I later bought a Prusa MK3S+ which I haven't had to tune at all. I am bummed that the MK4 was released 4 months after I bought my MK3, but thats life.
With the evolution of printing, and the new advances, an ender 3 just cannot compete with quality or speed...unless you put in a lot of upgrades and time/energy. Its a workhorse, but only for those that want to work on it and tune it. There are so many new printers that are faster, more reliable, and have some incredible features like Bambulabs, Mk4, Anker Make, etc. Its really hard to recommend Ender 3s (any of them) anymore.
Are they still sold, anyway? I mean, sure, someone who has no printer should buy a more recent one. But that was not the subject, here : the question was if it was needed to replace an Ender 3. I certainly would not, personally, it would be throwing out a perfectly good printer for incremental upgrades. Of course, it depends on the usage. For someone who uses their printer professionally to serially print all day, sure, it's probably worth it upgrading. Me? I really don't care if my prints are slower. I really don't find the Ender 3 hard to get a print right either. But I've been printing since the wooden Printrbot Simple about a decade ago, maybe I'm just used to it.
All great points. I thought he was asking if it was worth it to invest more on it. I was simply saying that if money wasn't a limitation, there are great options that are a significant improvement. Some day my MK3 is outdated too. I wouldn't buy one now, but I also am not sure I will buy the MK3.5 kit and spend the time installing it.
Oh, I see. Yes, that may very well be a matter of point of view. For me, modding the printer is part of the fun, not something I do to try desperately to stay on the cutting edge. :) The RepRap dream of "printers that can reproduce themselves" never fully materialized, but modding is the next best thing.