I recently sold my Ender 3v2 to buy a Qidi Q1 Pro and I’m very pleased with my purchase.
Recently upgraded to an Elegoo Neptune 4 Plus, although I wouldn't exactly call that 'cheap'. No complaints so far, but I did replace the firmware with OpenNep4tune straight away so I can't speak to the bone stock, out-of-box experience. Initial calibration was a little annoying but it auto-levels before every print, works really well with Orca and has its own remote web interface. I've only used it with PLA so far, but now that I have it dialled in I haven't had a failed print that wasn't my own fault.
If don’t care about open source or that you’re locked into a vendor specific slicer. The A-series from Bambu labs is a very good turn key printer.
If you care about the specifics of open source or how your print gets sent to the printer, then I suggest looking somewhere else.
Of course that's a thing now. Yeah I would very much not like to be locked into a vendor ecosystem.
Probably the best bang for the buck printer out there if you don’t care about multi color, and it’s getting multi color soon
Started with ender 3 v3. Constant tinkering
Got a bambu A1 year later. Won't go back to anything creality makes ever.
A1 just works.
Replacement parts are similar prices as generic parts for the ender.
So I don't care if it's all proprietary. It all works. And you don't need to deconstruct it to get it to work.
I'd also recommend the A series (I got recommended the A1 from a friend when I was starting out), and it's been pretty great so far. As for the slicers, I know you can use OrcaSlicer with Bambu printers (as well as with a ton of others too)
My Ender 3 V3 SE (I think I got all the initials in there?) has been pretty painless. The only thing I changed on it was replacing the stock magnetic bed with the glass one. I was having constant adhesion problems with the base layer and the glass bed fixed that immediately.
The other thing that (seemed to) help was switching from whatever slicer I originally used (forget which) to OrcaSlicer and just using its generic defaults for the filament and printer options. When I first started, I took the specs from the filament rolls and made profiles for each brand, but that just made my prints worse. Orca's defaults "just work" for me and less effort on my part. Win-win lol.
That's the same initials of mine! I did a PEI bed sheet though, and so far I've stuck with Cura (but you're tempting me!)
Is it the greatest? Of course not. Does it take care of a lot of issue I had with my previous Ender 3 V2? Definitely.
After Elegoo provided the single worst customer service experience I've ever had, I strongly recommended anyone but them. To replace the Neptune that we had so many issues and lack of support with, we picked up an Anycubic Kobra S1 that's been great. Would recommend for the price. Enclosed CoreXY, so it prints ASA and PETG very well without needing extra enclosures.
My local library got Bambu Lab A1's and those have been stupid reliable.
I also chose an ender 3 as a starter, not because it was cheap, but because i like messing with things, definitely not a printer for someone who just wants it to work all the time.
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