So back in the early days of 3d printing (2012) had purchased a Solidoodle 3. Iused it for a few years. It sat unused due to issues had run into with it and eventually got rid of it. Since then I haven’t had a printer, but I’ve finally convinced myself that it is time to get one again. So l’m looking for suggestions for sub-$500 printers. While wouldn’t consider myself a newb, I am very rusty. I’m however not opposed to tinkering and am a huge fan of open source. What printers would people recommend? I’m personally thinking the Sovol SVO6+ but am open to other suggestions.
I just got a SV06+ about a month ago (first printer). I have installed Klipper and a few other mods and am having a blast. I used a Raspberry Pi and an old 8 inch Samsung Tab A for a screen to interact with Klipper even though Sovol does sell a Klipper screen for the SV06+ that you can install after the fact. I got it for about $360 on Amazon.
I’ve been looking at getting something new in this range also, and found the Kingroon KLP1, which is a fully enclosed Core XY design.
That’s not a brand I came across in my searches. I’ll have to look into it.
CoreXY has advantages over the typical RepRap-style 3-axis movement or bed-slingers. The frame is more rigid, so the print head can move faster while maintaining accuracy. The enclosure also lets you print higher temp materials with less warping.
IMO the big advantage of core xy is acceleration. My old i3 clone could print fairly fast, but my accelerations are way higher now, which lets me hit my (also higher) max speed faster and more frequently.
Not to mention the footprint. Bed slingers need a much larger workspace area in order for the extruder to reach the entire bed area. I’m a bot skeptical of the printer listed above though. It has a really tiny bed and not that great of print speed. Plus looking at the page they list things like “5:1 gear reduction” three separate times (who cares what the drive ratio is?) which leads me to believe it’s built with cheap parts and lacks a lot of features standard on even cheap Ender machines.
This is true. My 350mm^3 corexy is basically the same depth as my old 200mm^2 bedslinger.
This would be stretching the budget, but there are a few Voron variants that aren’t that much out of your price range. You’re going to be giving up print volume though.
Vorons are fully open sourced, very capable, etc. There are a number of vendors who offer both BOM in a box, as well as customized BOMs. There are a ton of officially endorsed user mods and plenty of community mods too.
They are a little overbuilt, but they’re very capable. Depending on what you’re looking to print material wise, you could shed some cost by not enclosing your printer. Or you could print magnetic panel mounts and pull panels off when needed…
The more mainstream recommendations these days are Enders (fine, cheap, expect to need to tinker), Sovol (new kid on the block), Bambu (look familiar? there’s some controversy around their always connected cloud model), and Prusa (reliable, somewhat pricey given their capabilities).
I do really like the Vorons and while I have no problem building one myself, it’s a bit much for this go-round. When I replace (or supplement) whatever I buy this time, it’ll be on the short list.
The build was… pretty long if we’re being honest. Post build setup (setting up the pi, tuning) was pretty straightforward though and I had reliable prints with the stock profiles basically right off the bat with no real tuning beyond esteps and x-offset. I’m still fiddling a little, but the nice thing about a Voron is whatever you do will be super repeatable thanks to things like mechanical bed leveling. I’m also finding that ASA is a very tough material to print with.
The Creality K1 is $399 right now. You could get that and the MicroSwiss improved hotend and still be under $500.
It is able to be rooted and should be fully compliant with the open source klipper license soon. This printer is pretty much plug-and-play, but you can change parts as you see fit (nozzles, hotends, belts). It’s not proprietary like Bambu
Have you considered a Prusa Mini? Unless you need a larger print bed, it’s a great starter printer at that price point.
I have looked at that one. I’m not a big fan of the gantry and would like at least 200x200.
The Prusa mini gantry is solid. I have been printing on one for 2+ years and will vouch 100% that it’s extremely well built. The 20mm you’re missing is seriously not the issue you think it is. It is rare that I ever go to one of my larger printers with the Mini being such a reliable workhorse. (workpony?)
Prusa XL, 5 tool versionOops I thought you wrote sub $5000.
I recommend the Bambu Lab A1 Mini. With or without the AMS. It’s a great size to get back into printing. I have the Prusa Mini and 180mm^3 is really all I need for most of my prints.