I just bought myself a Bambu P1S, after building and modifying ender3s since 2019. I love tinkering and customizing things but it’s nice to have a printer that just works. Its so reliable that my wife can now print her own stuff using the app instead of giving me a list. The only thing I really have to do is change the filaments loaded in the AMS for her. If you have no experience printing I would just get a A1 mini and use it until you run into the limitations.

1. Bambu printers are amazing

2. Look around you. Do you see dust ? If yes, buy an enclosure for your printer and thank me later

Probably a long shot, but if you live in Australia (or maybe also New Zealand), Jaycar often sells the Ender 3 V3 SE for AU$250, which seemed like a really good price compared to other places I found.

I’ve got a bambu and I’ve also got an ender 3v3. The 3v3 in my opinion is more or less a slam dunk. Creality really nailed it on that one. I’ve been printing with it pretty much nonstop since I got it at the end of April and it’s never failed me - it’s much more user friendly than all of the other creality machines I’ve used. That said, bambu is also awesome. My bambu (P1S) never fails prints and is also very, very user friendly - even more so than the creality - but comes at a much higher price point for a large build area. IMHO you really can’t go wrong with the creality - the price for size/convenience is really, really nice. And the open source FW is a plus - you can edit many things (I’ve done so)! But of course YMMV.

Having owned a couple low end printers, the ender 3 is my favorite budget option.

I’ve installed a couple upgrades, some of which I 3d printed on the printer itself, but my favorite ones are the borosilicate glass bed with a thermal pad to help spread out the heat quickly, and a dual z axis stepper motor.

If you’re not into tinkering, I’ve heard good things about Bambu, although I do not know much about them myself. Apparently they’re more user-friendly.

I enjoy working on my devices, but I would like something with more reliability than “recalibrate everything for every single print” sometimes.

It really is a hobby where spending just a little bit more will get you a ton of extra features and user experience.

If it’s your first printer, the Bambu a1 will give you a ridiculous amount of bang for your buck. I’d highly recommend it

I’ve been eying 3d printers for years before I finally bought one. My main argument for not buying one was always the same: I am not prepared to start tinkering with a utility device. It needs to be on a similar level of a laser printer. I send a job to print to that device and it prints, that’s it. Not a 100% comparison of course but it does tell you what my mind set was.

Cue 1 year ago when I noticed the Bambu P1S. Looked at the specs, saw some youtube videos and decided that this might be the time, it is possibly close enough to being a simple usable device.
I bought one and boy, did that device deliver. Load the right filament you want to use, send job to printer and it just prints. The quality is (for me at least) quite bizarre. Some parts I have printed look like it was formed by molding, it is that good.

Nothing but praise and a firm recommendation from me on a Bambu printer.

Note: I have no experience with any other brand (as I avoided all because of stated reasons and not wanting to tinker) and I currently have zero interest in any other brand due to being so happy with my P1S

Thanks everyone for the suggestions! I think I’m gonna get the a1 mini, they do have a ice deal on and I don’t think I’ll be printing large items and it’ll be nice if I want to print multicolour items in the future with the AMS lite.

Thanks!

Are you planning to regularly print large items? Around that price range could get you a formbot v0.2 kit with printed parts. It’s core xy and open source if that matters to you. Print size is 120x120x120 which is small for sure, but in my experience, most of the stuff I print falls in that range (I have a 350mm v2.4 and a mk3s I’ve rarely filled the build plate on either, I’d love a few small printers for quick test prints). It’s also enclosed, can put a Nevermore Micro in it for fumes, and it’s designed to be able to print abs. Supposed to be able to print all the parts for larger vorons on it too if you ever do wish to go larger.

My first printer was a MendelMax 2 kit that I had to sell unfortunately due to a move and not wanting to ship a glass bed cross country. I personally like a kit for a first build, while I get that people don’t vibe with tinkering or maintenance, you’ll learn a lot and you can tweak it to your liking.

You could source from a Canadian vendor (assuming you’re Canadian based on your instance), I’ve sourced a lot from Spool3D in Calgary but will cost you more than the formbot kit. Definitely recommend them for future needs. 3D labtech carries a lot of mods, had great experiences with both of them.

Honestly, bambu. I was real high and mighty about how much shilling/marketing of bambus there was when they were coming out and hated the non open source but I caved and bought one after a handful of my friends got theirs. In 4 years of owning an ender 3 I went through 6 spools of pla and a half spool of abs. After getting my p1s 3 months ago I’ve already gone through 13 spools of pla. Tinkering with the ender was fun but I’d only print things I absolutely needed like replacement parts I modeled, and while I still print those on the bambu, I find myself printing trinkets very often since I don’t have to spend ages maintaining and tinkering with it to get it to print well. I might sound like an ad but honestly I’d say stay away from ender, my personal experience was 3d printers became my hobby, rather than using 3d printing to assist in my other hobbies. I can’t speak to the sv06 and if it’s as hands off as Bambu, though, so that could be an option. But as a former ender lover ($100 printer was great) it’s just so nice to not have to worry about tinkering.

I have an Ender 3, Ender 3 v2, CR10s Pro v2, and a Bambu P1S.

I would recommend going with the Bambu a1 without hesitation. My Bambu is far and away the best printer I own and it’s not close. They just work, and though I’m a techy guy and enjoy tinkering, I got really tired of needing to fix things on my non-Bambu printers.

Definitely reccomend the a1, full build plate size so larger prints can be done, plates are interchangeable with the p1 and x1c (the more expensive enclosed printers). If it’s possible, HIGHLY recommend picking up the “AMS bundle” just to make printing easier - allows for up to 4 different colors for prints, and automatically retracts/inserts whatever filament is needed. Cons as mentioned from others: parts and software is non open source, rectifying that replacements/assembly was super easy. Had mine up and printing in <2 hours after following videos online reassuring I was doing everything properly. Started showing some coworkers who 3d printed and they said for someone who had no experience I was printing like I knew what I was doing XD

Look you’re going to get a bunch of people coming in here saying Bambu this and Bambu that. And yeah get a Bambu. I love my A1 Mini. And will probably get an A1 next year.

I’m a fan of the Bambu printers because they just simply work.

You want to print something, they print something, done.

If you want to fiddle, then they’re the wrong printers, but if you want to model shit and make things then they’re really hard to beat right now.

And, yes, I have reservations about the closed sourced nature, but honestly ask yourself: are you going to contribute to the code? Are you going to build your own firmware to run on your printer? If the answer is no, then that’s probably not really a concern that should be driving your decisions.

I know this isn’t on your list, but someone recommended the Elegoo Neptune 3 Pro here and I love it. Apparently the 4 Pro is faster, which would be a bonus. Here is why I love it, but might take it off your list.

• I was a total noob and I had no issues except that I had to buy a longer cord to connect it to my computer.
• It’s really sturdy
• The software was easy to pick up. The software does seem to be open source that they’ve modified. Super powerful though and fixes so many issues that others have said they’ve had. I’ve imported all kinds of problematic blender models and they printed fine.

I don’t know anything about what you’re looking at, but good luck with whatever you choose.

Edit: I forgot to add, make sure you get filament ahead of time. It didn’t ship with my order and they give you very little to start with.