If it doesn't work anymore you could try swapping out the board and drivers for something more current. I'd probably start cheap with an Arduino and Marlin just to see if it'll work. Then if all is good, go for something more substantial.
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Several Regions have held meetups already, but others are being planned or are evaluating the interest. The Calgary Area Meetup is set for Saturday July 12th at 10am. The signup thread is here! Arbutus has also explored interest in a Fraser Valley meetup but it seems members either missed his thread or had other plans. Let him know if you are interested in a meetup later in the year by posting here! Slowpoke is trying to pull together an Ottawa area meetup later this summer. No date has been selected yet, so let him know if you are interested here! We are not aware of any other meetups being planned this year. If you are interested in doing something in your area, let everyone know and make it happen! Meetups are a great way to make new machining friends and get hands on help in your area. Don’t be shy, sign up and come, or plan your own meetup!
Looking into 3d printing
- Thread starter WilliamTom
- Start date
My first printer was an extruder mounted on my CNC router printing on a glass plate. Without heat most of the PLA lift or didn't stick well. So I bought one that a few other people had. I figured best to use the common denominator. OctoPi and OctoPrint made it so easy to use and monitor.
Next was a Delta Type I call the POS printer. Just badly engineered. It printed and had two extruders so I could finally change filaments on the go. I even invested in a new Beagle Bone Black base Linux system that worked with new drivers and LCD display. Support vanished once he'd supplied all the people who signed up and one of the drivers failed so it couldn't do dual extruders anymore. The Delta Printers are magic to watch though.
I scrapped the old printer when the driver board failed. The printer at over 10 years old had done enough. I looked at a new driver board but anything modern appeared to be close to the price of a new printer.
I bought the SOVOL-06 because someone suggested it was a pretty good printer. And I could still talk to it with a Raspberry Pi and OctPrint so my user experience wasn't 'enhanced' by anyone. And yest that's sarcasm. And it had a much bigger build bed and with the extruded frame was way more solid. It doesn't have the 'Klipper' interface whatever that is. And it wasn't enclosed so the same issue with printing ABS and some other plastics and I still hungered for more than one filament.
Enter the Bambu X1C, enclosed with AMS (4 spools). I heard about this one from Katie.
To be truthful I've left the internet connection active. Haven't tried the local method. I've only had jams where I've used old filament that snaps into short pieces in the feed mechanism. But then all my printers have had problems like that. All of them. The Bambu is a bit harder in some ways because my old body doesn't like bending into the case and vision isn't what it used to be. But once you learn how to unscrew the extruder, heat it up and poke the broken piece out life is easier.
On top that yesterday the SOVOL also acted up. I finally ended up restarting the slicer with the default SOVOL-06 values and suddenly printing was good again. I suspect I'd accidentally changed something...
And there's the rub. They are all turnkey just load and print until something goes wrong. And then they aren't.
But 3D printers are a great excuse to dive into CAD and especially 3D Parametric Design. The knowledge of that will follow you into the metal workshop with better capability there too.
My two cents.
I bought an ender3 v3 KE today it was $212 with 30 off coupon for $182.
They also have a SE model at $154.00
I have an older ender3 and you have to be ready for a battle with it sometimes so looking forward to this one has many upgrades including bed leveling.
www.aliexpress.com
They also have a SE model at $154.00
I have an older ender3 and you have to be ready for a battle with it sometimes so looking forward to this one has many upgrades including bed leveling.
New!!! Ender 3 V3 SE/KE 3D Printer Sprite Direct Extrusion 250mm/S Faster Printing Speed Dual Z-Axis CR Touch Control Screen - AliExpress
Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com
www.aliexpress.com
if it has marlin, then there is nothing wrong with it, otherwise you could upgrade the board to something a little more modern(ish), like an skr mini, built in drivers, cheap (40$ is on aliexpress), or you could go all out with something like a manta m5p with a cb1 (rasberry pi clone) and klipper (usually around 100$ with drivers, and cb1)
slow-poke
Ultra Member
Resurrecting this thread. My used Prusa broke (I broke it). Not sure I want to bother fixing it.
Seems whatever was best last month is likely not best anymore.
Reference for future readers it's May 2025
I'm looking for plug and play and reliable.
Not sure about multiple extruders, for those that have them, is it worth the cost?
Suggestions please and price
Thank you
Seems whatever was best last month is likely not best anymore.
Reference for future readers it's May 2025
I'm looking for plug and play and reliable.
Not sure about multiple extruders, for those that have them, is it worth the cost?
Suggestions please and price
Thank you
Very pleased with my Anycubic Kobra S1 with the Ace Pro. Not had a failed print yet and I have about 250 hours on it.
I have not done any multicolour prints but the ease of changing colours and the built in dryer is worth the cost.
pdentrem
Ultra Member
Bambu with AMS is basically the way to go if multiple filaments is your future.
Creality has a knockoff, although they don’t have the best reputation from their past machines.
Prusa XL with 2 heads, I have 5, works right out of the box. Sasquatch saw it the day I fired it up!
Bambu does have the closed system software, basically ripped from other open source software. A bit naughty in many’s opinions.
Filament changers have the purge and waste issue which Bambu has reduced via their latest machine H2.
I know several people are wishing that Prusa had released a Core Two, maybe they are in the future.
Pierre
Creality has a knockoff, although they don’t have the best reputation from their past machines.
Prusa XL with 2 heads, I have 5, works right out of the box. Sasquatch saw it the day I fired it up!
Bambu does have the closed system software, basically ripped from other open source software. A bit naughty in many’s opinions.
Filament changers have the purge and waste issue which Bambu has reduced via their latest machine H2.
I know several people are wishing that Prusa had released a Core Two, maybe they are in the future.
Pierre
I have a SOVOL 06 which I like from the simplicity and large bed. But I must admit, even with the occasional jam up and sometimes gloppy printing overall my Bambu X1C with AMS is really nice. But it was very expensive.
I ordered directly from Anycubic on January 16. It was $643 USD
slow-poke
Ultra Member
David,
What is Ace Pro?
Regarding multiple spools, do you actually find this useful as in I can make this thing that I couldn't without or is it just cool?
Where did you order from?
Ace Pro is the Anycubic multi filament system. It's useful to me for filament drying and for ease of changing filament colours. I have it loaded with grey, black, white and red filament. I have plans to make labels for switches etc; FWD, REV, STOp for the lathe vfd conversion. I chose to get one with my order because a) it doesn't cost more to ship with it and b) if I wanted it afterwards it definintely costs more separately.
Holy crap it's now only $769CAD So much for my early bird deal...
Anycubic Kobra S1 Combo: Affordable Multicolour 3D Printing
Anycubic Kobra S1 Combo: Fully Enclosed CoreXY, 250x250x250mm, 8-Colour Printing, 600mm/s Super-Fast. Buy Now!
ca.anycubic.com
slow-poke
Ultra Member
Thanks, I just ordered $801Cdn delivered
Can't live without one. I'm going to sell the Prusa for parts
That's a good deal IMHO.
Our price is more or less tied to the CAD/US exchange rate. The real question is how much in US $ and is that less than before? I paid $659US that converted to $959 CAD but had added on 4kg of filament.Holy crap it's now only $769CAD So much for my early bird deal...
I had 4kgs of filament as well. It was $643USD when I bought in January. Exchange was 44% then so that's the difference.
That imo is head and shoulders the winner. A bit spendy, but feature rich, great prints, fast (X1 Carbon) and super reliable. Get the AMS (multiple spools). If you don't you'll soon want it (imo). You don't have to be be into printing multi nick knacks or orcs to want it - it is just night day being able to have your supports printed with an easy break away layer, print shop stuff like panels with lettering in a constrasting colour and have the same material in two locations so it seamless switches to the full spool when it runs out in the middle of night.
I came from a Prussa that was problem after problem ..... moving to an X1 was night and day. It improved things from every aspect, the slicer, wifi connection, camera, remote monitoring, enclosure, AMS, speed, easy of nozzle changes and I've never had a print fail. Although in fairness some of it's features it has Prussa now offers, and others have had good experiences with Prusa, I did not.