https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/printifylabs 3D printing as a service, 3.2K items sold I wonder if they can make a living out of this or if it's just pocket money after the expense of the outlay and postage.
I have a Creality V3 KE blah blah. I use it infrequently. It's fine. It works mostly. I typically print in PETG with occasional PLA. I'm considering buying something "better". Enclosed. Maybe quieter. Handling spools better. I print for woodworking jigs, gridfinity around the house, outdoor enclosures/covers for cameras and microphones. Considering X2D. I know Bambu are contentious. Probably for good reason. But are there better ways to spend £850?
Snapmaker U1? Snapmaker global will sell you the U1 and Tophat for less than £800, leaving enough room in the budget for a chamber heater.
Are you wanting to print more than petg/pla? If you want the option to print other things like ABS/ASA… whatever else drops in that category, then probably a flash forge Creator 5 Pro or Centauri Carbon 2 Canvas Combo? You don’t get the nice AMS holding thing.. but y’know. Or if you are definitely only doing PETG/pla then a Snapmaker U1 does more with multi tool/colours if you’re wanting that. But can then add the top and a heater to make it a chamber later down the line. I love my U1. Not done any special stuff on it yet. Waiting for the lid and need to sort out the firmware for panda breath.
As another option, the Flashforge Creator 5 Pro is currently on sale for £750, with a cover and chamber heater already included. The only downside is spools hanging off the side, but that's not an issue if you only print with PLA or PETG.
I really like the C5 Pro and was seriously considering one but their decision to lock their ecosystem and serve ads through their software has put paid to that.
I may not print multi colour, I'm not big on aesthetics. But probably want to look at ASA at some point. I need to sort extraction. Everything seems like compromise
There's a Klipper based alternative firmware available, and I use Orca Slicer for everything. £699 was too good a price to pass up, so I pulled the trigger yesterday. I'll let you know how I get on with everything.
Honestly, we have a H2D at work and I'm really unimpressed! My Centauri Carbon out performs it with PLA and PETG by miles, faster and higher accuracy. It might be better for things like ASA, I have some but I've not tried it, but the CC has mods for that. Honestly, I really think bamboo labs stuff is massively over hyped now...
How are Qidi? Also looking at Qidi Q2. I need to read more. Is there a "ranking" of suppliers and printers?
A ranking doesn't really help, unless you know exactly what you're wanting to print and what direction you will take. Pretty much most modern 3D printers are very good. All comes down to how much you'll pay, how "hands off" you want to be (which, I think is bs anyway.), and WHAT you want to do with it and what filament you want to use. Single colour, multi colour, single nozzle, multi-tool. Plate size, etc. I was in the same position a few weeks ago. I was also looking at a Bambu, the H2C... which comes in at over £2000. Mainly, because I wanted the plate size. Around 300 minimum. If I could drop that kind of money and not miss it, i'd get one in a heartbeat as they are, apparently, extremely good. But.. it is Bambu. And I don't have that money. But as you want to look at ASA - if you don't want to have to get extra bits to be able to (like for U1), go enclosed for sure. Then, single or multi-tool/colour. Let’s all invoke @Byron C QidiMaster , no pressure. (Although I did think he had a resin printer?)
Ok, a questionnaire to help initial questions to minimise frustration with veterans. Existing Printer: Creality Ender 3 V3 KE. Current Printing Materials: PETG with minimal PLA. Future Printing Material Desires: ASA, PETG-CF. Slicer: Orca currently. Dream Print Size (200ish or 300ish): 200ish is ok. 300ish is better but not required. Environment: Scotland. In home office workspace. Types of prints: Woodworking jigs, gridfinity-type quality of life. Functional housings for cameras. Small item storage boxes. Aiming to sell prints: No Finish Quality requirement: Not important really. Functionality over form. Multi-colour: Not required currently. Multi-material: Potentially interesting. Multi-tool: I don't believe so. Nice to have. Lazy: yes. Prefer some type of AMS for ease and drying capability although never dried out PETG and it is "ok". Size Restrictions: No (horizontally or vertically). BUDGET: Ideally £500-600. Would stretch if minor budget increase gives large benefit. If there are more questions, I'll add responses.
Frustration!? Doubt any of them are frustrated. I had all the same questions and concerns. I reckon the Flashforge Creator 5 Pro fits the bill nicely. Tbf. Although the top end of budget. Other than being locked down, but I THINK it still works with Orca Slicer. Bear in mind I have absolutely NO experience with the Flashforge and I’m new to 3D printing myself! Just been doing the research more recently. Others will probably chime in.
May also wait for Black Friday. Although I'm keen to get something better, if I can save a few quid, it's worth the wait.
Summoned, I have been… In a nutshell: …. Eh. I have a Q1 Pro and it’s a competent enough machine. From what I’ve seen of the Q2 & Box launch, there were a lot of early issues that were ironed out with firmware updates. But that segues nicely into the main issue I think you’ll have with Qidi: ongoing firmware updates & support. Qidi are very much in the “get the printer out, make it work well enough, then drop it and move on to the next one” mould. My Q1, for example, will likely never receive another official firmware update. In a GitHub issue thread, a Qidi rep even asked “what needs optimisation?” despite the fact that it’s using a massively outdated Debian base image. Personally… I would definitely not recommend the Q1 Pro unless you’re willing to get down & dirty with custom firmware and hardware customisations. And at current pricing, I’d find it hard to recommend the Q2 over other options available: Creality K2 Combo: £449 (£339 printer only) Elegoo Centauri Carbon 2 Combo: £379 (£299 printer only) Qidi Q2 Combo: £559 (£429 printer only) If you were looking for a larger print bed, then I would tentatively say that their larger machines are worthy of consideration. The Plus5 has a 320*320*300mm bed, and the Max4 has a 390*390*340mm bed. But for a more “normal” bed size, 250*250*250 or thereabouts, there are definitely better options IMO. Caveat: I have not looked at the filaments supported by each machine. One of the strengths of the Q1 Pro was a hardened steel nozzle that can handle abrasive materials, so that might influence your decision. I haven’t yet had any reason to move beyond PLA, PETG, and TPU. Another, potentially bigger, caveat: everything I said about firmware updates and lack of support also applies to Creality & Elegoo. There’s no guarantee of ongoing support & development once a new model comes along.
The Q2 seems to ticks boxes for "reasonable" money. Heated enclosure, larger-than-standard bed, AMS does drying too, OrcaSlicer works... £560 with the AMS. Hmmm
It does, but you may not get support for the Box multi-filament unit in Orca Slicer. But Qidi’s fork, Qidi Studio, really isn’t that different to mainline Orca Slicer, and it has better-tuned profiles for their machines. I tried mainline Orca with my Q1 a while back, and I couldn’t get results as good as I could with Qidi Studio. I could almost certainly tune the Orca profile to be even better than Qidi’s profile, but I have no patience for that these days. And unlike the firmware for the Q1, they do actually seem to be keeping on top of Qidi Studio development. Which reminds me… I’m sure I saw a recent-ish GitHub issue thread the other day mentioning new firmware for the Q1. There are no releases on their GitHub, but apparently a couple of user’s machines have reported new firmware available via the online updater. I’ll be amazed if they actually have updated firmware, I’ll have to check that out when the current run is done - only another 4hrs to go….!
