Remember, these prices @ Jaycar, CrealityAU & eBay (CrealityAU)
Ender 3 SE $249
Ender 3 KE $389
Ender 3 V3 $479
K1 $609
K1C $739 ($70 cheapest)
K1 Max $1169 - I wasn't going to post it, but it does seem quite a hefty saving
Prices vary slightly with various deals happening, but there are a few standouuts. Stores are havig sales too.
Waited all day for someone to post this, bcause im not a great poster, and not one platform got crosed lol
I started with a v3 se and it was a great starter printer, you end up learning lots on it and for the price it was amazing.
I’ve now got a couple Bambu printers and the difference is night and day, they just do the job no real tinkering just general maintenance.
if you prefer fixing, tweaking, and an opensource environment, this ones would be better.
but otherwise, bambu lab all the way.
my v3 se i have had to change no settings. has no issues so far in 6 months. idk why i see so many people saying exactly what u say how ender printers require lots of tweaking and perfecting before its usable. its just not true
they have been burnt by the enders of old, but compared to a Bambu, there is still much more babying with an Ender.
Yep! If you want to print, get Bambu.
If you like to tinker with machines to make them work get Ender /Creality.
Sorry but this is a fallacy. I bought a KE and have had to do nothing to it in 12 months. I have added parts to it, like an LED light but I've had to do zero to "make them work".
you can use them stock, but a lot of the improvements that come standard are a part of the tinkering and upgrading process with Enders.
@impoze: Not sure what to say, maybe I am/was just lucky.
I'm no expert with 3d printing so that could be something also but I have printed a fair few things of various types and all good so far.
@bboz: I wasn't disagreeing with you, but having both the V3 SE & an A1, they are miles apart.
The current gen of Enders require far less tinkering than before, so you can get great results without having to do much to them.
I don't have to watch the first layer on bambu, where as with the V3, I'm watching it with tweezers, getting ready to pluck away any oozed out filament. I've sinced installed the wire brush for nozzle cleaning though.
@impoze: No I know you weren't disagreeing. I'm just saying I guess I have been lucky… so far. But no doubt this conversation means I have now tempted fate lol.
Anyway I hope my printer works well for the next few years and then I might look at upgrading. I have only heard good things about Bambu so I will probably go own that road eventually.
@impoze: dont think the A1 series has failure detection, althought you can add after market camera+software to solve this problem.
AMS cost a lot extra, the ender V3 is like 300$ back then, now close to 200$.
run out sensor is pretty standard nowadays.
but yeah, vibration compensation, active flow dynamic control, the bambu ones just miles ahead for sure.
for 350$ i highly doubt there is anything better than the a1mini unless you want large prints.
@Hornpub: KE is still $389, too close to the mini price. Yes, bigger bed.
A1 has failure detection - filament tangle as well as some spaghetti (not as accurate as others, but it fails less in the first place.)
V3 SE doesn't have filament run out from stock, and it has been this $249 price since the start of the year.
thats great exprience for you, i am sure 1 in XXXX ppl would have similar experience as you.
as someone been printing for 10 years, for most ppl, bambu lab is just a no brainer.
@Hornpub: Thanks for your input. I especially liked the extra layer of passive aggressiveness.
You should definitely place a tag or note in your name about your 10 years printing experience so that no one makes the mistake of ever replying to you.
Cheers
It depends if you want to spend your time tweaking the print or building your print.
It got to a point where I just threw out (disassembled for parts) the various entry level printers/kits so I would stop wasting time on it.
It’s not just Bambu now, I believe several printers are available of the same calibre, however I can’t speak to them.
These printers require SO MUCH tinkering to print. 60% of your time is printing and 40% is tinkering. So many prints fail because somehow something was not calibrated. Everyone says the Ender 3 is a great printer to start printing because its cheap, and lots of support, but honestly, the reason why its cheap, is because it has no amazing features on it. The reason it has a lot of support, is because everyone bought it cheap and realized its a terrible printer, hence so much support. Get a bambulabs one which has auto-calibration. You'll need to buy at least $100-$200 worth of parts if you buy a Ender 3 v3/v2 to make this printer somewhat decent.
100% true. I have no regrets getting an ender 3 as it taught me so much about 3d printing and i really enjoyed the tinkering; installing mods, flashing customer software, playing with settings and filaments, etc. A true enthusiastic early adopter loves this kind of printer. If however you need to ask the question (not saying you are of course) then you likely are not the the intended target and should really go for a more polish printer at a premium cost. Bambo, prusha, etc. I've now got my Ender 3 to a point where it prints reliably, but it took a lot of tweaking and now I'll be honest I'm fearful if changing anything (including filament types/brands) lest I break the delecate balancing act.
I have a K1 Max at work and a Neptune 4 Pro at home. The K1 Max needs a lot more fiddling with to ensure you get good prints. I'm very tempted to go down the Bambu route at work as the "just works" aspect is important.
Price on title?
$381 for a Flashforge Adventurer 5M would beat all of the models below the K1 and even then give the K1 and above a good run for the money - definitely punching well above it's weight at this price. There is also an official DIY enclosure kit for about $60 (but you have to print the shell and assemble with the provided acrylic panels and hardware).
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/404994864090
Coming from a heavily modded Ender 3 v2, I would say skip the tinkering - you have to invest ALOT of time learning, troubleshooting and relearning and even then you may not get consistent results because of a fault in the hardware, or very small but important setup/build/configuration/setting aspect. Very interesting as a new topic but really does consume a lot of unnecessary time when you can get such consistent results (almost) out of the box. A bambu labs A1 mini would be the best out of the box cheapest but has a smaller print bed.
Even with esentially Klipper vs what doesn't seem to very heavily advertised OS…..or the printer - not to be a shiller for the sake of it - Any closed boxthat cheap is boud to produce decent results today… but $300hw really does come down to whats running it, and a few basixc movement features. I dont know FF well, so i dont know if their non-fix, tweak or openness is good enough with its brains on Id have my money on an Ender 3 every day since release.
it was the peoples champion in a DIY race…But i come from the DIY era of 3D… most will never know wgat theyre missing out on a:D
The brand has been around for a while, it operates a closed version of klipper though can be installed with vanilla klipper (released by flash forge). My experience has been you can get an ender 3 (v2, in my case) humming but it just takes a lot to get there and stay there. When you throw upgrades into the mix it can go sideways quickly until you figure it out which can take a long time researching and experimenting. I get this is an experience in itself (which is great for those that are curious and have the time to put into it) but for a beginner who is expecting to drop 3-400 and print straightaway reliably and at speed with little tweaking (filament calibrations, mostly), you have a greater chance of this with what I've linked compared to an ender 3 bedslinger. Maybe it's the corexy design that reduces the variability?
The 5M was as low as $350 a couple of weeks ago on Amazon. $450 + $100 discount voucher. I held off hoping it would be cheaper during the prime sale but it was $399 during prime sale with no voucher.
Happy with my kobra 3 combo, you'll eventually need a filament drier anyway.
I have the V3 SE and I paid $249 from Jaycar earlier this year. Excellent printer for the price and I'm very happy with it. It's been cheaper at $208 and that's the price I would expect to pay for it now since it's an older-ish model.
Here are some prints I have done on the V3 SE:
https://files.ozbargain.com.au/upload/82921/113236/img202406…
https://files.ozbargain.com.au/upload/82921/114790/img202408…
https://files.ozbargain.com.au/upload/82921/112483/img202405…
Love the Lego man, awesome.
Have you had any issues with getting the printer to work? Asking as that seems to be the consensus on here yet I have had zero issues with my KE.
There was a small period of time were the auto leveling was not accurate and I kept getting adhesion issues. I just learnt that the auto bed level is not the be-all and end-all. So now that I have set my own z-offset it's been printing (almost) perfectly.
no real issues using the V3 SE but a few quirks like @Lizard Spock said. Can't fully rely on the auto level.
I have it set up with Klipper and runs reliably, but compared to the A1 which I also have, it's not as easy to use, more watching and I don't have complete trust that it won't fail on a print.
A year ago it was a good deal, since then a lot has changed.
The deal wasn't posted because they are standard pricing, and I would expect these printers to be a lot less at this point in time.
V3 SE $249 back in January 2024.
Since June, Bambulab printers have been at their reduced price making it a difficult choice to go for anything else.
Where are multi-color printers at these days? Anything worth looking at?
Can anyone with experience compare this with the Bambulabs ones?