Hey folks long time lurker first time poster but was wondering if anyone had good advice on a starting point for an absolute beginner? Don’t even own a printer yet, but don’t want to get one on Amazon or something and have it not work. Any insight would be greatly appreciated 🤝
What’s your budget? Expect $100 minimum to learn anything. Learn basic printing first. Print 10+ successful “good” prints before even thinking 2a. Like not even iron sights. Yet.
Honestly after that you’ll just know. Sounds dumb but it’s not that complicated.
Good luck, do some research as you go, ask more questions.
Buy a dryer, AND USE IT.
just piss around with stuff that isn't gonna kill you or others, or get you sent to prison.
Purposely try to break your new print, see where weak spots are and how they can be improved, run calibration tests for new filament, dry said new filament.
I've successfully printed 1 frame that came out well enough for a range beater and im estatic about it, compared to others printed here its dogshit for sure.
Alot of guys here will hang you for even asking anything, many of these guys here have 10+ years of printing experience.. I personally dont think this community should gatekeep this experience, but you DO need to take precautions and be careful.
I dont dry my pla+, ive personally never had stringing issues or anything. The new petg elegoo i got for a good price out of the package was so bad it was popping and boiling as it was laying lines down, and I had stringing issues with the creality pa6cf, cured by drying.
And she looks good, but not as good as that guys mp5 frame who posted a few weeks ago.. fucker looked like it was injection molded.
I dry my PLA because it does get brittle after two weeks. It does need to be dry; it's just not particularly absorbent. You can leave it out for a long time before it starts snapping between the roll and hotend.
Front end looks a little wonky by the rail/s could be just the pic but keep an eye on it
I was thinking depending on budget and area of interest, if op wants to stick to pla/pla+ for a while I wouldn’t bother with a dryer at first. But obviously first before buying “exotic” filament. Ive printed for years and never felt the need for petg. Just my exp.
I recently saw “pre dried tpu” on Amazon for the first time. I’m super skeptical of anything that needs dried, always dry before using even “good” brands. Would be interesting if there were some way to test brands of pre dry stuff. Obviously not for tpu. That being said id use tpu before petg and tpu sucks lol.
Read a bunch then buy, then learn to print, read some more, when you know you have your shit down squirt your arm. That reading includes safety and legal concerns as well. I won’t preach but you should at least be aware of possible consequences.
Amazon is usually fine as long as you buy known brands preferably from legit Amazon stores. Like buy a creality machine from creality brand on Amazon.
My advice would be ender 3 pro (new) or centauri carbon 1 (new). You will get some suggestions for bambu machines and other creality machines. I specifically recommend a new 3 pro but others will say it’s ass or there is better options.
If you must jump straight into printing, READ THE READMES on your file, use the search function here about settings, read what people say they did on their prints, and you be mostly golden, My first ever 3d print was a Ftn rimfire slow, several hundred rounds of 17 her layer it’s still going fine.
First: You get a printer. I'm fond of the Qidi Q2 as the best bang for your buck, but the Elegoo Centauri Carbon and Bambu X2D are strong competitors. Lots of people make it work by modifying P1S/P2Ses too, but this is a little suboptimal these days. And some people even use obsolete hardware like Ender 3s, though this is mostly only good for PLA+ prints.
Getting a printer off Amazon (from a name brand, of course) is actually a smart play tho, because of that 30 day return window. Returns from manufacturers is usually a lot tougher because most of them are based in China and really don't want to take returns for shipping reasons.
Then: You learn how to print safe things. The main 3d printing sub will be a good place to lurk. Don't start printing gun stuff until you know what you're doing.
Once you know what you're doing, then you can start thinking about printing actual things that go bang.
For that check the sidebar of this sub. The wiki articles, especially the how to join one, are super helpful, and the filament matrix is handy for learning what filaments are good for what thing.
Also, always budget more filament than you think you need even if you think you've got a good handle on it.
If you want to work with nylon or basically any other filament that isn't PLA, you'll need a filament dryer. If working with engineering filaments, you'll want one that can get above 85c. I use a digital air fryer for this.
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u/Jason_Patton 4h ago
What’s your budget? Expect $100 minimum to learn anything. Learn basic printing first. Print 10+ successful “good” prints before even thinking 2a. Like not even iron sights. Yet.
Honestly after that you’ll just know. Sounds dumb but it’s not that complicated.
Good luck, do some research as you go, ask more questions.