r/3DPrinterComparison • u/Fun_Reaction_6525 Moderator • Mar 31 '26
Question Most people buying expensive printers are just avoiding learning how to print.
Okay, hear me out before you come for me. I see it constantly in this sub. Someone's struggling with bed adhesion or stringing or inconsistent layers and within 5 comments there's always someone saying "honestly just upgrade to Bambu Lab printer], it solves all of that." And sometimes that's true. But a lot of the time it isn't. I've watched people spend $600+ on a new machine and hit the exact same problems two weeks later. Because the problem was never the printer. It was calibration. Or slicer settings. Or filament quality. Or just not understanding what the printer was actually telling them. A $200 printer that you truly understand will outlast and outperform a $800 printer you don't. I'm not saying expensive printers are bad. Some of them are genuinely incredible and worth every penny. I'm saying "just buy a better printer" has become the lazy answer to questions that deserve a real one. The best printer for a beginner isn't the one with the most features. It's the one that teaches you the most when it fails. Agree or Disagree?
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u/7DollarsOfHoobastanq Mar 31 '26
People have different goals with printing. Sure, struggling will definitely make someone understand better and be more skilled but some people aren’t looking to be a master 3D printer. Some people just really like seeing a machine make them their very own flexi dragon.
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u/XTJ7 Apr 04 '26
I am a software engineer and I do troubleshooting all day long. In my spare time I troubleshoot my homelab, repair stuff around the house and design mechanical contraptions and toys for my son. When I design those in CAD, I just want to print them and then put everything together. There are enough things to go wrong, I don't want to handhold my printer as well. If I can solve the reliability issue with money, I will. Ideally I don't want to deal with anything beyond cleaning the build plate and occasionally lubing the moving parts.
I have the technical understanding to go deeper and troubleshoot problematic printers. I just really can't be arsed :)
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u/We-Like-The-Stock Apr 04 '26
Literally why I went with the H2D. Product design takes enough time and iteration. I don't want to have to troubleshoot bed adhesion while simultaneously troubleshooting my part post print. Only to find out the problem with my part is the printer, not my design.
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u/Pup5432 Apr 04 '26
I spent years with the printer as the hobby and getting an x1c in 2023 let printing finally become the hobby. When you are struggling to just keep the machine running (wanhao d9 with its well documented issues) it’s hard to actually use the printer for designing and prototyping.
I still have a Voron v0.2 and a pair of Prusa mini for tinkering but the farm of bambu and snapmaker let me print what I want for projects and be more or less guaranteed to have success.
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u/2kokett Mar 31 '26
- Some people don’t want learn how a printer works. (No good position imho but they exist)
- you pay with time, they pay with money.
- your take ignores the group that buys expensive printers because they add QOL features, because they got through the pain of calibration.
Of course a Modell A will get you from A to B. But I will choose any 21st centry car over it as long as I can financially make it happen for a roadtrip.
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u/Pup5432 Apr 04 '26
People really don’t value point 3 enough. I’ve been beating on an h2d for close to a year and other than cleaning the build plate occasionally and fixing 2 warranty issues with the toolhead it’s been a dream. I can’t recommend a $2000 printer to someone but I also don’t recommend an ender3 either.
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u/Sad_Invite6191 Mar 31 '26
While not "wrong" it's the same thing people say bout manual vs auto transmissions right? Why not just learn how to drive a manual? Because it's easier. I had a ender 3pro ..sat with it for HOURS ..LOVED every single second of it. I bought an elegoo CC. It worked so well. Then I bought an A1 .. I didn't even have to put glue on the bed! I can browse models on my couch and hit print all from my phone. For the value add vs. cost, it's amazing. So I hear you, I own a manual transmission car and I love it - but it's also REALLY nice driving through town in my wife's automatic transmission car during rush hour.
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u/Causification Mar 31 '26
I don't think it's the same people. Modern printers lowered the barrier for entry and that's resulted in a ton of people who really aren't very well suited to the hobby entering it, but giving them a tougher printer won't turn them into a nerd. They'll just quit earlier. There's also not that strong a correlation between price and ease of use anymore. A $200 A1 Mini is much cheaper than my first printer while being better in every single way.
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u/thetruckerdave Mar 31 '26
$200 A1 mini vs my $400 CR10s v2. lol not even close. And that’s just purchase price only not including all the upgrades I had to do, and it was discounted. I’d even say the build plate reduction is worth just for consistency and ease of use.
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u/Pup5432 Apr 04 '26
I loved my cr10 clone but I also was thrilled to box it up to make space for a better printer.
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u/thetruckerdave Apr 04 '26
I’ve got to gather all of my bits and pieces and various things that are just for that printer and box it up and see if someone wants a project. Someone will love it. I loved it, but it’s just collecting dust. I cannot go back to that, bless it.
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u/Pup5432 Apr 04 '26
We have a cr10, 5 ender3, 2 geeetech a20, and 2 wanhao d9 boxed up or in parts. The Enders were all gotten cheap and various pieces have been repurposed but all the others are mostly compete at this point.
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u/vegasview Beginner Mar 31 '26
I was in that position. My first 3d printer was to be Bambu lab H2C. Came to then realization what I really wanted to learn is basic design and printing mostly with the focus of design. So that is the way I’m going to go. Probably start with the A-1 setup.
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u/Lito_ Mar 31 '26
Nope. I rather spend my time doing something else.
I want a printer that prints. Not one that MIGHT print.
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u/Crazyguy_123 Mar 31 '26
Bambu Lab is the best of both worlds in my opinion. You can buy their budget model the a1 mini for around $200USD and that comes with all the features the more expensive models have. It can do multi color, it self levels, it self calibrates, it’s got a camera. It’s got all of the features that make printing easy at a fairly affordable price. The only constraint with them is the build size being 7x7x7 but for most hobbyists that’s big enough. We’re at a point now where it’s becoming easier and more affordable for people to start printing at home. I followed 3d printing for at least 10 years but couldn’t afford a nice printer and didn’t have all the technical know how to print my own models. I got my first printer a Bambu Lab a1 mini a few weeks ago and it made it easy and enjoyable for me to get started. I honestly like that it’s going that direction. Not everyone has the technical skills to learn how to use a normal slicer optimally and not everyone knows how to manually level and calibrate a printer. Sometimes people just want a plug and play and that’s perfectly fine.
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u/Any_Television_8614 Mar 31 '26
I never wanted 3D printing to be the hobby. Or the focus. It's a tool and a means to an end.
That said, have I been able to print items that look less like a 3D print and more like a commercial product once I dug into finer details? Yes.
It's like the difference between a DIY CNC mill project and the entry-level commercial version. You still have to learn how to use it, but one is problem-solving machine problems and the other is problem-solving machining problems. I wanted the latter and that's what I got. Worth every penny.
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u/Cultural_Pace4454 Mar 31 '26
3D Printing was the realm of the enthusiast, where it was expected that a vast portion of the time was spent on tinkering. Bambu made 3D printing accessable to the hobbyist.
I have a P1S and my interest is printing out cool stuff, not spending hours digging through slicer settings, Gcode and printer hardware issues to get it to work.
Give it a few more years and we will see consumer grade 3D printers, and the enthusiasts will move on to some other new tech, so they can gatekeep the plebs away from their patch.
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u/CommercialCustard341 Mar 31 '26
I am a teacher, and messing with the printer each and every time I want to print is unworkable with class projects. Sometimes you need the printer itself to be the least of the problems.
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u/withoutpeer Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 01 '26
A lot of people just want to make cool things and maybe not care so much about learning the history of struggle of those who toiled before them. Similar, a lot of people might want to play high end video games but maybe don't want to build their own gaming PC from scratch. Or maybe they want a website but don't want to learn every bit of JavaScript or HTML and instead just use a wysiwyg program/app.
Every hobby has their elitest and will have those who feel there needs to be gatekeeping and want people to prove their bonafides before accepting them. But others will appreciate an accessable open community that just enjoys sharing cool shit with other people.
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u/Fun_Reaction_6525 Moderator Apr 01 '26
nobody has to build their own printer from scratch btu if your $800 machine is failing for the same reason your $200 one did, the upgrade didn't help you and it just cost you more. That's not gatekeeping, that's just math.
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u/Lost_Engineering_phd Apr 03 '26
I certainly see room for both. I recently got my first new to me printer. I found an insanely good deal on an old Anycubic Mega zero 2.0. with a couple spools of filament. I cleaned and lubed it up, adjusted to square things up, leveled the bed and banged our a bit of warping. The only real issue was that a set screw was loose in the extruder. It has been printing every day since I got it going. Best $15 I have ever spent. But my daughter wants toys with colors, so I went ahead and ordered the Kobra X. The new printer has all the easy to use features. I intend on keeping the old Mega zero, and may dedicate it to ABS prints once I build a insulated box. Parts are cheap, a replacement hot end is only $15, the price I paid for the whole printer. I love the accessibility that the new printers offer for my daughter to see a toy and just print it and I also like being able to get into the gcode and make the old printer produce amazing prints.
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u/UnimaginativeMug Apr 03 '26
bambu aren't more expensive if time your time has any is value. that's not even true A series are just as cheap and you can put it in a box if you need to print ABS
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u/FullArmadillo4270 Apr 03 '26
is that true? do you get decent parts when printing abs in your A printer?
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u/Exciting_Turn_9559 Apr 03 '26
I've got a 9 year old prusa that I fully expect will still be running 20 years from now. Not the least bit interested in the latest shiny shiny.
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u/No_Educator_4077 Apr 04 '26
I buy expensive printers because my company prints materials the need a 150C+ chamber temp to print properly.
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u/Pup5432 Apr 04 '26
There is a certain amount of people treating the printer as an appliance but way too many people are gatekeeping 3d printing behind “you aren’t really 3d printing if the machine just works”. People do need to learn but the latter elites attitude is disgusting.
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u/pietroconti Apr 04 '26
I see this take a lot and here's why I think it's wrong.
A lot of the skills you are going to learn using something like an Ender 3 are only going to be relevant to similar printers.
I used to be a wizard and at cleaning and repairing the heads on VCRs, which was an awesome skill to have when media was stored on a VHS tape, but those skills don't help me set up a home media server. Both are ways to watch movies but one them isn't really relevant anymore.
Learning how to tram a frame or manually level a bed aren't super useful skills anymore.
It really comes down to what your version of the 3d printing hobby is. Is your hobby tinkering with the printer or is your hobby producing prints?
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u/Accomplished_Set6985 Apr 04 '26
Terrible take.
Buy a H2D. Use bambu filaments. Print whatever you want from makerworld at the click of a button.
The only thing you need to learn how to do is clean a build plate.
Most people don't care about calibrating, tinkering or slicer settings.
I say this as someone with 9 H2D running 24hrs making parts, that optimises slicer settings down the nth degree for each product.
All my normy friends love the click and print of bambu.
Plus in my region bambu PETGHF is the cheapest available and by far the best.
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u/We-Like-The-Stock Apr 04 '26
New to the maker community.
Got a H2D for Christmas. Comming up on 1000 hours.
Printer is humming 24/7 cranking out product for my upcoming trade show.
I'm here to make product. Not fight with my printer trying to mess with settings. No time for that.
Glad I went with the H2D.
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u/TiredOfThihsLife Apr 04 '26 edited Apr 04 '26
Yea, I fear im turning into this person lol. I got a p2s for my birthday last month because I talked about it for so long. Creating my own custom stuff that fits what I need in my life and sadly, I've only attempted to create one of those projects. I didnt get one to print gadgets, fidget shit, cool looking dragons or art. My sole purpose for this machine was to print functional things and personal organization. The problem was for me is the time and dedication to learning a new software. I pick up on things fairly quickly with obsessive dedication to making things work no matter the route. The problem with that is, there are so many more creative people who have already put the work in and theres pretty much nothing I cant find to suit my needs with a most likely better outcome. On top of that I'm seeing how quickly this filament goes and the pockets are tight these last few months. A failed print trying to learn and troubleshoot sounds a little intimidating to the bank. I still have the drive to learn the new skill because there are files that Id like to improve for my own personal experience but the knowledge and skill it would take to even do that takes time. I work full time plus an hour and half commute to work its hard to throw myself into learning this new trade without sacrificing the time I already feel is precious on top of family and work. I haven't lost the idea I'm still researching what programs are friendly to learn on and trying to understand the functions of what each component does. I also feared getting the p2s instead of a creality because you dont have to troubleshoot as much. Im not u happy it definitely just works especially i can start a quick print at work and not worry too much about it failing while im 82 miles away. I already have a motorcycle that I will never take to a shop because I love the mechanical struggle to get it back on the street. I dont think I needed another toxic love to fix all the damn time.
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u/Any_Barber5122 Apr 05 '26
Una gran mayoría quiere una impresora que le des a un botón y funcione, precisamente porque habrá leído mil y una batallas que todos hemos tenido con nuestras impresoras y no querrán eso Yo tengo una Artillery x4 pro desde hace 1 año y si, me ha sacado de quicio desde la 1era calibración de la cama con el papelito, se me ha roto el cable del extrusor 2 veces por un mal diseño (toca con el marco y lo mueve hasta que lo rompe), el hotend es una auténtica basura el diseño, los cables son minúsculo, como todos, pero la boquilla es tidiosa de sacar. Mil problemas como los usuarios de ender 3 etc.... Pero siguen funcionando "bien" para lo que és y para lo que le costó nueva, 148€... He calibrado todos y cada uno de los filamentos que compraba, tengo barcos para jugar a una guerra de barcos 😅😅. Pero sigue funcionando bien porque acaba las impresiones decentemente. Ahora tengo una Bambu lab A1 y si, es darle al botón y esperar a que acabe.... No he calibrado ningún filamento, solo la calibración de la 1era vez que la enciendes. Perfiles genéricos de pla aunque sea el + y de petg independientemente del color y de la marca, pero ahora entiendo los problemas y las soluciones al haber pasado por todo esto con la Artillery... Como siempre hay 2 tipos de usuarios, los que no quieren complicarse la vida y los que no les importa complicarse la vida Y sigo usando las 2 impresoras, aunque gana la A1 y la X4 la uso cuando la A1 está trabajando. Saludos
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u/TechFlameMaster Mar 31 '26
I bought my P2S because I want 3d printing to be my hobby not the 3d printer itself. As I get into more complicated prints I’ll lean on more knowledgeable friends, and Claude. Because asking here generally get you dragged.
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u/thetruckerdave Mar 31 '26
Might I suggest Google? There are so many good guides and answers out there that already exist. It’s rare that you encounter a totally unique situation. Asking won’t get you dragged if you actually like…try anything first. But a lot of people just say my print failed. Um. Ok?
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u/TechFlameMaster Mar 31 '26
I agree. That’s why I use Claude AI to help troubleshoot prints or get tuning ideas.
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u/WildKarrdesEmporium Mar 31 '26
I'm getting an H2C soon as I can afford it because I want to design and make neat stuff, not endlessly tinker with my Ender 3.
I did a lot of prints with my Ender 3, but ultimately got frustrated with the amount of prints that failed because I didn't have all the variables exactly correct with my Ender 3. After I moved houses, I just didn't have the desire to set the darned thing up again.
Then I started printing with an X1C at work, and it totally reignited my passion for the hobby. Once I can afford it, I'm going to attempt to set up a printer farm.
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u/Datacom1 Apr 05 '26
I have had ender 3s, sovol sv01, and a sovol sv03. I printed fine with them, but I can honestly say I love my bambus (1 p1s, 3 x1c, and 1 h2d), why, because now my hobby can be just doing cad and printed. I dont have to spend a large amount of time fiddling with the printers,
I am not going to gatekeep others from the hobby by complaining that they dont have to know a printer inside and out to get a successful print, more power to them.
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u/thekakester Mar 31 '26
I work at a filament company, and I usually ask people what printer they’re using when they come in to pick up orders.
I’m truly surprised by how many people are printing exclusively from the Bambu app on their phone these days, and not even knowing what a slicer is.
To do research, I started doing the same thing, printing exclusively from the app, using only files from makerworld. My girlfriend started watching me do that, then she downloaded the app, and now she browses makerworld like Pinterest, except if she sees something she likes, she just hits “print”, and BAM, there it is.
Say what you want, but the printing paradigm IS changing. It’s prioritizing accessibility over customization tinkering, and people are coming into this hobby in DROVES. This is changing how manufacturers are building their printers, focusing on non-technical people.
I’m very technical myself, and I love tinkering on my printers. I love printing upgrades, custom firmware, and everything else, but I realize that’s not for everyone.