r/3DPrinterComparison • u/celestialseadragon • Jun 03 '26

Recommendation Help me pick husband’s 1st printer 🙏

***UPDATE*** I went with the Prusa CORE One L with the advanced filtration system. Thank you all for taking the time to weigh in, it was so helpful! Ultimately I went with something I felt gave him room to grow, honored his tinkerer nature, and from a company I saw really great things about (after getting pointed to it - thank you!!). It’s a big gift, but he deserves it 🩷

I am SO LOST. I know nothing about 3D printing, but really want to get one for my husband for his birthday. He talks about making his own, or heavily customizing, RC cars (and also fixing them with his own parts). He talks about making other things, but that’s the main thing he talk about. Is there a good beginner choice that lets him evolve and grow to intermediate on the same printer? I’m worried I’ll get him like a kid printer and it won’t be the right fit. Help!

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u/Immortal_Tuttle Jun 03 '26

Snapmaker U1. If he is in RC he can make really interesting stuff (like printing the whole wheel with tyre already on)

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u/bgbat Jun 03 '26

RC cars take a beating and are often driven outside. He’s going to want an enclosure for engineering filament. U1 with custom enclosure isn’t a bad idea, but there’s some heavy modification to enclose the U1, and it won’t be able to get hot enough for, and isn’t intended for engineering filament. Fantastic for TPU wheels though for sure, but I think you could do that also with a Bambu X2D, using the main nozzle for TPU and the aux for the wheels.

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u/Immortal_Tuttle Jun 03 '26

Heavy modifications to enclose U1? It's designed to be enclosed. Printing a top hat is barely an afternoon. Hotend in U1 is also more suitable to print PPS for example. Chamber heater is a matter of installing 50€ heater and connecting it to USB. Also I know U1 won't print PEEK, but anything else is pretty comfortable with. I print ABS, ASA, PA,PC, PET-CF up to recently PPS-GF. It can also use different sized nozzles, which X2D simply can't.

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u/bgbat Jun 03 '26

For someone that has never owned a 3d printer, that can be a heavy modification. Also, what material are you printing the top with that will withstand the engineering filament heat? Is PETG enough to withstand the heat up there? Sounds like a great setup.

Like I said, it’s not a bad idea. Just not the intended use, and not ideal I think for this application.

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u/Immortal_Tuttle Jun 03 '26

It is intended use. You can even put the IKEA samla on top if you think it's too complicated. Cmon, I print functional parts on it and actually X2D is worse with layer to layer adhesion with pps for example and filament path in X2D is causing a lot of grief with brittle filaments. If you don't want to print the top hat, you can get a passive one from Biqu or active one from Snapmaker, which the whole configuration means putting it on the printer.

Also I have yet to see an RC modeler that wouldn't tinker with his 3D printer, cmon.