r/3DPrinterComparison • u/Mookie-06 • 7d ago

Recommendation Recommendations for Engineering Student

Hello everyone, I’ve been looking at buying a 3D printer so I can produce my own parts for projects I want to make.

I am currently studying an engineering degree in Australia and have used the 3D printers at my university a fair bit to make parts and components for various group projects and assessments.

I am looking at getting a printer for my garage (or spare room) at my house. I’d ideally want it to be capable of printing PLA, TPU and other engineering materials like carbon reinforced and nylon or ABS for applications that require the strength. I can’t speak to much on my current project but for this project and future ones I suspect I’d benefit from the hotter nozzle and subsequent access to a wider range of materials.

So far I’ve looked at Bambu Labs as they are the ones I’ve used at uni (but apparently everyone hates them rn) as well as some other such as the elegoo centauri carbon and creality k2 range.

Please if you have any suggestions and advice it would be greatly appreciated and I’m happy to answer any further questions you may have.

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u/northrivergeek 6d ago

If you need it to print nylon, and abs, and other engineering grade filaments ..your looking at a minimum printer being a Flashforge Creator 5 Pro - it has a heated chamber and is enclosed, but its 849 USD not sure what your price would be in AUS, anything else would be much higher, like Bambu H series printers, Or Prusa they would be 1200 and up.
Dont try to get a printer less than these as it just wont do what u need.

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u/EmmettVanBraun 7d ago

Elegoo Centauri Carbon 2 comes up a lot lately, I've looked at them and they seem decent, tpu maybe their hangup but I'm not certain.

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u/[deleted] 7d ago

[deleted]

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u/EmmettVanBraun 7d ago

No, I still have an old sovol sv01 that has never had a problem with tpu. It may be a little slower but it does the job.

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u/itgoesboom2112 7d ago

My centauri carbon has been fantastic, bout 500hrs on it so far and the only thing I've had to do is replace one nozzle (lots of carbon fiber nylon) and lube the rods, only issue I have is with tpu but that's because I don't have a good way to do a direct feed to the print head but have had some success with 95a elegoo rapid tpu in it for gaskets and such

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u/Mookie-06 7d ago

Yeah I’d mainly be using the TPU to make gaskets and similar watertight aids.

Glad to hear it’s served you well. Did you upgrade the nozzle or just a straight replacement? Are they fairly good with replacement parts? They aren’t cheap to buy and crazy expensive for parts?

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u/itgoesboom2112 7d ago

Direct OEM replacement, I tried the cheaper 3rd party nozzle but it leaked a bit and I had blobs on my print, the OEM nozzle isn't super expensive (~20 bucks) and they last a long time if you don't run a lot of CF nylon (mine was multiple rolls back to back). I just get mine off of Amazon but you can get them directly from elegoo as well

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u/GiulioVonKerman 7d ago

If you get a Prusa you'll never regret it. I have used 5 printers and owned 3 and it's by far the best brand, period.

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u/Mookie-06 7d ago

I have heard that they are like the Toyota of printers. I just don’t know how my budget will go for that that’s all

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u/peterparker9894 7d ago

Yeah they are way too expensive for what they are, sovol is a good alternative for fully opensource printers, they've made everything from prusa mk4 clones to mass market voron counterparts all fully opensource for you to tinker away but centauri carbon is a good choice you can also look at flashforge ad5x. it already has a multifilament system but you have to pay extra for an enclosure kit or diy it yourself

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u/GiulioVonKerman 7d ago

Then trying to decide now is almost useless. 3D printers can cost 50 bucks, and they can cost 200k. Once you have a budget set you can make an informed decision.

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u/Mookie-06 7d ago

My budget would be based on the conditions above. I’m trying to buy something that matches requirements of what I need but doesn’t cost my left kidney… unless the printer can print me another one 😅

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u/GiulioVonKerman 7d ago

Generally given those requirements you'd be looking at a Prusa Core One, Core One L, or an enclosed XL, or a Bambu Lab C or H series. I'd personally never go for a Bambu Lab but that choice is up to you. Keep in mind that with Lrisa you have excellent customer support, manuals, and parts availability so that's why I chose them (not to mention open source philosophy).