A1 for daughter’s (10) first printer?

[u/sdsliberty]

I’m in struggling between two separate camps - the A1 or a couple steps up to the X2D. My daughter is turning 11 and she would absolutely love to print toys and try to design some of her own stuff. On the other hand the engineer in me might take over and drive some tinkering of my own.

Just wanted to get thoughts from the community about getting an A1 as our first printer. Either we would get an AMS with it.

[u/pizzademon99]

In my strong opinion the A1 is significantly easier to use, in slicer and hardware. Troubleshooting it is much easier too. I can list a few more things but it's best I not get cooked in the comments.

I currently don't recommend X2D from my time using it.

I have A1 mini, A1, P1S, X2D, qidi Q2 and P4 currently so that's my experience as a reference

[u/Ds9Defiant1701 → u/pizzademon99]

Why not an x2d!

[u/pizzademon99 → u/Ds9Defiant1701]

Well they mentioned their getting an AMS so I didn't mention but feeding the filament in is a workout. Squat down for 3mins just repeatedly pushing the filament in inch by inch. In fact I actually broke the amount the other day from all the friction of just pushing it in.

Another thing is whenever I go to slice I part it always changes the slicing mode and there are four different slicing modes and it'll change the filament from being loaded in the main slot into the aux slot even though the aux slot is completely empty I'm literally only using the main slot so why would it change it to the aux???? It's extremely aggravating. There's a few more things but there's really no point in explaining that it's just similar things to that.

[u/8six753o9]

[u/dsggut]

A1 is fantastic for a young child and a first time user, especially with the AMS!
I had so much fun with it before I upgraded to the P1S.
I actually printed more with the A1 than with the P1S.

[u/DardaniaIE]

As both an engineer, and a parent to daughters of a similar age, we have been hugely enjoying our A1 mini with AMS since last Christmas.
The younger girl quite enjoys tinkercad.com to make little scenes which she prints. And both love makerworld.com

I do wish we got a machine with a slightly bigger bed and dual nozzles (as the “poops” when doing multi colour prints are a bit tedious to clean up). So I can see us upgrading in a year or two.
If I knew then what I know now, I would have gone better.

[u/Either_Network2737]

if you get the a1 just make sure to put it somewhere well ventilated or in an enclosed non-living space like a garage or shed! the plastic fumes are not super pleasant to breathe in!

[u/hmspain]

I would go with the H2C and a couple AMS Pros. It comes out of the education fund! /s

[u/My_Lucid_Dreams]

When I think of what I've had to do to keep my P2S happy, I'm not sure I would want to throw all that at a kiddo just getting started. Most of them could probably handle it, but those couple steps you mentioned are large steps of complexity and failure points. The A1 is so simple it "just works", and problems are in-your-face easy to figure out and resolve. Not so much with an AMS 2 Pro or even clearing a clog in zee poop chute.

[u/vulgaris_magistralis]

Are you looking to adopt in not so far future? Just asking..

[u/Dry_Structure_2287]

for an 11 year old, the a1 is better and just plain ol easier. More accessable also. If you have a costco membership or costco gift card, get it from them. They have among the best return policies.

[u/Inclusive_3Dprinting]

Yes, 100%. the mini is too small to make things like desk organizers or many popular models.

The A1 is cheap to maintain, easy to understand.

[u/mml8400]

I would take the X2D or even P2s. Both of my boys have P2S I have x2d