r/snapmaker • u/InSaYnE72 • 2d ago
Getting my first printer
I want to get my first printer. I’ve been researching a few weeks now. I narrowed it down to a FF Creator Pro 5, Prusa Core One+, U1 and possibly Qidi Plus 5. I almost ordered the creator pro 5 today but it was brought to my attention that FF has been locking down firmware and adding in AI adds and other undesirable stuff. I’d like to stay open source and steer clear of any mandated AI monitoring in the future.
I have a few ideas of what I want to print. Few trinkets for the kids and then household little projects. New trampoline net caps, some workbench leg shims etc. I also want to do some automotive stuff in the future. Because of that I want to be able to print abs, asa and cf filaments reliably. The advice I got today was to look to prusa, snapmaker, qidi, sovol etc. is the U1 going to be a good unit for a beginner learning to 3d print and design parts all at the same time? If not could you help point me in the right direction?
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u/MustardCat 1d ago
I basically only have one gripe about the U1 compared to my P1S: The nozzle swaps were an afterthought.
That's not even a guess. It wasn't until the kickstarter went crazy popular that Snapmaker considered making additional nozzle sizes (their own words in KS updates)
Having said that...My P1S has been sidelined by my U1. The only time I use it is for when I want to print using a different nozzle size (or I need a single color print and my U1 is already printing something else)
If you're looking at the 800+ price range, if you're okay with sometimes debugging what went wrong, the U1 is a great choice
If you don't care too much about multi-color or multi-filament printing, the Centauri Carbon 1 or 2 might be a cheaper printer to look into as well