So back in the early days of 3d printing (2012) had purchased a Solidoodle 3. Iused it for a few years. It sat unused due to issues had run into with it and eventually got rid of it. Since then I haven’t had a printer, but I’ve finally convinced myself that it is time to get one again. So l’m looking for suggestions for sub-$500 printers. While wouldn’t consider myself a newb, I am very rusty. I’m however not opposed to tinkering and am a huge fan of open source. What printers would people recommend? I’m personally thinking the Sovol SVO6+ but am open to other suggestions.
I just got a SV06+ about a month ago (first printer). I have installed Klipper and a few other mods and am having a blast. I used a Raspberry Pi and an old 8 inch Samsung Tab A for a screen to interact with Klipper even though Sovol does sell a Klipper screen for the SV06+ that you can install after the fact. I got it for about $360 on Amazon.
This would be stretching the budget, but there are a few Voron variants that aren’t that much out of your price range. You’re going to be giving up print volume though.
Vorons are fully open sourced, very capable, etc. There are a number of vendors who offer both BOM in a box, as well as customized BOMs. There are a ton of officially endorsed user mods and plenty of community mods too.
They are a little overbuilt, but they’re very capable. Depending on what you’re looking to print material wise, you could shed some cost by not enclosing your printer. Or you could print magnetic panel mounts and pull panels off when needed…
The more mainstream recommendations these days are Enders (fine, cheap, expect to need to tinker), Sovol (new kid on the block), Bambu (look familiar? there’s some controversy around their always connected cloud model), and Prusa (reliable, somewhat pricey given their capabilities).
I do really like the Vorons and while I have no problem building one myself, it’s a bit much for this go-round. When I replace (or supplement) whatever I buy this time, it’ll be on the short list.
The build was… pretty long if we’re being honest. Post build setup (setting up the pi, tuning) was pretty straightforward though and I had reliable prints with the stock profiles basically right off the bat with no real tuning beyond esteps and x-offset. I’m still fiddling a little, but the nice thing about a Voron is whatever you do will be super repeatable thanks to things like mechanical bed leveling. I’m also finding that ASA is a very tough material to print with.
The Creality K1 is $399 right now. You could get that and the MicroSwiss improved hotend and still be under $500.
It is able to be rooted and should be fully compliant with the open source klipper license soon. This printer is pretty much plug-and-play, but you can change parts as you see fit (nozzles, hotends, belts). It’s not proprietary like Bambu
Have you considered a Prusa Mini? Unless you need a larger print bed, it’s a great starter printer at that price point.
I have looked at that one. I’m not a big fan of the gantry and would like at least 200x200.