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’ve been looking at getting something new in this range also, and found the Kingroon KLP1, which is a fully enclosed Core XY design.
That’s not a brand I came across in my searches. I’ll have to look into it.
CoreXY has advantages over the typical RepRap-style 3-axis movement or bed-slingers. The frame is more rigid, so the print head can move faster while maintaining accuracy. The enclosure also lets you print higher temp materials with less warping.
IMO the big advantage of core xy is acceleration. My old i3 clone could print fairly fast, but my accelerations are way higher now, which lets me hit my (also higher) max speed faster and more frequently.
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.
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).