Several years ago I leapt enthusiastically into the realm of 3D printing by buying a massive, expensive delta-type printer. I had to put it together myself, which was fun, but after that I struggled to get it to print well. Even simply trying to get the prints to stick to the bed were difficult, leading me to add huge brims to all my parts which were a pain to cut off afterward. Eventually I gave up fiddling with it and it’s been gathering dust ever since.
I know that a lot of you treat the hobby as an opportunity for endless tinkering and optimization, which is great, but I think I’ve realized that what I’d prefer is something that just works out of the box with a minimum of adjustment.
I think Prusa is a good brand to go with
Not low-cost at all though
Second hand though would help, wouldn’t be surprised if we see a bunch of mk3s and maybe even some mk4 with their new printer coming out. I still use my mk3s pretty frequently, made a bunch of mods to it, still chugs along.
Ooh, that’s a good point. I had a similar experience. Specifically, I didn’t really know what I needed when I bought my Prusa, so I didn’t get all the features. I was pleased to be able to buy/print and mod in a few of the features I was missing in my initial purchase.
There’s not really going to be a low cost solution that just works out of the box with no calibration.