I started 3D printing about 10 years ago. First printer was a Lulzbot Taz 6. It wasn't cheap but required the least amount of tinkering at the time to get successful prints. Plus it has a large print volume, especially at the time.

A few years ago, I picked up an Ender 3 V2 on sale. It printed a bit better than the Taz, but didn't have automatic bed leveling and had a smaller print volume. Did some upgrades to improve the Ender but it took tinkering to keep it properly tuned.

When Bambu Labs had their anniversary sale, I picked up the X1C with AMS unit on sale from Microcenter. It wasn't cheap but has great reviews. I was a bit reluctant to buy it as it's a very closed architecture. I've had it for about a month and have had very few failed prints - a few were due to the print plate not being fully cleaned and two were due to filament bound up on the spool. In both cases the printer stopped printing and alerted me in time to fix the problem and safe the print. The print quality out of the box is phenomenal. Even when printing much faster than either the Taz or the Ender. Parts are reasonable and changing an extruder assembly is pretty easy.

So far, I've printed with PLA, PETG, PLA-CF and ASA. All have worked really well.

I wish I had bought the Bambu sooner. To those looking to start printing, consider one of the Bambu printers. They have several options that are cheaper but still print as well. I wound up selling my Ender as I doubt that I'd ever use it again after using the Bambu.

I was at Microcenter and they had 4 printers set-up and printing non-stop. They were printing multi-color parts with PLA. The Microcenter employee running the printers had good things to say about the Bambu printers.

My boss has a Bambu printer and I've been very impressed with it. We use it occasionally to print molds at work. I have a crappy MonoPrice Mini-select printer that retails for around $150 I think. It works but the quality is meh..

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MacResource User Map: [www.zeemaps.com]#

Ender 3 Pro with enough upgrades that I could have bought a MUCH better printer had I spent it all at once.

"Quiet" logicboard, color touch-screen, hot-end (many times), fan, auto-bed-level, springs, belts, heating element, motors, extruder, build plates (settled on an upgraded glass plate), and probably a half dozen things I'm forgetting.

Bed-heater seems to be failing towards the front. Will be replacing the whole bed soon.

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I got a $99 Ender 3 in Microcenter’s Black Friday sale a while back, then left it in the box for about a year. Since I built it up I’ve gotten a lot of use out of it, particularly making parts for my arcade game obsession hobby.

I can tell you this though: the next 3D printer I own will for damn sure be self-leveling…

Will mentioned using his to make arcade parts. What are the rest of you using yours for?

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Ukulele music I couldn't find anywhere else.
[colquhoun.info]

Qidi X-0ne [2] here. Been using it for about 5 years. A bit hit or miss, but I'm not serious enough to justify an upgrade. If I did, it's be to a Bambu.

No Prusa fans here?

I use mine for all kinds of things. I've printed TPU gaskets for marker lights on a 1950's Willy's Jeep, various mounting brackets, props for a Scout troop's Klondike Derby, Raspberry Pi cases, prototypes for a buddy before he machined parts and probably a bunch of stuff that I've forgotten about.

I've got a Prusa MK3 printer. bought as a kit. It's been pretty reliable. mostly printing PETG, but have done PLA and a little TPU and ABS (stinky!).

It has bed leveling and I have a raspberry pi hooked to it to use octoprint remotely.

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Skill without imagination is craftsmanship. Imagination without skill is Modern Art.

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davemchine
Will mentioned using his to make arcade parts. What are the rest of you using yours for?

Stuff in every room...

Fixed a sliding cabinet door, made a screen for the fridge door to keep the cheese from sliding off the shelf, made a spring-loaded bin for packets of cat food, made a drawer-organizer for my desk drawer and dividers for a card-drawer, made a splash guard for an aquarium, made numerous colorful vases (and one black) and reproduced various classic sculptures at scale, fixed a desk drawer at work, made pencil holders, made sections for a bathroom organizer, a wall bracket to hold my Uke, giant wall-art styled after the James Webb telescope, fidget-spinners, cable-organizers, Ethernet-plug fixers, cases for my Dremel and my mini rotary tool, a magnetic display-holder for server-room racks, keychain tags, holiday ornaments, fancy bronze-painted door-stop, Halloween masks, zipper pulls, wall-hooks and cable organizers, a fan-mount for the cabinet where my server sits, a replacement vacuum filter for my hand-vac, spacers to keep the furniture from hitting/scratching the wall, a mahogany-stained wood-PLA photo frame, loads of lithopane night-lights, a thermostat cover, guitar pick holder, signs for when the service guys visit my apt in my absence ("Cat is in the bedroom"), humidifier drip guard, sink drain-spacer (as a temporary fix to keep the drain plug up when the pivot rod rusted away), pouch-sealer, toothpaste tube roller, cubby-organizer for the weird change-slot in my car's dashboard, leg to replace the broken stand on my portable TV, numerous toys including lots of articulable dragons/sharks/axolotl and limbs for broken toys.

And storage drawers that fit inside the frame of the Ender for spare nozzles and such.

And that's just off the top of my head.

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No headphone racks or SD card holders??
And you call yourself a 3-D printer!

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jonny
No headphone racks or SD card holders??
And you call yourself a 3-D printer!

Wall-hooks for the headphones. SD cards in a section of the desk drawer-organizer.

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Battery holders for my Sony A7RV, microSD card wallet, and a bunch more.

I'd love to see a picture of the sculptures.

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Ukulele music I couldn't find anywhere else.
[colquhoun.info]

I have 1 Bambu X1 Carbon, 1 A1 Mini, and 3 X1Es at work. All with AMS units. They churn out brackets, random parts, pen holders, and whatever the students can think of. We had a bunch of Makerbots before but they are pretty poor compared to the Bambu units.

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C(-)ris
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C(-)ris
I have 1 Bambu X1 Carbon, 1 A1 Mini, and 3 X1Es at work. All with AMS units. They churn out brackets, random parts, pen holders, and whatever the students can think of. We had a bunch of Makerbots before but they are pretty poor compared to the Bambu units.

C(-)ris - Are you printing TPU with the X1C? If so, have you been able to do so thru the AMS? I’ve heard that the Overture High Speed TPU works thru it. Trying to figure out a solution so that I don’t have to disconnect the AMS just to print TPU.

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macphanatic

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C(-)ris
I have 1 Bambu X1 Carbon, 1 A1 Mini, and 3 X1Es at work. All with AMS units. They churn out brackets, random parts, pen holders, and whatever the students can think of. We had a bunch of Makerbots before but they are pretty poor compared to the Bambu units.

C(-)ris - Are you printing TPU with the X1C? If so, have you been able to do so thru the AMS? I’ve heard that the Overture High Speed TPU works thru it. Trying to figure out a solution so that I don’t have to disconnect the AMS just to print TPU.

We print almost exclusively PETG-CF. Haven't tried TPU at all.

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C(-)ris
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