TLDR: thinking about getting a new printer with a budget of maybe €1200, mostly for toys and hueforge. Preferably FOSS
I got an Ender 3 Pro three years ago as my first printer. Over the years I’ve printed plenty toys and some occasional functional parts, and it’s been mostly pretty good. It’s developed problems now and then, but I’ve been able to fix them.
I’ve recently played a bit with HueForge, it’s this software that allows you to print really nice multicolour images by blending filament colours. This is doable by printing in super thin layers. It worked really well on the prusa mk4s at work, but not so much on my printer. Extrusion is just not consistent enough after swapping colours, or when there’s a lot of retractions/deretractions.
I’ve gotten a bit tired of all the limitations the Ender 3 Pro has. I was looking at a Prusa mk4s with mmu3, since I enjoyed assembling the mk4 at work, and it’s been working so well, even for the colleagues who don’t know much about 3d printing. Although, for personal use, do I really want to pay the premium price for that level of reliability and longevity? A lot of budget brands do offer multi colour capable printers these days.
But I also feel pretty tempted to try building a Voron, and while I was looking at those I saw some IDEX printer that look so cool lol. And there’s also the Enderwire that can make use of my old Ender 3 Pro…
Please help.
Why a mk4s instead of a Core One?
There’s a lot of right answers, but a QIDI or a Core One would probably be my two options here.
You mentioned an IDEX, are you interested in multi material, like combining PLA and PVA, or are you interested in multi color, like with an MMU?
I mostly print PLA and I don’t care too much about print speed, so I didn’t think the core one will really bring much advantage.
As for looking at IDEX, it’s more because it looks really cool. I’d like to be able to combine pla with tpu or petg, but realistically I don’t think I need it enough to justify the cost. I’ll get a lot more use out of a multi colour system like an MMU.
As a bit of Prusa fan boi myself, I too would recommend the Core One over the Mk4s at this moment. It’s a matter of “Buy once. Cry once.” Cheap often costs more in the long run.
When you are facing a 30 hour print or a long project, a bit extra speed is not only nice but helpful. Plus the heated enclosure can provide access to more engineering grade filaments. While you might not need to print nylon or ABS every day, you will probably find you are going to want to at some point a bit of those types for a project or two. And I believe the Core One also has filtered exhaust air to control nasty fumes that FDM printing can cause, (yes, even PLA has particulates that won’t kill you immediately, but they ain’t good for you either long term).
Personally, I find the MMU to be a god awful design mess. A rat’s nest of loose tubes and spools of filaments, but it does work. I might consider the Box Turtle over the MMU just for the neatness of the design. I find the multi-filament units, cool for very little color printing I do, but it’s the ability to use up spools that don’t have enough left one them to complete a print by switching to a different spool that can finish the print automatically to be far more valuable. It’s cut down my clutter of mostly used spools to near zero. I paid for all that kilo, I’m bloody gonna use it all dammit.
Core One has a slightly larger print surface, and the enclosure means it can print more advanced materials.
Prusa is likely going to continue building off the core platform, so it’ll probably be more upgradable than the mk4s.
Also, I think it looks nicer, like an appliance instead of a project.
I overlooked the upgrade aspect, good point
I’d highly suggest QIDI if you’re not building from scratch. I got my X pro back in 2018 and not only is it still stupidly detailed, but it’s an absolute workhorse. On top of that, they’re the best customer service I’ve ever had. I’ve made a ton of mods to mine over the years and they’ve done everything from helping me flash custom firmware to recording video guides for reversing the spin on the motors. I really cannot stress how great they are and how well they understand the DIY nature of this hobby.
Thanks! I’ve only heard about Qidi recently, but they seem to have a really good reputation. I saw someone mention that they’re planning a multi-color system, if i decide for QIDI I will probably wait for that or look into Box Turtle.
Look at Lulzbot also. Very modular and FOSS mindset, they even provide STL’s to reprint your own parts for the printer. They are reliable workhorses out of the box but support tons of customization.
They don’t really have anything in my price range, especially considering taxes and delivery. It doesn’t look like they have a warehouse in Europe.
