I am looking to buy a 3D printer which will be used in my small business size of about 20 people. We sometimes need little parts made for holding littles pieces of equipment and after seeing a similar lab to us use 3D Printing to make little holders for their antennas, we are looking at buying one ourselves.
What can you guys recommend? So far I have seen this video which suggests the Bambulab P1P, or the Prusa mk3S+ Kit.
I think we will most likely buy the Bambulab P1P as this guy suggests. However he did say that its not great for fixing. “Fixing or replacing parts does not appear to be anywhere near as user friendly or even possible in some cases”
How hard is it to build the Prusa mk3S+ Kit yourself in case we decide we want to have the Prusa given it is more easily fixable? We would prefer the Bambulab as it prints faster and is slightly larger, but might not get it due to the fact its not as easy to fix stuff.
Bambulab might depend on proprietary/custom parts if you need to repair it, but as far as I’ve seen these are fairly priced. There’s of course no guarantee that prices won’t go up in the future. Hopefully you won’t have to fix it very often though. Unless you have a cheap 3d printer that self-destructs, I think the most common thing you have to “fix” is replacing the nozzle when those wear out. But it sounds like you’re only going to use the printer occasionally so this shouldn’t happen very often unless you’re printing abrasive filaments. Based on what I’ve seen it appears to be somewhat of an advanced procedure to swap nozzles on the P1P so maybe it’s more cost effective for you to replace the entire hotend when it’s time for that.
Prusa has exceptionally good support, with 24/7 chat available in multiple languages, which might be extra valuable to a business. I believe the MK3S uses standard nozzles which are easy to change, though it is possible to screw it up and clog the printer so don’t let untrained employees do it :)
Any particular reason you’re looking at MK3S+ rather than an MK4 btw? And since I mentioned nozzles for the other options, the MK4 is using non-standard nozzles just like the P1P. The Prusa nozzles are almost as expensive but look easier to change, and unlike the standard nozzles the MK3 (and most other printers) use they should be close to idiot proof.
Pre-assembled they’re €1200 and €1000, kits cost €890 and €720 respectively.
CoreXY (i.e. the P1P) is definitely sexier than a bedslinger, and if I was going to get either of these two for home use I would definitely go with Bambu Labs. Was just thinking that for a business reliability and support might be worth more, but that totally depends on your use case.
I think we might go with the Bambulab. I have seen quite a few say they are pretty reliable. As opposed to something like the Ender 3 which I have heard people say are a bit unreliable and you have to spend time tweaking.
Some parts of the Bambulab apparently you can’t buy. Here is a youtube comment i saw “yes, they do, but as he alluded to, some of them are not replaceable, or even serviceable, like the carbon rails …”
Hopefully the carbon rails (whatever they are) wont break though lol
I don’t own one myself (yet, I’ve got a MK4 on order), but I’d recommend Prusa as well.
The lab I work at has two filament printers and one resin. Both filament printer are Prusa printers (one MK3 and one MK3S). The two Prusas have a collective run-time of 2000 days of printing and only now are we really experiencing problems with one of them (need to order a new hot end).
They’re pretty bullet-proof from what I’ve seen so far, enough so that I ordered the MK4 and patiently waiting for that to eventually get shipped out.
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Bambulab might depend on proprietary/custom parts if you need to repair it, but as far as I’ve seen these are fairly priced. There’s of course no guarantee that prices won’t go up in the future. Hopefully you won’t have to fix it very often though. Unless you have a cheap 3d printer that self-destructs, I think the most common thing you have to “fix” is replacing the nozzle when those wear out. But it sounds like you’re only going to use the printer occasionally so this shouldn’t happen very often unless you’re printing abrasive filaments. Based on what I’ve seen it appears to be somewhat of an advanced procedure to swap nozzles on the P1P so maybe it’s more cost effective for you to replace the entire hotend when it’s time for that.
Prusa has exceptionally good support, with 24/7 chat available in multiple languages, which might be extra valuable to a business. I believe the MK3S uses standard nozzles which are easy to change, though it is possible to screw it up and clog the printer so don’t let untrained employees do it :)
Any particular reason you’re looking at MK3S+ rather than an MK4 btw? And since I mentioned nozzles for the other options, the MK4 is using non-standard nozzles just like the P1P. The Prusa nozzles are almost as expensive but look easier to change, and unlike the standard nozzles the MK3 (and most other printers) use they should be close to idiot proof.
“Any particular reason you’re looking at MK3S+ rather than an MK4 btw?”
MK4 is 1200 and MK3S+ is 700 I believe.
Thanks for the advice. My dad wants to get the Bambulab P1P as its faster than the Prusa so might get that
Pre-assembled they’re €1200 and €1000, kits cost €890 and €720 respectively.
CoreXY (i.e. the P1P) is definitely sexier than a bedslinger, and if I was going to get either of these two for home use I would definitely go with Bambu Labs. Was just thinking that for a business reliability and support might be worth more, but that totally depends on your use case.
I think we might go with the Bambulab. I have seen quite a few say they are pretty reliable. As opposed to something like the Ender 3 which I have heard people say are a bit unreliable and you have to spend time tweaking.
Some parts of the Bambulab apparently you can’t buy. Here is a youtube comment i saw “yes, they do, but as he alluded to, some of them are not replaceable, or even serviceable, like the carbon rails …”
Hopefully the carbon rails (whatever they are) wont break though lol
I don’t own one myself (yet, I’ve got a MK4 on order), but I’d recommend Prusa as well.
The lab I work at has two filament printers and one resin. Both filament printer are Prusa printers (one MK3 and one MK3S). The two Prusas have a collective run-time of 2000 days of printing and only now are we really experiencing problems with one of them (need to order a new hot end).
They’re pretty bullet-proof from what I’ve seen so far, enough so that I ordered the MK4 and patiently waiting for that to eventually get shipped out.