I think it’s finally time to upgrade from my Ender 3, and the market has… grown substantially. I’m a bit out of my depth.

Definitely looking at a coreXY, and definitely prefer a multi-color system (multi-material really). My budget is around $600, but that’s a bit flexible.

The Elegoo Centurion Carbon 2 looks attractive, and it’s on sale. But I’ve heard good things about multi-head systems, particularly when it comes to waste from purging. Granted, that stretches my budget a bit.

What’s the move? It seems like so many of the options (coughcoughBambu) have pretty gross anti-consumer practices. Are there any good options out there?

Update: Alright, I pulled the trigger on a Snapmaker U1. It seems like it’s going to be the Ender 3 of tool changers: the open source darling that becomes the de facto standard for the mod community.

    • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      5 months ago

      While you wait for shipment, start printing an ikea lid mount for the u1. It’s not necessary but it’s great to keep dust out. I did the beaverworks because it was first but I don’t recommend it because there are better ones now. Beaverworks version has unnecessary extra material and needs toyou to unplug the hot extruders to install.

        • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          5 months ago

          I’d suggest starting now because you are going to want to have your U1 busy with multi color prints. Multi color tpu is amazing. I made a mini chess set with tpu and the pieces feel fantastic.

          U1 tip: make sure all the plastic trim is snapped in inside the printer, especially behind the toolheads. It took me a month to figure out why my toolheads sometimes didn’t park. It looked fine but with more pressure I got a click and haven’t had problems since.

      • agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
        0·
        5 months ago

        And then that greatness reduced once again to atoms when I inevitably get a full color 3d scanner to start making perfect miniatures of everything. Luckily I’ve probably got a few years before there’s a decent markerless scanner in the hobbyist price range, so I have time to recover.

        • CIA_chatbot@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          5 months ago

          Yea, all the hobby level ones suck horribly unless you set everything up with perfect lighting, sacrifice a goat to the elder gods, and get lucky.