What kind of prints do you think you’ll do most often? (Single-material, multi colour (but same material), or multi-material?)
What’s your budget roughly?
How important is open vs closed ecosystems to you?
I’ve had an Ender 5 Pro for many years that I’ve modified a fair bit (but likely wouldn’t recommend nowadays), I don’t have hands on experience with any newer printers but I’ve been doing a bunch of research for the last few months to see what I might replace it with so I might be able to point you in a few directions depending on your answers to those three criterias.
I suppose I’m not too far along in the process, my kids keep asking me for one but I’m not sure I have much of a use case for one. I think they just want it as a toy, but maybe I could use it to print the occasional replacement part. As far as budget, I’d prefer not to spend more than 1500 but I’d want something that just works right out of the box. I don’t care if the hardware is closed source as it will just be blocked from the internet, but I’d prefer the apps that interface it be open source though.
All in all I’m not sure about the practically of it, I think it will just end up being an expensive toy, but it does seem like a neat capability to have at home.
How old are your kids? Prusa Core One kits are very fun and educational to build and you save some money by getting the kit over the pre-built.
They are also built in the EU, very reliable and servicable. More expensive than the Chinese counterparts but they make up for it with good support, parts availability and open source software. Their hardware is mostly open but not entirely anymore sadly.
I’ve had an Ender 5 Pro for many years that I’ve modified a fair bit (but likely wouldn’t recommend nowadays), I don’t have hands on experience with any newer printers but I’ve been doing a bunch of research for the last few months to see what I might replace it with so I might be able to point you in a few directions depending on your answers to those three criterias.
I suppose I’m not too far along in the process, my kids keep asking me for one but I’m not sure I have much of a use case for one. I think they just want it as a toy, but maybe I could use it to print the occasional replacement part. As far as budget, I’d prefer not to spend more than 1500 but I’d want something that just works right out of the box. I don’t care if the hardware is closed source as it will just be blocked from the internet, but I’d prefer the apps that interface it be open source though.
All in all I’m not sure about the practically of it, I think it will just end up being an expensive toy, but it does seem like a neat capability to have at home.
How old are your kids? Prusa Core One kits are very fun and educational to build and you save some money by getting the kit over the pre-built.
They are also built in the EU, very reliable and servicable. More expensive than the Chinese counterparts but they make up for it with good support, parts availability and open source software. Their hardware is mostly open but not entirely anymore sadly.