this post was submitted on 28 Oct 2025
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3DPrinting

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I am interested in getting a 3D printer but I have no idea where to even started. Is there such thing as a multi-purpose printer? What’s a good source to read up on printers, software, filament?

I am thinking small replacements items like drawer guides, funnel for espresso machine, essentially little parts and pieces that break around the house and farm. Also maybe some device cases (including outdoor ones) etc.

Ideally I don’t want a closed system. I have a Cricut for 10 years or so and I hate being locked into the app so much. Unless there is a really, really good reason.

Edited to add: Thank you all! What an amazing community!

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[–] YetiBeets@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago (28 children)

First decision is if you want a resin printer or FDM printer. Resin let's you get smaller details, but has less dimensuonal accuracy and less options for engineering material.

In practice this means that if you want to make highly detailed descriptive parts. E.g. figurines, jewlery, etc go resin. If you want to build functional parts, latches, anything that moves, or anything that is big go FDM

From your description it sounds like you want FDM

My only experience with FDM is BambuLab which gets called "The Apple of 3D printers" for better and worse. I can personally say they work fantastic, and "tuning and maintainance" of the machine is almost non-existant. HOWEVER there is a little proprietary schenanigans going on. Their system is still open for now, but people worry because hypothetically in the future they might take functionality away or something. (There is a long and boring list of controversies which could be a deal breaker or nothing burger based on your preferences. For me I find it an okay tradeoff for the performance)

[–] lpinfinity@retrolemmy.com 3 points 3 weeks ago

I'd also note that resin printing is a huge pita compared to FDM. Resin has quite a few post-processing steps, plus it requires much more ventilation and handling equipment.

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