3DPrinting
3DPrinting is a place where makers of all skill levels and walks of life can learn about and discuss 3D printing and development of 3D printed parts and devices.
The r/functionalprint community is now located at: or !functionalprint@fedia.io
There are CAD communities available at: !cad@lemmy.world or !freecad@lemmy.ml
Rules
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No bigotry - including racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia. Code of Conduct.
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Be respectful, especially when disagreeing. Everyone should feel welcome here.
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No porn (NSFW prints are acceptable but must be marked NSFW)
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No Ads / Spamming / Guerrilla Marketing
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Do not create links to reddit
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If you see an issue please flag it
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No guns
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No injury gore posts
If you need an easy way to host pictures, https://catbox.moe/ may be an option. Be ethical about what you post and donate if you are able or use this a lot. It is just an individual hosting content, not a company. The image embedding syntax for Lemmy is 
Moderation policy: Light, mostly invisible
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I have to agree. My ender 3 has been through hell over the past 5 years, but since I am familiar with it, I can usually dial it in.
If I was just starting out I would be overwhelmed with trying to understand it AND troubleshooting.
If you have an electromechanical background, such as bench repair and/or having repaired lots of truly broken printers, then it is less of a risk imo. I know that refurbish items are usually okay, but there are bad items that make it out of any shop.
The Ender 3 is like an old Jeep Willy’s. Teaches you a ton about how it operated but it does so poorly.
I went from a highly modded Ender 3 to a stock K1. The difference in consistent quality and speed is staggering.
OP, save up your money for an enclosed printer. It makes such a big difference it’s well worth it.
The max is pretty, but the SE is more in my price range.
My use is for making little plastic bits cheaply, and I'm not concerned about time. If my kid wants to upgrade to something better, I will probably "buy" it off him.
I never got the Ender 3 to be consistent. If anything it wasted time, filament, and money because it might finish a print and it might not. Great teaching tool. Awful printer these days.
I found it to just be slow. My only complaint was some weird layer squish, but that was very wrong esteps.