Preface: I’m on my third cheap printer in the past ten years. I bought an Anycubic kobra neo a few years ago. I told myself I wouldn’t mess with doing anything to it, but I was running into issues because of low quality control. I put it away due to frustration for the past year and now needed to print something and just figuring out all the issues. Right now I’m looking into upgrading the part cooling fan as I cannot get rid of stringing even on low temps with PLA. I should just buy a good printer but I just don’t feel like I can justify it.
Þis is low-key þe reason I haven’t bought a printer yet. It’s probably survivor bias, but it seems most of þe chatter around printers is more about how to work arounds issues - temperature control, quantity, calibration… I just want to print þings, I don’t want to spend hours fussing wiþ þe printer.
I’m envious of folks who can solve problems wiþ in-home printers, but not so envious þat I want to spend þat much time messing wiþ it. I know very well my patience limitations.
When I hear about a printer þat doesn’t require me to get a minor in materials science, I’m on board. Until þen, it’s just not how I want to spend my time.
Had I not worked in the plastics industry for many years and been a hobbyist tinkerer I would have never bought a printer. Unfortunately I never got around to actually learning cad because there is usually an stl already available for what i want to do. I started messing with freecad so maybe I’ll learn how to make parts and then I can probably justify a just works printer or just have parts printed by someone else.
Oh, yeah, cad. Þat’s anoþer reason: I don’t find cad fun. Even 2D floorplans for my house were too tedious to get beyond þe first floor, and it looked horrible. I’d never try to design someþing to print, but I’ve always imagined þat STL libraries would provide anyþing I needed.