Currently using a FLSUN Super racer. It’s a delta style printer and fast as hell compared to the printers I had before. 400 hours on it currently.
Had a Ender 3 before it. Lots of issues. Ended up giving it away to a friend who still uses it and still has random issues.
First printer was a Printrbot Simple Metal. Bought one the moment a heated bed was a option. Great printer for the time, but dated now. Keep thinking about resurrecting it to print flexibles on of these days.
I got a ender 3 S1 to start with. Which I upgraded pretty soon after getting it, full copper hotend with a mellow V6 pro extender and cht clone, 0y bltouch bracket and klipper.
It has since printed a self designed 150x150mm corexy build and a VzBot 235 upscaled to 330 with a kinematic 3z.
Planning on getting rid of the S1 as soon as both builds are up and running.
Prusa mini+. It wasn’t the cheapest and isn’t the fastest or most expensive but it’s crazy reliable and is just always there and ready when I need it.
In the order of acquisition:
- Ender 3 (Converted to an Ender Extender 400xl). Dragon hotend and EZR struder.
- Ender 3 Pro with dragon hotend, EZR struder (currently being fitted with a Sherpa Mini DD). Running Klipper.
- Ender 5 with Biqu H2 v2s Revo (recently got all the parts to convert this one to a Zero G Mercury one.1).
- Sovol sv04 (With Copperhead heatbteaks).
- Ender 2 Pro with E3D Revo Hotend and MicroSwiss Bowden extruder. Running Klipper.
- Voron V2.4r2 350mm.
Currently all are operational except the Ender 3 pro, due to the Biqu H2 v1 blowing up on me last weekend and forcing an upfra to the dragon+Sherpa_mini+HeroMe toolhead.
Ender 5 with the following upgrades:
- BigTreeTech skr mini v2
- MicroSwiss hot end
- Orbiter extruder
- BLTouch
- OctoPrint
I’m quite happy with it, print quality is mostly decent although it requires a lot of tweaking to get to good quality.
Prusa Mini here! I only swapped the nozzle for a larger one to print “faster”. All stock stuff so I can spend more time learning and printing stuff I design myself with CAD!
Prusa Mini+
Creality CR10 - Almost every aspect of it was upgraded.
- Control box delete, relocated electronics/psu under the frame.
- Dual z leadscrews with anti-backlash nuts and oldham couplers
- Linear rails for XY Axis
- Bigger XY stepper motors
- HeroMe Gen 7: Dual 5015 cooling fans
- Nocuta 40mm hotend fan
- Noctua 40mm electronics fan
- BLTouch
- Orbiter v2.0
- Spider 3.0 hotend w/ MicroSwiss .4/.6 Nozzle
- SKR E3 Mini V3
- Raspberry Pi (OctoPrint)
- Removable PEI Sheet -Solid Bed mount
I can print just under 190mm/s at volumetric flow rates of 20-25mm3/s. Also gonna try out those CHT nozzles and see if they can help with flow rates too.
I am planning on getting a lighter y carriage and lighter alu bed and see if i can go faster
Also upgrading to an AC powered bed. Probably going to leave it with the 12v PSU, once i get the AC powered bed.
Hotend doesn’t take long to heat up unlike the bed almost 16-18 mins to 90c.
I will probably be getting a prusa mk4 or BambuLabs x1c as my next printer then a Voron. Once I get one of these my Prusa Mini will be converted to coreXY.
Id still go with 24v. I think switching psu’s would’ve netted more than the new steppers.
I fell for the marketing, paid reviews and fake review sites so I ended up with an Ender 3 v2. Spent a lot of time trying to level and calibrate it but never managed to get rid of the gantry sag entirely. Eventually discovered that the x axis tensioner didn’t quite fit on the aluminium extrusion and had been bent from overtightening at the factory, which was causing the belt to wander, but it was pretty easy to fix by jamming a thin metal spacer in there after I found it. Have spent a bit over €350 on upgrading the printer to get it to a state where I’m (mostly) happy with it.
Was hoping to build an Annex K2 some time, but the component costs have gone up so it’s even more expensive now…
That’s what I started on (well, a knock off clone) and I still say it’s a great printer if you want to learn 3D printing.
Now, if you want to actually print right after buying, no no no. Not a good fit.
It’s basically a set of parts that can be cheaply replaced, but measured properly (mostly) and lets you avoid putting together a BOM. Plus, there are tons of them out there, so lots of community support and many cheap, occasionally working, 3rd party upgrades.
I feel like it taught me the mindset of FDM troubleshooting and how the parts/variables interacted with each other. It was $150 a few years ago, so it’s great for screwing up and figuring out what you want in your first real printer. It also has a lot of potential and folks that have modded them to actually run well, so it helped me figure out where I fell on the “It just works” to “Let’s test these 200 different hotend fan duct designs” spectrum and which features were most important to me.
