Advice needed on new printer

[Louwtji]

Hi all, I am new here and new to the 3D printing world. I have spent countless of hours on the web searching for details regarding machines, functionalities etc, but cant seem to find the answers to some questions.
I am from South Africa, and struggling with suppliers here with stupid questions i.e. what are the diffs between these two machines...
Anyways, im on route to get myself a printer, and would like input from which of these are better / will suit my needs.
Creality Ender 3 Pro
Creality Ender 5 Pro
Creality CR10 Max
Creality CR10s Pro V2
Prusa I3 Mk3
Wanhau duplicator machines
I would like to print the most types of elements possible between these. I prefer quality over speed. Ive read that for ABS printing an enclosure is needed, can one build enclosures for these that do not have it?
What features should I look for in a 3D printing machine? Nice to haves, and compulsory items.

It is for DIY printing at home for whatever I need

Also, my options are not limited to these mentioned above, that is more or less the price range I am looking at, and seems like those might be the best ones??

I hope you guys can help me

[Louwtji]

Apologies, also reading now through the sticky thread, for more information. Thanks

[curious aardvark]

lol
if you can get them the wanhao machines are vastly superior to the creality junk.

Mind you I haven't seen a wanhao printer crop up in any of my recent searches.

Can you get qidi machines over there ?

[Louwtji]

Aaaahhh thanks, I need to be steered in the correct direction, and I know you guys have thousands of newbies with the same questions over and over, i apologize for that.I will have a look and see if we can get those qidi ones, havent heard of it before though, so i doubt

[curious aardvark]

I mean if you can still get wamhao printers - they are excellent.
I just haven't seen one for sale for quite some time now.

I can't in all conscience recommend creality products.

Okay so you'be got a couple of basic choices to make.

Do you go for an enclosed machine that can print abs (I hate abs lol) and other - much more desirable - filaments.
GIven that you are in sa, then presumably environmental heat could well be an issue - not something we ever have problems with in the uk :-)

Yes it is fairly easy to enclose most print beds - so that's not a big issue really.

How handy are you mechanically ?
Ie: is the fact that a printer might need a little tweaking here and there an issue ?

My current favourite recommendation is the hictop hero 3d idex: https://www.hic3dprinter.com/product...-dual-extruder

Price is good, size is good. The IDEX setup (two independant extruders) is excellent. Build quality seems pretty good. And most of the reviews have been positive.

Might need the odd tweak and upgrade, but on the whole It's the best value for money machine currently around.

[Louwtji]

I mean if you can still get wamhao printers - they are excellent.
I just haven't seen one for sale for quite some time now.

I can't in all conscience recommend creality products.

Okay so you'be got a couple of basic choices to make.

Do you go for an enclosed machine that can print abs (I hate abs lol) and other - much more desirable - filaments.
GIven that you are in sa, then presumably environmental heat could well be an issue - not something we ever have problems with in the uk :-)

Yes it is fairly easy to enclose most print beds - so that's not a big issue really.

How handy are you mechanically ?
Ie: is the fact that a printer might need a little tweaking here and there an issue ?

My current favourite recommendation is the hictop hero 3d idex: https://www.hic3dprinter.com/product...-dual-extruder

Price is good, size is good. The IDEX setup (two independant extruders) is excellent. Build quality seems pretty good. And most of the reviews have been positive.

Might need the odd tweak and upgrade, but on the whole It's the best value for money machine currently around.

Apologies for only getting back to you now, was a hectic weekend.

Yes I can get the Wanhau printers, they are available here, question is, which printer?

Any specific reason why you would say to rather stay away from the creality printers?

Yeah our temperatures in summer get to 40dregrees celsius, and winter we go to -6 in the mornings. Its quite hectic, I would love to be able to print ABS and the exotic filaments and flexible filaments.

Yes, I am very handy mechanically, so the setup etc im not to worried about.

I will have a quick look at that suggestion, and see if it is for sale in SA as well

Thanks alot

[curious aardvark]

Creality machines are just badly designed.
They all have a bowden extruder so are not very good for flexible filaments.

The cheaper end (enders) have aonly a single z-axis motor so the carriage is often not level, they all have just the single central support for the print bed - and that on wheels - so the bed is often not level. and they use a bowden extruder instead of a direct drive one.

basically they took the original i3 desing and threw away all the bits that made it such a reliable and stable and fast machine.

Founf the wanhao website lol
so ANY of their i3 p[rinters are good - they all use the original prusa design.
The ds4 mini looks like a decent little machine - already enclosed, so that's useful.

The duplicator 6 is decent looking - and would be very easy to enclose.

basically they're all good :-)

You probably want to avoid the resin machines. Unless you're printing really tiny things and want to risk the toxicity of the resin, just avoid.
Since finding out just how toxic resins and exposure to even the fumes is - I've gone right off resin machines :-)

Now for specifics - if you want to print polycarbonate you need a hotend rated for 300c.
It would probably be a fairly easy job on any of the i3 machines - and slightly trickier on the enclosed machines (different extruder carriage designs).
But the beauty of 3d printers uis that you can make your own parts :-)

[Louwtji]

Creality machines are just badly designed.
They all have a bowden extruder so are not very good for flexible filaments.

The cheaper end (enders) have aonly a single z-axis motor so the carriage is often not level, they all have just the single central support for the print bed - and that on wheels - so the bed is often not level. and they use a bowden extruder instead of a direct drive one.

basically they took the original i3 desing and threw away all the bits that made it such a reliable and stable and fast machine.

Founf the wanhao website lol
so ANY of their i3 p[rinters are good - they all use the original prusa design.
The ds4 mini looks like a decent little machine - already enclosed, so that's useful.

The duplicator 6 is decent looking - and would be very easy to enclose.

basically they're all good :-)

You probably want to avoid the resin machines. Unless you're printing really tiny things and want to risk the toxicity of the resin, just avoid.
Since finding out just how toxic resins and exposure to even the fumes is - I've gone right off resin machines :-)

Now for specifics - if you want to print polycarbonate you need a hotend rated for 300c.
It would probably be a fairly easy job on any of the i3 machines - and slightly trickier on the enclosed machines (different extruder carriage designs).
But the beauty of 3d printers uis that you can make your own parts :-)

Lets say I wont be printing alot of flexible stuff, propably only a cellphone cover once in a while. Will that affect the decision of the printer and the extruder?

I went to go read now the diff ebtween bowden and direct drive extruders, this just makes a decision much more difficult.

I will have a look at the Wanhao website, maybe I can see something similar there.

Problem in SA now is stock availability, everything only comes end Aug sometime. The only ones available to me right now (at the old import prices) are
Creality CR10sPro
Creality CR10 Max
Flashforge Inventor 2
Wanhao Duplicater 6 Plus

Dont wana just buy it as to be hasty decision. If there is better in that price range, then ill rather wait.

What are your thoughts on the Prusa I3 kits?

[curious aardvark]

duplicator 6plus is good.
inventor 2 - maybe a lottle small on the build volume - but decent machine.

Just get direct drive extruder :-)

[Louwtji]

duplicator 6plus is good. inventor 2 - maybe a lottle small on the build volume - but decent machine. Just get direct drive extruder :-)

Thanks, will have a look and maybe wait a month or two before i buy, just to feed my brain more info on the decisions.Again thank you for the information