Best Entry Level Printer for Kids...

[Runt8]

Whatever you buy do not get it from Banggood, their return or refund policy is meaningless and if you have a problem you'll just be out of pocket. Just look at some independent review sites. I wish I had!

Best to buy from a reputable retailer or from Amazon, at least you'll have some customer rights.

I just bought a Flashforge printer and it was missing a uk plug lead, just supplied with a two pin EU one. I emailed Flashforge support and four days later a received the correct lead from China. So pretty good customer service I think.

Thanks for the warning - ordered from Amazon so no worries there.

well for one thing whenever an advert says: 'easiest to use printer ever' - that usually means when something inevitably does go wrong - you're screwed :-)
But the main issue is that 100x100x100mm IS just too small.

So while it might be a decent machine - at the end of the day it will only ever be your first machine and pretty swiftly you'll outgrow it - say in about a week.

I would say that 99% of what I make will fit in a 150 mm cube. But only about 50% would fit in a 100mm cube.

It's just too small - and yes, i do have a printer with a 100mm print volume. It's used almost exclusively for tiny high detailed stuff.
It's definitely not a general use machine.

Spend the extra and get a machine that you won't outgrow too quickly.
And cura really is pretty awful.

Actually the more yu read te blurb for the cadet - the worse it looks.
No heated bed - that right there should ALWAYS be a deal breaker.

Sure you can get pla to stick to an unheated bed - but it doesn't like it. And it either has a tendency to pop off mid print or sticks so hard you can't remove it without breaking.

The 'world's easiest auto levelling ' is also not that hard when you have a fixed bed that does not move.
As long as it's flat, there is no actual need to level it - one of the things I love about deltas. Once level, it's level for a looong time (probably running at about 15 months since I last levelled my delta and it's used almost every day).

Cheap and cheerful is not always the right option :-)

I probably should have mentioned that my son is turning 6 :-). I’m hoping that the cadet will be a good fit for him - I don’t see him printing out anything large for quite some time.

You may want to watch this video series on 3D printing https://youtu.be/nb-Bzf4nQdE I think he has only finished the first 2 of 8, but if you are new to 3D printing I think this will be helpful.

Thanks for the link, I will definitely check it out.