I've been waiting to finish up with some major life stuff before diving into the world of 3D printers. Now that is finally behind me, and I am currently trying to find out which printer I want so that I can place an order.
So far I've set my eyes on the new Prusa CORE One. It ticks a lot of the boxes that I think I am after, including:
- As open as I can get (before going into that Voron-stuff, which I think I'm not ready for). I don't want to be bogged down with having to run proprietary slicers through Wine and things like that. I am not sure how big of an issue that is with e.g. Bambu or Creality (if at all), but I've seen enough rug-pulls and enshittification processes that I don't really want to risk that. I want to be sure that I can use FOSS tools such as Blender and FreeCAD for design, and similarly open slicers, and the whole workflow will work just fine.
- As future-proof as I can possibly hope for. I think the upgrade path from the MK4 to CORE One shows that they are serious about sustainability and longevity of their devices, and as far as I can tell, I should have no troubles sourcing replacement parts. I also want to support companies with this philosophy.
- Has a decent print volume (I know there are bigger, maybe I will be constrained by this at some point?)
- Enclosed - a major reason I did not want the MK4S was that it was not enclosed (but maybe you can get an enclosure?). It will be placed in my study where I spend most of my computer time (which often times is a lot, so I imagine I will be in the room while it is printing). I imagine, with the additional filter, that it will be better with an enclosure. Also, it will be easier to keep good temperature control during prints, as it can get cold here during winter.
- Locally produced (I'm EU based).
I understand that other manufacturers provide more "bang for the buck" and that I in that sense will be overpaying feature-wise. I am fine with that given my emphasis on the above criteria.
However, I am a complete newbie to 3D-printing. I am sure there are some limitations I have not thought about, and I was wondering if there are any major things I have not thought about that would actually affect me negatively and should make me reconsider this model?
I advise against getting the brand new thing. My experience has been that frequently the reliability and feature set of yet-to-be-released things tend to be highly overstated. The CORE looks cool but I would give it six months after release before you consider buying one so you can see some real reviews.
Prusa has a pretty decent track record but they are really branching out of their comfort zone now and I would be cautious.
If you don’t want to wait, the Bambu P1S is a phenomenal printer. I wish they were more open along with everyone else but I have many, many, many hours on mine and has been an excellent purchase. It was a massive upgrade from my Prusa Mk3S.
The core 1 is a pretty iterative, not so huge leap from the mk4s which was a little hop from the Mk4. I don't think there's too much drastic new tech to worry about and Prusa has a solid reputation for both testing and support. I'd argue safe to pull trigger now. I think Bambu is a stain on the 3d printing world personally but that's a philosophical argument not a performance review.