I’ve been wanting to get a 3d printer for a while and now I’m starting to finally look at getting one. It seems like in general though finding clear reviews and knowledge on printers is much harder than other things but maybe that’s because I’m not in the hobby yet. Bambu is a no from me but I’m open to other options. I was kinda looking at he centauri carbon but I’ve heard it’s pretty loud and I live in a small apartment. The Prusa Core One seems like a decent option but it’s all quite expensive so I don’t wanna save up for that unless it really is the best option and there’s nothing reasonable cheaper. What’s everyone’s thoughts? Absolute max budget is $1k but I would strongly prefer to spend something ~$500 or less
https://www.sovol3d.com/products/sovol-sv08-3d-printer
This one is awesome. Open source everything. Based on the Boron and a pretty good price too.
The problem is, by the time you add the enclosure, you are at nearly the same price as a Core One kit. Yes, the SV08 is larger, but unless you are into cosplay printing, that extra size is probably a waste of space.
It’s nice to have just in case but seriously, I find my 350x350 way oversized for what I print on the regular. The best use I have for that size is printed panels, but the z height us mostly useless for 99% of what I do.
It’s also been on a few really good sales on AliExpress over the past few months, and it’s taken a lot of self-control not to buy myself an entirely unnecessary second SV08 given how impressed I’ve been with mine and the sales taking a third off the cost of the printer.
That said, I have replaced the bed on mine with a graphite one because the stock one’s pretty thin and can warp. Particularly annoyingly, after being hot for about 40 minutes, it’d ping from being warped in one direction to being warped in the other direction, so prints either had to be finished before that or wait until after before they started. It’s not strictly necessary, but it was worth upgrading the bed when there was a price cut to save myself some annoyance and let me fit bed fans so printing ABS was less warp-prone.