My 15 year old MTW Mendal Max 3 needs a board upgrade. Need something to hold me over while I tear it apart and rebuild it.
Looking at Ender V3 pro or Bambu Lab A1.
Any pros cons, anything else I should look at?
Thanks
Neither:
- Creality because of copyright infringements.
- Bambu Lab because of their changed user policies
The qidi q1 is quite nice
Thanks, look into the Creality and Bambu for those issues a your right not what I want to deal with.
The qidi looks interesting, I’m also looking at the Prusa mk4s.
Finally did get the MM3 firmware updated. Win 11 didn’t like the RAMBo usb drivers. Had to grab a win 10 2012 computer I hadn’t used in 5 years.
I think you would be well-served by the Prusa MK4S or their new CORE One. I started with a Prusa MK3 with a MMU2, upgraded to the MK4 and then the MK4S, upgraded the MMU to MMU3, and now have purchased the CORE One. Sure, Prusas are more expensive, but I have found their attention to detail and quality control superb. Their printers are rock-solid reliable, and their support is unmatched (on the rare occasions you need it!). Their commitment to open systems is firm. They're not going to blindside you with sudden changes to their software licensing.
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The answer is easy.
You exchange your time for a price.
Ender 3 is really a cheap entry model. You really need to be experienced with 3d printing to be able to print correctly with it. There is a lot of things to tune to make it work. You will pass a lot of night, trying to figure out the thing.
Bambu Labs, it's a printer ready to print outside the box. It's a printer who will never let your down. You can print with it blindly without worrying. But, you can't mount it yourself, so if you have an issue, you might have some issues to figure out how to fix it.
Printer in Kit like Prusa MK4S, Core One (Half-builded) are great because you need to mount it yourself. Meaning, than you know how to fix it if something is wrong. And you have a manual explaining how to mount every part and tune it. So, if you have an issue, you have a guide to rely on.
The issue with Prusa is the price of the upgrade. For example, i would love to upgrade from MK3S+ to MK4S (because there is many new features really nice, like the pressure calibration). But, it cost me the price of a printer to do so (I bought my printer around 700 euros and the upgrade cost almost 700 euros) and i need to change 3/4 of the parts on my current printer, so it's not really worth it. Especially knowing than my printer already print perfectly. (And you might want to put 360 euros more into the great Prusa Enclosure)
But, Prusa are printer you can rely on. Between Bambu and Prusa, it's hard to choose. Because they are both great.
The good thing about Prusa is than there is a map who show who have a prusa printer around your home. Meaning than if you have an issue, if you struggle, you can send a message to someone around to ask for help taking a look.
There is other printer Brand, some more Pro than others. Differents prices, differents quality. Choose what is best for you. I will say than the prusa community is the biggest. Bambu have also a big community because there was a lot of hype about it and a lot of people bought a Bambu printer. So, it's 50/50.
Now the question is, which Prusa to buy ? Prusa MK4S, Core One, XL ? MMU, no MMU ? It's a hard question to answer. Because MK4S and Core One give mostly the same printing result. For the MMU question, i don't really need it perso. Because i print everything in white or black (except phosphorescent or transparent). If i want different colors, i just need to paint the actual piece.
I believe than MMU is interesting if you are looking to print with different material on the same print.
For Core vs MK4S, i will say than Core already have an enclosure, so it's dedicated for those who want to print with special filament materials who need an enclosure. I think MK4S + Enclosure might do the same job as the Core one.
For the rest, you might want to buy a 2nd nozzle piece (like 0.25 since you will have a 0.4 on your printer). It can become handy. (Both Bambu and Prusa have nozzle who are quick to change. You might want to buy a spare hotend with it, to make it even easier to switch). Do you need extra sheet ? The answer depend on what type of material you will need to print (To make sure than the first layer stick correctly to the sheet).
I hope than my advice will help you. Cheers.