3D Printing Advancements

I ordered my first 3D printer almost 8 years ago to the day. I was hooked from the start. I've printed a lot of neat things, and designed and printed a lot of useful things. 
But I recently got another printer and this thing just has be blown away to be honest. It prints about 5 times faster than my previous printers, and at better quality. Typically if you want speed and aren't terribly concerned about the surface finish or dimensional accuracy you might crank the speed up to 60-65 mm/s. If you want decent quality, 50-55 mm/s. If time isn't important, but that surface finish is you print thinner layers, and slower and let it print for HOURS or days. 

This printer gives me better surface finish than any previous printer and prints at 250 mm/s. 

There is another printer out there that's at least as good and retails for less!! 

The technological advancements are really amazing. 

That's all, just geeking out and impressed. I've printed more in the last 6 weeks than I have in the last 2 years because huge files don't take long anymore.

And filaments have gotten much better as well, with a greater variety of materials. It's reached the point where I'm tempted to hold off on my next printer purchase as the one that comes out 6 months from now might be that much better (or drop the price down on existing units even lower) 

What did you get?  I have a cheap XYZPrinting Davinci printer that my daughter and I just used to make toys several years ago.  It was fun at the time but it's not suitable to anything actually usable.  It uses proprietary PLA that deforms at very low temperatures and the finish it terrible.  

You're talking layers, so not a resin printer?

The new crop of resin printers cheaper than my FDM really have my attention but I haven't met anyone with one yet.

A while back I saw a video where someone printed a set of titanium exhaust headers.  Granted, it was done with a printer that was far beyond what a DIY person would have at home, but the fact it can be done is amazing.

mfennell said:

What did you get?  I have a cheap XYZPrinting Davinci printer that my daughter and I just used to make toys several years ago.  It was fun at the time but it's not suitable to anything actually usable.  It uses proprietary PLA that deforms at very low temperatures and the finish it terrible.  

I backed the Ankermake M5 printer on kickstarter. The retail price is $200 higher than I think it should be (will retail for $800) but wow! I was over my moms last night. She had a part for her HVAC system break. I decided not to order it and wait a few days. I went home and designed and printed the part in less time than it would have taken me to just print it with any of my other printers. 
If you're looking to upgrade from the Davinci, I'd recommend the most expensive Ender 3 you can afford. If you want to step up in quality and speed I'd look at the Bamboo Labs P1P.

RevRico said:

You're talking layers, so not a resin printer?

The new crop of resin printers cheaper than my FDM really have my attention but I haven't met anyone with one yet.

No, not a resin printer, though resin printers still print in layers. It's just that those layers are so ridiculously fine you can't see them without a magnifying glass or something.  
I'm THIS CLOSE to pulling the rigger on a resin printer. I'm going to turn my shed into my home office in a few weeks/months. When that happens, I'll get getting a resin printer out there for sure.

Dr Boost, did you get a Bambu Labs printer?  That description sounds like everything I have heard about the X1-Carbon and P1P.  I've been thinking about building a big CoreXY machine or waiting to see if Bambu Labs puts out something a little bit bigger in build volume.

In reply to RacetruckRon :

No, the Bamboo Labs came out right after I backed the Ankermake M5. The Ankermake is a really good printer that will be great when the firmware is polished a bit more. I would have gone with the Bamboo if it were offered up 2 weeks sooner LOL.  
The thing about the M5, it's amazing that it can print at 250 mm/s while slinging that bed around LOL.  The frame is think cast aluminum, I guess that keeps it rigid enough to throw that mass around and keep it accurate.  

In reply to DrBoost :

Those are insane speeds for a bed slinger!  The bambu would be a lot more attractive if it had a 300mm cube build volume, otherwise it does about the same work as the 3 Ender3s I currently have.  It's still awesome to see how far they've come. I still remember my fire risk Anet A8 and my roommate's RepRap machine that got me through engineering school projects.

I'm going to have to buy a 3d printer soon, they're just getting so good. Me and the kids spent a while staring at the operating ones at Microcenter a couple weeks ago. They were pretty fascinated!

#1 Son talked me into an Ender 3 v2 a couple years ago.  It's an amazing machine that works well.  I need to use it more.

What a coincidence! My Bambu P1P arrived just last week. Coming from an Ender 3 Pro, my experience has been similar to yours. Blown away by the speed, but also the "set and forget" of the whole thing. Automatic bed leveling is such a game-changer. The only "downside" of this new machine is that the print head moves so fast, it's almost violent, and it was shaking my desk. And I have a big, heavy Steelcase professional corner desk! So I moved it to a separate table.

And if anyone out there is reasonably local to Michigan and is interested in getting into the 3D printer game, I'm going to put my Ender up for sale. Just need to take pics and get it listed.

In reply to Tom_Spangler (Forum Supporter) :

Haha, yeah the desk shaking is hilarious. Now, imagine you have the bed flying back and forth at 250 mm/s lol.  
It kills me, I could have got the X1C for he same that I paid for the M5. But either way, I'm happy with the beast.

I also have an M5 - the doctor and I have chatted about it offline :) It's not as set and forget as Anker was hoping and the "error sensing AI" is definitely not working, but it was behind me pounding out a whole bunch of prototypes over the holidays as I designed my goofy LED vent gauges.

Ultimate quality is no better than my mildly hotrodded Ender 3, and even when the firmware is sorted it's always going to be fatally tied to a specific cloud server for remote management (no DIY Octoprint for Anker!) but the build quality of the machine seems very good and seeing a print time of 45 minutes for a prototype is so much better than 3 hours and 45 minutes. Changes the way you work.

My latest print for a gamer-nerd buddy of mine. There's a 6" caliper next to it for scale. It's the size of a large grapefruit.