3DPrinting
3DPrinting is a place where makers of all skill levels and walks of life can learn about and discuss 3D printing and development of 3D printed parts and devices.
The r/functionalprint community is now located at: !functionalprint@kbin.social or !functionalprint@fedia.io
There are CAD communities available at: !cad@lemmy.world or !freecad@lemmy.ml
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How "not use it very often" are we talking about? The critical thing for any printer is first and foremost bed leveling. If you get something like an MP select mini The footprint is about 30cm^3. You can absolutely throw it in a box and just pull it out whenever BUT you will need about 30 minutes to relevel the bed just perfect and potentially run a test print. That said, this machine also only prints a 10cm^3 and it will handle PETG IF it's been modded otherwise it's PLA and that's it.
Which segue nicely into my next question: What will you be printing? Models and minis? Functional parts? Random statues you find online of waifus? (Only slightly kidding)
This matters a LOT.
For the first: The mini will sorta work but not be great with details. Fort the second plan on a printer that can handle PETG at least. For the latter, you want to look into a resin printer. They WILL fit into a closet when emptied and cleaned BUT the cleaning process is both lengthy, tedious and potentially noxious and requires quite a bit of space so I didn't even mention them in the first part.
Most of my current printing needs would be small-ish structural parts. Maybe brackets for mounting something into a weird place, cases for microcontrollers,... that kind of stuff.
Look at the bambu a1 or a1 mini. It seems very easy to print woth and a lot of things like bed leveling are automatic on it. Its also starts at $300 and $400