Has anyone used this printer before? I’m looking to buy a 3d printer and this seems to be an ok starter printer. Any advice on a starter printer would be nice. Looking to spend around £800-900 ish.
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I have a number of Lulzbot products and by FAR my favorite is the Mini. Or maybe I should say, the most fun and lowest effort. It has a wider nozzle than I normally prefer and parts aren’t meant to be quite as quick and easy to swap out as compared to the Taz 3/4/5 - but the out of the box functionality is great. I have to stop myself from wanting to tweak everything (because I’m used to doing that with the other Taz’s), because when using default print settings the results are beautiful. The biggest advantages (which can be modified onto other Taz units) are the nozzle cleaning routine and the auto bed leveling. The only downside is that I’m used to dynamically adjusting the speed where needed using the LCD controls on the other units, which this does not have. And using Cura, you can’t pause on demand (just using plugins), so I would suggest using Cura, but exporting gcode instead of printing directly - then using a Raspberry Pi with OctoPi or a PC with OctoPrint so you can have more control while printing in case you notice a problem starting to develop many hours into a print.
The TAZ mini is an awesome printer! Very user friendly, lots of capability for cost and great print quality. The all metal hotend allows for a lot of flexibility of material and lowers clogging issues. The PEI bed is wonderful and virtually maintenance free. Plus, the support Aleph Objects offers is enough to make anyone stick with their products. Open source allows you to modify and adapt the printer to your liking; as well as trying new software and any material you can think of. Wonderful printer! And if you’re not sold on that, another small printer in your price range is the 3D Systems Cube 3. Dual color, wifi and extremely user friendly as well. It even comes with very basic design software for one computer. Both have auto-leveling which is a great addition. We sell both in our store if you would like demos or any more information! Good Luck!
Lulzbot Mini is a solid build and has a solid warranty. Also has a trick auto bed-leveling function that makes getting started very quick and easy. Best to use Lulzbot’s filament for that, but with some temperature adjustments you can really use any filament that prints under 300C. Very good value for the money
Hey @Shibby90441, Micro 3D is a new printer that would be really interesting to look into! It’s small, simple and cheap!
Also, BeeVeryCreative just released some Interesting printers, depending on what you want I think they can be great for the first-timer. Personally, I have used their BeeTheFirst and it was a perfect one for the first printer - easy to use!
I just bought a Lulzbot mini but definitely not for $900. They cost $1250 but its WELL WORTH the money. The detail is awesome and the printer is super beginner friendly. If you are a beginner the mini has auto leveling which is a major plus. But if you really cant swing the price look at the flashforge creator pro printers. You can get one on sale for $899 (buy it from the manufacturer or the warranty may be voided) and it comes with a built in enclosure, SD card slot, filament…But unfortunately you have to level it yourself. I ended up buying a lenovo computer for $170 to run the slicer and print from for the mini because it does not have a SD card slot and you have to keep a computer hooked up to it for the entire print. Oh and another pro is the mini has a 6x6x6" print bed and you can use multiple filament with it from other manufacturers.
