expiredMeowssi | Staff posted Sep 21, 2024 01:43 PM
Item 1 of 3
Item 1 of 3
expiredMeowssi | Staff posted Sep 21, 2024 01:43 PM
Elegoo Neptune 4 3D Printer: Plus $293, Max $387, Pro
+ Free Shipping$207
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In general these are good printers. They are not as "plug and play" as the Bambu Labs printers but they are reasonably fast and capable machines. They certainly can produce good quality prints.
So a few questions:
1. Are you generally technically minded?
2. How big might you want to print?
3. Do you think you would consider upgrading in the future.
4. What's your budget?
In general Bambu printers are going to be the easiest to setup but if you are somewhat technically minded the added effort to setup this printer and deal with the more "traditional" printer work flow isn't going to be an obstacle.
Of the three printers listed, the "pro" is the smallest with a 225x225x265 build volume. 225x225 is the typical build plate size of the Ender 3 and most other consumer printers. It's basically the most common size and means you have a wide range of build plate options if you want to do things like fancy textures on the build plate surface of your print. The Bambu A1-Mini (about the same price as the pro) has a smaller 180x180 build area while the rest of the Bambu Lab printers are larger at 256x256 but they start at ~$350.
If you want to print larger models the plus and max printers are 300x300 and 400x400. There are quite a few other 300x300 printers but once you go larger than that, well not many choices. Do note that the large size means a larger thing in your house and if you don't need the extra size for your builds its really nicer to have a smaller printer. Also if you want these larger sizes then Bambu Labs is basically a non-starter.
A nice feature of these printers is they have quite a bit of capability built in if you want to explore using it. They are network capable, run on Klipper (the software inside the printer itself), have hot ends that can handle higher end filaments (but that might require an enclosure for good results).
If however you are looking at only the Pro and ~$200 is your limit, the Pro is a really good option. It won't be as "easy" as the A1-Mini but the difference may not be much to you in the end.
Other options in that ~$200 range are the Ender 3 V3SE and V3KE. The SE is a bit cheaper, slower and overall less capable but at ~$160 it saves money and can still do good work if PLA printing is your goal and you don't mind it being about half as fast. I do feel like it's a good idea to replace the SE's build plate with a PEI build plate (about $20). That hurts some of the cost argument for the SE. The KE is closer in speed and can basically print all the same filaments. Overall I would pick the Elegoo over the KE. I'm a big fan (and owner) of the Flashforge 5M. It's a core XY printer which means the print bed goes up and down vs back and forth during printing. That means you aren't shaking the model as you are trying to print it. This can matter if you are printing something that has limited stability. The Flashforge, in my experience, has been a hit print and forget it printer. Like the Elegoo and Bamabu it's network capable and has the very fast print speeds (though I'm not certain it's usefully faster than either the Bambu Labs or Elegoo, think 10 min faster on a 1 hr print). The 5M has a smaller 225x225x225 build volume though I suspect the added Z height isn't used that much. If you want to print materials that will need an enclosure the 5M offers an easy upgrade path. FF has files that allow you to print an enclosure for the printer. For $40 they will sell you some additional hardware to make the job easier.
As for price, the FF 5M is normally $300 but there have been some ebay deals where the price drops to $240 with coupon. Of these options it's my favorite with the discount. Again, if you are looking for something larger the Elegoo is a good option.
Can any printer be made into Bambu reliability and quality? Probably, but how many hours of tinkering, testing, re-testing, testing again, etc... I run a successful 3d printing business for the last 8 years now. I started with Creality CR-10s, and when the Ender 3s came out, they then dominated the scene at that time. Then Bambu came out and shook up the industry. I replaced my 25 machines that where Crealitys, Artillerys, Qidi's and a few flashforges, with 10 Bambus, and those 10 Bambus put out higher quality prints with fewer defects at faster speeds and have multi-color to boot for a very reasonable price.
But I am not here to argue with hipsters if Bambu is good or not, you don't have to agree, it just makes less competition for me the less people that own Bambus.
Anyways, all that being said has nothing to deal with this deal. I went ahead and bought the Neptune 4 Max because that is a great deal on that machine. I already have a Creality CR-10 Max that is a little bigger, but have never got any good prints off of it, since the extruder seems to like to clog, the firmware is flakey, and the bed leveling has always been problematic. Could I mess with it and get it working? Yes I could, but at the price point of the Neptune 4 Max, I would rather purchase that then dump time and money into the max to get it up to par, and even then it will be slower and require a raspberry pie running octoprint to get it on my network, still be running Marlin, etc.
Still, even though this is a good deal on the ELEGOO Neptune 4 Max, if Bambu made a printer that size, I wouldn't even be considering this one. One day Bambu will have competition and that will be great for all of us, but other printer manufacturers are still in the process of trying to catch up, so that just hasn't happened as of yet, but someday!
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Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank ZeeDuck
In general these are good printers. They are not as "plug and play" as the Bambu Labs printers but they are reasonably fast and capable machines. They certainly can produce good quality prints.
So a few questions:
1. Are you generally technically minded?
2. How big might you want to print?
3. Do you think you would consider upgrading in the future.
4. What's your budget?
In general Bambu printers are going to be the easiest to setup but if you are somewhat technically minded the added effort to setup this printer and deal with the more "traditional" printer work flow isn't going to be an obstacle.
Of the three printers listed, the "pro" is the smallest with a 225x225x265 build volume. 225x225 is the typical build plate size of the Ender 3 and most other consumer printers. It's basically the most common size and means you have a wide range of build plate options if you want to do things like fancy textures on the build plate surface of your print. The Bambu A1-Mini (about the same price as the pro) has a smaller 180x180 build area while the rest of the Bambu Lab printers are larger at 256x256 but they start at ~$350.
If you want to print larger models the plus and max printers are 300x300 and 400x400. There are quite a few other 300x300 printers but once you go larger than that, well not many choices. Do note that the large size means a larger thing in your house and if you don't need the extra size for your builds its really nicer to have a smaller printer. Also if you want these larger sizes then Bambu Labs is basically a non-starter.
A nice feature of these printers is they have quite a bit of capability built in if you want to explore using it. They are network capable, run on Klipper (the software inside the printer itself), have hot ends that can handle higher end filaments (but that might require an enclosure for good results).
If however you are looking at only the Pro and ~$200 is your limit, the Pro is a really good option. It won't be as "easy" as the A1-Mini but the difference may not be much to you in the end.
Other options in that ~$200 range are the Ender 3 V3SE and V3KE. The SE is a bit cheaper, slower and overall less capable but at ~$160 it saves money and can still do good work if PLA printing is your goal and you don't mind it being about half as fast. I do feel like it's a good idea to replace the SE's build plate with a PEI build plate (about $20). That hurts some of the cost argument for the SE. The KE is closer in speed and can basically print all the same filaments. Overall I would pick the Elegoo over the KE. I'm a big fan (and owner) of the Flashforge 5M. It's a core XY printer which means the print bed goes up and down vs back and forth during printing. That means you aren't shaking the model as you are trying to print it. This can matter if you are printing something that has limited stability. The Flashforge, in my experience, has been a hit print and forget it printer. Like the Elegoo and Bamabu it's network capable and has the very fast print speeds (though I'm not certain it's usefully faster than either the Bambu Labs or Elegoo, think 10 min faster on a 1 hr print). The 5M has a smaller 225x225x225 build volume though I suspect the added Z height isn't used that much. If you want to print materials that will need an enclosure the 5M offers an easy upgrade path. FF has files that allow you to print an enclosure for the printer. For $40 they will sell you some additional hardware to make the job easier.
As for price, the FF 5M is normally $300 but there have been some ebay deals where the price drops to $240 with coupon. Of these options it's my favorite with the discount. Again, if you are looking for something larger the Elegoo is a good option.
Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank rKhayd
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High end printers can still be open source and successful, just look at Prusa.
High end printers can still be open source and successful, just look at Prusa.
I wanted a 3d Printer for years, but since I had young kids when they started to get affordable I know I didn't have the time to putz with it when stuff didn't go right. But last year I had an idea for a product that I figured I could at least make enough money to pay for the printer with. So I did some research and discovered that there was finally a brand which was so user friendly that even a newb could print consistently with little effort. That brand was Bambu. Now less than a year since I purchased that first Bambu, I've bought two more.
At this time, anyone who hates on Bambu is just simply mad that the newbs don't have to go through the struggles of early 3D Printing like they did. OR they just love tinkering. Either is fine. But Bambu really does make it easy.
Can any printer be made into Bambu reliability and quality? Probably, but how many hours of tinkering, testing, re-testing, testing again, etc... I run a successful 3d printing business for the last 8 years now. I started with Creality CR-10s, and when the Ender 3s came out, they then dominated the scene at that time. Then Bambu came out and shook up the industry. I replaced my 25 machines that where Crealitys, Artillerys, Qidi's and a few flashforges, with 10 Bambus, and those 10 Bambus put out higher quality prints with fewer defects at faster speeds and have multi-color to boot for a very reasonable price.
But I am not here to argue with hipsters if Bambu is good or not, you don't have to agree, it just makes less competition for me the less people that own Bambus.
Anyways, all that being said has nothing to deal with this deal. I went ahead and bought the Neptune 4 Max because that is a great deal on that machine. I already have a Creality CR-10 Max that is a little bigger, but have never got any good prints off of it, since the extruder seems to like to clog, the firmware is flakey, and the bed leveling has always been problematic. Could I mess with it and get it working? Yes I could, but at the price point of the Neptune 4 Max, I would rather purchase that then dump time and money into the max to get it up to par, and even then it will be slower and require a raspberry pie running octoprint to get it on my network, still be running Marlin, etc.
Still, even though this is a good deal on the ELEGOO Neptune 4 Max, if Bambu made a printer that size, I wouldn't even be considering this one. One day Bambu will have competition and that will be great for all of us, but other printer manufacturers are still in the process of trying to catch up, so that just hasn't happened as of yet, but someday!
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If people want to say BL is great, well I won't disagree. Just don't claim they are the only good option. That is head in the sand.
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