The 3D Printer I'd buy if I started over

Summary

In this engaging video, Shop Nation breaks down the essentials of 3D printing, particularly for those new to the field. Offering a comprehensive guide devoid of overly technical jargon, the creator discusses their top picks for 3D printers suited for beginners and hobbyists—the Prusa and Bamboo Lab models. He elaborates on their features, reliability, and usability. Alongside discussing the printers, the video delves into practical use cases, highlighting the versatility and problem-solving potential of 3D printing. Additionally, Shop Nation shares tips for starting your 3D journey, emphasizes the importance of user-friendly software, and demystifies 3D modeling options, encouraging viewers to dive into the world of 3D printing without feeling overwhelmed.

Highlights

• 3D printing isn't just for nerds; it's a practical tool for everyone! 🎉
• Prusa is known for reliability, akin to a trusty Toyota. 🚗
• Bamboo Lab brings industrial features to consumer-level printers. 🏭
• Both recommended printers offer ease of use and setup. 🛠️
• Starting with a simpler model like the Bamboo Lab P1P can save you bucks! 💸

Key Takeaways

• 3D printing can be incredibly practical, not just for hobbyists! 🎨
• The Prusa and Bamboo Lab models are top picks for beginners. 🤖
• You don't need to understand complex tech specs to start! 📚
• User-friendly software and automatic features make it easier to jump in. 🖥️
• Learning 3D modeling expands possibilities but isn't a barrier to entry. 🚀

Overview

3D printing can seem daunting to beginners, but Shop Nation steps in to simplify everything. With years of professional experience, the creator offers relatable advice for selecting the perfect 3D printer. By focusing on practical usage rather than just technical specifications, the video makes it easy for anyone to understand why the Prusa and Bamboo Lab printers are superb choices.

The discussion compares printers to familiar cars, breaking down their reliability, speed, and user-friendliness. The new Bamboo Lab models are particularly notable for their innovation and affordability, democratizing high-end features. Meanwhile, Prusa's long-standing reputation makes it a solid choice for those wary of newer brands.

To get started with 3D printing, viewers are encouraged to use online libraries to find ready-made designs. Youtube tutorials and freelance services are excellent resources for overcoming the challenge of 3D modeling. This video highlights that while 3D printing can be a technical endeavor, there's ample support available to make the journey enjoyable and rewarding.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:00: Introduction to 3D Printing In the 'Introduction to 3D Printing' chapter, the discussion focuses on the growing popularity and utility of 3D printing. The chapter captures the curiosity of individuals who initially may not be interested but get intrigued after witnessing its practical applications. It dives into the overwhelming amount of information and options available for beginners in the world of 3D printing, covering topics like printers, filament, 3D modeling, and platforms like Thingiverse. The chapter promises to simplify this learning process by guiding readers on the best 3D printer to purchase and providing beginner-friendly steps to start their 3D printing journey.
• 01:00 - 03:30: Comparison of 3D Printers The chapter titled 'Comparison of 3D Printers' is based on the experiences of a professional who has spent five years involved with 3D printing in an engineering setting. The author emphasizes their extensive experience with both industrial-grade and desktop 3D printers. Furthermore, they mention managing a print farm of around 40 printers that have accumulated tens of thousands of print hours, reinforcing their expertise beyond casual use.
• 03:30 - 07:00: Printer Details and Personal Recommendations The chapter discusses the practical applications of functional 3D printing, emphasizing the thrill of solving real-world problems as opposed to printing for novelty. It provides personal recommendations for 3D printers, comparing the Prusa Mk3 to a reliable but unexciting car, implying its dependable performance. The Bamboo Labs X1 is also mentioned, though not elaborated upon in the excerpt.
• 07:00 - 10:00: Choosing your First 3D Printer and Getting Started The chapter discusses the analogy between choosing a 3D printer and selecting a car, such as a Tesla Model S versus a Toyota, emphasizing considerations beyond price, such as features and reliability.
• 10:00 - 13:00: 3D Modeling and Its Importance This chapter titled '3D Modeling and Its Importance' focuses on providing a personal perspective on the reliability and ease of use of certain 3D printers. The author discusses their decision-making process without being influenced by brand sponsorships. They stress the idea of choosing a 3D printer that 'just works' rather than getting tangled in technical specifications. The emphasis is on the practical benefits of investing in slightly more expensive, reliable models rather than cheaper, less reliable options like the Ender 3. This perspective is offered to help those who want to enter the world of 3D printing without unnecessary complications.
• 13:00 - 14:00: Final Thoughts on 3D Printing The chapter discusses the challenges and costs associated with 3D printing, particularly highlighting the benefits of having reliable and easily serviceable 3D printers. The author emphasizes the importance of investing in quality equipment from the start, recommending the Prusa brand for its reliability and open-source design, which facilitates easy maintenance and part replacement.

The 3D Printer I'd buy if I started over Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 so it seems like everywhere you turn someone's yapping on about 3D printing and how cool it is not interested right well then you see someone use it for something well useful and you start to think hm maybe it's worth looking into but you have no idea where to start you can barely spell 3D so you start learning and you fall into this deep dark Rabbit Hole of printers and filament and 3D modeling and what the heck's a thing of verse well stop I'm going to make this simple for you I'm going to tell you exactly which 3D printer to buy tell you why and then show you how to get started
• 00:30 - 01:00 now maybe I'm one of those annoying people on YouTube you've seen talk about 3D printing or maybe you've just stumbled onto this video well long story short I've spent the better part of 5 years printing pretty much non-stop in a professional engineering setting I've worked with very expensive industrial printers and crappy desktop models throughout that time and I currently run a production print Farm of about 40 printers that have amassed tens of thousands of Print hours not just some dork printing Pikachu figurines from my desk I may be a dork but at least I know
• 01:00 - 01:30 what functional 3D printing actually looks like and that's really where my passion lies using 3D printing to do real world stuff and chances are if you're watching this that's what you're interested in too and don't get me wrong printing dumb things can be fun but solving problems is fun so what printer to buy this is the prusia markv and it's a beige Toyota Corolla with cloth seats it's not going to win any drag races but you can bet your ass it'll get you to work and this is the the bamboo Labs X1
• 01:30 - 02:00 and it's a Tesla Model S with a Sleek interior and fake leather seats it's very fast will still probably get you to work but doesn't quite have the track record of the Toyota but what if I told you that the price point was the same you get the Tesla right well not so fast these two printers right here represent in my opinion some of the absolute best hobbiest 3D printer options on the market right now and that includes for complete beginners I will also say that
• 02:00 - 02:30 every printer you see in this video was purchased by me I'm not sponsored or affiliated with any of these companies these opinions were formed myself after opening up my wallet and buying them and I'm not going to bore you with tech specs speeds and feeds there's plenty of nerds out there that can do that for you instead I want to explain why they're great options and it comes down to this you ready both of these just work that's it and sure you can save money a lot of money by going with a cheaper option like an ender 3 but as someone who wants to get into 3D printing and not into
• 02:30 - 03:00 working on 3D printers this is an invaluable feature that unfortunately costs some money nothing is going to kill your printing curiosity like trying to manually level a print bed or endlessly add thirdparty components just to get the damn thing to work right there's plenty of time for that later the prusa brand is synonymous with reliability much like Toyota that's why I run exclusively prusa Mark II s pluses in my print Farm they're reliable machines that can also be easily serviced due to the open source nature of the design and part availability Bru
• 03:00 - 03:30 has been developing manufacturing and providing customer service for their machines since 2012 I bought my first machine in 2018 and it's still going strong last I heard they sell somewhere on the order of 10,000 of these per month they're popular for a reason but the new kit on the Block bamboo lab is attempting to give prusa a run for their money with their lineup of 3D printers what they've done is essentially democratized the features of expensive industrial 3D printers and make them available on a relatively cheap consumer machine they really have shaken up the Hobbies Market because most of these
• 03:30 - 04:00 customers have never seen anything like this it's blowing their freaking minds and since I come from the industrial 3D printing World these features are not groundbreaking on their own right but having them all in a printer that anyone can afford is really cool to see and like most tech advancements it's primarily driven through clever software implementation not necessarily Hardware the reason why bamboo lab 3D printers are so ridiculously fast and they are fast isn't because they figured out how to make stepper Motors move faster they're using a process called input shaping and this is essentially
• 04:00 - 04:30 factoring the resonance or natural frequency of the printer and compensating for it in the movement of the machine if the print head accelerates in One Direction the software anticipates how the printer structure is going to react and effectively cancels it out this is why prints can be up to four times faster on this machine than the prusia although on average I found it to be about twice as fast which is still really considerable I should be fair and note that the prusia markv which is the one I showed is their brand new model which is capable of input shaping as well at least from a hardware stpoint point at
• 04:30 - 05:00 the time of its release that feature isn't available but it should be in the next software update so that Corolla is getting tuned up and should print much faster but probably still won't be able to touch the speed of the bamboo lab machine so what the heck does all that mean why do you care well as a new 3D printing Enthusiast absolute speed may not be the most important consideration getting the damn thing to work without you thinking about it should be top of the list both of these machines have a bevy of sensors and automation to help accomplish this for starters both printers run through a bed leveling process before each print which is very
• 05:00 - 05:30 important for getting that first layer plastic to stick to the print bed this is one of the most common failure modes on a 3D printer and having this handled by the machine and not your chubby fingers is great the next is software every 3D printer uses a program called a slicer it takes a solid shape slices it into very thin layers and creates a file containing G-Code that the printers need to run and you really don't need to know anything about that other than there are some settings that you can tweak to make your part print potentially better prusa
• 05:30 - 06:00 has developed one of the absolute best out there called prusia slicer and bamboo lab has essentially taken that exact same open source program and put their spin on it so the good news is that both of these printer options use very solid software that's easy to use both machines have these big clear color screens that are easy to navigate they both also have the ability to wirelessly connect to your computer so that you can start a print from anywhere this beats the hell out of transferring files on a USB stick or an SD card ask me how I know and finally both printers have a hot end and extruder
• 06:00 - 06:30 this part that squeezes the molten plastic out that can handle a wide variety of materials so you won't really be constrained on what you can print with okay so we got two solid options here which one do I ultimately recommend you go buy if you're getting started neither instead I recommend you go buy this one this is the bamboo lab p1p which is the stripped down less flashy version of the X1 I showed previously it's about $500
• 06:30 - 07:00 cheaper and is still an absolute Beast of a machine you lose some side panels the fancy touchcreen and a couple of sensors but the printer itself is fantastic it checks all of the boxes of what you need to get started my default answer to anyone asking what printer I would recommend has always been Pria but now since I've got to test the offerings from bamboo lab this p1p is the clear recommendation going forward but if you're more of a Toyota guy which I totally get and like the idea of reliability and a track record instead of buying the new prusia markv which I showed earlier pick up the now
• 07:00 - 07:30 discounted Mark II s+ kit it's about the same price as the p1p and you just have to sacrifice the big screen Wireless connectivity and some speed you may have heard me say kit and the benefit of going with a kit versus a pre-built machine is that you get to build the printer and become intimately familiar with how it works I built my first couple prusas and I really enjoyed this process and even made a video a while back showing what goes into it and go check that out if you're interested you'll have a good understanding of your machine and how to fix it should something need to be replaced place down
• 07:30 - 08:00 the road and that's one of the biggest knocks on the new bamboo lab machines fixing or replacing parts does not appear to be anywhere near as user friendly or even possible in some cases but honestly you won't go wrong with either one but all things being equal I give the nudge to the p1p all right so youve pulled the trigger you have a 3D printer sitting on your desk but what do you do with it this is where the confusion typically sits in for most people yeah 3D printers are interesting but what would I even use it for until you have one and have seen how it can solve problems it's honestly hard to imagine any benefits it just looks like
• 08:00 - 08:30 a new thing you have to learn I imagine it's similar to how many people thought about microwaves when they first came out yeah but I have an oven that I warm food up in why would I even need a microwave nowadays we can't even imagine not having one making a healthy lunch in 2 minutes like these from Factor wait you don't you don't know about Factor well let me tell you about them factor helps meet your nutritional goals by delivering fresh never Frozen dietitian approved meals right to your doorstep I've been a long time Factor so
• 08:30 - 09:00 telling you about them is easy here's how it works you pick how many meals you want per week and then either select a dietary type like keto vegan calorie smart or Protein Plus or just mix and match as you like each week you can choose from over 30 different Chef prepared options which means you won't get bored I'm still finding new ones I haven't even tried yet plus there add-ons like breakfast smoothies juices and more then your meals show up packed in an insulated box ready for the fridge when you're ready to eat simply pop them in the microwave for 2 minutes and you're done and it beats the heck out of takeout because it's cheaper it's
• 09:00 - 09:30 healthier and it's a heck of a lot faster letting you get back to those summertime activities and don't worry I know summer's busy for everyone you can easily skip weeks if you're going to be out of town or just have other plans personally I love the flexibility factor and the fact that they help me stick to my nutritional goals if you want to try it out or learn more head to factor 75.com or use the link below and use code shopnation 50 to get 50% off your first Factor box that's factor75.com or click the link and enter code shopnation 50 to get 50% off your first Factor box now you guys get back to the video and want finish my lunch all right back to
• 09:30 - 10:00 printing you've got your new printer sitting on your desk you're eager to get started so what do you do first well I would recommend you get some reps under your belt meaning you need to go through the process of printing things to become familiar with how it works and all you need to do that are some 3D models uh what don't worry at this stage you don't need to know a damn thing about 3D modeling there's a couple of great websites with entire libraries of parts and widgets you can download and print for free the most popular ones are thing ofers and printables there you can
• 10:00 - 10:30 search for just about anything and someone probably out there has already modeled it my advice is to pick some projects out of here and start printing get in there get your hands dirty and heck even make some mistakes it's the best way to learn and when you get stuck there's endless videos here on YouTube to help you along the way so once you get the hang of your new 3D printer you'll start to see how quickly and easily it is to make things out of thin air it's pretty fun to be honest but fun isn't why we're here this is a tool that is capable of doing some really amazing things that supplement Al to your shop
• 10:30 - 11:00 so how do you go about using it to solve specific problems for you well this is another sticking point for some it's going to take some 3D modeling there just isn't any getting around it at the end of the day you need a 3D file to feed your printer and if that model doesn't already exist somebody has to make it but before you frustratingly click away you should know that you don't actually ever need to do any modeling yourself learning a modeling software is intimidating and it does take some time to get proficient but lucky for you we live in the time of the gig economy all you need to do is head
• 11:00 - 11:30 to a website like Fiverr or upwork and you can find lots of skilled eager individuals from around the world that can model whatever part you need sometimes all it takes is five bucks and in 24 hours you get the part file to send to your printer the best part is that some of these people will actually design your part specifically for 3D printing which you'll learn is a thing I know lots of people even some Who Run 3D printing businesses who don't do any modeling themselves they rely strictly on contracted hired help to handle that now look if you want to learn how to use a tool like Fusion 360 which is my
• 11:30 - 12:00 personal favorite there are amazing resources out there one of my favorites is product design online which I'll have linked down below it's a very wellth thought out course that takes you from complete beginner to competent user in a self-pace environment highly recommended and way better than just cobbling together some random Youtube tutorials so all that to say don't let the intimidation of 3D modeling stop you from unlocking the power of 3D printing you don't actually need it but I will say learning it is a worthwhile investment if you choose to go down that path all right all right so you've got your printer you've printed some stuff
• 12:00 - 12:30 and maybe even come up with your own fix in your shop that is literally all it takes to set the hook the realization that this Mystery Machine shrouded in nerd culture is actually a very capable tool is the entire point I'm trying to get across the availability and popularity is only going to grow I mean look at CNC routers and laser cutters those used to be Fringe subjects but now everyone in their grandma has one in their shop except for me look I'm using 3D printing to help solve shop problems for the masses like like dust collection and jigs but that is just the beginning
• 12:30 - 13:00 there are so many possibilities that you can apply this technology to and there's people out there doing truly amazing things that I know you would find interesting it's a whole new world out there I hope this video at least sparked your curiosity let me know if this video was helpful down in the comments I get lots of questions asking about 3D printing which printer to buy and how to get started my aim with this video is to try and answer that so now I can forward a link and not have to type it all out see you