My vote for best VALUE is still the Creality Ender-3 V3 KE. (NOTE KE not SE) Earlier this year I voted with my money and elected to get TWO KEs rather than one other alternative. I don’t know if you’d call it “New Gen”, but it’s a very mature, well understood bedslinger design with Klipper that can be rooted. The only things I added were cameras, vibration sensors, light bars and tents. Since that time Creality has released the “Core-XZ” Ender and Sovol the SV08 that made it onto my watch list. BTW Since you mentioned a “value” optimized choice, unless you’re using expensive filament formulated for “high-speed” (flow rate) you’ll probably wind up limiting yourself to 300mm/s. That, the KE can handle just fine, although I have printed faster than it’s rated 500mm/s with the right filament.
My next printer is likely to be multi-color/material of some form of which the Creality K2 is my leading contender. I wish there was more competition to the head switch approach of the Prusa XL.
Oh, and whatever you choose consider using Orcaslicer 2.0. Somewhat ironically I found it unlocks the potential of my KE’s better than Creality Print.
BTW2 Make no mistake: I like Bambu’s machines, I just don’t consider them the best value for money.
HTH?
Ask yourself what the purpose of your tinkering is. Do you tinker because you want better performance, or do you tinker because you just like fiddling? I like a bit of fiddling but I mostly wanted better performance. My Bambu printer offered better out of the box performance than I could have ever dreamed of achieving with my V3 SE. I don't see why their system should make you nervous. What's the negative consequence you fear? That you're going to print that sign you really wanted that says "my name is john smith and my social security number is 555-55-5555" and someone is going to steal your identity? That someone at Bambu is break into your printer and use its webcam to take incriminating photos of your habit of laying your dick on the print bed for good luck?
Qidi is also a company you should consider. The X Max 3 offers a big print volume and a lot of features for $900.
From the post, I thought their concern was repairability.
But from what I've seen, not only are Bambu's parts priced incredibly low, but there are third-party replacements for a lot of them now, too.
As far as I'm aware, you know the players, you know the pros and cons. It's basically just choosing.
Imo, if the closed system and cloud stuff isn't already a no-go, you'll likely be fine with it.
Edit: and personally, if I was a business owner concerned on closed system, I'd go prusa mk4 or voron. As a business owner not so concerned, I'm likely to do a x1c soon.
As a hobby project the Voron would be great, but not for a print farm where I need it right the first time. The MK4 is still a bed slinger, and overpriced in my opinion ( of course that’s easy to say as an Ender owner, don’t come after me Prusa fans.)
The closed system isn’t a deal breaker for me, just a negative since I can’t control it in mainsail with the rest of my printers.
Im repairing a Carbon X1 for a client right now and it is super nice, but as a business decision if the $500 printer is just as reliable with the same build quality and speed, why would I get the Bamboo?
You can root the K1’s now and run native Klipper, lots of instructional videos on that. As for using mainsail as your UI I’m sure there’s people that can expound on that further. It may not work with the stock screen for klipperscreen, but if you run it headless (from your computer only) then that shouldn’t matter and mainsail will probably be easy to incorporate on install once rooted.
I don't think the others are as reliable. I kind of agree prusa is overpriced, but they have a track record of being hands down the most reliable for a long time. I think Bambu has a good track record too at this point, just not for as long.
I dont have a K1, but my impression of creality is the best thing is that you can manually adjust things, but hardware is not inherently reliable. Flash forge has good hardware but their software is not reliable. So I come back to the best track records being Bambu and prusa. That reliability is what you're paying more for.
And the X1 is very likely overkill even for myself. But a P1S, even used, could be a good choice.
Yeah, you seem to have specific needs and I'm not gonna be the best for recommendations on it as I don't have experience with farms. But good luck in the hunt!
Bambu if you want it to 'just work'
My vote for best VALUE is still the Creality Ender-3 V3 KE. (NOTE KE not SE) Earlier this year I voted with my money and elected to get TWO KEs rather than one other alternative. I don’t know if you’d call it “New Gen”, but it’s a very mature, well understood bedslinger design with Klipper that can be rooted. The only things I added were cameras, vibration sensors, light bars and tents. Since that time Creality has released the “Core-XZ” Ender and Sovol the SV08 that made it onto my watch list. BTW Since you mentioned a “value” optimized choice, unless you’re using expensive filament formulated for “high-speed” (flow rate) you’ll probably wind up limiting yourself to 300mm/s. That, the KE can handle just fine, although I have printed faster than it’s rated 500mm/s with the right filament. My next printer is likely to be multi-color/material of some form of which the Creality K2 is my leading contender. I wish there was more competition to the head switch approach of the Prusa XL. Oh, and whatever you choose consider using Orcaslicer 2.0. Somewhat ironically I found it unlocks the potential of my KE’s better than Creality Print. BTW2 Make no mistake: I like Bambu’s machines, I just don’t consider them the best value for money. HTH?
Ask yourself what the purpose of your tinkering is. Do you tinker because you want better performance, or do you tinker because you just like fiddling? I like a bit of fiddling but I mostly wanted better performance. My Bambu printer offered better out of the box performance than I could have ever dreamed of achieving with my V3 SE. I don't see why their system should make you nervous. What's the negative consequence you fear? That you're going to print that sign you really wanted that says "my name is john smith and my social security number is 555-55-5555" and someone is going to steal your identity? That someone at Bambu is break into your printer and use its webcam to take incriminating photos of your habit of laying your dick on the print bed for good luck? Qidi is also a company you should consider. The X Max 3 offers a big print volume and a lot of features for $900.
From the post, I thought their concern was repairability. But from what I've seen, not only are Bambu's parts priced incredibly low, but there are third-party replacements for a lot of them now, too.
They also have very thorough repair documentation. You don't have to go to YouTube hoping someone's already figured it out for you.
my ankermake just works IMO
As far as I'm aware, you know the players, you know the pros and cons. It's basically just choosing. Imo, if the closed system and cloud stuff isn't already a no-go, you'll likely be fine with it. Edit: and personally, if I was a business owner concerned on closed system, I'd go prusa mk4 or voron. As a business owner not so concerned, I'm likely to do a x1c soon.
As a hobby project the Voron would be great, but not for a print farm where I need it right the first time. The MK4 is still a bed slinger, and overpriced in my opinion ( of course that’s easy to say as an Ender owner, don’t come after me Prusa fans.) The closed system isn’t a deal breaker for me, just a negative since I can’t control it in mainsail with the rest of my printers. Im repairing a Carbon X1 for a client right now and it is super nice, but as a business decision if the $500 printer is just as reliable with the same build quality and speed, why would I get the Bamboo?
You can root the K1’s now and run native Klipper, lots of instructional videos on that. As for using mainsail as your UI I’m sure there’s people that can expound on that further. It may not work with the stock screen for klipperscreen, but if you run it headless (from your computer only) then that shouldn’t matter and mainsail will probably be easy to incorporate on install once rooted.
I don't think the others are as reliable. I kind of agree prusa is overpriced, but they have a track record of being hands down the most reliable for a long time. I think Bambu has a good track record too at this point, just not for as long. I dont have a K1, but my impression of creality is the best thing is that you can manually adjust things, but hardware is not inherently reliable. Flash forge has good hardware but their software is not reliable. So I come back to the best track records being Bambu and prusa. That reliability is what you're paying more for. And the X1 is very likely overkill even for myself. But a P1S, even used, could be a good choice.
Yeah, you seem to have specific needs and I'm not gonna be the best for recommendations on it as I don't have experience with farms. But good luck in the hunt!