The long road to the Prusa CORE one L
I’m a tech enthusiast, so I’m often an early adopter. I’m also a technical person, so I’m generally not intimidated or easily frustrated with products that aren’t quite fully baked or market-ready
I’ve had an odd journey with 3D FDM printers, largely dictated by being an early adopter.
I started with a couple RepRaps.
RepRap: an interesting intro to FDM, but garbage, overall
At that time, commercial FDM printing wasn’t anything new. RepRaps were an early attempt to make the technology accessible to general consumers. Off-the-shelf general parts, loose tolerances, and early slicers made the experience far from what it is today.
My next machine was an Ultimaker 2 (which I then upgraded to a 2+) was my attempt to spend my way out of machine classes that couldn’t reliably print high-quality parts. After all, I’m an engineer with CAD… a 3D printer is only as useful as it is accurate and reliable.
I’ll not miss the 2.85 filament this thing used
The Ultimaker was expensive, but it worked. It was so expensive, though, that I largely ignored how the market improved over the next several years.
nobody is stealing this thicc boi
The QIDI i-fast was my next printer. Huge. Heavy. Expensive. Fast? Well, quick-ish. It had dual extruders at a time when that was not a common feature. It also came to market right before the first crop of fast OEM machines hit the market. Oops. It wasn’t the end of the world, since it was able to make engineering-quality prints with engineering-grade materials.
I got an Ender late enough that they weren’t trash anymore :)
Then I got a free Creality Ender 3 S1 Pro from Vine. Probe leveling. Fast. Fairly accurate. Cheap. Jesus.
small build volume, but a great printer
That went well enough that I got Creality K1C. Truly my first, trouble-free printer. I’ve had to disassemble the extruder once because of plastic debris. Aside from that, it’s been bulletproof. If someone started with that printer, they would have no idea what the early days of the hobby were like - and that’s a good thing.
Finally! I get AMS…
Next was a Bambu A1 with AMS. If the K1C was plug-and-play, the A1 was a step better, in terms of user experience. Truly a printer for people who never want to have to troubleshoot any problems. I mean that in a good way. The A1 wasn’t my most capable printer, but I did want AMS capability, and it was a good addition for PLA printing.
… and that bring me to this week, when I my Prusa CORE One L showed up.
one printer to rule them all…
It’s not as big or heavy as the QIDI i-fast, but the print volume is comparable. At $2000, it’s an expensive printer (within my frame of reference). I expect to add INDX later, so I’m expecting this to be a workhorse for me for years to come.
