Yup, all the Bambu printers are pretty good. I’m quite happy with my P1S + AMS. Definitely a better choice for a beginner than the Enders and similarly cheap project printers that many people start out with.

You can always buy an AMS later if you don’t want to now, but the utility of it for me is more around having multiple filaments to choose from without having to load a new filament rather than multicolour printing which is very slow and wasteful.

I wouldn’t bother with a filament dryer. I live in a pretty humid climate and between work and home I’ve been 3D printing things for over a decade and have never felt the need to dry my filament. I’d only really consider it if I was starting to print Nylon or something similarly hygroscopic.

Nah, 3D printing as a hobby actually involves printing things. What you are describing is 3D Printers being the hobby. That is fine too, but too many people can’t seem to make the distinction that they never actually make anything.

I don’t like this at all. All the force of typing going into bending the front edge of the laptop. I know from my Framework that holding it by the front corner causes enough deflection that the touchpad no longer can be clicked so even more force causes concerns about damage.

PTC doesn’t care about being a counterbalance to fusion360 or they would have a less restrictive free version. They only care about making money from subscriptions from corporate customers. They amen way more money from Creo and Windchill than they do with Onshape.

Not uncommon but lots of printers on the market (especially hobbyist ones) are kits that you need to assemble. Bambu printers are pretty much remove the printer from the box, remove some brackets, tape and protective packaging before installing the build plate and spool holder and turning it on.

I’d recommend going for the P1S if you can swing it over the P1P for the enclosure.

I agree with the suggestion, Bambu A1mini is the only printer in that price range I would be willing to purchase and expect for it to work properly. While there are plenty of people happy with their Creality and Sovol printers, they often end up being project printers that require a lot of tinkering to keep them running well and those that aren’t prepared for that shouldn’t buy them.

I like to say there is two different hobbies here, if you want 3D Printing to be you hobby, then spend the money on a known reliable printer, if you want 3D Printers to be your hobby, then buy a cheap printer and get ready to tinker.

A couple other people have recommended resin printers, which are probably better for that you want to do. But be aware that resin is pretty nasty stuff and you need to have the printer in a very well ventilated area and should wear all the recommended safety equipment. You shouldn’t get into resin printing unless you are aware of safety requirements which are often downplayed by people who own them.

I have a couple tips if you don’t mind.

When sketching a line attached to a circle, using a tangent contraint will make the transition between the curve and straight smooth.

Rather than sketching the inside wall and cutting it away, you can just do a shell/thickness command. Alternately, you can offset a sketch from the outside geometry rather than drawing all the features manually again.

Consider how the part is made, you have two very sharp corners on the centerline where the nozzle cannot create the geometry, these areas will be rounded by default, it is better to add fillets so you control what the machine does.

That is because the holders go around an injection molded part and you need to add draft to injection molded parts to ensure they can eject out of the mold. Every CAD software worth using will have the feature. You just model the part with straight sides and then add the drafts in a later step (before you add rounds/fillets). The features generally work by picking some references to define where the draft starts from, which direction to pull the surface, and the surfaces or edges you want to draft.

Honestly, the parts you show are super basic. If you sat down for an hour and read documentation on the basics in Fusion360 you would be able to replicate parts of that complexity no problem.

Have you done a PID tune after all these changes? Consistent errors in temperature over a wide range are likely caused by an incorrect proportional value in your PID loop settings.

The PS5 side panels would be modeled using boundary surfaces (or whatever the heck Fusion360 calls them, every CAD software calls it something slightly different). Essentially you need to model the edge shape and then various guide curves across the surface that the CAD software then will fill in with a continuous surface. That said, surface modeling is very much an advanced technique within CAD softwares, don’t be surprised if you find it incredibly frustrating to learn.

To do this you are going to need to measure points that will allow you to create the guide curves. The least work would be 3D scanning of some sort that would create a point cloud that you can use to construct the surface, there are some phone based solutions available these days, especially if you have an Apple device. Alternately you can measure it manually, profile/contour gauges are pretty cheap (heck you could probably print one good enough), there are many ways to do it depending on the equipment and expertise you have.

That said, for something like this, I’m doing it the lazy way. A tripod doesn’t wobble, design it with some adjustability in the legs to get it fairly level, pop on some rubber feet or double sided tape to keep it in place and move on.

PLA stress fractures over time, even just holding it straight like when partially off the roll into the extruder is enough to make it brittle after a few weeks. If you aren’t using your PLA for more than a couple days eject it and roll it back into the spool.

This is unfortunately the risk of the cheaper machines. Some people claim they have no issues, but you see many posts like this one that have constant problems or have spent a bunch of money to upgrade their machines to the point where they print consistently.

The cruel reality is that the cheaper machines are better for enthusiasts that have more knowledge and are ok with the printer being their hobby rather than printing, but they tend to be bought by people just coming into the hobby because they don’t want to invest in a reliable printer until they know whether they like it (or simply can’t afford it).

I did the exact same thing when I bought my first printer. I had already had experience with reliable printers and am very mechanically minded, so I thought I was ok to buy one that I knew I would have to tinker with. Eventually I came to the realization that to get it to the point where it would be workable the time and money would just about buy me a Prusa instead.

Use support enforcers

Mostly just makers and paying attention to how products in general are built. Anything else I find that people get too “clever” with their designs rather than developing an efficient solution. The key to being a good designer is being able to combine and apply simple mechanical principles into a design that efficiently solves the problem. Many people online skip the efficient aolution part in order to make the design look “cool” but is effectively useless for a anything practical.

I store my PLA and PETG in the bags they come in and have never done anything past that because I’ve never had an issue. I think people are far too concerned about filament being dry over a few filaments where it is actually important like Nylon.

Pretty sure most slicers these days have the functionality. I’d recommend Prusaslicer for doing this.

I think you are getting what you want confused here and may be blinded to your best option with your bad experience. IDEX machines are primarily used for printing 2 parts at the same time. The Prusa XL is a multi-tool tool changer machine that only prints with one head at a time which is a different type of printer.

If you want cheap and reliable multi-colour printing you are best off going with a Bambu Labs machine. An A1 and AMS-Lite is pretty reasonable and despite being single nozzles the machines are pretty reliable (I have an P1S + AMS and it works great for multi-colour prints).

Good machines have gotten cheaper, but random cheap printer are still very hit or miss. For a consumer printer I wouldn’t look much further than Bambu or Prusa these days depending on what you want. Cheaper printers are too risky, and more expensive printers don’t really gain you anything.

True, if you remodeled it completely the folded horn is a good exercise in sketching in particular!

FYI, I was looking at that exact enclosure for a project I was working on and quickly came to realize that without a bunch of design calculations and redesign for a specific driver it is probably going to be worse sounding than just mounting it into a basic box (with a port if you are feeling fancy).

You are most welcome!