I’ve always wanted to try my hand at 3D printing, but prices were too high and the machines required too much maintenance… until recently.
I’ve purchased a Creality Ender 3 printer from Amazon in the past month or so. I grabbed the printer, along with a roll of grey AmazonBasics PLA, and decided to try my hand at 3D printing. My “all-in” budget was around $250, shipped.
Now this printer is unique in several ways. It has a heated print bed, which is a nice upgrade. It features SD card printing, as well as a USB interface. The most unique aspect however, is that it comes as a DIY kit! That’s right, the unit flat-packed “Ikea-style” and you put it together yourself. I’ll admit, it made me a bit nervous because everything has to be “just-right” to print successfully. I’m happy to say that things went swimmingly!
The installation manual is mostly diagrams, but they are very well done. I spent about 3.5 to 4 hours putting it together one Sunday afternoon, and printed a Benchy Boat that evening!
I’ve been tweaking the settings in Cura (the slicer they recommend) and I have only one issue remaining, that appears to be related to Cura and not the printer. I am very happy overall and will post more of my prints when I get them going!
