3DPrinting

::: spoiler If you get a cheap project printer, the kid is likely to spend a lot of time obsessing over printers and mods instead of projects.

Personally, I do not regret buying a Prusa MK3 even though it was more than I initially wanted to spend. I do not tinker with it, and I own it for life with no proprietary products or software required. I don't really care about upgrading it further. I have another little project printer I tinkered with a bunch, a Kingroon KP3S I got to test out klipper and decide if I wanted to build a Voron. I decided against because I can do enough with the MK3. I only have a little trouble with large ABS prints that have wall thickness variation constraints above the first couple of centimeters, and I can design around this with modularity.

If you have not tried or checked out FreeCAD, maybe do so. There are some challenges, but especially after the recent move to version 1.0, it is really nice to use. Fusion is just a long term subscription baiting scheme like bambu. I was around for Autodesk acquiring Eagle for EDA design, and vowed to never trust them with a bait scam again.

With my Prusa MK3, the software and printer just works. Joe has made concerning posts about anti open source sentiments and has started selling a new proprietary printer. So do your due diligence. If real ownership matters to you.

• The entire 3d printing hobby was started by Adrian Bowyer and the RepRap project. This community is where Joseph Prusa started and got involved with supplying kits, parts, and where the MK* nomenclature comes from.
• RepRap, Marlin, and Klipper are the main software used in most printers. Prusa uses a version of Marlin that is so modified it is not easy to reproduce using the configuration menu built into Marlin. This is the mechanism that was used to limit others from copying and undercutting Prusa which does continuous product production with full time employees and developers. This is very different than contract manufactured goods that only ever had a subcontracted developer work on a checklist of features and got paid on the contract. There will never be further development on contract manufactured goods produced by venture capital. Those products are incentivised to convince the stereotypical buyer to make a purchase and the product experience or even real ownership is irrelevant as is the reputation of the company itself. The only thing that matters is presentation to the majority of perspective buyers. This is why such companies focus on hardware specs instead of usefulness, community, and the while value stack.
• If you really watch people that review printers that also actually design and print real stuff, you will likely see one of three patterns:

1.) they have several cheap printers and only one or two ever work.
2.) They are renting a bambu and likely shilling it.
3.) They passively mention using their Prusa or you see it in the background occasionally.

Seriously, I was not interested in Prusa's at first, but I followed people long enough before pulling the trigger that this pattern became obvious to me. It is far more expensive to have several printer projects for just one or two that work. With hardware garbage like mobile devices, all of your buying options are proprietary junk you cannot own. There is not a single device sold with a fully documented SOC/processor and modem chip, so your only choice is to rent a device and be manipulated. With 3d printing, the entire hobby is built on open source and therefore full end user autonomy and ownership. You have a choice of neo feudalism in a world where you do not have self deterministic autonomy by supporting proprietary products, but it is the exception to the standards of this community. The real open source community is generally located around Voron and similar projects with LDO selling supporting kits in much the same way that Prusa did originally with RepRap.

In the 21st century, it is smartest to look into the software you want to run and make purchases based on the hardware that these projects support best. If you use git to clone a repo on GitLab or elsewhere, you can use a package called gource to create a graphical representation of the project commits over time. This makes it easy to see where people are actively developing the software. You will likely also notice who the key developers are and what hardware they likely own based on where they make tweaks over time. Buying similar hardware will make for the best experience in my opinion.

Note: These are my opinions and only my personal opinions. I am not a mod in this capacity. I do my best to separate my opinion and bias from any mod actions. All are welcome to their own opinions, disagreement, and ethics, so long as they follow the Hippocratic aphorism 'first do no harm.'