What 3D Printers Do I Use? 2022 Wrap Up

Hey everyone, it's time to go over what printers I use daily, and this is a 2022 wrap up. I did this type of video nearly two years ago, and I figured it definitely needs an update with all of the cool printers that have come out since. And while I have tested a decent amount of printers, I have to preface by saying I definitely haven't tried them all. This is just going over the exact printers that I use nearly daily, and I will finish off with some final thoughts and suggestions. If you happened to watch that last video, you would have seen that I had the Coreception by Sainsmart as my main workhorse printer, upgraded with the Himera extruder and hotend. Now, this certainly is still a great printer, but I honestly haven't used it much lately. I seem to have run it into the ground, and am having strange issues that are hard to diagnose at the moment. That said, I am sure I will get back to using it for larger PLA prints, since I have a large diameter nozzle for it. It's also unfortunate that this hasn't been available to purchase for quite a long time, but it was certainly a great offering, especially with the upgraded extruder and hotend. My current go-to printer is, you guessed it, the BambooLab X1 Carbon. I still stand confident in saying that this is the best printer on the market today, at least at the consumer level that I speak to. I will be sure to link to my review videos on this machine, but this is not only the fastest printer I own, it is the most reliable and the most simple to set up. I am sure you can get a Voron printing just as good as this thing, perhaps even faster, but that requires a second printer to print parts, and likely over 8 hours of building and tinkering. And to top it all off, it may end up even costing you more than this BambooLab X1. I have used this thing so much since I got it, and I legitimately love it. It is head and shoulders above the competition, and well worth the price tag if you want to get an all-in-one printer that is reliable, doesn't need a single upgrade, and runs all of the calibration checks without you needing to do anything. They don't pay me to say this, they don't know I'm making this video, I just legitimately use it all of the time and it blows all of my other printers away. It is without a doubt my go-to printer, and I don't expect it will lose that title anytime soon. It's also packaged extremely well, since the build volume is 256mm³, yet the footprint of the actual printer seems to be smaller than the Ender 5. With their AMS and a great slicer, I also have done a lot of multicolor printing, since you can easily paint a single STL. Now, I won't show off a lot of these prints in this video, so please check out the 3D Pew General, my cameraman's channel, to see some of the amazing multicolor creations I have printed on this BambooLab. This is true not only for PLA, but for ABS and ASA as well. The printer is not actively heated, but the enclosure is really well sealed and my ambient air temperatures can get up to 60°C, which is more than enough to print some great ABS and ASA parts. I probably wouldn't print large polycarbonate parts on it, though it should be able to handle small PC parts without any issue, I just haven't done any testing in that regard. And then of course it can handle all of the carbon fiber blends you throw at it, if you get the X1 Carbon. I'm not kidding when I say it doesn't matter the material, if I have a print that I need to get done, I go to this BambooLab X1 Carbon, before I bother with any of the other printers I'll mention. The only drawback is that it is really loud, it's actually my loudest printer. I assume that's because of the really fast print speeds, but other printers that I have running Clipper aren't quite as loud, so keep that in mind. Keep an eye out for their brand new P1P they just announced, which does look to be a more inexpensive version of this X1 Carbon. Before we continue, let's take a look at this video's This video is brought to you by Flexispot. Flexispot is a manufacturer of some of the best office furniture and standing desk options available today, and they are now running their Black Friday promotion where you can get up to 50% off site-wide. My desk had been a standard white folding table for years, and what an upgrade this is. This desk is very heavy and insanely sturdy. Setup was pretty simple, and you could tell just how strong this thing is when you build it. This pro standing desk comes in at some great color and texture options, and can hold 220 pounds of weight and still work fine. The dual motors lift the desk with ease, and you can have three preset heights. Personally, I keep my three heights to work while sitting, record audio while sitting, and stand up and work. That said, this desk would be perfect for a workstation for you to put your printers on. While I'm using mine as a replacement for my previous desk, you could put two or three printers on here, and whenever one needs to be worked on, this desk can lift them with ease to a height easier to work on. The desk also has anti-collision, so if anything is preventing the table from rising, it won't break, but rather stop when an obstruction is hit. Flexispot has a ton of options to fit your exact needs, and they even have more accessories to match this great standing desk, including something like this amazing chair that I also use by them. Don't miss the flash sale for the E5 desk on November 28th. The lowest price on this desk throughout the whole year. You can get $130 off. If you're one of the first 10 people to complete checkout, you can get your order free. Check the links in the description box to learn more. My next go-to printer was surprisingly the Ender 5 with an upgraded extruder hotend, but it's now the Ender 5S1. Yes, I have gotten plenty of more expensive printers and really like them, but it just seems that my Ender 5 works whenever I need something in PLA. I just figure if I have the option, I might as well use the one with a better touchscreen and a bed level it. My Ender 5 is also the original Ender 5, not the Ender 5 Pro, so it's quite loud. One other benefit of the Ender 5S1 is that I have the Creality SonicPad on it running Clipper, so I can print much faster without any ghosting issues. My review of the SonicPad may already be out as the release of this video, and if not, it will be very soon. Now, Creality has many things to dislike about them, but this new S1 line of printers is definitely not one of them, and neither is their original Ender 5 printers. These just work, and I have probably put 10,000 hours of printing on that original Ender 5. My power supply did need replacement about 6 months ago, but that's all that's gone wrong. If you do go with these printers, a great upgrade is a better build plate since their stock polycarbonate ones just aren't very good. A great alternative to Creality printers are Sovol printers. The SV01 Pro and the SV05 are amazing options for their price point. I personally like the Ender 5S1 more because of the touchscreen and other minor upgrades, but if you don't plan on adding a SonicPad, then you'll get a much better bang for your buck with the Sovol SV05. I'll be sure to link to my review on that as well, but value-wise, I think Sovol has a better priced product. I can't argue with the fact that I still seem to always go back to the Ender 5 though when I need basic PLA prints and my Bamboo Lab is occupied. Remember that all of these printers I'm going over, I'm only using when my Bamboo Lab X1 Carbon is occupied. I can't recommend that printer enough. That said, if the Bamboo Lab is occupied, my go-to for ABS and other high temperature or warping materials is now the SecKit Cube. This printer is a recent addition to my collection, and I must tell you that it takes a very, very long time to build. This printer should not be anyone's first printer and should only be taken on if you have at least one spare printer and a lot of time to build and learn. The reason it is my go-to for warping materials when the Bamboo Lab is occupied is that it's fully enclosed and has active heating. This means I can print ABS, ASA, and even polycarbonate without any issues. You can add on a thermocouple and cooling to the stepper motors and you should be able to print peak on it. This printer can also run Clipper, which I did to mine, so it can print fast. I just do not use it for PLA or other low temperature materials just because I like keeping it enclosed and cooling PLA at these print speeds can be a nuisance. And there is no need to when I have the Ender 5 running Clipper. Again, the Bamboo Lab is my go-to for any material type, it's just occupied at times. If you want a build from scratch printer that you can customize and make your own, I would definitely take a look at the SecKit or a Voron project printer, just keep in mind that it definitely should not be your first printer. And then getting into other unique printers, I actually use the Sovol SV-04 quite often. This is an Idex printer and it seems to work well for me. If you follow others like Hoffman Tactical, you may see that not everyone has the same experience as me, so make sure you research more than just me before grabbing it. But this printer is definitely my go-to whenever I need multi-material prints. The Bamboo Lab with the AMS allows for multi-spool printing, but I still recommend against using a printer with a single nozzle when printing multi-material. Constantly swapping different materials into one nozzle can lead to clogs, especially when those materials have different printing temperatures. So when I need multi-materials, I go with an Idex. And the Idex I go with is the Sovol SV-04. I have used this for most of my TPU and PLA prints, where I attempt different composites and flexible joint combinations. I will link to my full video going over these attempts in the description down below. But the Sovol SV-04 has cranked out most of these tests without any issues. And then the same is true with dissolvable support material. I go with this SV-04 for the infrequent times I need to use it. I do admit this is very rare that I use dissolvable support material, but I've probably done it about a dozen times over the past year, and this SV-04 is my go-to for that as well. The Bamboo Lab with the AMS is great for multi-color. I'll definitely use it over the SV-04 for that. It's just not my option for multi-material. Now I am hopeful I'm going to be getting the Snapmaker J1, which looks to be a phenomenal Idex printer. And if I do, I expect it will fully replace my SV-04 for multi-material printing needs. That said, I expect the price tag will be a lot more than this one, and I also haven't tested it as of making this video, so I can't give my personal opinions on it. And now for two honorable mentions that I rarely use. First is the Chidi iFast. You'll see in my review of this printer that I think Chidi had a difficult time finding a target market for this printer, and they tried to do too many things. First of all, ignore the name. This printer is standard printing speeds, and it's a snail compared to that Bamboo Lab. It also has dual extruders, but set up in a way where they are connected to each other. This setup is always going to be much more difficult to do dual extrusion printing than an Idex. That said, when I was trying to crank out bulletproof TPU and PLA test prints, whenever the SV-04 was occupied, I used the iFast. And it did work, most of the time. Every so often I'd get a failed print, so it was less reliable than the SV-04, but it did help as a secondary multi-material printer. It also has active heating, and does work quite well to print ABS and ASAN. All of the ASA parts I needed for that set kit were made on this iFast, because the Bamboo Lab was occupied. It also has the largest build area of any of my printers, so it has been used whenever I need a part that's slightly larger than 12 inches in one direction. All of that said, it doesn't nail any of these applications very well, and if it was under $1,000, I might recommend it. But since it still sits at over $2,000, I really can't recommend it. It's just worth noting that I still use it for random applications when other printers are occupied. It's also worth noting that this is a serious power hog when using active heating, and you really can't run any other electronics on the circuit while it prints. Another honorable mention are my two belt printers, the Creality CR-30 and the Sainsmart Infi 20. I have literally only used these printers about 5 times in the past year, but there is a rare time that I need a print that just needs to be really long in one direction. For instance, I was printing covers for the top of my chicken wire frame on my veggie garden in my backyard, since it would cut me if I tried to reach over it, and these work great to print these thin parts that were over 5 feet long. I also do need to replace the baseboard on a couple of the walls in my house, because my dog chewed them when she was a puppy, and I may just try printing them on this belt printer instead. That said, it really requires a unique application for me to dust these off, but I refuse to get rid of them just in case that use case ever pops up. Alright, those are my go-to printers. That said, they may not be the best bang for your buck. If you want the best priced printer, then I would suggest Sovel. Their SV-01 Pro really is a workhorse, and it's a great price point for what you get. I may not have kept it as a workhorse for me, but that's just because of the wide array of printers I have been sent, but for the price, it's hard to beat. Their SV-05 is also a great priced alternative to the Ender-5, since it has most of the upgrades of the Ender-5 S1, but only at $300. Either of those are great options for their price. 2022 finally brought the innovations I've been waiting to see in 3D printing for quite a while, and it's an exciting year for printers. It seems that fast printing is starting to become the norm, since there are now printers being shipped stock with Clipper, such as the FLsun V400, the BQ Huracan, and others. I'll actually be checking out that BQ Huracan in a couple of weeks, and it looks very intriguing for the price point. There's also the Creality SonicPad, which allows you to run Clipper on Creality, and of course the BambooLab machine that can run at over 10,000mm per second acceleration without any degradation in print quality. And all of these printers are coming in at a fantastic price point. I've been waiting for the day that there's just a good printer that doesn't need upgrades for under $600, and many of the printers are starting to hit that, and some are even coming in at a decent amount less than that price. And then the BambooLab does come in at $1,000 for the baseline model, but this printer does more things than I ever expected a printer to do, and I still think it's the best bang for your buck even at that high price point. Make sure you keep an eye out for further details on their P1P if you want to get most of the benefits of that printer at a lower price point, since that's what I expect it to be. I don't have any inside info, it's just what it looks like. It has been really exciting to see all that 2022 brought in the 3D printing advancements and price reductions, and I'm really excited to see what 2023 brings. This industry definitely isn't stale anymore. Thank you all for watching. I will see you soon with more fun prints, tutorials, reviews, and news. Before you leave, I wanted to show off the brand new version of my book, 3D Printing Failures 2022 Edition. It has been two years since I updated this book, and this time not only have I made sure all of the chapters are relevant to today's market, I also made sure the paperback version has full color photos. This should really help since the photo quality was the number one complaint from my past editions. I made it so that the first 120 pages or so are meant to be read in order, so that you can get a full grasp of 3D printing, especially if you're new to the hobby, and then I have a diagnosing failure section. The goal is for you to compare my photos to the issues you're having, and then direct you to the chapter that will help you fix your issue. Best of all, Amazon for some strange reason has decided to mark off the price of my book by $11. I cannot promise this will last forever since Amazon couldn't tell me why they're doing it, but this longer full-color book forced me to charge $35, so Amazon listing it at only $24 is a great deal. Grab it now while you can. All links will be in the description down below.