I have 2 ender 3’s which I have done tons of mods on and I spend too much time tweaking and modding it and never to any actual printing.

My recommendation is to get a prusa 3 or 4, whatever the standard size is, just print stuff, and if you need a bigger volume print the parts to build a large voron, or if you want more speed a voron zero or other fast mini. The prusas will just work and should be your reliable fallback for if you break down a tinkering printer.

Also don’t fall for the scams. Don’t get Capricorn tube it’s literally just the same thing with blue dye in it. I’ve even used non Teflon regular tube and maybe had to slow down what was previously a 12 hour print to add about 20 minutes.

Do get a bimetal heatbreak if the printer you end up with doesn’t start with one. It will save you having to continually replace tubing.

Direct drive is hit and miss. If the total weight of the moving parts of the printer stays low it can potentially be faster, but generally it’s just going to add weight and vibration. You only really need it for the really soft materials and if your tube is positioned well you can do the somewhat soft ones pretty reliably. My fastest printer used a very weight reduced printhead and Bowden tube positioned to never bend more than the curvature of the filament off the reel. It is still pending repair from a bad crash though.

Rails are also hit and miss. The rods like on prusas supposedly have ‘sticktion’ but the print quality I’ve seen on them has been consistently excellent. The wheels like ender and friends are more finicky than the other two but if they aren’t over or under tightened and the beams aren’t bent or dented, then they also can put out consistent quality.

Whatever printer you get though, try not to get too caught up in tweaking and modding too early. Definitely build it as square as possible though. Use a square and a tape or ruler, match your diagonals etc. Enders and printers that use the same board also come stock with tinned wires in screw terminals. At the very least you want to snip the soldered end off and put them in bare, or crimp metal ferrules on the end. It’s a fire hazard by default.

Lastly I suggest inquiring in printing communities before committing to any upgrade. Others who have already wasted money will often be able to tell you if something is worth your time or if it will end up as unused parts in a bin.

Avoid the Ender as a first printer. Avoid AnyCubic in general (Kobra Go’s are garbage)

Prusa make excellent printers, but charge for them Bambu also make excellent printers but charge for them.

I think the ender 5 plus is a good choice. I’ve only taken a few classes, I’m not sure if I’m a beginner or intermediate. I was able to assemble the ender 5 in half the time of the ender 3. Also I think the ender 5 plus has a really good design with the z axis screws on each side.

My Ender 5 Pro was my entrance into 3D printing. I love it.

The brillants of Creality’s printers both the Ender 3 and 5, is that they use off the shelf parts. From its heatbed to its nozzle and stepper motors.

Which means that if something breaks or wears out, a replacement is $0.20 from Amazon.

The problem with Creality is quality control. Everything that I bought from Creality either broke in a few months, needed upgrades or came broken from factory. This isn’t just their printers its their laser cutters too.

However because they break they are excellent learning printers. While it may be tempting to print the biggest thing, I would advise a smaller printer like the Ender 3. It was hard to level 200mm leveling 350mm won’t be easy.

That said I think which printer you get should depend on what you want to do with it.

If you are more interested in modeling and cad design than a low maintenance printer like a Prusa would be best.

If you want to tinker with the printer itself: then an Ender is perfect since you can break it to your hearts content and fix it yourself.

Otherwise you don’t know: get the cheapest recommended printer around $350-$400 and use it til it breaks. Either you’ll know what you want or break it and you’ll get a good idea on what type of printer you need.

@madewithlayers and @makersmuse on YouTube is a good starting point

I have an ender 3 and 5, both have been fun hobby printers, but have taken a fair bit of modification and patience to get to the quality and speed I desire. My workplace has a fleet of Prusa Mk3s that have been killing it as far as how little maintenance has been needed, and would also probably be my next acquisition

The P1P is like $600-$700 without the AMS so you may look at that. The print volume is smaller but I’ve had a 300x300x400 printer for years and maybe only once have I needed that X/Y size. I think the CoreXY construction is the real shining feature with these printers as you don’t need so much space, the print speed is much faster (no 2lb bed swinging back and forth rapidly) and it’s more efficient. I think my ideal printer would have the large build volume with CoreXY but I don’t think those exist outside of the Voron or some very expensive more commercial options.