You didn't say your budget but I'm still going to say the Bambu A1 combo. If you want to spend a little more the Bambu P1S. IMO, they are the best on the market.

This is a good place to start your search https://mattermanifest.com/3dprinters

Generally I would recommend:

1. Start cheaper to see if you really like it before investing more ($200 - $300)
2. Go for a recent printer model from a well known brand (Ender 3, A1)
3. Make sure it has auto bed leveling, most recent ones do
4. Get an enclosure if you want stronger materials, and get a Larger printer for wearables

The Elegoo Centauri Carbon is by far the best bang for the buck at the moment. Extremely user friendly, fast and really good prints.

As a prusa fanboy I can confirm. You won't get more bang for your buck. Best beginner friendly 3d printer

I have a few ender3s, a few deltas and an a1 mini. The mini lives on my workdesk and is churning out prints, I use it for PETG and PLA and it makes good parts. I was curious how good it is, that s whyI bought it. If 180,180x180 is enough, buy one.

I had problems with not so good PETG from.esun. Apart from that, the bambulab is very user and beginner friendly.

If you just want to get your feet wet, understand how printing works, this is the machine to go. If you want to go bigger, they have a pretty high resale value.

Bambulab and Prusa are good!

Not from elegoo, yet. Who knows what they will do next.

I hear the Qidi machines and the creality k2 are ok machines.

Every 3d printer brand is trying to be the new Bambu killer. And everyone wants to see good competition for Bambu. But it's always a gamble and if I were new to 3d printing I wouldn't gamble and rather just get a Bambu printer. Yeah, the P1S is a couple hundred dollars more than the Elegoo CC but it's worth it. TBH, I'd rather have an A1 than a CC.

Probably a used $40 Ender 3 V1 that has the stink of the previous 2 owners’ frustration, hatred, and giving up radiating off of it

Just kidding. A Bambu A1. Friend of mine just got one, and was making good quality prints the first day.

I've had an Ender, an AnyCubic and a Bambu. I'm only telling people to get Bambu from now on. My biggest complaint when I started was that I was spending most of my time fiddling with adjustments and micro-adjusting knobs and springs on every print, only for it to still look like crap. I got a Bambu earlier this year and it just works. There are probably others that also work, but I stopped here.

Define beginner! For instance, myself about 5 months ago only started looking into 3D printing and meanwhile I've built my own Voron 2.4 350mm. And now I'm keeping it busy 24h a day printing multiboards for my own garage! I've also printed some other functional parts around the house. Oh, and all of this out of PETG and ABS, and not PLA!

Why a Voron? Well, while looking at all those Bambu and Creality and Prusa reviews, I've noticed they all had something in common: at least a Voron quietly running somewhere in a corner.

What do you want to do.

Do you want a tool to make items for a different hobby, eg miniatures, drone accessories, storage organisation.

Or Do you want a hobby in itself (calibrating and optimising the printer)

If the former: I would suggest a BambuLab FDM machine initially. Unless you want very fine detail for miniatures. Then some form of SLA/DLP resin printer if you can arrange the climate controlled and ventilated space required for safe operation (resins are largely very toxic and must be handled with appropriate PPE, ventilation and care.).

If the latter. The world is your oyster.

Probably the Creality Ender-3 V3 or FlashForge Adventurer 5M

The Centauri Carbon is probably the best value you can buy right now and it's almost turnkey

My first printer was a used one. Soooo much tinkering. Fuck all that. Went Bambu. Thing just works

Got a P1S with AMS. I LOVE the AMS. Loading and unloading filaments is sooo easy. Manually doing it is annoying and I absolutely can not go back to that. Even if I only printed single color for the rest of my life. Nope. No thanks.

The A1 mini with AMS would be the most entry level.

I got the P1S because it allowed for more exotic filament than the P1P. ABS, PA, and PC require an enclosure. I’ve printed with PC for parts for my boat. Otherwise everything has been in PLA and a few things in PETG.

A1 has a smaller print bed. 7”. Combo: $550

P1P/P1S is 10”. Ams combo just over $1k (was cheaper before the dumb tariffs) P1S combo: $1050

HD2. Bigger bed, 12.5”. Combo is over $2000 though. Does a lot more than just print. Dual print heads would be nice when printing with supports. Printing same material supports leaves garbage artifacts on the print. Swapping filaments to use a different kind where they touch so they break off easier generates a bunch of waste purging the print head each time it changes filaments, which also takes forever.

I know a lot of people who buy one, print some garbage off printables, and then it just collects dust. I print shit non stop. I’m prone to being the other type of person but I made myself learn CAD before I’d let myself get it. I needed to be chasing that dopamine to get through the boring shit.

Really depends on you, what you’ll use it for, how much the price matters.

But whatever you get I can’t recommend Bambu enough for “it just works” level of printing. You can tinker with settings and optimize shit. But overall you can also just hit print and it’s fine.

This is about as close to an appliance you can get. Just works. I have never watched my printer, I don’t watch the first layer, I do stream the cam all day. I send prints remotely, and wait for the notification it’s done. This thing just works. (Owned for 1.5 years, use often for personal use). 

Bambu is incredible. Can’t imagine going back to Prusa.

i dont think that they are a good first printer bc they are a bit pricey. flashforge could be a better option

You might wanna check this thread.

If it’s for pure DnD terrain you probably don’t require super high lvl of detail and accuracy so you could easily get away with a flashforge, creakily, or elegoo. If you don’t like tinkering at all, maybe not

Ender 3 Pro is the defacto starter 3d printer with both cuda3d and octoprint support out if the box. But mind you beds levelling is a hobby of itself with these and manufacturer warranties are never honored.

Good starters though and a large community around them.

Just want to share my personal experience, cheap 3D printers are not that bad, but they are more about tweaking the printer itself than about printing actual things. You will spend a lot of time leveling, adjusting, test reprinting etc, instead of designing and using printed things. All this sounds not that bad, but actually it becomes really annoying very fast and ruins the whole 3D printing experience. Take a look at the Prusa printers - https://www.prusa3d.com . Prusa i3 MK3S+ is a fantastic printer which just works, but with your's criteria Prusa MINI+ in a kit form may be a right choice too.

I would look out for microcenter deals for an ender 3 pro or something. I recently got one for $99 with the coupon.

This is not the best printer and Even with a glass bed I bought extra it still is about as level as an inner city sidewalk. It works though and with some very minor tweaks I have gotten good prints. It was also easy to set up octoprint with a zero 2.

From what I read on the other 3d printing subreddits, it’s not a good printer at full price, but at $99 it is good and you can learn how to fix things as they break.

I don't hate Creality or anything, but I definitely don't think they're analogous to Apple/iPhone.

The closest I can think of would have been Makerbot back in the day.

An Ender 3 (not the v2) is a great choice. I have on myself and i like it very much. They are dirt cheap and performs very well. Spare parts are also very cheap (<$200) and there are a lot of modifications out there that let you improve the printer even more. Modifications are not really necessary, but can improve print quality and speed.

I would stay away from any other low cost printer. The next step up would be the Prusa Mini at $350.

You didn't write about your budget, what you want to print, which materials to use (or where you want to use printed parts), where you want to keep the printer...

If you don't care about data security, and don't mind potentially having 3rd party mods closed off to you and maybe filament in the future get a bambu. They just work right out of the box. They have done some fuckery with their API in the past and I have no reason to think they're done. I think they intend to be the Apple of 3D printing with a totally walled off approach by the time they get through all their business plans. If that bothers you look at the Elegoo Centauri Carbon. Relatively new but getting tons of positive reviews as long as you don't need to do anything too crazy with filaments.

Bambu or prusa. Those are your reliable options.

Bambu lab A1

Only get the P1S if you need enclosed printing for things like ABS and ASA, otherwise just get the A1

The best 3d printer?

Definitely the Creality Ender or the PRUSA!

If you are a beginner you can try the Bambu A1 Mini as well!

Are you looking for a printer you can just set up, print stuff, and forget about or are you looking for one you can tinker with and modify as you learn? The answer is going to change depending on your goals

QIDI Q1 Pro. Easily their most solid printer. Has all the features including chamber heat, but its fully open source and runs on basic Klipper.

Great customer service support, and the company has been around since 2014.

For quirks, the hardware is solid but their software is where they hit their price point. Don't expect many convenience features. (Though their app works great)

Get an A1. As a beginner you do NOT want to "tinker" (fight) with the printer for even the smallest amount of quality.

Get an A1, then after a few months get an ender if you want and tinker with that, knowing you have a backup that actually works.

Problem with basically EVERY brand under 1k euros (except bambulab) is that they have good specs but the parts are of horrible quality so you will end up replacing half the printer, and paying another 50% of the purchase price in the process.

Decide what you want to do, print OR tinker. You cannot have both, at least not without going for a prusa or voron, and those are several times more expensive than bambulab or ender.

If you're happy with an 18x18 build size (you can split parts up into multiple pieces and attach them quite easily) then the A1 Mini is an easy recommendation, it's easily the best printer for the price.

If you need a 25 x 25 bed then the A1. If you've got more budget then the A1 with the AMS is sooooo good for multi colour printing and just a no stress printer.

If you want something that'll be a work horse for the next 10 years without breaking then the Prusa Mk4 or Mini are great.

I have both ender 3 v3se and a A1 mini.

Get tge a1 mini you will not be disappointed. The printer is amazing. It just works.

Ender 3V2

BIQU B1. No tinkering, no switching parts, no bugs. Just calibrate and run.

Anet ET4 Pro

Any of the Ender 3 series are good starter printers. But you have to be willing to tinker some to get it all dialed in. If you live near microcenter they might still have the get a ender 3 pro for 99$ for new customers (just use a different email and phone number if you already have one)

https://www.microcenter.com/site/content/specialoffer3dprinter.aspx

I'm surprised no one else is commenting this but I can't imagine a better first 3d printer dollar for dollar then the Kobra 3 combo. It's not something you will fight to get prints and will get you in the door, it's a pretty amazing kit and includes their ams which doubles as a filament dryer along with multicolor printing.

I spent years and way too much money tinkering with printers, it's much more enjoyable being able to actually print things you need.

My first printer was a Da Vinci 1.0. My second was/is a Flashforge AD5X. Out of the two, I would definitely go with the Flashforge.

It depends - by tinker do you mean tinkering with the printer or tinkering with designing stuff and just hitting print?

Pretty much any Bambu, preassembled Prusa, or the Centauri Carbon is going to be great for the latter, but if you want to tinker with the printer itself then the answer is different

Yes, it's CoreXY, accurate and fast. For true miniatures, you might consider picking up a 0.2mm hotend for it also. The standard 0.4 will make excellent quality prints, but you can go 0.2 for max accuracy for tiny prints - 0.2 prints slowly though.

Presumably by tinker, you mean you want to make stuff. “Tinker” in the 3d printing hobby often is shorthand for “I want a machine that I can put money into and mess around with lots of settings and stuff.”

If you want to make stuff, get a Bambu machine.

My first printer was an Ender 3v2, which I bought off of Facebook marketplace for $30. I spent some months of frustration making modifications to improve print quality, speed, and reliability. I had some friends with better printers print me some parts of make my printer suck less. It’s a fine machine now, but looking back, I wish I’d just gotten something good from the start, because as it turns out, I like making stuff a lot more than I like troubleshooting shitty printers.