Originally Posted by tankme

Personally I wouldn't start with a Voron. Great printers, great community to deal with, and STEEP learning curve. You literally have to program your Voron yourself. I've seen YouTubers with many 3D printers say it took them a long time to get their Voron dialed in. I'm one of those folks that said...wow, that Voron is for me. I tinker...check...it's big...check...it's fast...check...I can build it...check...I can program it...check (I think)....I have the time for all that....well....that was a definite no.

3D printing isn't a very plug and play even with my Bambu Labs X1C Carbon and it's a $1500 printer. I have gotten some great prints off of it and I've gotten some real crap. Sometimes the X1C's speed is it's own enemy and causes print failures. I've had the print head itself knock prints right off the bed. You still have to know something about how to print the different materials, what material is right for your project (strength, cost, heat resistance), which build plates to use, whether glue might help, why the print you just did failed, when/where supports are needed, and how to troubleshoot issues with the machine/prints. Some advice is good on the internet about printing and some is bad...for you and your machine/filament. Just because Joe's machine works one way doesn't mean yours will too in some cases. Your filament could be old...or need to be dried...or the temp of your hot end needs to be slighter hotter...or your bed temp needs to higher due to the temps in your printing area...or maybe your printer just sucks because the z axis isn't level...

I bought a mid range Qidi iMates for my first printer and it was a huge learning experience for me. I am going to keep that printer around to print stuff that can be lower quality or stuff my woman wants me to print for her. It actually prints PLA better right now than my Bambu for some reason I'm having issues getting the PLA to stick on the Bambu build sheet. I can't get the Qidi printer to print PETG worth a damn, but the Bambu can print it pretty fast. There is typically more printer tinkering than I have time for, or I would have a ton of 3D printed tanks already.

Whichever printer you decide on, you will learn a lot really fast or you will say screw it and put it on FB marketplace...