Okay so 3D printers can have issues for all kinds of reasons. Lots of people here are using the deprecated Ender 3, which can run slow but is a real workhorse and affordable as shit (the Chinese knockoffs of it go for as little as $200 on Amazon, you will have to do some tinkering but it's part of the process.)
First thing I'm going to recommend is getting a fireproof enclosure for three reasons:
- It's going to keep the temperature steady, leading to better prints, and saving on electricity
- It'll stop wind, preventing shifting
- It will contain a fire in case one happens overnight. They do catch fire, sometimes.
The second thing I recommend is learning one material that works well on your machine, fine-tuning your settings in your slicer, and sticking with it. A lot of people get stupid and have 20 different spools of various materials, constantly swapping out materials but never doing any fine-tuning and learning how to work with what they have. If you have an Ender 3 type, PLA will work great on that. If you have a hardened nozzle, you can upgrade to iron or aluminum-infused PLA and print metal, wood, all kinds of stuff! Once you have those settings locked in you can move on and experiment with a different material.
The third thing I recommend is getting a swappable surface and learning how to clean it. It could be a magnetic removable (those flexible plates, you can use non-acetone nail polish remover, you can use 90% isopropyl alcohol, it will break down the crap left behind, it's great.) Some people will prefer to use a glass surface, it's really a matter of taste. Also research different bed adhesion methods; I've found that if the bed is properly heated for YOUR SPECIFIC MATERIAL (this is why learning the material is so important!) and it's clean you will not need to go with get crazy with glue sticks or painters tape.
Fourth thing I recommend is looking around on different forums for optimized profiles for your specific printer. I use PrusaSlicer and various Chinese printers. Some mad Polish guy made this amazing profile for my first one and I was able to fine-tune it to print like a beast, it's great. Once you learn how to get your base laid down (don't be afraid to use brims, you can always break/file that shit off if you have to), you can use an array of infill layers to cut time. Also, look into having thicker bases and thicker walls to reduce slippage if it's not a load-bearing part; there are so many ways to speed up the process with these things while preventing print drift.
Fifth thing I recommend is getting one of those dehydrators for your spools, they may be wet/holding too much moisture and fucking up your print. I thought one of my printers was garbage, but it ended up just having a wet spool. It happens sometimes. If you can't afford a dehydrator/baker, look up directions on how to bake or dehydrate them for cheap. If your spool has been open for a while and just sitting out it will get juicy, even if it feels dry to you, and it'll show in the print.
If you can afford something better than the Ender 3 range, like a Prusa Mk4, I would say go for it. They are nice machines and I've tinkered with them some. I don't like how bullshit the new nozzles are (replacement is difficult and can result in breaking the block), but I think that we'll have aftermarket solutions in time with those machines, just as we did with the Mk3s. The Mk4s do not require nearly as much post-processing or babying print-wise, making them a big step up for FDM. I do not recommend Bambu Lab; they are beautiful, but if something is broken on them, they are proprietary and have to be returned to the manufacturer for servicing. There are many points of failure in those machines, while Mk4s can be serviced by anyone as long as you have access to repair videos and the necessary parts.
and as such my mind keeps drifting back to them, just as my layers keep drifting until my print becomes a useless pile of plastic garbage.
