3DPrinting
3DPrinting is a place where makers of all skill levels and walks of life can learn about and discuss 3D printing and development of 3D printed parts and devices.
The r/functionalprint community is now located at: !functionalprint@kbin.social or !functionalprint@fedia.io
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I think you are getting what you want confused here and may be blinded to your best option with your bad experience. IDEX machines are primarily used for printing 2 parts at the same time. The Prusa XL is a multi-tool tool changer machine that only prints with one head at a time which is a different type of printer.
If you want cheap and reliable multi-colour printing you are best off going with a Bambu Labs machine. An A1 and AMS-Lite is pretty reasonable and despite being single nozzles the machines are pretty reliable (I have an P1S + AMS and it works great for multi-colour prints).
Good machines have gotten cheaper, but random cheap printer are still very hit or miss. For a consumer printer I wouldn't look much further than Bambu or Prusa these days depending on what you want. Cheaper printers are too risky, and more expensive printers don't really gain you anything.
Idex are more often used for printing 2 materials in a single object from my experience. That’s how they make custom in-soles these days is with an idex printer. Highly recommend against bambu, they’ve already had multiple fire safety level hazards and they’re barely a couple years old, not to mention single nozzle multi filament is not the same thing as dual extruded multi material.
No, I definitely want multihead and an IDEX system is the basis for these multi tool or multi head printers since there isn't enough of them to really have a simple name for and are generally way out of my price range I wasn't including them really. The point is that printing with TPU and PETG or soluble PVA and PLA is best done with separate hot ends.
I know that IDEX is thought of as printing 2 of the same but seriously it's way more useful for good clean multi filament printing even if it's just color difference since the purge waste is basically not existent.
And you are missing the point if you think that the cheap and reliable is Bambu. That's nearly the same price after both pieces for the Prusa XL and still relies on a single hotend.
Flashforge is not a no-name printer. It's a pretty respected company the Creator Pro 2 is just a several year old system that people complained about back when it was $800+ and seems more reasonable at $400 since it's completely enclosed and multihead. It's just somewhat proprietary as well.
I would absolutely look outside of just Bambu and potentially Prusa just cause of their cost but it doesn't negate the other brands existence and history in the space.