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XeD

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Well, I'm debating on getting a 3D printer. I have been doing some preliminary research and have been jumping around the Anet A6 to the Wanhao I3 Plus to now the recently discover CR-10. Has anyone used a CR-10 for a long time? I know the what mod and community is there for the A6

Also what determine what filiment a printer can use? Is it hardware or software base? Is it possible to migrate parts from one that can do a lot of filiment type to one that has a large print area
 
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The CR-10 is is pretty popular choice. What printer you want to get is highly dependent on your budget, and on the lower end of pricing, how willing you are to mess/modify your printer.

Wanhao, Anet, and Creality are all low priced brands with big communities behind them, so it's possible to get good results from those brands. However, you will need to be prepared to spend a lot of time researching and tinkering, since out of box experience is pretty mediocre most of the time. I personally don't really like Anet, since I hate acrylic frames (too weak) and they often use dodgy (dangerous) electronics.

The hotend and bed determines what filament you can use. Anything tougher than PLA will need higher temps, and a lot of low end printers cheap out on the hotend, which will limit your ability to print these materials. You can upgrade the hotend on most printers, and the most popular high quality choice is the E3D V6. Beware of clones though. There are tons of cheapo copy cats that don't work well.

Software is pretty interchangeable between open source printers (I recommend skipping the printer UI and loading prints from a OctoPi instead)

If you're confident in your ability to tinker and are willing to spend the time, then getting a cheaper printer will do. If you just want the printer to 'work' then I recommend moving a bit up market. The Prusa i3 MK2S is about $600 in kit form, and would destroy any of the aforementioned printers in terms of print quality and reliability. While the cheaper brands are only $200-300, you can easily drop another $100-200 in upgrades and still not touch the quality of an official Prusa Research printer.
 
I would first look at how realistically you will using it before deciding to purchase one. I know several people(college students with too much spare time on their hands) who do let others use their 3d printers for a small fee and sometimes for free if you bring your own material.
 
I'm liking my CR-10s a lot, though have nothing to compare it to. I've been printing miniatures at 50 microns and am very pleased with the results. It has definitely been tons of hours of tinkering (touch-screen for my raspberry pi took forever to get configured correctly), but I can look back at my first prints now and see how bad they were.
 
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