Hello! I have been on the fence about getting a printer for years. Now my wife is getting interested too, and I feel that now it’s the time.
What are the recommendations nowadays? I am trying to steer clear of Bambi Labs due to their controversies (I’m also a supporter of open source software).
I’ve seen a few mentions of Prusa in this community. Would that be a good start? I don’t want to get in at an extremely basic level and then need to upgrade in half a year.
Unless you have lots of technical skills and patience i wouldn’t recommend it especially not for a first printer… but something worth considering down the road for the open source aspect would be a voron.
The Voron team has designed a few different printer variations and released the bill of materials and software documentation for you to source all the parts needed to build a printer from the ground up. Companies on Ali express sell kits to make it a little easier and cheaper but again, you are building it from the ground up.
If that sounds interesting I would still highly recommend starting with something a little cheaper like the elegoo CC (1 or 2) to get used to printing and see how much you like it.
Whatever you decide is right for you though I hope you and your wife really enjoy the hobby!