this post was submitted on 05 Jan 2026
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3DPrinting

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Hi all, I want to buy my son a 3D printer for his 20th birthday. He is a third year computer science major, so has no issues with the software side. I have no idea where to start, or even what questions to ask. Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

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[–] nullroot@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

For a compsci major is recommend something with klipper that's easy to tinker with. Bambu is great for non tech people that need an appliance that just works (down vote me if you want, I'm not condoning their lockdown practices).

Qidi is good but their klipper is modified and not open source. Q1 pro is what I have and it's great but modifying the firmware is, last I checked, is a whole project not supported by the company.

Elegoo and creality are good choices but I'm not very familiar with the printers personally.

Prusa is great but they are pricey and have been falling behind in innovation.

[–] CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Bambu is good for tech savvy people too. I would rather have my 3D prints actually finish than spend my time repairing the same issues with the printer for the 47th time. I use that time to engage in other techy projects.

[–] nullroot@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

Yeah fair enough, my a1 mini is still a nice little workhorse, but I can fine tune like nothing on it and that bugs me