I’m on the same page generally. I wasted money on a Delta type, never could print straight or get decent adhesion. I wish not I’d just binned the damn thing and gotten a Creality Ender, I’d be two years ahead. Instead I waited til a buddy raved about it and ended up going with the Elegoo Neptune 2 instead, which is close to being a clone, but with some enhancements. It’s been nearly foolproof, worst problem is bed adhesion with certain colors (black seems the worst) but increasing the temp and/or printing a brim has solved that. Under $150 and with a little care in tramming the bed (levelling is a misnomer, there’s nothing “level” about it) you can get good print after print without fuss.
I had a so-called expert poop all over these low-end Chinese made printers and give an hour-long infomercial for Prusa. If someone wants to throw $1000 at a $100 problem, be my guest but it absolutely is NOT necessary to get good prints without spending a lifetime or $$$ doing upgrades. In fact I bought a touch sensor and haven’t even installed it! I did buy a magnetic print bed which is nice for large prints, easy peasy to get them off w/o hassle.
Let me also give a plug for Tinkercad, which the expert said was very poor and limited and not worth wasting time on. I can produce just about anything in Tinkercad in short time and after comparing the detail and complexity of my designs vs his, I can easily claim victory (he uses Solidworks, which is vast overkill for most non-professionals).
As an example, I recently bought a new kayak with a gear rail and wanted a way to hang a water bottle on it. Took a look at the size, designed one in about 15 minutes, using threaded fasteners from Thingiverse. Perfect! Why buy stuff when you can print it?
>I wasted money on a Delta type
I have two deltabots. The first (OBKP) was a disaster. Horrible hot end, substandard controller. I have the parts needed for an upgrade but that’s a project for another day. The second (D300vsp) was much, much better with an E3D hot end and a Duo3D controller. I’d get another if they were still available.
One problem with deltabots is that the companies tend to disappear and if you need any of the specialized parts, you may be SOL. Kossels are not the best choice for a first printer unless you are very patient and willing to work through the problems.
Once operational and calibrated, they are very cool.
I have heard of others having the same issues with Delta style printers. Adhesion can often be the biggest pain in the rear. I have had some filaments which will stick to anything even if the beds are not heated, not cleaned or properly leveled and the nozzle is scraping on one side and too far away on another part of the plate for anyone to truly expect them to work. Then I have had other filaments which won't stick to any surface without specialty adhesives being applied in just the right way. They won't even work right on printers with firmware that allows “self leveling” sensors to be installed.
It can sometimes make you a little crazy if you have been using some easy to stick filament... you leave it out of the bag for a couple months and it gets messed up from age and humidity. So you put it in the oven for a few hours on low and it still won't work. Then you find yourself in a situation like Consult described where you are wasting money on supplies.
Everyone needs to remember that filament should be stored in sealed bags with desiccant.