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Choosing your second printer

S

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Joined
May 27, 2025
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My first printer was a budget bed-slinger and it had constant leveling issues. When I was ready to upgrade I spent a lot of time going back and forth between staying in the bed-slinger world with an upgrade or moving to a CoreXY. I went CoreXY and the speed and print quality difference was real. But the bigger lesson is don't buy a printer with a larger build volume until you actually know you need it. Volume sounds good in the spec sheet but most prints are small and a well-tuned compact machine will produce better results day to day than a bigger machine you're still fighting to get right.
 
Bigger build volume sounds exciting on paper but most people end up valuing consistency and tuning more in day-to-day use. A well-calibrated smaller CoreXY can absolutely outperform a larger machine that’s still being wrestled into reliability.
 
The biggest parts I’ve ever had to make are for some filament dry boxes. I think any printer big enough to print around a spool of filament is big enough for me.
 
I learned the same thing with tools in general. It’s easy to buy for hypothetical future projects but a dependable machine you use every day beats extra capacity you rarely need.
 

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