3D Printing

I think the ender 5 plus is a good choice. I've only taken a few classes, I'm not sure if I'm a beginner or intermediate. I was able to assemble the ender 5 in half the time of the ender 3. Also I think the ender 5 plus has a really good design with the z axis screws on each side.

I have an ender 3 and 5, both have been fun hobby printers, but have taken a fair bit of modification and patience to get to the quality and speed I desire. My workplace has a fleet of Prusa Mk3s that have been killing it as far as how little maintenance has been needed, and would also probably be my next acquisition

The brillants of Creality's printers both the Ender 3 and 5, is that they use off the shelf parts. From its heatbed to its nozzle and stepper motors.

Which means that if something breaks or wears out, a replacement is $0.20 from Amazon.

The problem with Creality is quality control. Everything that I bought from Creality either broke in a few months, needed upgrades or came broken from factory. This isn't just their printers its their laser cutters too.

However because they break they are excellent learning printers. While it may be tempting to print the biggest thing, I would advise a smaller printer like the Ender 3. It was hard to level 200mm leveling 350mm won't be easy.

That said I think which printer you get should depend on what you want to do with it.

If you are more interested in modeling and cad design than a low maintenance printer like a Prusa would be best.

If you want to tinker with the printer itself: then an Ender is perfect since you can break it to your hearts content and fix it yourself.

Otherwise you don't know: get the cheapest recommended printer around $350-$400 and use it til it breaks. Either you'll know what you want or break it and you'll get a good idea on what type of printer you need.

@madewithlayers and @makersmuse on YouTube is a good starting point

My Ender 5 Pro was my entrance into 3D printing. I love it.

The P1P is like $600-$700 without the AMS so you may look at that. The print volume is smaller but I've had a 300x300x400 printer for years and maybe only once have I needed that X/Y size. I think the CoreXY construction is the real shining feature with these printers as you don't need so much space, the print speed is much faster (no 2lb bed swinging back and forth rapidly) and it's more efficient. I think my ideal printer would have the large build volume with CoreXY but I don't think those exist outside of the Voron or some very expensive more commercial options.