For everyhting 3D printing related.
Please be excellent to each other :)
Icon by Freepik, Banner photo by Thiago Medeiros Araujo
I've bought and assembled a few different (3) 3d printers including an Ender 3 Pro. I was never able to get any of them printing well consistently.
My best recommendation is to pick a printer that does auto bed leveling.
If I purchase another 3d printer, it will likely be a Prusa. They're quite expensive, but worth it for the support.
Ugh that's my nightmare, sink all that money and never get the thing leveled well enough to print anything.
The Prusa MK3S+ is $1200 CAD assembled though, almost double my budget. But if $1200 CAD is the minimum entry for reliable printing I might go back to saving for a spell.
I definitely understand the fear. Auto bed leveling should make life a million times easier. None of my printers ever had it. If you decide to pull the trigger now, just make sure it has that feature. If not, Prusa is a pretty bulletproof option, even if you opt to assemble it yourself to save some cash.
The nice thing about 3d printing, is that the second-hand market is pretty good. So if you can't get it sorted, you may have some luck selling it locally. I ended up giving mine away lol.