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<font face="Arial">My first two printers were Afinia,
pre-assembled. They each died after about 4000 hours of print
time.<br>
<br>
My next was a delta, I sold that because it wasn't really
compatible with my needs. That was a kit of parts.<br>
<br>
My next two were "Not a Prusa", a Chinese company (I forget who)
that made an improved Prusa type printer and put Prusa with a
number higher than any Prusa had at the time. They were mostly
assembled, just add the rails. Workhorses.<br>
<br>
Then we moved.<br>
<br>
Now I have an Artillery X1 Plus (pre-assembled except for screwing
on the rails) and Artillery X4 Plus (also mostly assembled). My
new workhorses, although with all the time we had to be away, the
X1 sat for long periods wondering where we were. Now that's past
we have actual work to do on them again.<br>
<br>
I had been using Simplicity 3D as a slicer, but with the X4 I
switched to Orca, it understands Klipper better.<br>
</font><br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 14-Nov-25 4:43, Jon Ares via
Stagecraft wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CAB0MSPm4=bgeKuYWZsfq0=4w5qW_2LvPY=ZJXxmK2rXpn5Cfrg@mail.gmail.com">
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<div dir="ltr">I don't regret my Erector Set printer past in the
least. Ditto. :)
<div><br>
</div>
<div>But yeah, these days I just like having one that "just
works." I print a lot. And design cool lamps.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div> - Jon</div>
</div>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Thu, Nov 13, 2025 at
5:37 PM Dave Vick via Stagecraft <<a
href="mailto:stagecraft@theatrical.net"
moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">stagecraft@theatrical.net</a>>
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote"
style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div><br>
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<div><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Thu, Nov 13, 2025 at
10:52 AM Jon Ares via Stagecraft <<a
href="mailto:stagecraft@theatrical.net"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">stagecraft@theatrical.net</a>>
wrote:<br>
</div>
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr"><br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote"
style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"
dir="auto"> Today's major players make them so much
better and faster<br>
than those build-it-yourself Erector Set printers of a
few years ago.</blockquote>
<div dir="auto"><br>
</div>
<div dir="auto">Hey! I built one of those erector set
printers (a kit from SeeMeCNC) eight-or-so years ago
while recovering from knee surgery and it gave me two
BIG advantages:</div>
<div dir="auto"><br>
</div>
<div dir="auto">1.) I learned a LOT about how a 3D printer
works at machine-language level</div>
<div dir="auto">...and...</div>
<div dir="auto">2.) I got what amounted to a $3,500
printer with a 10"x10"x16" print volume for about a
grand.</div>
<div dir="auto"><br>
</div>
<div dir="auto">Also it was genuinely fun to build the
thing and a huge Ego Stroke to successfully print from
something I built from a pile of parts, but then I've
always freely admitted to being a Nerd.</div>
<div dir="auto"><br>
</div>
<div dir="auto">That being said, if I did it all over
again I'd be strongly tempted to go the Bambu Labs
route.</div>
<div dir="auto"><br>
</div>
<div dir="auto">YM, as always, MV...</div>
<div dir="auto">-DV</div>
</div>
</div>
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<span class="gmail_signature_prefix">-- </span><br>
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature">
<div dir="ltr">Jon Ares
<div>503-412-8248<br>
<a href="http://www.arescreative.com" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true">www.arescreative.com</a><br>
Photographic Art Sales: <a href="https://jonares.com"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://jonares.com</a><br>
<div>Books by Jon: <a href="https://shorturl.at/TSwkT"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://shorturl.at/TSwkT</a></div>
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<pre wrap="" class="moz-quote-pre">____________________________________________________________
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