I wasn't expecting results like this from a $299 budget 3D printer

You no longer have to spend a fortune to get a quality, automated, hands-off 3D printer. This is a sentence I didn't expect to write just a few years ago, but it's reality today. Here's how I used an off-the-shelf, untuned cheap 3D printer to print something that even my more expensive printers would have struggled with.

In the past, expensive printers meant hands-off setup and use

Auto adjustments just weren't accurate on cheaper printers

My first 3D printer was an Ender 3 V2-style machine that had zero automated features. There was no automatic filament runout detection, no auto leveling, no auto adjustments at all. And the 3D printer I started out on cost $299.

The only way to get any automation back in early 2022, when I started 3D printing, was to spend well over $1,000. It just wasn't conceivable to get a fast, accurate, and automated 3D printer for under $1,000 then. Plus, even spending over $1,000 didn't guarantee any of those features.

Toward the end of 2022, newer models, like Bambu Lab's cheapest-at-the-time P1P, launched at $699, a substantial price savings over the $1,500 X1 Carbon. But, if you wanted a full-size build plate with automated features, it wasn't going to come cheap.

Modern entry-level printers offer high-end features

Elegoo's $299 Centauri 2 blew away my expectations for a 3D printer

These days, even entry-level affordable 3D printers come with a slew of automated functions. A few years ago, I picked up the Bambu Lab A1 mini for $299, and it was spectacular. It had a smaller print volume, but the quality of the prints it put out blew me away.

These days, you can get full-size Core-XY printers for that price. It's truly mind-blowing. But, are cheap 3D printers any good? They used to not be, so has that changed?

I fully believe you can get an extremely solid 3D printing experience without spending a fortune. Right now, there are several 3D printers in the $200 to $300 price range that offer many of the same features that used to cost thousands.

For example, you still have the Bambu Lab A1 mini, now at $219. The larger Bambu Lab A1 is $299. Elegoo's Centauri 2 is $299. Flashforge even has a multi-color printer for $349.

The thing is, all of these printers are fully automated out of the box. Sure, sometimes a little tuning can help take your print quality to the next level, but out of the box they're fantastic.

Every printer I just mentioned features automatic bed leveling, automatic filament runout detection, and some even have automatic pressure advance and flow rate functions built right into the print head. That was unheard of just a few years ago.

How well do these printers work though? I've been using the Elegoo Centauri 2 and have some thoughts on its performance.

Even difficult-to-print supports are a breeze for this budget beast

I wasn't expecting it to have such good results

While I haven't run a ton of prints on the Centauri 2 yet (and I do have a full review coming soon), the prints I have run blew me away.

For starters, I have done nothing but the automatic setup and calibration of the printer. I have done no filament tuning, and I've not even run Elegoo filament through it yet. What I have used is SUNLU PLA+ 2.0 on the standard Elegoo PLA profile, and it has worked flawlessly.

Just last night, I wanted to run a pretty difficult print on it to put it to the test, so I found this Batman pen holder model on MakerWorld. It required a ton of supports, which are my worst enemy when it comes to 3D printing.

I decided to just slice it and send it. I opened the 3MF file up in ElegooSlicer, which is based on OrcaSlicer, and made the few adjustments needed for it to work with the Elegoo printer. Really, all I did was select the filament and change the printer profile to the Centauri 2.

The only other change I made was to change the brim from auto to mouse ears because, second to supports, brims are my other worst enemy. With a mouse ear brim in place, and tree supports auto-generated based on the original model, I clicked print and went to bed. I didn't even wait to see if the first layer came out well.

I woke up to a notification from the Elegoo app (something my old $300 printers couldn't have dreamed of) that the print was complete. So, I went to the office and grabbed it off the build plate. The print completed flawlessly, capturing every detail in the model.

I wasn't sure how the supports would come off, though, and after I snapped the first support off, I was even more surprised. These supports released as cleanly as my Bambu Lab P2S, if not cleaner. I went through, and each support perfectly snapped off the print with little effort.

A few places I had to use some flush cutters to separate the support structures from each other, but all supports snapped cleanly off the print itself.

I was honestly blown away by how well this model printed. Nothing broke when removing the supports, everything looks fantastic, and I have zero complaints from this untuned $299 3D printer.

You don't have to spend a fortune to get quality 3D prints anymore

If you want to get quality 3D prints these days, you don't have to spend a ton of money. Really, all you need is a few hundred bucks, and you have the perfect entry-level system waiting for you.

This Elegoo Centauri 2 could use a little tuning for pressure advance, and I could probably get some extra speed out of it by tuning my flow rate. But it's not necessary to get a quality print. The 3D printer did exactly what it should right out of the box—print a fantastic model.

So, if you've been holding off on starting your 3D printer journey trying to save up for something like the Bambu Lab X2D, think again. You can easily get away with something far more affordable.