Several years ago I leapt enthusiastically into the realm of 3D printing by buying a massive, expensive delta-type printer. I had to put it together myself, which was fun, but after that I struggled to get it to print well. Even simply trying to get the prints to stick to the bed were difficult, leading me to add huge brims to all my parts which were a pain to cut off afterward. Eventually I gave up fiddling with it and it’s been gathering dust ever since.
I know that a lot of you treat the hobby as an opportunity for endless tinkering and optimization, which is great, but I think I’ve realized that what I’d prefer is something that just works out of the box with a minimum of adjustment.
The best low hassle printing is going to be resin. You can get a decent Elegoo or Anycubic model for only a few hundred dollars. The only real hassle is cutting supports, washing your prints, and curing the resin. In my experience, water washable resin is the way to go.
Of course, depending on what you are printing, you may not have as much use for a resin printer.
Obligatory ventilate your work area and use your ppe.
Edit: not sure why downvotes. Is this sub anti-resin?
I suspect people feel SLA is a lot more hassle then FDM overall. That said I am still learning about resin myself.
I guess I understand where the idea comes from. That said, I print with both materials and I have had so many more issues with FDM. My resin prints almost always come out right on the first try, and I’ve never had to tinker with my Elegoo Mars Pro; it just worked out of the box.