The Bambu Labs A1 series as others have mentioned is ridiculously good, from all the reporting I've seen. I ended up getting the P1S with the multi-filament printing on sale on Father's Day and I've used the heck out of it. It replaced an older Ender 3 Pro that I loved, but was always having to mess around with. I don't know the hours, but it's been printing the vast majority of the time since I got it, last Father's Day, and it's been super reliable.
This weekend I designed and printed out a routing template for routing out door hinges onto door jambs. I had bought a tool for doing it on doors then realized it wouldn't help me on the other side.
If you want something that ‘just works’, it’s hard to go past the entry level options from Bambu Lab despite their march towards Cloud and ecosystem lock in. If that kind of thing bothers you, the new Creality ‘Hi’ series is probably where I’d start if I was starting today. For other useful things to print, check out Gridfinity as well!
I walked into my company hardware labs at the right time and was gifted a bambu labs a1 mini with 350 printing hours on it. I've since added another 300 hours over the last month and a half. It's a fantastic machine, and only costs $200-$240 (MSRP is 240 but I've seen it as low as 200 new).
Stick to some matte pla to begin with and with the a1/a1 mini it's as close as you can get to plug and play.
Also check out grifinity if this project appeals to you.
Thirding on Bambu lab although they are supposed to be announcing their newest model any day now. You may want to wait a few weeks to see if you could pick up someone’s p1p or p1s for cheap if they are upgrading
Anyone care to recommend some suitable (and beginner friendly) printers?