I'm fancying one this lockdown, I've a load of things I'd like to make...
I've looked in the past but the home enthusiast/DIY market and products seem a bit more mature and polished these days, but there are lots of them now...
I'm Not bothered about fancier materials (PLA will be fine) or huge build cubes I want something simple to use but mainly cheap (Ideally Under £150), currently I'm mainly looking at Amazon as I'm not sure I fancy the gamble of buying one off Ebay or Ali express, the option to return it might be worth having...
Current front runner is the 'Monoprice - Select Mini V2' which I can currently score for Circa £130 and usefully comes assembled.
Go on tell me what else I should be looking at?
Watching with interest - as I'm thinking it could be time for a Christmas present! Although I could be convinced that a CNC would be better. I'd happily spend double what cookeaa is suggesting - and not scared to assemble ourselves.
You could have a wee look in this old thread.
https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/cheap-3d-printer-kits-experiences/page/18/
Get an Ender 3 - slight more expensive but loads of support available. 3D printing is not plug and play, its a whole hobby in itself so get something that tons of others are using.
Cant help with whats good currently. I bought a cheap anet a8 a few years ago from gearbest. built it myself and swapped out the psu that came with it because it looked like a disaster waiting to happen. used a pc psu instead. there was a big thread on here:
https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/cheap-3d-printer-kits-experiences/
that gave me some info. ive used mine for some useful stuff but mainly models and stuff.
I use Ultimaker cura for a slicer and get most of my prints from thingiverse.com
hope thats of some help.
almost double your budget at €379 but if you don't need a massive build volume I'd recommend the Prusa Mini. Great build & print quality and allows you to focus on designing/printing rather than tweaking & tinkering 😃 They are also as much plug-n-play as you're going to get right now in 3d printing I think! You probably won't get one for Xmas though, there's usually a waiting list (currently 7-8 weeks) which tells you how good they are!
You can definitely get good results from a cheaper printer, Aliexpress etc but whenever I ask anyone who's got one what they're currently printing, they always say "nothing at the moment I'm just waiting for a spare part to arrive..." 🤣
Hmmm I've just not taken much interest in 3d printing in recent years, I was aware a few commercial products derived from "open source" projects that have come and gone.
But I was given to understand things were becoming more affordable/accessible/commercially viable.
The last 3d printer I was actually hands on with was a Stratasys ~20 odd years ago as a student. That was gigantic, took and age to print, used proprietary ABS 'wafers' rather than simple PLA filament, probably cost more than the deposit on my current house and has long since ended up in landfill no doubt...
I had looked at the Ender 3 already and I could see me stretching to the versions going for ~£200-220 perhaps. I know "spend more" is the default STW position on most things, but what extra do you actually get for the extra spend? My requirements are very basic I'm not concerned about build volume if its 100x100x100mm or more I'd be fine and the stated budget is pretty much set TBH.
And I certainly don't want to become a "3D printer hobbyist" I know a few of those already, people for whom pissing about with the device is almost all they're really interested in.
I want a cheap usable tool to actually make objects that I have designed. I don't mind getting my eye in with a few aborted prints, I don't mind a bit of self assembly, but I'm not keen on spending all my time playing with the printer rather than the things it prints....
Plus If I'm getting into spending more time/money on it I think I'd probably be better just putting money aside to order from the likes of 'protolabs' or 'iMaterialise'.
I only want a 3d printer as it 'would be nice' to print my own designs rather being a necessity...
If the consensus is that sub £350 3D printers are just not unusable and unable to produce usable parts then I'll write the idea off, is that what you lot are actually saying?
Creality Ender 3.
I've had my CR10-Mini almost 3 years with no issues.
I think they've really come on as well in terms of build quality, quality control etc.
I was looking at a few different options. The thing that swayed it for me was the massive community of users for the Creality stuff. There are loads of Facebook groups, YouTube videos etc.
For filament I originally bought cheap Hobbyking stuff. It's OK, but I've since used 3dqf, Ziro, Technology Outlet & GEEETECH. All of it is better than the Hobbyking stuff.
3dqf is cheap and prints well, but I found it a bit harder to get the first layer to stick to the build plate.
The other 3 brands all print really well.
I ordered my printer from gearbest and didn't have any issues with it, but I can see the advantages and lower risk of ordering from a UK site or somewhere like Amazon.
OK I might keep an eye on this: Ender 3 and see if it does anything on Black Friday... you never know.
I bought this very one from Banggood. Arrived in about 7 days and was all correct and as should be.
Have printed a few bits on it but nothing on any practicle use yet.
Saved myself about £50 over Amazon when the glass bed and better motor board are taken into account.
I've 2 ender 3s, though admittedly, one of them is in bits 🙂 I burned out a bit on the whole thing earlier this year when motivation got to be a bit low, and only got back to it recently.
It's a good printer, but the main reason I'd still recommend it is the epic community and aftermarket support. TBH if it weren't for that I'm sure one of the other, newer models out there would have taken the crown by now.
I'm not totally sure which I'd pick out now... Mine are both Pros, and imo that plus a good glass bed (Wisamic's 4mm is better than the genuine one) is a really great combo. But the V2 does have some very worthwhile upgrades. TBH, you can bring a V1 Pro up to the same spec for about the same as the price difference so there's no really wrong answer
Twonks' link would be close to a perfect balance for me I think but there's things in the V2's spec that I don't really think are worthwhile- the belt adjusters especially. But not everyone would agree I think.
The Prusa Mini looks a great machine and likewise has a really good community, but it's considerably more expensive.
Also, remember it's November so there'll probably be discounts to find soon.
I bought a Creality CR10S a few months before the first lockdown, Learning about 3D printing can be a steep learning curve as nothing seems to go right. During lockdown I helped our local district by printing visors for our medical practices, with a printer going non stop for about a month taught me a lot about printing and setting up printers.
I've printed a couple of radio control planes, flexible bendy toys for my grandson, brackets for mudguards on my bike and loads of other stuff. Also there is so much stuff on Thingiverse..
If designing parts yourself then there's learning about cad drawing and that's another headache all by itself..