can you recommend a good low cost 3d printer?

[electronics man]

i am looking for a good 3d printer for under £600, there doesn't look like there is much on the market that is under that price these days, i don't mind a kit but i don't have access to another 3d printer so i can't print out plastic parts.

i need this printer to print mechanical parts and electronics enclosures.

i have looked on amazon and ebay and i am having a difficult time trying to workout if they are good or not.

does anyone have a good printer they would recommend? 

[Zad]

I believe the answer is no.

The words "Good", "Low cost" and "3D printer" are not yet compatible. Spend your time and money on getting things fabricated either at a local company or an online agency such as shapeways.com  The product will probably be printed and on your doorstep before you have managed to stop the extruder head printing a birds nest for the 19th time, using up the 3rd spool of expensive plastic wire.

[electronics man]

what about this?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00PXNDZCE/ref=s9_simh_gw_p328_d0_i2?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=desktop-1&pf_rd_r=058N3K07T2NBMSN8WW6H&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=577047787&pf_rd_i=desktop

[free_electron]

Stratasys or Objet.

those are the cheapest Good machines. anything else is just crap

[electronics man]

Stratasys or Objet.

those are the cheapest Good machines. anything else is just crap

they look really expensive but i can't get a price on them

whats happened to those old kits you used to get like the repraps?

[SeanB]

They were bought out.......

[electronics man]

They were bought out.......

am i right in saying that they were bought out by makerbot

you used to get a reprap kit for around £500, you can no longer get those the cheapest they do is £999

[tggzzz]

Fundamental point: any printer you can buy will use a very limited range of materials. If those materials don't meet any one of your requirements (and they probably won't!), you are stuffed.

Best solution is to get a fab house (e.g. shapeways, but there are many many others) to make this project out of nylon, that project out of brass, the other project out of paper.

[electronics man]

Fundamental point: any printer you can buy will use a very limited range of materials. If those materials don't meet any one of your requirements (and they probably won't!), you are stuffed.

Best solution is to get a fab house (e.g. shapeways, but there are many many others) to make this project out of nylon, that project out of brass, the other project out of paper.

I'm just looking for the standard PLA or ABS

[zapta]

I am using the Makerfarm Prusa 8" kit and happy with it. Another popular low end is Printbot.

[electronics man]

I am using the Makerfarm Prusa 8" kit and happy with it. Another popular low end is Printbot.

that looks like the one for me

[VK3DRB]

Wait 10 years. What's available now will be considered a joke in 10 years time, just like the 80 column dot matrix printers.

Forecast:

   Costs will plummet.
   Higher speed using a different technique to the existing 1D layering technique used today.
   Download designs and print immediately from stores.
   Much easier and quicker to modify designs with easy-to-use software.
   Recyclable materials.
   A much wider variety of new materials just for 3D printing.
   Quality of the printing will greatly increase.
   Multiple materials in the one printing.
   Becoming mainstream - Apple, the Chinese company that will buy the remains of IBM, or even Dell will start making these.
   Everyone in the developed world will have access to one, except prisoners.

If Apple sells them, you will still have to go through that iTunes bloatware to get print anything.

On the dot matrix printers, I bought an Olympia Compact NP dot matrix printer in 1982 for today's equivalent of about $8,000. It is worth $0.00 today. Same will be for the 3D printers of today.

[zapta]

On the dot matrix printers, I bought an Olympia Compact NP dot matrix printer in 1982 for today's equivalent of about $8,000. It is worth $0.00 today. Same will be for the 3D printers of today.

Do you regret buying it at the time?

[Fraser]

An interesting thread and responses. Thank you 

I was very tempted to buy a Da Vinci XYZ printer from Amazon but had the same thought as others here. The technology is clever but in its infancy. I just couldn't justify the cost if the unit didn't deliver the 'goods' reliably and to a decent quality.

I will have to wait and use 3D print houses until the printing equipment matures.

Aurora

[dannyf]

can you recommend a good low cost 3d printer?

Your hands.

[Corporate666]

I have agonized over buying a 3D printer.  For what I do, the hobby junk on the market wouldn't be sufficient (or at least, I'd have to do a lost of post finishing work).

But the greater problem is these 3D printers are not plug and play.  Everyone I know that has one is constantly f**king with it to get it to produce the appropriate results.  And because it is a long process to print something, one mistake screws up a whole print.

I have used Shapeways and Sculpteo.  My parts from Sculpteo look way better than any hobbyist level machine - I have #2-56 holes printed into the parts and they are perfect.  The exterior surface is smooth as silk.

If you don't need that level of quality, use Makexyz.com.  You can hook up with someone in your area that has a hobby printer and their charge to you will only be slightly more than the cost of the material ($0.25 per cubic cm seems the going rate).  And you only pay for good finished parts - they get to deal with warped unusable parts, or parts that missed a step, etc, etc.



In short, unless you really want to deal with the hassles and headaches of running and maintaining one of these printers yourself, outsource it and wait for the tech to improve.  For the price of DIY, you can pay for many many many hundreds of parts to be made and delivered to you.

[zapta]

I ordered once from shapeways. Price was good. Resolution was good but the material was white painted with blue and it took two weeksJGGKJGKGaa to arrive. Not a good way for quick design iterations.  I find my cheap reprap to be very useful. YMMV

[janoc]

But the greater problem is these 3D printers are not plug and play.  Everyone I know that has one is constantly f**king with it to get it to produce the appropriate results.  And because it is a long process to print something, one mistake screws up a whole print.

I think they will never be plug and play. Even the big, expensive, professional machines aren't. The problem is that people call this "a printer", evoking the idea of a cheap-ass inkjet that you connect to an USB port, install drivers and it works.

A 3D printer is a CNC machine, more comparable to a CNC router or a CNC lathe. And those need maintenance, alignment, repairs and skilled/trained operators as well. Expecting a CNC machine becoming plug & play is pretty much an utopia - it just won't be cost effective to do so. The user requiring "plug & play" likely doesn't have the skills to use one of them (effectively, not just by downloading files and pushing a button) anyway. Those people are really looking for a Star Trek replicator, not a 3D printer. Unfortunately, those don't exist yet

Even a commercial, production grade CNC router needs to be homed, needs to have endstops adjusted, needs cleaning, oiling, replacing worn parts, etc. And those machines are built way more robustly than the flimsy plasticky pieces of junk in many of the mass-marketed 3D printers. Heck, the original Printrbot was made from wood held together by zip ties!!!

Now, some machines are certainly better than others, but you won't find one that doesn't need tweaking and adjustments. It is just par for the course. If someone is looking to buy a filament based printer these days, I would strongly suggest looking for a RepRap derived machine - at least if something goes belly up, you can find replacements easily and cheaply. Good luck repairing some of those big buck commercial ones! I have a Mendel90 myself and it works quite well. There are some issues I may replace/improve later, but so far it works.

Also, a sub $500 machine is going to be crap almost by definition. Just the mechanical parts - slides, motors, extruder, belts/rods and chassis are going to cost that much new. So if a machine is cheaper, then corners were likely cut somewhere.

[Corporate666]

But the greater problem is these 3D printers are not plug and play.  Everyone I know that has one is constantly f**king with it to get it to produce the appropriate results.  And because it is a long process to print something, one mistake screws up a whole print.

I think they will never be plug and play. Even the big, expensive, professional machines aren't. The problem is that people call this "a printer", evoking the idea of a cheap-ass inkjet that you connect to an USB port, install drivers and it works.

A 3D printer is a CNC machine, more comparable to a CNC router or a CNC lathe. And those need maintenance, alignment, repairs and skilled/trained operators as well. Expecting a CNC machine becoming plug & play is pretty much an utopia - it just won't be cost effective to do so. The user requiring "plug & play" likely doesn't have the skills to use one of them (effectively, not just by downloading files and pushing a button) anyway. Those people are really looking for a Star Trek replicator, not a 3D printer. Unfortunately, those don't exist yet

Even a commercial, production grade CNC router needs to be homed, needs to have endstops adjusted, needs cleaning, oiling, replacing worn parts, etc. And those machines are built way more robustly than the flimsy plasticky pieces of junk in many of the mass-marketed 3D printers. Heck, the original Printrbot was made from wood held together by zip ties!!!

Now, some machines are certainly better than others, but you won't find one that doesn't need tweaking and adjustments. It is just par for the course. If someone is looking to buy a filament based printer these days, I would strongly suggest looking for a RepRap derived machine - at least if something goes belly up, you can find replacements easily and cheaply. Good luck repairing some of those big buck commercial ones! I have a Mendel90 myself and it works quite well. There are some issues I may replace/improve later, but so far it works.

Also, a sub $500 machine is going to be crap almost by definition. Just the mechanical parts - slides, motors, extruder, belts/rods and chassis are going to cost that much new. So if a machine is cheaper, then corners were likely cut somewhere.

Just out of curiosity, what does it cost you per CM^3 of material?

The going rate is $0.25/CM^3 on MakeXYZ.com - I have to imagine that isn't much above the cost of material (inclusive of errors) and the people doing the work are essentially working for free, or minimum wage.

Unless one needs parts immediately or just wants to play, the economics of 3D printing are horrible.  I had some complicated parts printed by a guy on MakeXYZ who is local to me... they were done in 2 days and he got to deal with any bad prints, warping, missed steps or whatever... I just got the 10 final articles.

[zapta]

The going rate is $0.25/CM^3 on MakeXYZ.com - I have to imagine that isn't much above the cost of material (inclusive of errors) and the people doing the work are essentially working for free, or minimum wage.

It's easier to estimate cost by weight rather than volume since a printout can have a significant amount of air, depending on its shape and slicing configuration. The typical retail cost of not too fancy PLA or ABS filament is $20-$25 per 1Kg. After you setup the slicing parameters the slicing software typically gives estimation of printing time, material amount, and cost.

[nowlan]

Ben Krasnow from applied science on youtube said that unless your constantly making prototype parts & enclosures etc, they arent worth spending the money on. It will just sit in the corner gathering dust. eg, good for workshop, not for home.

I agree with others, you can outsource your design to a 3rd party, have the part delivered without the upfront investment.

Fortunately, I have access to a commercial 3d printer at school. http://www.stratasys.com/3d-printers

[electronics man]

Ben Krasnow from applied science on youtube said that unless your constantly making prototype parts & enclosures etc, they arent worth spending the money on. It will just sit in the corner gathering dust. eg, good for workshop, not for home.

I agree with others, you can outsource your design to a 3rd party, have the part delivered without the upfront investment.

Fortunately, I have access to a commercial 3d printer at school. http://www.stratasys.com/3d-printers

i can see that as being true.
a mill would be a lot more useful but i can't have one so i would have to make do with a 3d printer

[electronics man]

But the greater problem is these 3D printers are not plug and play.  Everyone I know that has one is constantly f**king with it to get it to produce the appropriate results.  And because it is a long process to print something, one mistake screws up a whole print.

 i have a 4 month holiday, i want to make this a summer project so that i don't mind about the plug and play thing

[janoc]

It's easier to estimate cost by weight rather than volume since a printout can have a significant amount of air, depending on its shape and slicing configuration. The typical retail cost of not too fancy PLA or ABS filament is $20-$25 per 1Kg. After you setup the slicing parameters the slicing software typically gives estimation of printing time, material amount, and cost.

Yep. Here the filament costs around 20-25 euro per kilogram, but depends on where you get it from. E.g. the very good Faberdashery PLA is a lot more expensive. Usually various small parts weigh few tens of grams, so the costs aren't that horrible. I am not printing large parts - people printing 30-50cm statues or quadrocopter frames are, IMO, crazy. It both takes ages to print, with a high risk of failure and it costs a lot more than to use a different technique to build it.

Ben Krasnow from applied science on youtube said that unless your constantly making prototype parts & enclosures etc, they arent worth spending the money on. It will just sit in the corner gathering dust. eg, good for workshop, not for home.

Well, yes and no - you cannot measure everything by money like that. He is certainly right economically. On the other hand, he has an excellently equipped workshop where he really doesn't need the capability of a consumer level 3D printer. For me, living in a rental apartment, that is obviously not an option.

Also, how many of the people here have expensive scopes and multimeters for what is essentially a hobby? I certainly wouldn't spend 2-3k euro on a Makerbot or a similar machine, but the 800 euro Mendel90 kit was a cost I was willing to swallow for what is essentially a toy and a learning tool for me. Sure, I could order the parts online (which isn't actually THAT cheap!), but knowing that if I need something, I have the machine next door ready to go makes things a lot easier.

[Tuppe]

Whoa guys, what is wrong with RepRap Prusa i3v?

http://www.makerfarm.com/index.php/prusa-8-i3v-kit-v-slot-extrusion.html

One video:

There's few reviews on Youtube of this printer.

I don't own this machine, but seems pretty solid printer for under 600$. I was planning to buy one, but my local library just acquired 3 Ultimakers for free use
Obviously you need to build this yourself, but I think it's half the fun. Fiddling around with the settings and configuring it all the time might be a pain, but that's usually inherit thing with consumer 3d printers.

Surely it's probably not the smallest, fancyest, most accurate or fastest thing on the planet, but for the price it seems that it serves well for prototyping.