3D Printer Buying Advice
This page is for people who wants to hear what Frank has to say about what to buy in one or two sentences.
Otherwise, I still encourage you to do your own research.
I've picked candidates from each price point.
If you are really tight on money (or need to buy them for many kids), there are two choices:
- Monoprice Select Mini, $220, https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=15365
- HobbyKing Fabrikator, $170, https://hobbyking.com/en_us/fabrikator-mini-ii.html
Obviously these are cheap and the quality is what you pay for. They are also both "bowden" style extruers so using flexible filament like NinjaFlex or TPU will be difficult or impossible.
I'd pick the Fabrikator, it looks nicer, I like how it's semi-enclosed. I'm not even going to go into any objective comparisons between these because they are so cheap and not suitable for any engineering work.
- Monoprice Maker Select v2 $300 https://www.monoprice.com/Product?p_id=13860
- Monoprice Maker Select Plus $400 https://www.monoprice.com/Product?p_id=15711
These are the best at this price bracket. The "Plus" is just slightly faster than "V2". Very fully featured and handles almost all filament types (including flexible, but not including insanely high temperature plastics like polycarbonate).
EDIT: changed my mind, apparently these printers are known to start fires, a modification is very popular to prevent this from happening but I am not longer recommending these
I swear I don't have a deal with Monoprice but their Maker Ultimate is pretty good for $700 https://www.monoprice.com/Product?p_id=15710
It's an Ultimaker clone but with a beefier gantry construction and a direct feed style extruder. That just sounds amazing to me. If you need something ready-to-go and don't need dual-extrusion, get this.
Creality CR-10 and the CR-10S, around $600-$700, https://smile.amazon.com/s/ref=bl_dp_s_web_0?ie=UTF8&search-alias=aps&field-keywords=Creality+3D
These are big printers built using cheap parts. They have quite a lot of features and are very serviceable. These got popular recently because they are fucking huge for a low price.
ONLY BUY THESE FROM AMAZON, do not trust GearBest or any other Chinese stores for these.
Prusa I3, $600-$1000 https://shop.prusa3d.com/en/17-3d-printers
This is the best choice for anybody who absolutely loves tinkering. The printer is a kit (you put it together yourself, but you can also pay more to get it fully assembled), one of the most reputable. All parts are completely open source and there are plenty of community created upgrades. There shouldn't be anything you can't do with it.
It's a compact thick bony construction.
Please buy directly from Prusa, other sellers may substitute cheaper parts.
Dual Extrusion: FlashForge Creator Pro, $900 https://flashforge-usa.com/products/new-creator-pro-dual-extrusion-3d-printer?variant=5344998326310
I've got nothing to go on here except I'd rather a dual extrusion printer use direct feed style extruder, so Ultimaker 3 is off my list for this category.
I would not jump into dual extrusion unless you are good with artistic 3D modelling or need dual materials for engineering purposes.
Big Boy Toys
If you need and can afford a Markforged printer, then go for it, they have no competition in their class.
Ultimaker is a great choice in every respect except if you want to print flexible filament, it's REALLY SLOW. Upgrading it with a Flex3Drive like I did will solve this.
If you don't want an Ultimaker, then go with Lulzbot TAZ.
Avoid Formlabs unless you need it. It's not meant for home use, you need a chemical room for the cleaning process. Swapping resins is a pain in the ass. The prints are slow and weak. The Form 2 machine we got at work has been unreliable too.
Please avoid MakerBot. Their company does some shitty things, such as patenting things that community members post to their website.
Please avoid buying a 3D printer at a retailer like Fry's Electronics, for your own sake. They stock some really pretty looking printers that sell well because they look nice on a store shelf, but may have other major flaws. However, the filament they stock is fine and they price match so they are a good place to buy filament.
The best "slicer" software in my opinion is Cura. If a printer is not compatible with Cura, I wouldn't even bother with it.
Do not buy a printer that forces you to buy their own brand of filament.
