3D Printer Recommendations

[toddbrat]

Looking to get into 3D printing, nothing major just really want to explore it and I've seen some parts I'd love to print for my AG's. I'm looking for something under $300. I've seen great reviews for the Ender 3. I'd like to stay away from the Anet 8, I've heard they are a big fire risk without modding the power supply. I'm open to either a kit or a ready to print. I have 0 experience with these or with anytype of CAD software so looking for something that is fairly easy to learn but does have expansion capability down the road.

[a1rgunz]

This is the printer I started out with: . Got mine for $100 cheaper by applying for a Amazon credit card lol. It is the printer I still use, but almost everything has been upgraded, replaced, and/or modified to suit my needs. It will print great with PLA right out of the box. The Ender 3 looks like it would be just as good a starting place.

As is often the case with airguns, you will modify your printer as you gain experience and begin to demand better performance from your printer. I've got a total of $378 in my printer, so I've spent more on upgrades than the actual printer. You'll also want to keep spare parts on hand.

http://www.tinkercad.com is a great place to start with 3d modelling. There really isn't much you can't do with it. Once you have a 3d model, you'll then have to run it through a slicer to prepare it for the printer. This is where the true learning curve of 3d printing comes in. Cura is a common one. I've used Cura a lot in the past, but now prefer Slic3r. Join some forums specific to your printer and see what settings other people are using. That will provide a starting point for you.

[travelbike]

I personally use the Monoprice Maker select v2. I think it runs under $300.

One of the hardest part is learning what your plastic spool wants to maintain consistency.  What i do now is after a few hours of printing when the spool is exposed to air, I take it home and put it in the oven at about 150F for a few hours. Then I store it in a sealed plastic box with desicant inside ready for the next project.

Good luck on your printer.  Patience is the key. Expect to make mistakes on your projects but keep on doing projects to hone your skills.

[dan_house]

Todd your looking at a vertical learning curve.

IVe started this journey myself in march, with a Monoprice IIIP delta printer.  3d printing is not ready for prime time. You'll be learning new terms and cpncepts ("Bed adhesion"), the machines are metric based, meaning the travel speeds and machine dimensions are in millimeters (although you can draw your stuff with imperial units...)( and you'll need metric tools. you will need tools), you HAVE to learn a "slicing" program,  that is, the program that takes your data file and tells the machine how to move where in order to print it. Layer hiehgt, print speed, filament flow, bed temps, shell thickness and much much much much more can be controlled and manipulated thru the slicer. When your stuff doenst print, or looks bad, its likely the slicer set wrong somewhere. Even a small object printed can take hours at fine resolution, lower resolution will show the layers more, but print faster. Print time is in HOURS, and bigger items, DAYS. (my longest to date: 39 hours....)

You  need to learn how to diagnose issues... is it the gcode, the drawing, or the printer? Your printer will jam. You'll need to learn a basic tear down to fix it. Printing nylon is different from printing PLA. Nozzle temps, material flow and print speed are intimately intertwined for results. JUST geting stuff to stick on the print bed long enough to finsih a print can be exasperating for a noob (and Ill vouch for that 1000%...) Then you bump into things like "does it need supports?" or you get a complete print, but its bad quality (did the extruder get starved?, bad filament? humid day...oh yes your local weather can affect how the machine behaves...). You'll learn a whole new language, and concepts.

Drawing the stuff....Ive been using AutoDesk Fusion 360. but any 3d program that will save data in a file format the slicer understands will work. If you have Photoshop or Illustrator experiecne, then the cad program wont seem sooo foreign. IF you dont, thats another layer you have to learn, or your stuck with some one else's drawings.   And depending on what you want/need to draw, it can be a long challenging journey.

3d printing isnt magic. You need to learn, learn, learn, then learn what you still dont know and fil in those knowledge gaps.  YouTube has been a god-send for learning (and filling in the gaps) Fusion 360.  Good CAD programs can be $$$$, but you may not need that much power, depending.

Im not trying to scare you away from this, jsut trying to inform you of the rabbit hole your about to descend. IT is fun.it is highly rewarding to imagine, draw then watch the thought you had go from mental idea, to drawing and then a real object being created in front of you.  It does get easier as you get more experience.

IVe now got two printers, the aforementioned Delta and the newish MP Maker Pro Mk1 (300x300x400 mm build area). My suggestion would be research, research reaserch. STart with a small project, learn to draw it, then learn to print it.

Good tools, research, YouTube, faith in the Divine, adult beverages and especially patience will get you thru it.  Keep us posted

[WhatUPSbox?]

I'm still in the tire kicking phase on 3D printers so I don't have any first hand knowledge. Here is an Ender 3 review that discusses some of the warts and possible fixes.

[toddbrat]

Thanks guys. I'm still in the researching stage, which is mainly a lot of youtube and reddit posts. I've seen some that are 1/2 the price getting really good reviews but then I wonder how trustworthy are they. My bonus should hit in a couple of weeks and going to make a decision by then. My wife told me to splurge and buy something for myself, before she had finished the sentence, I had a new Marauder with a Hawke scope in the cart, then rational me thought it would at best meet the accuracy of my Urban but not beat it. Been wanting to play with 3D printing for awhile, plus my 11 year old son's face lit up when I told him. Be good to learn together.

[AncientSword]

Travis recommended the Robo R1+ and that is what my 14 year old son bought recently.  He saved up money from working all summer for it.  He is having fun and there is a learning curve for sure.  I am not putting any pressure on him, so he is making all kinds of silly stuff. This printer has worked well for him so far.

[sb97355]

I have several and in the $300 range you stated I would look at a kit based on Prusa I3. There are many out there and they all have pros and cons. Since it is your first printer Look for one with a track record and good build assembly support and instructions. It should include a slicer program set up and formatted for the machine.

I purchased an JGAURORA kit that is in your price range but it was not my first printer and I would not recommend it for a first build as the instructions are very poor and factory support almost nonexistent. It works fine but took allot of effort to get it printing well. It will never compete with my other printers without spending more to upgrade than I paid for the quality printers to begin with. It is not a printer I trust to run an 8 hour print without issue.

Josef Prusa, the pioneer of home 3d printing, sells what I consider the best value for the money in a kit. Quality components, large build envelope, heated bed, excellent extrudes, great build instructions, a support infrastructure, and very high ratings. I have 3 of his printers and it was also the first one I ever got. Takes allot of the sweat out of the entry into 3 D printing. The problem of course is it is over your price range. prusa3d.com

Cheers, Steve

[rowiac]

Also out of your price range, but a good quality kit is the Ultimaker Original+.  It has a heated bed, 200mm L/W/H build area and excellent build instructions and support.  I've had mine for two years, and although it is based on an old (ca. 2011) design, the "plus" version has a few upgrades and is a solid machine.  The print quality of this machine is on par with the much more expensive pre-built Ultimakers. The free Cura slicing software is also by Ultimaker and is easy to use.

The big advantage of starting with a good quality printer is that you will be able to spend more time printing rather than tinkering with the printer.

[GreyBeard1851]

After reading these replies you couldn't give me the best 3D printer made.
I am too old.  I have trouble just using my smart phone.  (

[toddbrat]

I ended up going with the Ender 3 after watching about 9000 hours of youtube videos. It looked pretty solid and way more positives than negatives. It appears they do listen as mine is the upgraded model with the removable bed and better designed rollers. Build wasn't bad, took about 1 1/2 hours, but 45 minutes of that was watching the Vikings realize they need a kicker....

I've got the test dog printing now, it seems to be the Ender equivalent of "hello, world" for new programmers. So far, I'm very impressed with how easy it was to level the bed and the print quality is looking great, at least to my untrained eye. Once this is done I'm planning to print a single shot tray for my Urban and will be trying my hand a designing a multi-shot drop magazine for the Maximus.

I'll post some pictures once I get the AG related parts going, so far loving this printer.

One additional note. I ended up over paying for it. I bought it from Amazon for $239, I *could* have ordered it from one of the Chinese sites for less than $200, however the mental assurance of know if anything was wrong and dealing with Amazon vs a Chinese site was worth the difference to me.

[WhatUPSbox?]

$40 for peace of mind and not having to track the mail truck for 6 weeks sounds like a good deal.

Todd, if you don't mind noting what software you are using and what parameter tweaks it took to get from out of the box to first good print.

[rualert]

     Neat stuff, just dropping a note so I can keep an eye on this thread.
Casey

[toddbrat]

$40 for peace of mind and not having to track the mail truck for 6 weeks sounds like a good deal.

Todd, if you don't mind noting what software you are using and what parameter tweaks it took to get from out of the box to first good print.

That's exactly why I went with Amazon, I ordered it on Friday and it was on my doorstep Sunday.

The only software I've been using so far is Cura (https://ultimaker.com/en/products/ultimaker-cura-software) to slice the projects, I've downloaded almost everything from thingiverse.com with the exception of the Urban Single Shot tray a member here created. That one came from grabcad.com and even on low print quality works great. I need to smooth it out and will probably print a better quality one but so far so good.

After putting the printer together and leveling the bed, I did the dog that came on the SD card that was set to print at a fairly high resolution. That took about 5 1/2 hours and is proudly displayed on my son's dresser. I've been using the CR-10 profile in Cura, that's the Ender 3's bigger brother, with the bed settings changed to the proper dimensions and everything else default for that profile. I've been printing most everything on a pretty low quality as I'm still basically just playing but I will say, to my untrained eye I've yet to have a "bad" print job, no stringing or anything like that. I was prepared to spend hours getting this thing tweaked but a careful 10 minute bed leveling seems to be all I had to do. I'm loving it so far, will be trying my hand at some design work soon.

I'm a complete n00b on 3d printing, had never even seen one operate in person. I've seen some that come ready to go out of the box for close to the same money. As of right now, I would not hesitate to recommend this one to anyone. If you can put together boxed furniture, you can assembly this. Take your time leveling the bed and be prepared to print a ton of useless trinkets because it is pretty cool to watch. 

[fgwhite]

what about this style

[Back_Roads]

 I have that one only had a month to play with it, then didn't have time for another obsession Been sitting on a shelf waiting for me to need a part now I guess.

[fgwhite]

i like this one also

[Thane]

Glad you found a model to get started 3D printing, most people stage through a few models till they find whats important to their specific use, much like airguns.
My sons started years ago when it was pretty wooly, lots of tinkering required. Now they have graduated with aerospace degrees and have access to employer provided/very sophisticated printers.
For their personal printers they currently use the Prusa i3 models for the consistency of print and excellent support provided by Josef who started as a one guy act and not just a chinese knock-off.

For my 3D needs, I'm more of a subtractive guy and stick with a cheap mill and tons of back-lash...

[WhatUPSbox?]

So I thought if I stayed away from Bargain Gate, you enablers would not find me...wrong. 

OK, I got pulled into the 3D printing rabbit hole with a new Ender 3.

So far very impressed. Half a dozen useful prints using low cost PLA, they all came out defect free. I followed this very detailed set-up and alignment video  , it took extra time but appears to be well worth it. The only extra step I added was to flatten the base frame by loosening/tightening the screws on one side.

Aside from the collection of upgrade parts (the green stuff) I tried the DRO mount clips for the mini-lathe. They printed great, but there are two designs on Thingiverse. This one is looser and can slip over the rail and I ended up adding some metal shims https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1915730. I think the other design that slips on over the end of the rail probably works a little cleaner, though the file needs to be scaled https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1001308. In any case mission accomplished. I was going to make one of the metal designs, but this was a push of a button...I'll see how it holds up.

Thanks again for the recommendations.

[Thane]

Nice prints!

Getting it all in order for the first usable pieces takes some time, looks like you have it under control.