@Cylindric (my work buddy) told me to come here and ask this to everyone. I’m interested in getting a 3D printer. I dont want a build your own or something complex to setup and use. As plug and play as you can get. @stochastic_forest is actually printing me some 3D models for a boardgame (i hope anyway) and the more I think about it, I’m gonna want to do this increasingly more often.
Also this is probably not suitable, but there is one on Kickstarter at the moment. Does it look any good?
You don’t mention important considerations like budget, minimum print volume, hoped for quality, how much premium you put on having support (or will @cyllindric assume that role by default- )
“I dont want a build your own or something complex to setup and use.”
Low price printers come with minimal support or the companies supplying them go out of business rapidly.
So you can go for printer like the Up Box, or the Ultimaker 2 Go and retain a reasonable expectation of receiving support from the manufacturer.
Or you can go for something lik the Wanhao i3 and rely on the fact that it is a chinese knock off of a reprap from China and that someone in the RepRap community might be able to help you if you have problems.
All these printers are available now - avoiding Kickstarter issues.
I bought an LCD based resin printer called the iBox, from either Kickstarter or Indiegogo - on the basis that it was cheap - so I wasn’t risking much. In the event I waste the £100 or so it cost as it didn’t work properly and the people behind the campaign were swamped with issues and eventually gave up.
Budget i was thinking would be up to about £500. But if you cant really get a good printer without hitting over £1000 like your examples, then I should re-align my thinking! Im not bothered about support. Mark will be fine im sure. If ever there was a man who loves to help its Mark
Quality wise im not sure about except at that price I’d expect some decent printing for sure. Without showing an example I’m not sure what quality scales there are or anything. So here is an example of something id print…
To be honest, if you’re a patient person, just upload your models here and get them professionally printed: https://www.3dprint-uk.co.uk/upload-and-quote/
(Use ‘Automatic Upload’ to get an instant price)
The quality will be miles meters ahead of anything that comes off a printer you’re looking to buy. I’ve used this service many times now so can recommend it easily. Minimum order is quite high though so you’ll want to have a whole assortment of things you want to print.
Say no more, around these lands, that’s plenty good reason enough. I’ve only ever built my own designs from scratch but I have used both Lulzbot Mini’s and Ultimakers, both of which are at the top end of the consumer market. As you’ve got a Mark on-hand, I’ve heard (but not used) good things about Wanhao printers.
I can strongly recommend https://www.3dhubs.com/service/cobnut3d.
I uploaded a small design 12 JUN - 16:14, we exchanged a couple of messages, and received the part in the post 14 JUN, Under £10 for FDM/ABS.
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