Are there any good 3 D printers in the 200 dollar range for a designer just starting to experiment with the medium?
No
@Martin_Cronje wow… Thanks…smhl
If you’re good at scrounging electronics, finding deals, and building/programming your own stuff, it can be done.
But it’s not for the weak.
Now if you would go up to 300, there seem to be (few) options. I recall seeing a review of a reasonable printer in that price range. Unfortunately I don’t recall the name.
For reviews check out https://www.3dhubs.com/best-3d-printer-guide
You may find a working printer around $200 but there is a high chance it wouldn’t be considered “good”. Lots of useful sites online to help you make a better decision, but you have a lot of research to do. It’s very unlikely you get a 3d printer RTP that cheap. But you might be able to find an ok kit or build your own for about 300 to 400. If you want easy to use and ready to print you will need to probably start looking at $500+. Maybe you can buy a second hand davinci? I’m going to part with my Rostock max v2 once I can afford the v3 kit, but even my used Rostock will be more than $500
Thanks guys… Guess I got some more homework to do
Seen review of monoprice Mp select I was intrested as first step into 3d printing. http://hackaday.com/2016/06/13/review-monoprice-mp-select-mini-3d-printer/
Monoprice mini select is a good choice for $200
@Evan_Nguyen I will look into that, thanks…
Found the review I thought of. The product was the Fabrikator Mini. http://www.hobbyking.com/mobile/viewproduct.asp?idproduct=82022
Depends on how you define good @Haakim_Allah I’ve a CR-7 kit from @Creality_3D that I think compared well to stuff over twice the price.
No Hot Bed, not the quickest and size is aimed portable but I think it certainly good enough for my purposes. The price meant that I’ve had a printer rather than not had a printer and that really pushes the practicality way up along side it’s reliability.
I’m sure quality, size and speed of printing could be pushed but then so can the price.
I tell people to avoid anything under $400.
Also, don’t try to buy your first printer on kickstarter or indiegogo, especially if it’s also the first printer produced by the company trying to sell it.
$1600-2000 = overpriced
$1100-1500 = pricey satisfaction
$600-1000 = a good time
$500 = a fair challenge
$400 = struggle
$300 = suffering
$200 = agony
I agree. While I am proud of our $399 Printrbot Play and $599 Simple, but our best printer ever (2016 Simple) will be $999. I don’t want to make the cheapest printer, I want to make the best. And I have to put more tech in there to make it easy to use (touch screen, wifi, new electronics, etc).
That said, I agree that printers at $400 and above… Especially $600 and up do get a lot better.
Recommend the Wanhao/Monoprice V2.1 i3, well tested and huge support community, can print large high quality prototypes SLOWLY, or small rough quality fairly quickly. It can replicate parts for bigger and better printers effectively. Not sure about the new ‘plus’ model, it is far less tested. the V2.1 controller in a box is ugly but allows for easy use of an enclosure, the hotend can be made all metal and the machine is mostly metal and can be made all metal except for bearing parts in the linear motion, endstop bodies, but those are injection molded and should not matter normally, so it is a good candidate for high temp materials compared to most low cost clone printers.