HI. I’m looking into getting a 3D printer. However, my budget is $800. What is the very best printer I can get within that price? Some qualities I would like are: open source filament, a relatively big print size, and of course, the best quality I can get within that price range. I’ve been doing a lot of research and I came across the QIDI Tech. What are the pros and cons of that printer? Thank you so much. (I’m fairly new to 3D printing so i’m not sure if I want a kit… but i am willing to look into it. Also, duel extruders would be a plus, but not a must)
A prusa i3 or the p3steel equivalent gets you an 8x8" print size at a good price. It’s a kit.
Also look at monoprice, they have some assembled offerings at great prices.
If you want assembled look at Printrbot but the larger sizes will run you a bit more.
thanks. I’ll look into those.
At that price grab the i3, get it from prusa not from China. some of the “clones” are more like hillbilly cousins…
Ord Bot Hardon with a Smoothie board clone is very rigid, better than Prusa IMO.
when do you need it by?
there are some interesting printer coming out of kickstarter (that is, reaching their delivery status soon) that should launch full retail shortly.
for example, i backed a dual head machine from x3dmachines with a 12"x12"x12" print volume… much less than $800… but not available at retail yet.
I don’t Need it any time soon. (of course I WANT it as soon as possible though… lol) I’d be willing to wait if its worth while.
@Tim_Gaertner well, I’ve backed two printers (x3dmachines duo as above, plus the smaller and cheaper Tiko)
I’ll be sure to post about them when i finally receive one/both (they are both trending towards success, but nothing is guaranteed since it’s just kickstarter).
I’m not certain is with the wait, but i suspect it will be. take a look at their pages (and those of other printers nearing retail release) for yourself - it’s very subjective.
my brother backed the same pair of printers i backed but he gave up waiting so bought some cheap knock off thing from China a month back - he has an intern working for him who happily built it and is helping to tune it now… for him the delay was too long (though he’ll happily keep and use all the printers when they finally ship).
look at Prusa i3 Hephestos printers from bq. There are two models. The older model has some printed parts and is ok when you print some imporevements. The other is made 100% of metall parts and is very good. But both have no heat bed, which is not a problem, if you print with PLA and use Blue Tape. Heat bed can be fitted later anytime.
Also the original Prusa printer should be very good http://www.prusa3d.com/
Only printer I can think of in that range would be the MK2 from Prusa Research. I believe it has a larger bed then most i3’s, mesh bed leveling, and it is the printer produced by the guy that created the i3.
For around $1000, I believe you can get a Rostock Max v2 from SeeMeCNC, but I am not sure deltas are the best first printer and it still comes with an 8-bit control board I believe. Alternatively you might be able to get a plywood BigBox from E3D. Quality should be great from E3D, just not sure the BigBox is worth it or not.
Only other thought is a Flashforge, but not that familiar with the line.
EDIT: I would avoid Kickstarter. Focus on finished products.
@John-Paul_Hopman “EDIT: I would avoid Kickstarter. Focus on finished products.”
as the only other one to mention kickstarter so far i want to voice that i agree with this sentiment.
i mentioned kickstarter in the context of finding printers about to be released at RETAIL - i.e. kickstart projects which have already long ago reached funding goals and are already shipping (or about to ship) to backers.
i see sites like kickstarter as a great place to observe trends for nascent industries (including old but still ramping up industries like 3D printing). it’s a great place to see how features, pricing, and adoption rates are scaling upwards… but ONLY if you look for already successful projects. if you look at new launched projects (or even those which have been funded but might never ship anything) the info is nearly useless (since i could CLAIM to build a 3D printer for $0.50 with all the bells and whistles, but unless i actually ship it my claims are nothing but a sales pitch or worse yet possibly a scam).
Agreed on the crowdfund projects. For one, for standard FFF, there’s only so much blood you can squeeze from the “lower price” turnip and I think that’s been extracted 2-4 years ago. There’s been too many red flags that people gleefully ignore and you’re buying now to maybe get 1-2 years from now. It’s pay now, get later and you’ve lost so much time in between.
There’s legit people but often those people get overwhelmed because they’ve barely built a prototype and they don’t know how to operate a business or scale up to a thousand machines and support them, or they suffer from feature creep or some other malady.
@Jeff_DeMaagd check out Tiko [https://www.tiko3d.com/] for a good example of a recent(ish) kickstarter success (still hasn’t shipped) with a great low price point with good features ($180 for a user friendly delta printer)
edit: better/more info at the kickstarter page (note: backing ended long ago, this was funded and I’d expected to ship soon. an excellent example of kickstarter working “right” despite delays). see here: Tiko - The Unibody 3D Printer, via @Kickstarter https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tiko3d/tiko-the-unibody-3d-printer
@Jared_Eldredge You mean the one with the motors with plastic gear box?
@Jeff_DeMaagd yup. though that is no guarantee the gear box would be problematic. if you follow their updates they’ve been testing the hell out of these printers with great results and long MTBF.
i don’t suggest anyone run out and pre-order the thing (you can’t anyway) but i do suggest watching it closely to see how real-world users feel about it once we have them in our hands.
I have been looking at the original prusa MK2 kit. How does it compare to this printer (that claims to be a prusa but is not): Alunar 3D Desktop Printer Prusa i3 DIY High Accuracy CNC Self Assembly
You would really need to compare the specs to be certain.
The main points I am aware of is that the MK2 is the newest release of the Prusa i3 made by the actual creator, Joseph Prusa. So it should be a better kit with higher quality components.
I believe it also provides a larger bed within the same overall dimensions of the original version, metal frame, genuine E3D hotend (?), and mesh auto-leveling in their custom fork of Marlin.
It’s definitely not just about specs. High quality parts and design matters. Here’s a few photos of a shield Anderson Ta made using a genuine Prusa i3 MK2. I’ve not seen a budget Chinese kit make parts that nice. https://plus.google.com/+AndersonTa/posts/ASP5YzoRZEr?iem=4&gpawv=1&hl=en-US
I’m really thinking about getting the original Prusa i3 MK2 kit. has anyone had any problems with that printer? Is that a good option?