Question for the knowledgeable amongst you. I can look on eBay and see various 3D printers based on the Makerbot. Things that offer a build volume of almost 5 litres
, layer thickness of between 0.1-0.2mm etc. Are these any good? Thinking accuracy, spares etc.
Or is it the old adage you get what you pay for?
I’d hazard a guess that it’s pretty much that you get what you pay for: if you don’t know much about 3D-printers and cannot fashion your own replacement parts when something goes awry you likely would do best to opt for a slightly more expensive one. We have a saying here that basically goes “A poor man cannot afford to buy cheap.”
If you have any technical skill or none at all for that matter and can follow instructions you could build your own for less than you would spend on a higher end model. You will calibrate more though but it’s a great experience.
I don’t really recommend the printrbot line but for 300$ you get a pla capable printer or you can go with a maki bot (or whatever its called) from what I hear there better for the same price and for a 100$ more (total 400+s/h) you get a decent printer with those specs as well as a heated build platform allowing you to print abs and nylon.
I built my I2 and modified it now I’m going to a 3DR Delta, printing now on my I2.
Just my two cents.
My 2 cents is that it would be a lot less frustrating to get an assembled unit first and get printing right away and then you can print parts for your next one. For assembled, it’s hard to beat the Solidoodle 2 at 499 for a 6x6x6 build volume. The RigidBot at Inventaparts won’t be available until Dec/Jan but its 10x10x10!
The only problem with makerbot knockoffs is that there’s no guarantee that they use the same parts as makerbot, so you may end up with a useless machine if something breaks and you don’t know how to fix it. The thing with makerbot is that they are fairly consistent with their quality these days, some of the chinese knockoffs might cut all sorts of corners to lower the price.
If you are actually looking for a relatively easy to use printer that is almost ready out of the box then you should check out Makibox, Bukobot (Deezmaker), or Printerbot, though there is some assembly required but the documentation is pretty good for each of those.
The Flashforge Creator and the Wanhao Duplicator are clones of the Replicator 1 Dual. The mbot Cube is quite different. Flashforge has got good feedback from Makerbots owners. I will buy one myself from iMakr who offers a 6 months warranty.
While many people may say it’s easier for a beginner to buy an assembled machine, I’d recommend assembling one yourself for the sake of future troubleshooting. At this point in time, every printer will require some troubleshooting, and finding a problem is a lot easier when you know how everything goes together
That being said there is actually a lot of support for the assembled machines of something goes wrong… In most cases
I’m glad that I started with a kit. I know how it goes together and I’m not afraid to tinker or replace parts.
Having started from the other end, I appreciated making stuff from day 1 and knowing what it should do. I learned how to tinker with it and make it better from there. I think an argument could be made either way.
I’d follow @Jeremy_G_WeisTek_Eng 's advise and go for a Makibox, by @Makible . It’s in it’s latest preproduction phase, so you will better be patient, but for 300$ (+ 100$ fast shipping) you’ll get an easy to assemble, full featured kit.
That is in fact my choice since I work on FDM machines, but don’t have one at home yet.
Thanks for the responses everyone and the advice. Much appreciated it. I have an engineer background so don’t mind taking things apart if not working. However I appreciate things go wrong, espeically with moving parts, so was concerned with “knock offs” and spare part availability. Will take a look at some of the models suggested above. Whilst building one would be fun/challenge, which I would enjoy, time constraints of life are pushing me towards a ready to use model. Plus you can probably guess my next question…
@Cameron_O_Neill
What would you recommend?
@Bill_Bradford
What did you buy as a kit?
I bought the Printrbot Jr. (and have also bought the Printrbot Simple, but haven’t put it together yet). Since the initial build of the Jr. I’ve done some simple modifications - injection-molded nylon gears on the extruder to replace the laser-cut wood ones (they now ship nylon as default), put a Noctua 40mm fan in to replace the wimpy default one, and I have a set of GT2 gears and belts that will be going on soon to replace the original XLs. The Jr. was just fine “as is” when built - I just like to tweak and tinker.
Thanks @Bill_Bradford for the insight.
One more note - the customer service from Brook and the crew at Printrbot has been nothing short of AMAZING. They’ve sent me numerous small parts free of charge, including a replacement Printrboard controller when a goof (entirely my fault) fried the original.
I’m also using a printrbot (the version 1 plus version). I’ve heard great things about all of their printers now, and like Bill was saying, the service is awesome from printrbot. I’ve never had a technical problem that required me to buy replacement parts, but I’ve added lots of cool small upgrades, most of which were printed. If I had a limitless supply of money, I may not have bought the printrbot, but its, in my opinion, the best bang for your buck printer.
This post is starting to get long, but there’s one more thing I wanted to add. There are quite a few crowdfunded printer projects around now… in fact printrbot was one of them. Most of these are not yet in a stage where you can just buy one. I wouldn’t get too attached to a work-in-progress printer because a few of these projects have actually failed before hitting large scale production :(. It will be awesome if the makiboxes, rigidbots, and buccaneers hit the market, but until then, your limited to the previously mentioned printers.
Lastly, no matter printer you get you will be happy because they are 3d printers, and all 3d printers are super fun and super awesome.