What To Go For?

Hi Guys,

I have been reading up on loads of different models of 3D printers, from the reprap to the full fledged companies that now provide "out the box" built 3d Printers.

But what gets the best quality prints? I have a feeling that companies will be cutting costs, by supplying cheaper parts which will mean a loss of quality, where as a reprap kit would be built to how ever the builders quality is?

Now I want to get myself a 3D Printer, but I think I have looked at too many models and filled my head with too many ideas to chose a single model to buy.

I'm after something that is less then £600, but has good quality prints and a good resolution.

I am fairly familiar with rails such as these
[uzcca.com]

And can easily get rails like that (as i have a feeling I would build one, and then modify it to make a bigger build area), so something using some similar rails would be nice.

Any ideas?

Thanks

James

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Regards,

James Simpson

Almost any printer is capable of amazing quality prints. If you are just getting started find a printer that has a good user base and is in your price range. Everything else will come.

A cheap printer with the correct tweaks will almost always out perform an expensive printer with no tweaks.

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ConceptFORGE
Wally, GUS Simpson, LISA Simpson, THOR Simpson, Sextupteron, CoreXZ

Thanks for the reply Nicolas,

Do you recommend any particular rewrap kit?

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Regards,

James Simpson

Can't really go wrong with a Prusa or a Printrbot.

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ConceptFORGE
Wally, GUS Simpson, LISA Simpson, THOR Simpson, Sextupteron, CoreXZ

`What do people think of the 3dstuffmaker evolution?

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Regards,

James Simpson

Or even one of these:

[gadgets3d.com]

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Regards,

James Simpson

Absolutely love this kit - How much did it cost you all in roughly? Would you be selling kits of this? - I would love one for my first 3D printer

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Regards,

James Simpson

Well, I would go for the G3D kit then.

Edit; maybe not, I see mostly everything they sell in the kit department is out of stock and I remember reading about some temporary shutdown of their shipping department.

Better first check if G3D is still up and running. They also haven't answered my mail that I sent them somewhere around 20th of December.

RAF, the owner is a very nice guy and they have sold me quality items and they replaced a PCB heatbed that I received that was completely warped.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/12/2014 05:25PM by Ohmarinus.

It really depends on your motivation to get a 3d printer.

If you're looking for quality prints and reliability with minimum effort > get a all assembled machine from one of the reputable manufacturers like ultimaker or makerbot.

If you're looking to tinker around and build a printer as a hobby and learning in the process > get an average reprap machines from one of the sellers near you. The reason is simple, you get a whole lot of flexibility and tons of options to play around. Besides, you'll soon be looking to upgrade components/parts of the printer that you're not satisfied with so there's not need to get state of the art kits at the beginning.

Just my 2 cents worth.

That is a great post. Ideally I would like the best of both worlds. Although I've been looking into the OB1.4 and that is pretty much exactly the kinda kit I would like to build, but I can't see anyone that sells a kit with all the bits in one package, which makes me think to get a 3d printer that will let me build that and then use it's parts to donor into the new 3D printer.

To be honest I'm a tinkerer so not afraid of modding things and tweaking them to make them better. Just kinda want the framework to start something off and finish it all in one go without having to buy one bit from here and one from there and waiting for them to be delivered.

The pre-built stuff is majorly expensive for the same type of output in my opinion.

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Regards,

James Simpson

This is the thread that started me off on this route

[forums.reprap.org]

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Regards,

James Simpson

although I am in the process of designing my own printer I wanted something assembled to get my feet wet with at a reasonable price. The RoBo 3D for $699 (heated bed) is what I picked. It has popular control hardware/software and with some well documented tweaks it is capable of quality prints.

Hi, its like this from my experience, if you have time and a low budget go for a self build unit(you will need control system savvy and have some knowledge of an electrical/electronics/software discipline), if you have lots of money just go out and buy the best rated unit, and any problems give them the problems youve paid for it ;-), do not believe everything that is written in these forums you have varying levels of expertise/skills advising people from their perspective, so if you do find a point related to your problem, run with it but if at the beginning things don't seem right, just forget it and either work it out yourself or look for another algorithm on the same issue supplied by joseph publico, i am a firm believer if you want to learn to 3d print you have learn... you have to SELF learn, its the only way, this discipline is a minefield but addictive its all part of the game and money saving carrot!!!!! Have fun..... I do:-)