Help Please! Looking To Buy A 3D Printer

Im looking to order a 3d printer in the next few days. I wanna make sure that I buy a 3d printer that I wont have to upgrade for some time. Was wondering if there is a standard size or standard filament type that most printers are using now a days. I understand that before ABS 3mm was pretty standard but fast forward to today and I read that its PLA 1.75. So i was wondering if you guys could help me. I just want to know whats the most commonly used type and size of filament for most printers today?

Can someone give me a better idea of whats the most popular filament type and size by ranking these in order of most popular to least popular please.
PLA 1.75, PLA 3mm, ABS 1.75mm, ABS 3mm

Thank you for your help. I really wanna get into 3d printing but i have a habit of needing to know anything and everything before i go into something new.

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robert6688
Nice to meet you, I give you some advice, the print size be larger, suggest printing size: 300 * 230 * 160 mm, because you won't because printing large objects and decomposition model,
3 mm the diameter of the material is obsolete, 3 mm material printing precision is low, how much the printer is using 1.75 mm material filaments,
1.75 I suggest use ABS material, ABS print model for future nap, ABS has a high heat-resistant, easier to grinding, polishing, drilling, etc, are many machines for the PLA, because ABS need better heating bed, otherwise print ABS easy deformation!Recommended: B300

Thank you for your reply. Look forward to hearing what other people think to compare. Thanks guys


Admin edit : removing SPAM urls copies.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/25/2014 10:55AM by DeuxVis.

Single account created extremely recently, I'd be weary of his advertising.
Ultimaker 2. Built on proven concepts and reliable designs. Of all the printers I've heard complaints about, I can't ever recall hearing one about an Ultimaker. I would love one as a replacement to my current printer, but the price stops me, and may stop you.
By saying you don't want to upgrade it for a while I assume you want to buy one fully ready out of the box, for that you have to really filter out a super majority of printers you see. Far more cheap, unreliable poor excuses for printers than actual printers with how easy it is to get into the market. Word of warning.

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Realizer- One who realizes dreams by making them a reality either by possibility or by completion. Also creating or renewing hopes of dreams.
"keep in mind, even the best printer can not print with the best filament if the user is the problem." -Ohmarinus

I would have to agree with MrDoctorDIV. The Ultimaker 2 is the way to go if you want a solid out of the box printer. It can run PLA, ABS, Nylon and a few others as well.

As for what Robert6688 said, he is totally wrong. Filament size has been proven to not matter when it comes to precision and print quality. That being said, filament size does matter when you are working with machines that use different mechanical movements. So Cartesian style machines (Ultimakers, Makerbots, SolidDoodle, etc.) can use either 3mm or 1.75mm filament but tend to run with 3mm as that is what they were built to use. The Delta style machines generally all run 1.75mm filament because of the way in which they move and the way that the filament runs to the nozzle through the bowden tubes. Delta's generally don't use 3mm because it doesn't bend and flex as easily as 1.75mm does, which means that it tends to break due to over flexing/bending.

Also the machine that Robert6688 recommended is rather dated compared to what is out there now. If you want a printer in the RepRap family I would suggest the Prusa i3, not whatever bastardized kind of machine that Robert6688 is recommending.

In terms of ABS vs PLA, you will get stronger and more heat resistant prints with ABS but you will have to fight with delamination and the print cooling to quickly even with the heated bed. That is all due to ABS having a shrink factor of 3-5% when printing which will cause all of those issues and also cause some issues with print accuracy. With PLA you won't have the shrinking and delamination issues, not to say that there won't be a few problems but overall PLA is much, much nicer to work with. You can drill and sand it just like you would ABS but you can't use acetone vapor baths to smooth prints like you can with ABS.

If you have more questions please post em!

Ive been looking into the prusa i3. Any one familiar with this printer. Its very affordable and looks to be gaining popularity. I do like how the ultimaker 2 looks, as well as what ive read about it. Do all the new printers deal with mostly 1.75mm pla/abs? Do alot of printers still use abs 3mm? Whats the most popular type and size of filament being used now?

Thanks ice man. I will continue to look into the prusa i3.

Prusa i3 is the best in the way of kits for beginners, flexible and easy and typically cheaper. But it is limited, while many have gotten production quality prints after much fine tuning and mastering of their printer. It will need to become your baby and could be anywhere from a miracle to a screaming problematic rebellion. Becoming popular? It already is, it truly is the best for beginners because of how wide spread it is, so finding help is super easy. I know a far bit about them simply because they're everywhere, I have never even seen one.
I'll back up what I said again, if you can afford the up-front price of the U2, you will never regret buying it and it will serve you well. But it is a hefty up front price. I wish I had gone that route and saved up for it, but I caved and got me a Solidoodle that I've nearly upgraded the whole machine to get fine prints. Still not reliable.

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Realizer- One who realizes dreams by making them a reality either by possibility or by completion. Also creating or renewing hopes of dreams.
"keep in mind, even the best printer can not print with the best filament if the user is the problem." -Ohmarinus

Most of the Cartesians (Ultimaker's, Makerbots, etc) use 3mm filament while the Deltas mostly use 1.75mm filament. Either style of machine can use either 3mm or 1.75mm filament, its just a matter of swapping out components (hot end, sometimes knurled/hobbed bolts) and adjusting the firmware and software. its all a matter of preference at this point and how the filament will be run to the nozzle. If its a direct drive system then its doesn't really matter, however some of the stuff with the bowden systems work better with 1.75. But again its preference.

This site has some good i3 kits that use aluminum bodies.
[shop.diytechshop.com]

I was recently in the same boat and was shopping for a Prusa i3 kit.

After some research and emailing back and forth, I went with the makergeeks.com i3 kit.

There were a few reasons for this:

1. The guy is in Springfield, MO
2. After emailing him I have the feeling he WILL stand behind his kits
3.The kit has absolutely everything you need to get up and going quickly without soldering, crimping and guessing.
4. The kit comes with a detailed manual.

It does come with an acrylic frame and is about $200 more than the other printers I found (diytech, replikeo, 3dprinterczar).

I felt like it was worth an extra $200.00.

I am totally new to all of this, so please take what I have to say with a grain of salt

I almost forgot a link:
[www.makergeeks.com]

I plan on doing a review and build when this arrives (it was ordered on Saturday and it takes him a week or 2 to get everything ready).

Good luck!

I would just say if you want to just print and don't bother , buy a product ( up!, ultimaker, makerbot, lot of new product wonderful every week ? ) . If you feel like learning and know you can manage some electronics and mechanics, go for a reprap ( lot of models right in front of you on reprap.org).

IT is really two different worlds , so in my opinion that would be the first question i ask myself.

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the Smartrap project

[smartfriendz.com]
[www.thingiverse.com]
[reprap.org]
[github.com]
doc assemblage: [reprap.org]
NEW: Forum smartfriendz: [smartraptalk.smartfriendz.com]

Makerbot is far from " just print and don't bother." I've read myself a few forums here of people frustrated with it.
Edit: Phrased wrong, fixed.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/11/2014 03:30PM by MrDoctorDIV.

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Realizer- One who realizes dreams by making them a reality either by possibility or by completion. Also creating or renewing hopes of dreams.
"keep in mind, even the best printer can not print with the best filament if the user is the problem." -Ohmarinus

The Makerfarm Prusa I3V is a good machine. VERY rigid with good support and a great build video log series.

You can get precision every bit as good with 3mm filament as with 1.75mm filament.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/11/2014 03:27PM by umdpru.

from personal experience, PLA is the easiest to print with. prints come out nicely with or without heated bed, it's just a matter of tuning the printer to produce nice quality prints. 3mm vs 1.75mm isnt a big issue in my opinion, my personal reprap runs off of 3mm which prints just as nicely and detailed than 1.75mm printers. But the current trend, in my opinion, is more and more printers are starting to use 1.75, not sure why. both size filaments are readily available though.

ultimachine v2 is a solid printer that you can be comfortable with little setup and not much worry about upgrades. most of the people i know with them, and ive used it quite often, don't have any large issues with them. makerbot rep2, no heatbed just PLA works pretty nicely as well. the 2x's in my opinion, and with a lot of owners ive heard of do have issues that arise here and there. almost every printer you buy fully assembled will require startup setup, calibration and tuning, and all printers will require troubleshooting and maintenance. the consumer 3d printers right now are just too new in my opinion to be working 100% out of the box and cant be expected to be maintenance free for the duration of its lifetime

I can only agree with you isonoob !

I think it's like car industry some years ago.. you could have it, marketing said that that it was "plug and drive" , but it was good to have a good car engineer in your family Same for 3d printing actually.. there's no check, problem detection or anything like this in any printer right now.

It will come eventually of course.

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the Smartrap project

[smartfriendz.com]
[www.thingiverse.com]
[reprap.org]
[github.com]
doc assemblage: [reprap.org]
NEW: Forum smartfriendz: [smartraptalk.smartfriendz.com]

Hi, I recently bought a prusa i3 from makerfarm. As a complete newbie to 3D printers, I was looking for an affordable kit which contains everything needed to build it and good instructions. I didn't run into any big problems while building it and if I had a quesiton Colin (from makerfarm) responded to my mails within a couple of hours... After building it, it was running the test prints without any problems - I was really surprised!
So if you like to assemble it yourself, I can highly recommend the prusa i3 kit due to its stability, ease of use and the great support from makerfarm!! But I also have to admit that this is the only printer I've built and/or used!!

Have fun!

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MrDoctorDIV
Single account created extremely recently, I'd be weary of his advertising.

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Iceman086
As for what Robert6688 said, he is totally wrong.

One only needs to read Robert6688's posts to see that he's only here to advertise his website. I reported him to the moderators.