What upgrade is better?

Hello Reprap Community,

I can't really decide what upgrade to get. I have two choices,
1. a Matter and Form 3d scanner Link to Filastruderor a
2. Filastruder Kit Link to matterandform

I understand that a 3d scanner will get me more things to print and a filasturder kit will get me cheaper printing(both around $300)so please help me decide.

Thanks,
Beeep22

How much printing are you doing? If you're doing a ton of printing maybe the filament machine may help. Personally I use my printer to make stuff and not replicate stuff but if that is your use for your printer then the scanner is awesome. I don't use a crazy amount of filament plus its easy to buy and saves me time so I would go for the scanner. Time is money and I'm not sure if the filament machine is really worth that trade off. Also it would be pretty cool to scan things.

Well, with a Filastruder, you really want to have a Filawinder. So be prepared to think about the winding too.

All in all, I would choose for the filastruder as the Matter and Form only seems to be able to scan small objects? Or am I missing something? To me this is a big drawback as I like to make big scans.

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http://www.marinusdebeer.nl/

I have yet to be impressed with some of the newer scanners in general. Look around Thingiverse at scans people have done, and look at what they used, that will give you an idea of what to expect. Some are not impressive at all.

Filastruders are not super simple or fast, getting a good extrusion takes some work. As mentioned you will also want a winder, and if you want to recycle prints you also need a grinder. When spools were $50 and up, it made sense, but now that we are seeing $15 and $20 spools, it's not as worth it as it once was.

Do some reasearch on the scanner, look at the limitations, and have a few ideas on what you want to scan. If they have a manual look at that. I found with another brand of scanner is that what I wanted to scan which was objects that were dark or glossy and what I could scan were two diffrent things usually light colored and non glossey showed up better with at least the other brand. For me that's what got limiting on what I wanted to scan to what I could scan. Note I didn't what to spend much time tweaking it with lighting and putting corn starch on everything glossy because I didn't want to be down $900 plus. Just something to look into and think about on your decision. Just my experience.