New to 3D Printing, Need advice

[Syd_Khaos]

Greeting all,

New to these forums, and to 3d printing.
First a tiny bit of background. Im 36, retired/disabled military, and stay at home dad of 2. As you can imagine this affords me lots of free-time for hobbies. For the past 6 years or so i have been teaching myself how to use rendering software (mainly Blender and 3dMax, but have messed around with Sketch-up a bit too). It originally started out of a desire to mod videogames. But, as hobbies do it kinda branched out from there. Another of my hobbies (and one shared by many of my friends) is RC stuff...ANYTHING RC I enjoy, cars, boats, drones...love it all.

Ok, sorry to bore ya with that, time for the meat of it!
Just got tax return and I really want to get into 3D printing, but I am 100% clueless as to what type of printer I should get.
I know Id like a decent sized working area. 6in x 6in x 6in Im thinking would be the minimum, bigger of course would be better. I need something with decent deffinition as I plan to do some detailed stuff. I also need one that takes a wide range of materials, some basic plastics but also HIPs and APS (or anything considered high-impact/break resistant).

Here are some of my ideas that Id like to print:
Linkage and other such parts for RC vehicles (these I would like to sell, both online and in a couple local shops).
Art-deco style nik-nacks. (these I may sell, but more for fun...got a Dalek I spent over 40hrs modeling Id LOVE to print).
I want to do themed chess sets.

My budget is around $1000 USD for my first printer. Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

edit:
Should note that I live in Texas, so would need a retailer thats either in the US or ships here =)

[curious aardvark]

have a look through the recent 'printer under $1000' threads.
several of them in the last couple weeks, shouldn't be too far back on the forum - everything you need to know already been posted, many times over :-)

[Bobby Lin]

I'd recommend Printrbot Play, it's around $600 and they have great quality of prints and incredible customer support. You won't regret purchasing it. If your budget is tight, then Prusa i3 is also good and it only costs around $400.

[LambdaFF]

The printrbot line is real great if you are in the US.
Support (by website) is efficient, and they keep designing upgrades so your machine is not obsolete after a year.

The Play is NOT 600$ but 400$, the Simple is 600$. The Metal Plus (which I use) is a bit more but I have the old twin extruder version and it seems they no longer offer those.

[djprinter]

Flashforge Creator Pro is a well proven FDM printer. They're typically priced at around $1200, but you can find them on sale for $1000.

[keithk16]

I would have to agree with the other replies on this thread. Printrbot is hands down one of the best printers for its price point. Also, an advantage to having some extra money left over after purchasing one means you can add on mods. I have a Printrbot Simple Metal and have been using it for about a year and have been loving it. There is a few things I have added onto my printer to increase quality and function.

Add-ons:
Raspberry Pi Model B+ paired with AstroPrint - Allows for wireless printing
E3D V6 hotend - Single greatest addition to my machine: increases quality, speed, and filament usage over the Ubis hotend that comes with the Printrbot Simple Metal
X-Axis Upgrade Heated Bed - Allows for an extra 4" of printing area plus a heated bed option (print volume: 10"x6"x6")

If you are interested in a Printrbot contact me (keith@eezitec.com) we have a wide range of 3D printers that we sell or if you want more information on my personal experience with Printrbots.

Hope this helps