Thinking about buying a 3D printer - advice appreciated

[cschaaf]

Feels like I have spent about 20 hours in the last 2 days researching 3d printers. There are so many models out there!

I think I have narrowed it down to getting a Prusa style.

It will mostly be used for small crafts and projects around the house. My wife is a teacher and may also use it in her classroom from time to time. We're both pretty techy and don't mind having to do some teaking.

Eventually, I'd like to add laser engraving, but it's not a show stopper.

Here are the models I am looking at and some pros and cons (that are my best guess at this point):

• Wilson II - $485 + $30 shipping
  
  • Pros:
    
    • Aluminum frame
    • Has high-quality parts - including a E3D Lite hot end (an $80 upgrade for the others)
    • Auto levelling
    
    
  • Cons:
    
    • Smaller community than some of the others, so there aren't a lot of homebrew mods. (That said, it looks like they improve the stock model with user suggestions)
    • May be a bit too different from the other Prusa-style printers to use any general Prusa mods
    • The most expensive on the list
    • Buy direct instead of through Amazon
  
  
• Alunar Prusa i3 - $295 on Amazon
  
  • Pros:
    
    • Pretty active community
    • Lots of community upgrades
    
    
  • Cons:
    
    • Acrylic frame
    • Parts may not be high quality - but may be good enough?
  
  
• Geeetech Aluminum i3 - $388 on Amazon
  
  • Pros:
    
    • Aluminum frame
    • Pretty active community
    • Lots of community upgrades
    
    
  • Cons:
    
    • Parts may not be high quality - but may be good enough?
  
  
• Folger i3 - $279 + $20 shipping
  
  • Pros:
    
    • Pretty active community
    • Lots of community upgrades
    
    
  • Cons:
    
    • Acrylic frame
    • Parts may not be high quality - but may be good enough?
    • Buy direct instead of through Amazon
  
  
• WanHao Duplicator i3 - $425 on Amazon
  
  • Pros:
    
    • Steel frame
    • Very active community
    • Lots of community upgrades
    • Parts seem like average quality
    
    
  • Cons:
    
    • Parts may not be high quality - but may be good enough? If you upgrade to the E3D Lite hot end, it's the same price as the Wilson, but with the rest of the parts might not be quite the same quality.
    • Also, when compared to the Wilson, no auto-leveling

Am I off on any of these? Am I missing anything?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

​​​​​​​Thank you!

[Rover31]

I would love to see comments on these. If I could add folks that have any of these do you like it or not?
I have a CTC 4880 that I purchased second hand. It is a cheap one and obviously has low cost components. It started printing parts but now am having issues with the motherboard. It is either connection issues or the motherboard itself.

[cschaaf]

I ended up buying the WanHao Duplicator i3 v2.1 from 3d printer universe. It was a bit cheaper than Amazon and they had them in stock. Not sure it will arrive by Christmas, but that's what I get for waiting so long to order.

[wendy]

HE3D 3D printer
www.reprapmall.com
prusa i3 $215- free shipping
-metal and acrylic frame
-E3D extruder
- 200*200*200/200*280*200mm
delta K200 printer $239- free shipping
-injection modeling platics parts
- E3D extruder
-printing size 200*200*280mm
delta K280 printer $599- free shipping
-injection modeling platics parts
- E3D extruder
- heat bed
-printing size 280*280*600

[ralphzoontjens]

I am looking at the Velleman K8200 - it brings lesser quality prints but is highly modifiable into a CNC, paste extruder, dual extruder etc.
Does anyone have any experiences with this machine as a workhorse?

[awerby]

Nobody has hands-on experience with all these printers, so it's hard for anyone to give you a comparison of anything but the published specs, which you can do for yourself. This is the most common thread on these forums - what printer should I buy?- but it's something you'll have to decide for yourself. The most the vast majority of us can do to help is either to praise a machine we've bought which worked well, or warn you away from one that worked poorly for us.

[infinity3dprinting]

We are selling 3D printers at Infinity 3D Printing in Australia. We have Mankati 3D Printer and Doogell Sirius 3D printing with free shipping in Australia and New Zealand.