The best 3D printer for a figurine designer?

[awerby]

It doesn't sound like you're really going to be happy with one of these hot-extrusion (FDM) printers, since you're asking for high detail and accurate surfaces. If you melt the plastic to smooth the surface, you lose the detail. If you really want to use a FDM-type printer, I'd say hold out for one with dual extruders that can demonstrate an effective workflow that includes producing soluble supports. Otherwise, you're going to be spending a lot of time essentially hand-carving the undersides of your figurines. But before you buy one, see if you can have someone who owns one print one of your models for you, so you can look at it close up. All of these printers produce models with a striated surface, which may or may not be acceptable to you. If you're doing these figurines for clients, you might find that it's worthwhile to send them out for printing on a better machine than you can afford to buy right now.

Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com

[Dargonfly]

It doesn't sound like you're really going to be happy with one of these hot-extrusion (FDM) printers, since you're asking for high detail and accurate surfaces. If you melt the plastic to smooth the surface, you lose the detail. If you really want to use a FDM-type printer, I'd say hold out for one with dual extruders that can demonstrate an effective workflow that includes producing soluble supports. Otherwise, you're going to be spending a lot of time essentially hand-carving the undersides of your figurines. But before you buy one, see if you can have someone who owns one print one of your models for you, so you can look at it close up. All of these printers produce models with a striated surface, which may or may not be acceptable to you. If you're doing these figurines for clients, you might find that it's worthwhile to send them out for printing on a better machine than you can afford to buy right now.

Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com

Thank you for your reply. I truly understand your comment and am aware that the prints coming directly from these FDM printers will all need some sort of clean-up.
Currently; I make everything from modeling clay and I cast it in plastic if it needs to be sold. I just want to jump into the 3D printer world because I know that in the future these complete models will be 3D printed and I need to know everything about this technique now. Also; it is fun for me to explore this new world and I could easily make parts (or complete models perhaps) from printed models with just some cleanup/additional clay modeling.

Having said that; do you know/use any printers that still create relatively high quality for a good price?
Are there any printers that I've listed that you can recommend from my list? Or any printers that you don't like?