Getting into the craft

Hi!

Just joined in hopes of getting some insider information on 3D printing. I have recently been researching 3D printing because I have seen some of the things you can do, and I have some ideas for some things that I want to print.

I'm not completely sold on it just yet. I have seen that it's not exactly "consumer ready" yet, though there are "consumer grade" printers. Based on all the research I'm not sure I am going to buy into the hype of the consumer grade printers (*cough* M3D *cough* ;)).

I'm willing to spend a decent but of money, I would probably spend a max of.. $700. But that's pushing it just a little bit. The one thing I can think of right now that I want to try printing is Rubik's Cubes. I'm sort of an avid cuber and think it would be cool to print some custom puzzles. I'm also pretty competent with technology. I'm a Web Developer and I understand a good degree of programming code, just in case something like that would come up. I'm also pretty good at problem solving and dissecting issues to find the core problem, so I feel confident that if anything went wrong with a 3D printer or software I could fix it, and if not I have these lovely forums to help me out :)

What can you all tell me about getting into 3D printing? And what would be a good "introductory" 3D printer, preferably sub $700?

P.S. This is the template I am looking at printing.

Welcome!

Looks like a pretty straightforward print job. Its worth mentioning (in case you don't already know) that prints do require a bit of finishing. Other than that go for it.

Can't tell you much about which printer to go for. Here in SA we are quite limited to what we can get.

Some really good tips here! Especially like the show picking tips, it's great to check out the show ahead of time and see what's selling or not, where the best spot might be, talk to other vendors, etc. I've been writing some craft show posts on my blog as well.