Cheapest 3D printer on the market NOW?

Hello guys!

I am a student, with barely any money left for my hobbies. it would help me a lot in my further development to have a 3D printer just for myself I can use, But I simply can't afford it. Even the cheapest ones that are around 300$, are too expensive for me. As I am a full-time student, lving out of my hometown, i have to pay rent, bills, taxes(yep) and food.. Plus, the college i go to!

SO, I am asking you kind guys, what is the cheapest 3D printer I could possibly find on the market now? Doesn't matter if its used, scratched, ugly etc... I don't care not a single bit about the looks of it. I just want t to be functional.
What pricetag can I expect on somethng like this?

one word of advice, NEVER go on the cheap side you buy cheap you buy twice, nowadays you can find a lot of cheap printers but the quality (or legitimate sometimes) of those can be extremly bad, one example is the cobblebot, they argue the quality and size are great...... is not, that been said, i would sugest either a zortrax (https://zortrax.com/) or an I3 Prusa (http://reprap.org/wiki/Prusa_i3/es), you can chose from a plug-and-play printer or a DIY printer both options are great it all depends on your commintment on this type of technology, and remember, the answer depends on who you are asking to.

I know I should never buy cheap things, But I need it, and I have to buy it cheap because there is no other way to have it.. And both of these printers you listed up here are way out of my budget, im sorry.. Thanks for your effort anyways.

Also, If someone could give me an exact parts list what I need to build it, I would most likely be qualified to build it. I just need the exact links to these parts too, because I get lost when I watch all those drivers,LCD's, ramps, 1.4 etc.. I don't have a clue what im buying.

SO if someone could give me some link to all the parts i need to buy, that would be awesome!

Ok lisent, i know its hard to begin on this world, but even if you buy the exact parts, even cheap ones, most of them will cost you above 300-400 bucks, meabe if you contact geoff he can further help you out, he owns a prusa i3 and as far as i know he is an expert on that type of printer. hope it helps, cheers.

you need to hit ebay and find a smallish printer someone's outgrown.

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Originally Posted by Blackdavid

Hello guys!

I am a student, with barely any money left for my hobbies. it would help me a lot in my further development to have a 3D printer just for myself I can use, But I simply can't afford it. Even the cheapest ones that are around 300$, are too expensive for me. As I am a full-time student, lving out of my hometown, i have to pay rent, bills, taxes(yep) and food.. Plus, the college i go to!

SO, I am asking you kind guys, what is the cheapest 3D printer I could possibly find on the market now? Doesn't matter if its used, scratched, ugly etc... I don't care not a single bit about the looks of it. I just want t to be functional.
What pricetag can I expect on somethng like this?

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The print controller is the part you cant get anywhere else, and that will cost about $80, all the other parts you can salvage except for the hot end, which I have seen now as cheap st $20

While I don't exactly agree with bshadown that cheap automatically is bad, I've got the feeling that a hot end is right up there with parachutes and birth control for things you don't to buy at the rock-bottom cheapest price.

The cheapest fully assembled printer that is on the market (not on crowdfunding) that I can think of is Printrbot Simple. More importantly, I've seen maybe one fifth as many people dissatisfied with it as I have seen bragging about theirs, which is a very nice ratio. The assembled Simple Metal runs at $599, though the Simple Makers Kit (wood frame, not metal) is $349. Granted, both of them are on the small to very small side of things, but the quality I've seen from them is consistently good.

So far though, $500 is the bottom limit for fully assembled printers and $300 for kits. There are kickstarters still in development that promise cheaper, but if you want and want now, then that's the money you gotta spend.

Look at it this way, $500 is the cost of what, three college textbooks these days?;)


All that textbook money... gone forever... :(

Ok, sorry if i sound that cheap is bad, but i just had so many headaches with cheaper things and honestly i got enought of bad and cheap things, and yes Feign you aré right there aré parts that can be salvage but you have to keep looking everywhere sometimes even on the thrash, (yes i got some old printers out of the thrash, the only problem Was a faulty cable) but again it depends on the time and Will you have in order to keep searching

I wont advise you to go for a cheap printer as they lack quality & there cost you more.

Vote for the Printerbot Simple Metal. For the price I don't think you could do better.

or buy second hand - it's no good constantly repeating: 'you have to spend $500'
If the guy doesn't have $500 - how are you helping him ?

@blackdavid - which country are you in ?
The printrbot are good for the money - but only if you live in the states. Elsewhere the postage and tax are murder.

I find it hard to believe that a 3D printer is really "necessary", its a luxury hobby tool/toy at this point. If it's for business, then you should already have enough capital. If it's for a project design for class, then you can get the part printed and not use 300+ bucks. There's also maintenance that goes into a 3D printer, not to mention the cost of filament. I would advise you to save up for a Printrbot Simple which is what $350 bucks? If you can't save up $350 dollars, I highly suggest that you reconsider what is necessary at the moment because you will regret buying a cheap printer just like buying a $500 used car.

A 3d printer is really so much more than just something to print stuff on. It is an integral part of the maker movement and inspires people to think outside the box. I always advise to build a kit. It gives you a much better understanding of all that goes into these cool little machines and makes troubleshooting easier. If you do buy a kit, stick with a company that has a good reputation. Between $350 and $500 does seem to be a fairly consistent price point for "cheap" printers and there are several to choose from. Printrbot has a good reputation and great community forums. Makerfarm is another company recommended by the reprap community on this forum.

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Originally Posted by curious aardvark

or buy second hand - it's no good constantly repeating: 'you have to spend $500'

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You have a good point, though when looking for a second-hand printer you have to make sure you don't spend $100 or something and get a pile of rods somebody threw together and tried to call a Prusia.

If you're about to buy a used anything, make sure you know the seller's reason for getting rid of it and that it makes sense. When someone says "It's in perfect condition, I just don't want it." the hair on the back of my neck stands up and my money hides away for another occasion. Even when you're just looking for a used printer, narrow your search to ones with a flaw other than build quality that you can easily tolerate. For instance, the Printrbot printers generally have a very small build area, it's pretty easy to understand someone 'outgrowing' a printer with a 6"x6"x6" build envelope long before wearing it out. Or perhaps figure out which printers are notoriously slow (I can't think of one off the top of my head), as that's a likely candidate for getting sold long before actual mechanical problems start to be a factor.

Also, avoid used kit printers like the plague, people almost always run them till they're falling apart. Because when you make something yourself, you're less likely to let it go prematurely.

All good points :-)

did have a quick look on ebay and second hand 'cubify' seem to go for around $300-350. Okay they've expensive locked down cartridges - but there are plenty youtube videos telling you how to get round that.
And it's a sound design and about as idiot proof as it gets.

The biggest issue you're probably going to have with a real low budget machine is that it'll be pla only. Well cold bed print filaments only.
Some of the more exotic filaments are cold bed printable.

But abs is out - and I love printing with abs. Thick bits are rigid, thin bits are flexible. And it's all seriously strong.

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I highly suggest that you reconsider what is necessary at the moment because you will regret buying a cheap printer just like buying a $500 used car.

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lmao - my first 4-5 cars were all around £400, they all ran for at least 12 months and did what I wanted a car to do. I couldn't afford anything more exoenbsive and only regretted one. Never take a car mechanic with you to buy a car. They just assume stuff can be fixed - I have no interest in fixing cars. But it still ran for 12 months after I changed the water pump, and I sold it for decent money.

So no he won't regret buying a cheap printer - because he'll be able to improve it quite quickly.
And learning the art of 3d printing can be done on ANY level machine.

Is it necessary ? Well if you were on any kind of design course, yeah this day and age I'd say it was.

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Originally Posted by curious aardvark

All good points :-)

did have a quick look on ebay and second hand 'cubify' seem to go for around $300-350. Okay they've expensive locked down cartridges - but there are plenty youtube videos telling you how to get round that.
And it's a sound design and about as idiot proof as it gets.

The biggest issue you're probably going to have with a real low budget machine is that it'll be pla only. Well cold bed print filaments only.
Some of the more exotic filaments are cold bed printable.

But abs is out - and I love printing with abs. Thick bits are rigid, thin bits are flexible. And it's all seriously strong.


lmao - my first 4-5 cars were all around £400, they all ran for at least 12 months and did what I wanted a car to do. I couldn't afford anything more exoenbsive and only regretted one. Never take a car mechanic with you to buy a car. They just assume stuff can be fixed - I have no interest in fixing cars. But it still ran for 12 months after I changed the water pump, and I sold it for decent money.

So no he won't regret buying a cheap printer - because he'll be able to improve it quite quickly.
And learning the art of 3d printing can be done on ANY level machine.

Is it necessary ? Well if you were on any kind of design course, yeah this day and age I'd say it was.

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I am going to disagree with you here. If he gets a dirt cheap printer, a fake chinese hotend is going to give him a boatload of troubles. I have seen hotends literally just fall apart.

A car is sometimes a necessity. I have never seen a design curriculum where a 3D printer was in the syllabus, but if you can prove me wrong I would be definitely all ears.

I also never said he could not learn 3D printing on a cheap machine.

How much cheaper do you think he can go? 250? You still had to pay for gas all those years. If a 3D printer for him was truly a "necessity" he will be going to be going through rolls of filament, various colors and materials. Let's even lowball it and say 1 roll of filament is $30 dollars, and he gets 5 rolls. He would have to at least needed to save up $400 to purchase all of that. And if he can save up $400 to buy that, he can save up $350 to buy a printrbot.

I think you would agree with this. Would you have purchased the £400 car if you didnt have enough money for gas?

I am not telling him to just forget about 3D printing. I am advising him to make sure he can afford it, and that there should be a bottom line for you to venture into a new activity. 3D modeling is a difficult thing to learn on its own and will keep him plenty occupied until he can save up enough money to make a reasonable choice. I am not telling him to go out and buy an Ultimaker either. But if $50-100 dollars more is too much for you to purchase something in an activity where the consumables range between $30-50 a pop, I would hope you can see my point of view.

Well, there's cheap and then there's Chinese cheap. Both of these are made in China...

Yeah, working on a used Cubify or a used Makerbot Cupcake is a good idea. A "used" Phoenix 3D or OneUp? No. Run away from that deal, possibly screaming if you really want to.

"OneUP" for the Makerbot Cupcake. It's a good basic machine.

some good points MK-X.

But back in the days when i was buying $400 cars - petrol was so cheap it wasn't even considered a running cost. I'd look at filament now and in the next year or so the same way.

Filamentwise - so far I've paid £14 a kg or less (about $22) and it's all been good, and I suspect chinese :-)
And a kg of filament goes a helluva long way. So running costs, for material are minimal.

And a decent replacement hotend can be had for $40.

I'm not saying there are no ongoing costs. But once you've got a basic machine.
Improvements can be gradual and filament is just getting cheaper and cheaper.

I don't have issues with things of chinese manufacture. Way i look at it, the more things we buy from china - the more raw materials they have to buy from us. And, at the moment britain is doing quite well in exports to china stakes.
We need to accept that we live in the age of the global market, all big corporations are no longer mono-nationalitiy.

So whether it's legal or course required necessity - 3d printers are where it's at in the zeitgeist. Was it 'necessary' for me to buy a 3d printer. No, but do i consider it a personal necessity ?
Yes.
I've spent my life designing and inventing mad things. Now, with a little cad and a machine in my workshop - I can turn those designs into reality in a matter of hours.
It's much like a car, in that before you own one it's not a neccessity - but once you've owned one, you really can't do without :-)

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Some of the more exotic filaments are cold bed printable

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Like PET? Seems PET can replace ABS in most cases.

I thought pet needed a hot bed.
Nylon, laywood and some other filaments don't need a hot bed.

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Originally Posted by curious aardvark

I thought pet needed a hot bed.
Nylon, laywood and some other filaments don't need a hot bed.

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thank you for the reply

don't thank me too soon - I was wrong :-) Pet will print on a cold bed. Some info from the MadeSolid website on their pet+ filament.

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MadeSolid’s PET+ is an engineering grade filament. It is a strong and flexible material derived from a different strain than the few existing PET filaments on the market. PET+ is stronger than many ABS filaments and has the high print success rate of PLA. It is ideal for functional objects that need to combine toughness with flexibility, such as phone cases, wearables, robotics, and mechanical parts. Some of PET+ properties include:

• Engineering quality
• Flexible strength
• 100% recyclable
• Glossy surface finish
• High transparency (Clear Only)
• Easy adhesion (No heated bed required. Sticks to blue painters tape)
• Hydrophobic: Doesn’t absorb water like nylon does
• Good chemical resistance
• High qualify spooling and extrusion. Consistent diameter and no bubbles
• More flame resistant than PLA and ABS

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Bit more info on printing with pet:

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• Extrusion temp 220-255C
• Suggested initial printing speed: 30mm/s for perimeters/outlines, 60mm/s for infill
• Suggested top/bottom (roof/floor) thickness: 1.5mm, or at least 6 solid layers.
• If layers are not adhering to each other well, try extruding at a higher temperature

• Clear PET+ has a higher melting point than the Opaques. Try printing at a higher temperature
• Bed surface: Blue painters tape works well, with a heated bed you can also use glass with gluestick applied
• Heated bed temperature: 80C
• For a more glossy/transparent look with the clear filament, try increasing your layer height to 0.2mm or higher, printing faster, and only use a single perimeter.

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Looks like a heated PET bed then, since I'm not going to be dealing with tape.

A cheap printer may not last you for a long time and aside from that, you might not get the desired results. But if you really need it ASAP, try looking at online shops and look for second-hand 3d printers. There might be sellers who aren't satisfied with the kind of printer they bought and may sell it at a lower price.

Getting back to the 'cheap' printer debate, I too would recommend the Printrbot Simple Maker's Kit (http://printrbot.com/shop/simple-makers-kit/) ($349) I have one of the earlier releases of this printer, and it's honestly very good for the price. The build platform may be a bit small, and it's PLA only, but it consistently produces prints that are comparable with many other printers, with minimal fuss and setup. A lot of the upgrades on my MakerFarm were printed on that printer. Another nice feature is there are some great upgrades for the printer, including a build volume upgrade that gets you a good 7" x 4" x 7" and countless upgrades and revisions on Thingiverse. I don't think you could get any better for the price.