Trying to find the best sub £500 (800 USD)

Printer	Price (£)	Highest Resolution (microns)	Size (cm)	Other notes
Pruse i3 Hephestos	397	60	22x22x18	Self-build kit
Printrbot Simple (small)	360	100	10x10x10	Self-build kit
Pirx 3D Printer	476	100	16x25x15	Pre-built
Printrbot Simple (medium)	468	100	15x15x15	Self-build kit
Da Vinci 2.0	499	100	20x20x20	Pre-built, dual extrusion, pricier filament

I've compiled this list of sub £500 3D printers based off of what I've found at a recent 3D printshow event and I was wondering if anyone has used or has any of these and what your thoughts are? Also if there's any I should add to the list?

This would be my first 3D printer. Any advice is very appreciated :D

-James


P.S Hello everyone! (I'm new here)


EDIT: Oops, missed '3D printer' out of the thread title, what a noob!

well don't worry about resolution. I print most things at .3 and only go up to .2 for really fiddly models.
.1 - nah, takes too long and has a lot of bridging issues.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by curious aardvark

well don't worry about resolution. I print most things at .3 and only go up to .2 for really fiddly models.
.1 - nah, takes too long and has a lot of bridging issues.

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Well that changes things a bit! Thanks ;D

basically everything you'll get will print at a decent resolution.

I will add a printer to the list:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3D-printer...item51c06457d2

Essentially ctc/wanhao/flashforge are all the same printer: a makerbot replicator dual clone.

Good reliable machines. Decent print volume and huge knowlege base online (and that's just geoff :-)

I love my flashforge. Still finding out things it can do and haven't really started playing with dual extrusion yet.
Price seems to have dropped about £100 in the last 2 months. And you know what, I don't care lol

Hell if it drops to £300 I'll buy another just for spares (hmm, unless I could stack them - no space otherwise).

One thing I would miss with a different printer are the r2d2 noises it makes when it's working. I did switch them off for a short period - and it just wasn't the same. :-)

Holy smokes good suggestion! That thing ticks all the boxes and is very well priced, includes freakin filament! :o Thankyou. Hehe R2D2 noises, sounds like an arduino modding job ;)

could be - but daft as it sounds, I'd really miss the noises.

And yes, they do tick all the boxes.

Now, the odds are the printbed won't be totally flat. I'd suggets some 3-5mm glass and a couple of small bulldog clips. I initially used 1.2mm poundland glass on mine and it just bent to the same shape as the printbed (which was ever so slightly domed in the middle) I've now got a 3mm sheet of aluminium on it and it's perfect.
But any glass thick enough not to bend will work just as easily.

Looks like a slab o glass is on the order list too then! Thanks

Read through this first.

That'll put you way ahead of where I was when i ordered mine :-)

Thankyou again! :D Your info is getting me alot further than I've been at

I thought the r2d2 sounds was the steppers. It's actually a speaker?

lol yeah.
If you go into printer settings you can turn bot noises off. I did and it sounded so boring without them that I turned them back on again :-)

It's the speaker that makes the 'tada' noise at the end and beginning of a print. I'm sure if you knew where the files were in the firmware you could make the printer speak. Now that would be cool :-)

Used to have a bunch of files and utilities back in the mists of time that generated speech from basic sound chips.
You could probably use the same settings to get the printer to talk to you.

I wanna hack my printer when I get it and have all 8 bit sounds

Okay so I've got two printers I've narrowed it down to sort of via your one recommendation XD

The improved model of the printer you linked: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-3D-pri...item4d20dcd02d

Or the very similar Flashforge Creator for almost the same price: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Replic...item4ac50f719c

I think my concern is that only one of these is a branded make. Also I am still wondering about these prusa printers