Looking for recommendations for a 3d printer

Hello forums

I am an educator at a natural history museum. I am looking to get started into 3d printing to explore the potential of this technology in a museum setting. Ive been looking into this tech for a while and its now finally dropped within my range of price.
Im looking for an inexpensive printer around 300 dollars that I could just try and see if I want to invest into a bigger one later. I consider myself a pretty handy person but I've never seen a 3d printer kit so i have no idea how hard they are to assemble.


Ive been looking a lot into the REALITY ENDER 3 as it has great reputation in the community and the print quality looks really good. The big print surface is definitely a plus for me. Im having some difficulty finding the best place to order one as I live in Canada and amazon seems to be the best place to get it. I would probably get the model with the pro model with the magnetic base.

My other choice is the MONOPRICE MINI V3 because it seems to be very reliable "out of the box" assembly and durability. it does have a significantly smaller print base though and that means many of my pieces would have to be printed in pieces.


What are the commutes thoughts on what i should get for the 200 - 300 dollar range? is the Ender3 overrated? Are "scams" or "defects common in kits?

I would not waste my time with and Ender 3 if it was given to me. Just look around this forum, total junk
Prusa just entered the low end market with a quality machine, from a quality manufacture, with actual customer support. There is no longer a need to buy junk from china
https://www.prusa3d.com/original-prusa-mini/

unfortuanetely, the prusa is a bit out of my reach right now money wise. would you recommend the

ANYCUBIC MEGA I3 FDM 3D

instead?

ttps://www.amazon.ca/ANYCUBIC-Printer-Patented-Filament-Works/dp/B07NY5T1LJ?ref_=ast_bbp_dp

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Paleo

unfortuanetely, the prusa is a bit out of my reach right now money wise. would you recommend the

ANYCUBIC MEGA I3 FDM 3D

instead?

ttps://www.amazon.ca/ANYCUBIC-Printer-Patented-Filament-Works/dp/B07NY5T1LJ?ref_=ast_bbp_dp

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I would recommend you wait until you can afford the best machine for the money. Someone else may be able to comment on those other machines.

Quote:

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Ive been looking a lot into the REALITY ENDER 3

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Biggest pile of crap on the planet.

The prusa mini would be the best place to start. Find that extra $100 :-)
https://www.prusa3d.com/original-prusa-mini/

Failing that the sovol 01 is a much much nicer machine than the ender for similiar price range. Also very helpful folk with great facebook group.
They never sent me the free one they said they would - but hey, it's still a decent machine :-)
https://www.amazon.com/Sovol-Pre-Ass...s%2C298&sr=8-4


But I would strongly recommend the prusa mini - for the money it's just an incredible buy.
And pretty much the most plug and play on the market :-)

I looked into the Prusa but to get one shipped to Canada and converting the cost, it comes out to about 600$ including customs. unfortunately I cant go that high on my current budget. Any thoughts about the Monoprice mini?, it seems to have a better reputation in the community and it migh tbe just what I need as a beginner setup to "get my feet wet"I will look into shipping for the Sovol 01

What types of objects you intend to print? That will determine if an SLA or FDM printer is the right choice.

I hope to plan stuff like this:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2736627

Hey Curious aardvark, were you happy with the quality of your monoprice?

Hi

I cant advise much of other printers, but i can share my first experience.
I had around 200euro for bugdet (abit flexible for the right machine). But as i was completely new to 3dprinting, i wanted a cheap first printer that i knew would atleast print something when i turned it on.

I searched for a long time, and finally found a used printer in the local area (about 35km away) that i know worked (as the owner had used it for around 400h in total) plus i would also get a demonstration of the machine, as well as a basic lesson on the machine and printing in general.

The machine i found was a Tevo Nereus that was sent to a youtuber for review (is was a pre-production model) but the difference was it was only missing the filament sensor compared to the, at the time, 450euro new machine.

Now i got a demonstrated, used machine plus a lesson on the tech.
All for 200e.

Now many month later, i have used it for another 4-500 hours and the bearings needs a change as well a full service.
I also got a standard 4mm window glassbed to put on top as the buildplate was just a tad skewed.

Now i got myself another printer, deltaprinter FLSUN QQ-S with the 32bit board and new autolevel probe. It cost me aroun 290euro in total.

Just thought i'd share my "getting first printer" story. Perhaps it could help.

Oh yeah forgot about the deltas.
dunno why mine is what I use 90% of the time. she's had 5km of filament through her :-)

Yeah that flsun looks like a good machine. The autolevel is fairly important on a delta. I mean for new people lol.
Mine doesn't have it -= but them I level it maybe once a year, so who cares :-)
Because the bed on a delta never moves - as long as you've got the springs screwed down really tight and a decent print surface - they just never lose calibration.

https://www.amazon.com/FLSUN-Pre-Ass.../dp/B07GJQHZ3P
bit pricier at $369
But I LOVE deltas. much fastness :-)

Yeah. Sofar mine have only endured about 20h printtime (but aehrm, then it's only 4 days old since assembly. :)

I'm in EU and got mine from local german wh,
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3281...1e6e4c4d408YaO
~320usd with the new autolevel probe. it worked like a charm from the start.
Now only minor tweaks as i print along. Got base speed set to 70mm/s on 0.2 layers.

I stepped down the skirt/brim to 25mm/s as i cant figure out how to make the printer do a curved purgeline on the edge of the bed.
Just add another ring of skirt.

So far i'm happy with it. As for my next project down the line, i'm looking to build something to make larger signs with, perhaps a corexy or a box-frame with regular x/y leadscrews.
Maybe get a cheap printer for all the components and mount in a v-slot chassi.

i rarely print slower than 100mm/s
0.3mm standard height. 150 and 0.4 if I'm in a hurry :-)

On my Nereus, i usually go around 60-70ish .28 for prototyping and around 50-60 on .28 or .2 depending if i need finer details or just a functional print.

Right not i'm still dialing in my qq-s, but it handles 70 without breaking a sweat. I have set acc and jerk way down tho. Helped alot with ringing. Got a slight 1 tone ghost in certain directionchanges now.
Benchy, printed in 70mm/s .2mm https://i.imgur.com/X249Rfh.jpg

Next up is dialing in the circular prints. I have a slight oval atm.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Paleo

I hope to plan stuff like this:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2736627

Hey Curious aardvark, were you happy with the quality of your monoprice?

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I know it's well out of your budget ($1800) but for that sort of print I'd recommend one of the new large-format resin lcd printers like the Phrozen Transform.

Printing large high-res models with FDM is extremely slow and requires a ton of finishing work to make presentable. SLA printing is actually faster as model sizes go up, because print times are only affected by one axis (height), depth and width doesn't matter.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/oHZxve6fjDQ/maxresdefault.jpg

yeah but costs are significantly higher and resin has a lot of associated problems as well.