Best 3D Printer for around $1000?

[JohnA136]

Our Ultimaker, Replicator XL and Prusa are all very quiet printers, compared to our earlier RepRaps and Cupcakes. My Prusa sits in the room next to our den where we watch TV and I have to mute the TV to hear if it is still printing. Of course, my Prusa is metal framed, I understand the wooden ones are a bit noisier but still print very well. We just ordered a dozen frames from Joe Prusa for our next workshop.

[3DSteve]

Afinia H, UP! Plus 2 are good, but are price at around $1600.

Prusa is good, but you will probably have to assemble it. If not, you will soon learn that you have to learn how to assemble it. As just about anyone will tell you, the dollar range you are looking in is where people are expected to know how to repair, adjust and modify the printer. If you want a printer you wont have to fiddle with, you will have to spend a lot more. A LOT more.

A buddy of mine has an Ultimaker. He says it is a great printer if you have lots of patience and want to tinker with settings and adjustments.

MakerBot Mini is also coming out soon, $1600 range.

[ralphzoontjens]

I'm willing to have to mess a bit with the printer and learn more about it in the process. It's nice that Ultimaker is open source and there's a lot of information out there, so I'm sure it will be no problem. I'm just hoping I won't have to work on it after every few prints, like reportedly some other printers require.

I was going to go for the Prusa i3 because of the lower price initially, since even though you can get an Ultimaker at EUR 995 right now, it's still excl. tax and shipping which adds another couple 100 euros. But then I was lucky to find an Ultimaker in good condition on eBay, from a local print shop in my own town, and I just won the auction. Can't wait to start working with it.

[RobH2]

Maggie, if you are handy and like to build things the Makerfarm Prusa i3 is a great machine. I get very, very nice prints from mine. I was at a show recently and a university had 4 machines set up. None of them were a Makerfarm i3 and none of them were making prints as clean as mine. To be fair, they were printing at higher speeds than what you'd normally use because they were giving the prints away, but, it did reaffirm the quality of prints I get. Best of all, the printer is well under $1000.

[DrLuigi]

Definately ultimaker 1, 999 euros.

[ToyMakerRon]

Can't go wrong with one of the many RepRaps out there for under $1000. Takes a little bit of a learning curve, but it's worth it in the long run.