Recomend printer? Noob w/ spacific needs & budget.

[curious aardvark]

what he said - which is exactly what I said :-)

The staple gun scanners get reviews from 'bloody awful' all the way up to 'almost works'
Like i said, at the moment you can't get a decent scanner for under about $600 and they're still very much in the beta phase as far as software goes.

Print resolution for makerbot clones varies between 0.1mm down to 0.05mm - depending on the frame mostly.
My wooden framed creator x will do 0.1mm while my solid metal framed klic-n-print will go down to 0,05.
Not that I will EVER print anything that takes that long.

Also bear in mind that resolution is not just down to the horizontal layers. It's also down to the bead diameter as well. On most machines this is between 0.4 - 0.5 mm from 0.4mm nozzle.
This is the main limit to fine detail.

Forget the scanner for now and start saving up for an sla machine.
Check out brumbaers prints. Small figures awesome detail: http://3dprintboard.com/showthread.php?16648-Ogres-for-a-tabletop-game

As far as support goes, you'll most likely fix it yourself - no matter what goes wrong. And parts for the makerbot clones are readily available pretty much everywhere. As indeed are parts for the printrbots.
Anything that's not hardware related - you'll be looking for answers in forums.
Support for the better cheap desktop machines isn't really there and isn't really needed.

[ScaleModelBuilder]

I've looked at the CTC resin printer on eBay and youtube. Lots of negative things being said about them. Pretty poor quality. They also seen to be dishonest, from what people on youtube have to say about them. They are saying the exact same things I had said I was concerned about in an earlier post. The resin systems seem to be much nicer & have the fine detail I'd like to have, but it's just not in the budget. This is the reason why I came to a forum to ask about options that are in my budget. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate your input. But unless someone comes up with a resin printer I can afford & doesn't have such a bad reputation, I doubt resin is for me.

[ScaleModelBuilder]

what he said - which is exactly what I said :-)

The staple gun scanners get reviews from 'bloody awful' all the way up to 'almost works'
Like i said, at the moment you can't get a decent scanner for under about $600 and they're still very much in the beta phase as far as software goes.

Print resolution for makerbot clones varies between 0.1mm down to 0.05mm - depending on the frame mostly.
My wooden framed creator x will do 0.1mm while my solid metal framed klic-n-print will go down to 0,05.
Not that I will EVER print anything that takes that long.

Also bear in mind that resolution is not just down to the horizontal layers. It's also down to the bead diameter as well. On most machines this is between 0.4 - 0.5 mm from 0.4mm nozzle.
This is the main limit to fine detail.

Forget the scanner for now and start saving up for an sla machine.
Check out brumbaers prints. Small figures awesome detail:

Yeah, I figured a scanner was likely to be something to get down the road, but also figured it would be worth asking about now since I was already asking about printers anyway.

[dunginhawk]

The only reason i brought it up is because I truly think you wont get a filament printer to produce the results you want, period. My flashforge creator pro is widely regarded as one of the most detailed printers out there, and ive made some amazing things from it, i just dont think i could get emblems etc from it.
The ONLY hope you may have is with a Flashforge type printer, with a .2mm nozzle. Definitely dont try a .5, you wont get much detail at all.

[LambdaFF]

Hi,
I own a printrbot and I'm really satisfied with their support - and I live in France. From the States it's probably better.

That being said, I would suggest this : design or find the design of a small object, find someone on 3DHubs that has this machine to make you one and choose a filament based printer only if you accept the result.

I would agree with the others, if you are a true scale model buff, filament printing is probably not for you and will be disappointing. Resin printers are probably more your thing but they are more expensive to operate, to maintain and the resin is also oh so much more expensive for a kilo... With a 700$ budget, difficult to do this. If you want to see the difference, order the same model on 3D Hubs from someone who owns a resin printer and you'll be able to judge.

[dunginhawk]

id be happy to print a few pieces for you to test to see if you would like them or not... id discount it for you as well. If you want to work with me after that, we can work something out going forward for a good price.
If you are thinking about spending 500-700 on a printer, then you can get a lot of parts printed from me or others for that money. Not to mention filament costs and the insane time it can take to dial in a printer to the exacting specs that you require for these prints.

I have enough work to keep me busy (its a spare hobby anyway) so it wont matter if you take me up on my offer or not, but i am very very very confident that FDM wont cut it for you, so im trying to offer alternatives.

thank you

[curious aardvark]

what he said :-)

Now what you you might want to consider is getting fff machine for the bigger stuff and farming out the detailed tiny parts to someone with an sla machine :-)

[Roberto]

Howdy
If I would be at your place I would start by testing different printers with the same sample of your part.
Take one, very representative, with all those details you would like to see included.
Then go to 3dhubs or similar and pick few of most interesting printers.
Only by comparing printed part from different printers will give you best impresion of what is all about.

According to my experiance in hobby auto parts: DLP is the best, fine details and good surface.
PLA or any other plastic require additional work on it, after printing, in most cases.

Take care and have fun...

[aptc]

I think the Flashforge Finder may be good for you? The print size is more than 4 x 4 inches, able to print PLA and the price is quite good.