Consumer printers with larger print areas

[siggyfreud]

Hey all,

Does anyone have a running list of printers that have larger printing capabilities? Or does anyone have feedback on any available? Looking in the $4,000-$5,000 range. Right now I have an all-in-one CNC/3d printer, etc, but finding that 90% of what I do is print, and thinking I might be better off without a purpose-build printer that doesn't have some of the limitations I'm running into.

Would be printing things for my automotive project, like brackets, gauge clusters, etc.

[Davo]

What limitations are you running in to with your present printer/CNC?

[siggyfreud]

A few are:

The manufacturers heated bed is about 200mmx200mm.
The CNC bed is a t-slot table, so having a hard time finding suitable printing surfaces that are flat/plane
The lead from the 3d print unit is only long enough to cover an 8x8'ish area, despite the machine bed being 3ftx2ft
The machine is not enclosed. It's in a temp control garage, but not sure if not having an enclosed unit leads to worse prints. I suppose that's an open question I have.

90% of my use on the machine has been 3d printing, so I guess I'm just thinking that if all I am using this thing for is 3d printing, would I be better off with a purpose-made 3d printer, as opposed to trying to make the Stepcraft work. Nothing against the machine, seems to be a good all-around unit, but I think it's main purpose was wood engraving/carving, and I just don't any of that.

[Davo]

All I can offer is that an enclosure never hurts, and often helps - especially if you heat it.

Our next Hyrel models will have large build volumes, but won't be out for another month or two.

[curious aardvark]

have you thought about simply fittign alonger lead to the print head ?
sounds like the cheap and obvious solution.