Which inexpensive reliable printer to go with?

[travis32]

It's probably not the million dollar question.... More like a $500 - x question. What is the best 3d printer for the price? However, that's a loaded question. So, I'll simplify things with some basic facts.

Budget: Looking to spend under $1000 unless convinced that spending $1000-$1500 is absolutely necessary to get the features I want.

Requirements:

1. Reliable 100 micron printing capability using PLA.
2. At this time I have no knowledge of ABS printing needed, not sure of why ABS would be needed, but want to keep things simple and stick to PLA.
3. Need to print a lot of small detailed objects. Definition of small: 2 inch by 2 inch up to 4inch by 4 inch and height will vary by up to 4 - 6 inch height.
4. If anyone is interested, I'm looking to purchase and print DragonLock dungeon tiles. (flooring and walls of dungeons, village houses, taverns, caverns, etc for Dungeons and Dragons.).
a. I could need upwards of 1000 pieces to complete a playable / usable set.
5. What I'm looking to print is all pre - designed in .stl files. The designer / publisher printed them at 100 micron using PLA on a printrbot pla and used that to showpiece the printed pieces. They look amazing.
6. Next, although I'm a technical person, I really hate spending a lot of time troubleshooting things. Do it enough at work, I don't want to do it at home, so I need an easy to use, easy to assemble 3d printer.
7. I would like to possibly print multiple pieces at a time, which sounds like could be done using software and a printer compatible with simplify 3d and setting up multiple pieces to print, using continuous or sequential printing techniques.
8. Needs to work unattended. If it truly takes 2-3 hours to print a 2 inch by 2 inch by 1 inch piece, then, I need to setup a print job and then go to work so I have money to print! HA!
9. If there's a way to get faster print speeds without reducing quality of the print and reliability of the print, then I'd be interested in paying a little more for that feature, but, from what I've seen this is more limitation of the science behind 3d printing and the materials used than it is of any specific printer.


So far, after numerous hours of reading reviews and looking at the many different models of printers, I like the reviews and simplicity of this one:QIDI TECHNOLOGY X-ONE

I admit there's probably many very good 3-d printers out there and they will continue to get better. If only I could wait another year or two, I suspect 3d printing will take off like a firestorm. That said, for the Amazon Sale price of $438 the QIDI Tech One seemed the best in both usability, reliability, and ease of use.

I'm open to most anything, looking for good strong support, and the above requirements!

[wirlybird]

I have a X-ONE (one of five printers). It is a good solid printer. It is however a new printer but that doesn't mean a bad thing. The build size is 150mmX150MMX150MM. I is a single extruder with cooling fan and heated bed.
You can print with SD card or USB.
The included slicer does a decent job (I think it is a Cura derivative). S3D is working on a profile and did include it in their recent version release so it is a starting point there.
All in all it is a solid starting point. I have not been disappointed. I have struggled a little getting slicers tuned for great prints but that is with any printer I think.

I have two QIDI printers and their support is outstanding in my opinion.

[travis32]

Both are great qualities (support and solid). 150 mm if I understand correctly is 5.9 inches. Pretty close to what I'm looking for! Thanks for the feedback!

[travis32]

What's the advantage of having two extruders? Can it print the objects(s) faster, or more than one object at the same time?

Thanks!

[Davo]

That depends on the printer and your gcode. Hyrel can print multiple copies of the same object at the same time with multiple heads.

[curious aardvark]

why not get a prntrbot ? You know the pieces work with it and they tick all the boxes.
(looks at website) wow they've gone up in price.

best alternative to the quide is probably the wanhao duplicator i3: http://wanhaousa.com/products/duplic...us-steel-frame

Has larger print volume so you could print more figures in one go.

When you get the printer. try printing the figures at 0.2mm layer height.
Still looks good and is twice as fast :-)

dual extruders are not as useful as you think.
in over 2 1/2 years, with two machines with dual extruders, I only have one design that I use two extruders for.
And that's purely for aesthetic reasons. In practical terms the one coloured piece is exactly as functional as the bi-coloured one and prints about 4 times faster (dual extrusion takes a lot longer and I can print the single colour pouch at 0.3mm layer rather than the 0.2 I need for the bi-colour). They just look better :-)

Most of my prints are done un-supervised.
If you're concerned set up an ip camera or tablet (teamviewer turns any cheap android tablet into an ip camera).

[travis32]

So many options! Which is great! However as with many things it seems we have choice overload! A good thing to have! At the same time, it's scary.

[djprinter]

What's the advantage of having two extruders? Can it print the objects(s) faster, or more than one object at the same time?
Thanks!

if the object being printed is smaller than the distance between the two nozzles you can "ditto" print, but typically the reason to have two extruders is to be able to print supports in a dissolvable material. It's also nice to have the option of having two different nozzle diameters available.

One extruder should be fine for your purpose.

[cyberluz]

Look at PLA vs ABS as ABS giving you durability and strength. I need the ABS for robotics parts (gears, etc) and I have been unimpressed with the ABS parts I have tried out. Pretty weak and fragile ... depending ... brittle is what comes to mind.

Also, the strength is relative to the "fill" percentage (15%) default on my Flashforge Dreamer ... easily changed in setup, but all these things affect the parts you make. Try 40-50% minimum.

Our printer was $1100 but can handle many types of material and has a heated bed for ABS. I teach and we need options rather than limits. Size matters, but this one is fine for us and considerably larger than the pieces you talked about ...

Consider the range you might want to later expand to ... having printed all last summer on others ... this one is a great relief and really flexible. Print via USB, Memory card or WiFi. Pretty nice for $1100.00

Good luck

[cyberluz]

One advantage is a quick backup if your head gets stopped up. Keeps you working on a deadline.