I am ready to pull the trigger on purchasing my first 3D printer. Very confusing to find the best on the web. It will be for small scale business venture. I am knowledgeable in programming so could do hacks if needed. Should I go open source, dual head or not?
Hi there !
There isn’t a kind of printer that would deserve the title “best on the web” all printers have pro’s and con’s you jut have to evaluate how much you are willing to pay and what features are necessary for you.
Open source is allways nice, especially when you can improove on the printer, also open source printers usually have a large community with many printable improovements.
Regarding the dual extruder you should definitely look into this. There are many occasions when you need to print in two colors / two materials / support material. Also this would enable printing flexible and rigit materials within one model.
Since you haven’t had any 3d printer before you shouldn’t go into overdrive and purchase the biggest, most expensive printer that has tons of features that you might never use.
Even though you’d use the printer for a buisness you should look into printers in a price range of 1500-2500€. My first recommendations would be the Creatr HS (which I have), for more buildvolume the Lulzbot TAZ 5 would be better. Also the lulzbot printers have upgreadable extruders and are open source.
A very reliable printer and popular printer is the Ultimaker 2, it’s available in three sizes, the medium or large would be good for a buisness.
If you don’t want to invest as much you could also get the small Ultimaker 2 or the Lulzbot Mini. If you are interested in printing in many materials you should get printers with either upgreadable hotends / open source printers (where you can change the hotend yourself) or printers that can print over 250°C hot.
You will also most likely have heard about the Makerbot printers, I wouldn’t recommend those. These are “very closed source” meaning you can barely do modifications and the Makerbot printers are very overpriced for the provided buildvolume, printspeed, materialvariety and quality.
If you want a cheaper printer to get into 3d printing the Prusa i3 (colorfabb.com offers a decent one for 500€) or the Printrbot simple metal are worth a concideration.
No matter which printer you’d choose, try to find a local hub, that owns this printer and ask them, if you can take a look at the printer and if they could share their experience.
Cheers,
Marius
Hi @webdivas3D, a good starting point would be the 3D Printer Guide, based on the feedback from our community: Best 3D Printer Guide 2023 | Hubs. Really good recommendations in there. Cheers!
What are you primarily looking to print? If you plan on doing small parts or care about high resolution you should spend a little extra on a higher end machine.
I’ve had two dual head printers (Makerbot Replicator Dual and Replicator 2X) and I can tell you that dual nozzles are often far more trouble than they are worth. The biggest problem is the oozing of the non-extruding nozzle.
I am a big fan of the Ultimaker 2’s. We have two now at work and will probably purchase another soon. The detail and accuracy is very good and required far less messing around than the Makerbots. You will want to purchase some extra PTFE thermal barriers as they will degrade over time but its a small price to pay for the quality of the prints. The only other downside to the Ultimaker 2 is its not really suitable for high temperature plastics like ABS or Nylon so you are pretty much limited to PLA.
I have heard some good things about the new delta style printers (SeeMeCNC Orion/Rostock MAX, OpenBeam Kossel Pro, Atom3DP Atom 2.0, Mass Portal Pharaoh) but haven’t had any experience with one personally. They seem to eliminate some of the vibration “ringing” that can plague cartesian style printers.
*Edit: Duplicate Post*
I have the Makerbot 5th gen, and in my experience I would avoid Makerbot entirely. The “smart extruder” isn’t ready for production in my opinion. It clogs too often and is $175 for a new head after you’re out of warranty.
Start with a single extruder first. It’s a better learning curve and it will most likely fit your needs. There are tons of opensource stuff, which is wonderful, but some brands do allow custom slice profiles. MakerBot is an example.
Brand Name:J GROUP ROBOTICS
Model Number:P0010
Place of Origin:India
Packaging Details:3D Printer - 1 quantity 3D Printing Filament - 1 quantity Charger - 1 Quantity Warranty Card valid upto six months. Shipping, Duties & Taxes extraDelivery Detail:3 WEEKS
The only 3D printer I recommend to you in the present is EcubMaker Fantasy II
I have 4 3D printers (include FlashForge) at home. But, EcubMaker Fantasy II is the best in my experience.
I bought it from Amazon
Here is the link to the 3D printer
