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What is the best 3D printer for under 200 USD?

DeltaPi

Hello, I have recently been looking into getting a 3d printer for hobby engineering projects but am unsure of which printer is the best for my needs. My budget is 200 USD (+-

Qualities most important to me are:

1. Able to print strong sunlight resistant materials, so maybe needs a heated bed? (for PETG and ground up carbon fiber)

2. decent volume size (200x200mm?)

3. Good print quality

4. Quick-ish printer (no more than two days for one print)

I don't mind having to put together the printer, but don't want to have to deal with a lot of print problems after I get the print settings figured out. If there is any printer in my budget range close to these perimeters, please let me know. (My needs might be too much for under 200 USD)

Thanks, - Delta Pi

  •   Good luck I have seen a few used ones on Facebook  Marketplace my suggestion is to roll your own like I am doing the problem with most cheap printers is that one of the axis run along the bed and then moves the bed to position under the print head.  No CNC is ever built this way 1. The bed needs frequent recalibrations. 2. The printer's levelness does not guarantee the bed's levelness either.  3. basically build a frame of steel is good if you can weld (or get a pal).  which get leveled the bed is now attached to the frame. and check the level again.  the vertical axis rides alongside the bed attached to the frame that is it. Now add drives and a PI for control. 

  • in reply to DeltaPi

    Depending on the materials, some smell bad (ABS especially), and microplastics in the air in general are probably not good for health. So perhaps not a bad idea to put it in a box - but if the printer gets too hot, you might find the stepper drivers going into protection or the power supply overheating. So you'll have to play with what works in your climate/condition. I dedicate a room to 3D printing and vent that to the outside.

    You can definitely get hardened stainless steel nozzles - they're not expensive at all. Changing it will require a bit of care - sometimes it's best to do it while the nozzle is hot because of remnant plastic in the threads which may cause you to destroy the hot end attempting to unmount the old nozzle cold. As a result, just be aware you'd be handling ~250c hot metal while doing the nozzle change.

    The Ender 3 Pro may work, but for what you save on price, be prepared to have to do at least a little bit of tinkering to get it going and periodic tinkering to keep it running. Like anything mechanical, things can wear out and break. Similarly, the unit is a manual-levelling printer (as far as I know) and getting a good bed level adjustment is key to getting good first layers which often will be the thing that makes or breaks a print.

    Spending more may be useful, but it's usually not just a little more - it'll be a lot more for something that's more designed for "industrial" scale printing. Those often have better mechanics (e.g. coreXY rather than "bed-slinger"), come with integrated auto bed-levelling, may have multiple extruders for mixed-material (e.g. two material or one material + support). They are often quite a bit more pricey - my home hobby printer cost about US$150 while the one I use at work cost US$8,000. Of course, the one that's at work is a lot more "set and forget" and has a wide catalogue of materials that it is set to work with.

    - Gough

  • Check out Artillery Hornet. I haven't used one, but they look like a good deal.

  • This thread reminded me of the Digistump BuildOne $99 3D printer on Kickstarter.

    Unfortunately, it looks like that project failed, as it hasn’t had any updates for nearly 2 years.