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What is your must have 3D printer option?

colporteur

Can you provide a list of three options that must be included, if you are going to purchase of a 3D printer?

 

I have been asked to provide a list of options for evaluating the selecting of a 3D printer. A friend of mine is considering making a purchase.  He has no experience with 3D printers. He is looking for some insight before making the purchase. The only experience I have with 3D printers is, having attended a few of the sessions of 3D Printing For Makers: Free 4 Part Webinar Series . After reviewing my notes I came up with the following list.

 

  • Number of extruders
  • Type of polymer supported
  • Closed or open case
  • Heated deck
  • Software

 

The list is pretty short. I am unable to rank importance. I'm looking for input from the Experts or rather those people that have or have used a 3D printer. These people from experience have insight into the printing. I'm thinking they can provide a recommendation on options they feel can make or break a 3D printer. If you are aware of a gotchas to avoid that would be appreciated.

 

The printer purchase is for a resident of Canada. The budget for the project is less than thousand in Canadian dollars. I would speculate the printer will be used to support primarily designs within a model railroad environment. The user is not experienced and has basis computer user skills.

 

If you were looking to purchase a 3D printer, what would be your must have options?

Parents

  • Number one feature needed is the ability to change filament in the middle of a print - so you don't need to worry if there is enough to complete the print and you can use spools all the way to the end.

    Number two is a heated bed with auto-release surface - hot plastic sticks to it but when it cools, the part is no longer stuck.

    Number three is an open chassis that allows easy access to all parts - some closed chassis machines are extremely difficult to service and maintain.

    Number four is a quiet machine, but it doesn't trump easy access.

  • in reply to dougw

    DW, you indicate close chassis. I read a review where the case being closed reduces problems with the model during cooling (i.e.no drafts in a closed case.) Care to comment?

     

    Break...Break...

    What printer are you currently using? Are you satisfied with it performance?

Reply Children
  • in reply to colporteur

    Enclosed cases do seem to maintain warmer ambient air and contain noise better but the printer I use most (Anycubic I3 Mega) is open and it has no problems with delamination or other thermal issues. I have used it for several years and hundreds of prints and never even had to relevel it.

    Before this printer, I would have rated automatic bed levelling as a pretty important feature, so that is probably still useful if bed leveling performance is unknown.

    I have a larger printer that had some issues keeping the large bed uniformly hot so I built an insulated thermal enclosure and monitored the temperature at various locations inside. I also used a heat gun to try and ensure the temperature was what I wanted at all locations. It was a lot of work throughout the print but it did help. For that printer, and printing large objects, just the enclosure was not helping enough to be a useful feature. The heat gun without the enclosure was far more effective in achieving desired temperatures - mainly it was needed during the first 15 minutes of a print job.