My business is looking for a 3D printer to prototype and create products for drones, rc cars, etc. Which printer would be best? There needs to be a fairly high level of accuracy and preferably fairly easy to use so we don’t have to spend hours and hours training people to use it!
cheers
cobnut
2
Hi @Theodoreallen two that spring to mind at that price point are the Zortrax M200 and the Makergear M2. If you can stretch a little further then the Lulzbot Taz 6 is a popular machine with a decent build area, a little further still and the BCN Sigma R17 with its dual extruders becomes an option.
In terms of ease of use, the Zortrax probably comes top because of its proprietary filament (which means there’s less mucking about with settings, trial and error and so on), but bear in mind the proprietary nature of the filament might be restrictive compared to other printers that can use a wider range of types from a wide range of suppliers. However, very few (if any) 3D printers at this price point, or even way above it, are really “easy” to use. The technology is still relatively in its infancy at the consumer level and even if the machine is dead simple and reliable, there’s a lot to learn in terms of preparing models and finishing them, so you’ve got to anticipate some training/learning.
One other option to consider is to go cheaper. Sub $1000 can still get you a decent printer, quite a few models in fact, such as the FlashForge Pro, the Prusa Mk2, etc. Going cheaper would allow you to get two printers for that budget and there can be advantages in having more than one (time to produce multiple objects, redundancy, etc.).
