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Hello All,

I’m new on this forum, and i have a beginner question.

I need to buy a 3D printer with a maximum budget of 1000$.

Can you please give me an advice? which 3d printer i should buy?

Thank you in advance for your answers.

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Hey MarioSwa,

There are tons of printers out there so it’ll be hard to recommend. Here the 2016 printer guide from this site: Best 3D Printer Guide 2023 | Hubs

This may help your decision.

If not I’d recommend making a short list of what features and type of printer your looking for. Eg. Large build volume, high quality etc. Once you’ve got a list of necessaries just search for printers that match your requirements. Unless you’ve got a large and flexible budget I’d advise avoiding any additional feature that you don’t find necessary. Eg. Wifi capability.

Extra or unnecessary feature can be an unwanted cost especially when starting out.

Start with a small or standard build volume. This will help keep a budget low.

Hopefully this helps. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask.

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The 3d hubs printer guide is a great place to start. I always recommend someone get a quality open-source kit with few “features” for their first printer. This will give you the best opportunity to learn and upgrade as your experience/needs grow. This industry is full of gimmicks and you wont be able to recognize them until you get a little experience.
-Jesse

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HI

I’ve been looking at, researching, learning to design 3D drawings that are printable for the past 3 years.

I plan on purchasing a Lulzbot TAZ printer.

The large Lulzbot TAZ6 would be very out of your price range BUT

maybe the Lulzbot Mini would be pretty close to your $1000 price range.

I’ve been using 3D Hubs and others to help me with my decision.

So far, The guy I use to print my parts is very skilled and knows how to print many different types of materials.

I know now that the Luszbot printers will do ABS, PETG, Ninjaflex, Semiflex , Taulman910 nylon and PLA materials very well.

What I do not know is if I own a printer, will I be able to print at the precision and overall quality that my printer guy prints at if I were

to purchase my own 3Dprinter?

So, for now, I will do my designs and have my 3D Hubs guy print my parts until I decide if I want to control my own destiny or

leave my projects to my 3D Hubs printer guy.

I had been thinking that If I exceed $500 per year in 3D Hubs printed parts, I would purchase a printer.

I’m now rethinking that thought.

…

It’s very convenient to be able to do a Design, Select a Hub and push the print button.

Sure you pay for printer time, but when you are running the machine, it occupies your thoughts until the parts are done.

…

That’s just my 2 cents worth.

I hope it helps you in some manner!

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My first printer was a QIDI Tech-1, which is another clone like flashforge etc. It is reasonably priced I think. I have had good luck with it. Now, don’t think you will just get a “good” printer and start whipping out great parts! There is a lot to learn and each printer has its own quirks.

I am not disappointed in my choice. Anyway my thoughts. Good luck in your search and decision.

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Thank you guys for your help. Your advices are very interesting.

My objective is to print objects with good quality (roughness) and accuracy. no need to have special options or to be quick.

For good quality maybe a should buy a SLA 3D printer? someone has an idea about the price of consumable of normal 3d printers and the SLA 3d printers?

Thank you.

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I have a great SLA machine that I built myself and I only use it as a last resort if something cannot be printed any other way like very fine details or complex support structures. I love the prints it puts out but I HATE dealing with emulsion. You are very limited in materials(emulsion), emulsion is very expensive, emulsion smells bad, emulsion is messy, did I mention I hate emulsion?
With the FDM machine, assuming it is ridged and mechanically sound, the quality is going to depend on you a lot more than the machine(In the beginning and for a while) . That’s why I say start simple and you will upgrade as you go. If you spend a bunch of money on expensive shiny machine with a bunch of “impressive” specs you will still be fixing/tinkering/upgrading except instead of just adding or replacing cheap parts you will be throwing away crap you spent a bunch of money on.
Hope that makes sense.
Here is a recent thread that is a PERFECT example of what I am talking about:

-Jesse