I'm looking into potentially getting myself a cheap $400 printer,

3D Printing
,
1

I’m looking into potentially getting myself a cheap $400 printer, but was curious what you guys might recommend.
I’ve been looking at things like the Printrbot Play, Wanhao Duplicator I3, The Micro 3D, and HICTOP Prusa I3

2

I own a wanhoa Di3 and love it. Great value for the money.

3

my recommendation : don’t.

4

@Marcus_Wolschon don’t buy a printer at that price point?

5

Don’t listen to @Marcus_Wolschon . Get the printrbot play. It uses such top notch parts it’s hard to beat.

6

The Play is a solid little machine, but it does suffer with build volume. I have one and i’m very happy with it. just wish it was a little bigger.

7

Build volume is one of the selling points I’m looking at. I’ve heard with a few of the kit printers it’s possible to replace the bed with a heated plate, and that’s something I’m also considering to help print ABS

8

Unless you have an enclosed printer, you will have issues printing ABS. The Di3 does come with a heated bed, and some people have made enclosures so they can print ABS reliably.

9

Get the PrintrBot Play, you can’t go wrong. PrintrBot usually even sells “scratch and dent” models for $299, units which have cosmetic problems but otherwise work fine.

If you want something a little bigger or a heated bed, PrintrBot offers a heated bed/volume upgrade for the Play for $75 you can check out down the road.

10

@Jacob_Bridenbecker_W
If the printer is to be your hobby, go ahead.
If it’s supposed to be a means to an end, save a while longer for an Ultimaker.

11

@Marcus_Wolschon it’ll be a hobby, but I have looked at the ultimakers

12

Yep, Printrbot.

13

I’m liking the awards Printrbot has gotten, but the Duplicator has twice the build size and a built in heated plate

14

Don’t judge just by build area. The duplicator isn’t bad by any means but honestly the parts are not as great as the printrbot stuff. I have been using printrbot components almost exclusively for about a year now and really won’t go back. They’re just so easy to use. Yes I enjoyed making my own firmware which you could totally do but when it comes down to it their machines just work, and work well. Toms review is awesome if you haven’t seen it. Build area isn’t everything in this realm. I would trade half my main printer’s build area for the speed of its predecessor…