Looking at getting into 3d printing… Any suggestions for printers that would be best suited towards a beginner?
Printrbot
Check out the Reach 3D printer. It was my first printer and I have been very happy with it. There is a solid community for the printer where you can get help and mods. The print quality is good and you can mod to make it even better. The price is a little bit higher than some of the bargain basement printers but this one has been worth every penny to me.
http://www.reach3dprinters.com/
Give us a relative budget. But since I want to be the first to say it, get a Prusa i3 MK2S.
Not a delta.
@Josh_Rhodes I wouldn’t really recommend a Printrbot. No heated bed on the new Simple and they use a firmware that has very little adoption in the 3D printing community. The older Simple Metal would be much better and is what really got me started but for that price you can get the MK2S kit for an extra $100 which is worth so much more than that. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my Simple Metal and it was the best thing out there in the price range at that time but there are better options now and the successor isn’t one of them.
I have a Prusa i3 knock off by CTC and it’s ok but it’s very obvious that it’s a cheap printer aside from the fact that I only paid $154 for it. I have however recently gotten it pretty dialed in and am now getting usable parts. My biggest piece of advice is to not give up. It took me about a month to finally get good prints. Granted that I wasn’t using it every day, but it still took me a long time. It’s doing well now, but definitely not perfect. I think I could really only recommend this printer if you are in my situation. I wanted to get into 3D printing but wasn’t sure how much I would like it or if I could even do it. At some point I’ll probably upgrade to a better one or at least make some better parts for my current one.
@Nathan_Walkner You’re completely correct, but does that sound like beginner stuff?
@Nathan_Walkner Just because he can doesn’t mean he will, and it won’t give the best insight to what most printing is really like.
Just for the record , the new G2 board has a marlin emulator, so it takes regular gcode. No argument on price, it is what it is. The printrbot Smalls is $298, open source and upgradable… it actually comes in at less than the old Simple w bigger platform with upgrades for less money than the old simple.
Brook
@Brook_Drumm My bad I completely forgot about the Smalls. I would definitely recommend that, especially at the price.
@Adam_Steinmark since I am a newbie I would be willing to invest 500 dollars too start with.
First off thanks for all the input even the debating is helpful… I should add that I am no stranger to 3d software and have been building computers for over 20 years. So suggestions for a printer with the ability to be modded/upgraded with a bit of tinkering would also be welcomed…
Neil, Printrbot’s fit that description. But any 3d printer CAN be modified… the opinions on why you should modify it are wildly varied though. Your own needs or preferences are the best reason but only you can truly decide that
$500 is a bit of a weird level of investment. Prusa i3 MK2S starts at $700 plus shipping (~$70 for the US) for the kit. Printrbot Smalls undercuts that significantly at $300 but the build area is tiny at only 4 x 4 x 5 inches. The Monoprice Maker Select Plus is probably gonna be your best option coming in at $400 with a decent build volume and feature set. The heated build plate will let you print most materials. I’d say go with that and use the extra money for some filament, tools, and to maybe swap out the hotend for an E3D V6 once you have some experience under your belt.
The Smalls w a $80 bed upgrade (you provide your own atx psu) is heated and makes the smalls build volume 8"x6"x6" (the description is wrong to list a z of 5"- fixing asap).
Total cost, $378. With z upgrade at $99, total cost=$477 for 8x6x10.
@Brook_Drumm That’s really not bad at all. Is the build plate heated? I’d be interested in seeing a kit starting at that size using linear guides for all the movement instead of rails. My robotics team could use a printer they’re allowed to tinker with.
Would the Prusa or monoprice work well for someone using Maya and zdbrush(where most of my experience lies)? Also if the Prusa is that much better of a tool I could then justify spending the extra cash… I did not want to put too high of a budget on a beginner tool that is way too advanced and complicated to start off with.
As someone who works with 3D printers, my Prusa beats out ~$2,500 printers. It’s open source so you could modify and upgrade it, but past their multi material upgrade and a silicon sock for the hotend, I don’t see much you would want to change. The Monoprice will work well, I don’t have any first hand experience with it though. As for your modeling programs, the best printers for those types of modeling is really going to be SLA resin printers which are usually very expensive. If you’re okay waiting, I just backed the Bean printer (LCD resin printer, should work well for your type of modeling) on Kickstarter which will probably arrive around May for the current open level at $400 which is extremely cheap especially when it’s 1/3 of the projected retail price.
I’m leaning towards releasing the smalls + z upgrade (granted it is 12mm bars) + crazy 10x10 (Plus) build plate upgrade … that’s 10x10x10 with x and y linear rails. Smalls base @ $298 + z upgrade @ $99 + plus bed mod ($$$???)… so maybe that will be a thing soon 
Brook