I am considering getting a 3D printer later this year after reading a review for a sub £200 one in a magazine I subscribe as well as noting Aldi had a sub £300 one on sale recently. I am a bit flexible on price at the moment but we are talking hundreds £s and not thousands. It does seem that prices have come down as they have got popular.

I am hoping to use it to make small models with some detail. I intend to research the matter but would value any opinion from anybody who owns one regards make, what specifications I need to look at and what features are essential.

Thank you in advance for any pointers.

Richard

On Tuesday, 5 February 2019 15:39:57 UTC, Tricky Dicky wrote:
I am considering getting a 3D printer later this year after reading a review for a sub £200 one in a magazine I subscribe as well as noting Aldi had a sub £300 one on sale recently. I am a bit flexible on price at the moment but we are talking hundreds £s and not thousands. It does seem that prices have come down as they have got popular.

I am hoping to use it to make small models with some detail. I intend to research the matter but would value any opinion from anybody who owns one regards make, what specifications I need to look at and what features are essential.

Thank you in advance for any pointers.

Richard

Well there must be some 3D printer review sites.
But a few things to consider are the increments the motors can step in, the type of plastic(s) it can take, how many nozzles and overall printble size

whisky-dave wrote:

Well there must be some 3D printer review sites.

I get the feeling £200 will only get you a 'toy' printer, a few people
here have them, so may comment, look at Angus aka Maker's Muse on
youtube, he does various torture test prints as well as tips and reviews...

On 05/02/2019 15:39, Tricky Dicky wrote:
I am considering getting a 3D printer later this year after reading a
review for a sub £200 one in a magazine I subscribe as well as noting
Aldi had a sub £300 one on sale recently. I am a bit flexible on
price at the moment but we are talking hundreds £s and not thousands.
It does seem that prices have come down as they have got popular.

I am hoping to use it to make small models with some detail. I intend
to research the matter but would value any opinion from anybody who
owns one regards make, what specifications I need to look at and what
features are essential.

Thank you in advance for any pointers.

Richard


https://www.amazon.co.uk/Creality-3D.../dp/B07D218NX3

Good printer, can be modified easily to make it better.

You probably need to replace the connectors on the bowden tube as the
ones that came with mine wore quickly, but the new ones didn't.

I added the glass bed and a BLtouch levelling to mine and changed to a
0.3mm nozzle.

Amazon are not the cheapest BTW.

On 5 Feb 2019 at 15:39:55, Tricky Dicky wrote:
I am considering getting a 3D printer later this year after reading a review for a sub £200
one in a magazine I subscribe as well as noting Aldi had a sub £300 one on sale recently. I
am a bit flexible on price at the moment but we are talking hundreds £s and not thousands. It
does seem that prices have come down as they have got popular.

I am hoping to use it to make small models with some detail. I intend to research the matter
but would value any opinion from anybody who owns one regards make, what specifications I
need to look at and what features are essential.

I bought an Anet A8 kit in November for a little over £100,
for the learning experience and to pass the winter months.
Took a few days to build and wire but worked first time.
Most of my time since then has been spent printing and installing
the many add-ons and improvements on thingiverse.com and quality has
steadily improved.
The last change was to a glass bed - no adhesion problems and finally
a completely flat bed. My print quality now is amazing, far better
than I ever expected from a £100 kit.

Software on PC is Repetier-Host (standalone use of printer with SD
card is tedious).

On 06/02/2019 08:28, Bob Martin wrote:
On 5 Feb 2019 at 15:39:55, Tricky Dicky wrote:
I am considering getting a 3D printer later this year after reading a review for a sub �200
one in a magazine I subscribe as well as noting Aldi had a sub �300 one on sale recently. I
am a bit flexible on price at the moment but we are talking hundreds �s and not thousands. It
does seem that prices have come down as they have got popular.

I am hoping to use it to make small models with some detail. I intend to research the matter
but would value any opinion from anybody who owns one regards make, what specifications I
need to look at and what features are essential.

I bought an Anet A8 kit in November for a little over �100,
for the learning experience and to pass the winter months.
Took a few days to build and wire but worked first time.
Most of my time since then has been spent printing and installing
the many add-ons and improvements on thingiverse.com and quality has
steadily improved.
The last change was to a glass bed - no adhesion problems and finally
a completely flat bed. My print quality now is amazing, far better
than I ever expected from a �100 kit.

That's the perspex framed one isn't it?
I would pay the £150 for an ender 3 myself.
Far more ridged metal frame.


Software on PC is Repetier-Host (standalone use of printer with SD
card is tedious).


Cura 3.6 is nice.

On 05/02/2019 15:39, Tricky Dicky wrote:
I am considering getting a 3D printer later this year after reading a review for a sub £200 one in a magazine I subscribe as well as noting Aldi had a sub £300 one on sale recently. I am a bit flexible on price at the moment but we are talking hundreds £s and not thousands. It does seem that prices have come down as they have got popular.

I am hoping to use it to make small models with some detail. I intend to research the matter but would value any opinion from anybody who owns one regards make, what specifications I need to look at and what features are essential.


I bought (£99 including postage) a Tronxy P802MA printer kit. Since then
postage has become extra. It is a clone of the Anet A8 which is, in
turn, a clone of the RepRap; this means there's vast amounts of
community support.

Its main benefit over the Anet is its self-levelling feature which is an
extra on the Anet. It stops a lot of mucking about levelling the bed
manually.

Although its frame is plastic (7mm thick) rather than metal, it's plenty
rigid enough for me (although I haven't made any very tall items). I
would not discount a printer on the grounds of its plastic frame. I
haven't found it necessary to print any of the parts that other people
deem essential (rather obsessively IMHO).

It worked first time and produces surprisingly good prints. When the
filament which came with the kit ran out there was a further increase in
usability when I bought some Geeekrite filament (£23 for 2kg) which is
less prone to snapping after a print is complete.

I really enjoyed assembling the kit over 2 afternoons and although
there's a learning curve you really understand what's going on as a result.

I keep the printer in the garage or, if we're not expecting visitors,
the dining room as it's a bit noisy to have it operating in my study (as
they all are). As a result I use Repetier server on a Raspberry Pi
attached to the printer to connect to Repetier Host on the PC in my study.

For the first time in my life (I'm 76) I learnt Computer-Aided Design
and after a lot of experimenting I settled on Tinkercad as doing
everything I needed reasonably intuitvely.

The amount of detail you can get in your price bracket is probably
restricted by nozzle size. The standard size is 0.4 mm. If you want more
detail than that smaller nozzles are available cheaply though I think
0.2mm is as small as you want to go. I haven't tried it.

Another Dave

--
Change nospam to techie

On 6 Feb 2019 at 16:09:30, Another Dave wrote:
On 05/02/2019 15:39, Tricky Dicky wrote:
I am considering getting a 3D printer later this year after reading a review for a sub
£200 one in a magazine I subscribe as well as noting Aldi had a sub £300 one on sale
recently. I am a bit flexible on price at the moment but we are talking hundreds £s and not
thousands. It does seem that prices have come down as they have got popular.

I am hoping to use it to make small models with some detail. I intend to research the
matter but would value any opinion from anybody who owns one regards make, what
specifications I need to look at and what features are essential.


I bought (£99 including postage) a Tronxy P802MA printer kit. Since then
postage has become extra. It is a clone of the Anet A8 which is, in
turn, a clone of the RepRap; this means there's vast amounts of
community support.

Its main benefit over the Anet is its self-levelling feature which is an
extra on the Anet. It stops a lot of mucking about levelling the bed
manually.

Although its frame is plastic (7mm thick) rather than metal, it's plenty
rigid enough for me (although I haven't made any very tall items). I
would not discount a printer on the grounds of its plastic frame. I
haven't found it necessary to print any of the parts that other people
deem essential (rather obsessively IMHO).

It worked first time and produces surprisingly good prints. When the
filament which came with the kit ran out there was a further increase in
usability when I bought some Geeekrite filament (£23 for 2kg) which is
less prone to snapping after a print is complete.

I really enjoyed assembling the kit over 2 afternoons and although
there's a learning curve you really understand what's going on as a result.

I keep the printer in the garage or, if we're not expecting visitors,
the dining room as it's a bit noisy to have it operating in my study (as
they all are). As a result I use Repetier server on a Raspberry Pi
attached to the printer to connect to Repetier Host on the PC in my study.

For the first time in my life (I'm 76) I learnt Computer-Aided Design
and after a lot of experimenting I settled on Tinkercad as doing
everything I needed reasonably intuitvely.

The amount of detail you can get in your price bracket is probably
restricted by nozzle size. The standard size is 0.4 mm. If you want more
detail than that smaller nozzles are available cheaply though I think
0.2mm is as small as you want to go. I haven't tried it.

Another Dave

Havant IS in the 70s?