Hello,
Our team is planning to buy a 3d printer but we are not sure which one.
We were looking on these ptinters:
Zortrax m200
Ultimaker 2+
Sindoh dp200
Makerbot replicator 2
If sombody can write his opinion about the printers it will be good.
Thank you.
Markforge Onyx is my favorite. The parts are incredible and can withstand many FRC applications. The printer is the best I’ve used and is dead simple to operate.
If you don’t get the onyx, get one of the new Prusa MK3’s.
Hope this helps!
-Mike
Zortrax m22 - Most of what I’ve heard and seen about this printer has been positive. Excellent manufacturing, easy to use, very quiet, good volume, and very reliable. The build quality is good, but the resolution of the printer is a little odd. It boasts a very fine resolution in the X and Y directions, but a more mundane resolution in the Z direction. Not to say it’s bad, but the printing capabilities are inherently anisotropic. Some people love the perforated print bed, some people hate it. I’m more in the latter category, though that may just be some bias leftover from my bad experiences with perforated beds on other printers. This is most likely the most reliable printer on your list. (My friend had a print running when an earthquake occurred and the print did not fail. I’d say that’s a pretty good testimony for the Zortrax.)
Ultimaker 2+ - This is a good printer. Extremely easy to use out of the box, very big, and boasts very high print quality. Many people swear by it, and they’re not misguided when they do so. But this printer is also about $700 more than the Zortrax. Is it a better printer? Yes. But not $700 better. This is by far the easiest to use machine on the list.
Sindoh dp200 - This is the printer I have the least experience with. It’s the only one on your list I haven’t used myself. Still, everything I’ve seen shows that it’s an excellent printer for what it costs. In fact, it’s got one of the largest print volumes for a ~$1000 printer. That being said, the Sindoh is much less expensive than all the other printers on your list. It is not going to be as reliable, long lasting, or make as good parts as the Zortrax or the Ultimaker. Also, it requires you to use their proprietary filament cartridges, which is a feature I detest in Printers. Also, since these cartridges ship from US, you’ll probably have to pay hand over fist for shipping every time you need new filament. So, if you are thinking about a ~$1000 printer, I’d look at the Prusa i3 MK3’s.
Do yourself a favor and cross the Replicator 2 off your list. It’s far too much of a hassle with far too little advantages for far too much money. It’s just not worth it.
I will take the liberty of adding a few printers to your list. You should check these out.
Lulxbot Taz 6 - They’re pricey, but goodness I love these machines. They’ve printed every material I’ve thrown at it. (You can make your own filament from water bottles. It’s super duper cool.) Also, they sport a massive build volume. These are more for experienced users though; not to say a beginner can’t use them, but a beginner might not be able to utilise these to their full value.
Makergear M2 - These are roughly the same price as the Zortrax printers, but offer a wide range of customisation and upgrades that can turn these into some of the most capable printers on the market. Even out of the box, the Makergear can go toe to toe with some of the highest grade printers. It’s a great value for your dollar.
Prusa i3 MK3 - This is the best all-around printer on the market right now. It is very similar to the Makergear actually, but costs a $1000 less. If you handed me $2000 and told me to go buy a 3D Printer and all the accessories I needed, I’d probably go out and buy two of these and spend all the extra on filament. They’re just fantastic printers for the price tag.
I would recommend the Prusa i3 MK3. Fantastic build quality as well as print quality. The MK2S is also a great option for $150 less, and has just as good print quality as the MK3, but with less features.
If you can afford it, the Markforged Onyx One is an exceptional printer, but it is limited in what materials you canuse with it. The Onyx filament for it is also super expensive, so keep that in mind. A Prusa printer will both be cheaper and use cheaper filaments.
Thank you all for your replys, but i need you to focus on the printers i showed up, since we need to buy it in israel, and these are the printers which we found suppliers here.
Look at Prusa - They ship globally and are actually based in the EU.
There are many good printers… the question is, though, what do you want to print?
For small items made of PLA, I’ve got a Monoprice Mini that does just fine for $220 USD. https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=15365 For a few bucks more I’ve got a refurbished PrintRBot Play (with an extended bed) that delivers a slightly higher print quality. https://printrbot.com/shop/certified/
I’ve made both machines run over WiFi using AstroPrint running on a Raspberry Pi.
For ABS we’ve got an Afinia H480 and H800, and for the fancy stuff we’ve got an Ultimaker 3. Yeah, it’s prints are pretty nice, but we expect students to start out on the simpler printers before we let them touch the fancy one.
And while I refer to the Mini and PrintRBot as printing PLA, and the Afinias as printing ABS… they can do either. I’ve just found that the less I swap materials the fewer print head jams I get.
Having a small, inexpensive printer (or several of them!) is great for learning. There are very few parts we make that actually require the precision and dissolvable support material offered by the Ultimaker.
I’d also suggest on mastering PLA printing before moving on to other materials. Even ABS starts to introduce challenges such as warping and bed adhesion. But yeah, if you don’t have a 3D Printer, you definitely want one.
Jason
I got a “Robo3D R1+” just over a year ago and it’s run flawlessly since I got it. The heated build platform is huge (10"x9"x8" build space), the hotend is flexible enough to run over 20 different kinds of filament (even Polycarbonate), and it can print at up to 100mm/s reliably. It also utilizes automatic bed leveling (a MUST have if you don’t want to be constantly calibrating your printer), and is compatible with most open-source slicers (it comes with a slicer program that works fine if you don’t want to go looking for a different program).
Robo3D also recently released a new model, the “R2” which has a ton more features and supports a drop-in dual-extruder module (not yet released).
It’s honestly baffling to me why anyone on a budget under $3000 would get anything but the Josef Prusa i3 Mk3 (don’t confuse it with the unofficial versions). It’s awesome and has a e3D all metal hotend stock for high temp filaments.
You should see if you can reach out to Stratasysin Israel for support - they may just print things for free for you with some advanced materials that are not available on the printers you listed.
1 Holtzman St.
Science Park, P.O. Box 2496
Rehovot 7612401
Phone: +972-74-745-4000
Prusa i3 MK2s or MK3.
It’s a great printer that is easily assembled and upgraded. It can use many different materials from inexpensive plastics for rapid prototyping all the way to carbon fiber and nylon for strength manufacturing. Plus they are a great deal and can give a couple of students some experience building and setting up a complex electrical device.
Been assembling an ANet MK8 printer I got from eBay for less than $200.
Came as a kit and is basically a Prusa I3 design.
ACME screws with bronze nuts.
LCD screen.
Heated bed.
Power supply and the electronics were included.
I have more than 18 other printers, but for <$200?