Before You Buy
There are definitely many considerations to take into account before buying your first printer. Lets good through some of the biggest ones below.
Image by Andrea Piacquado
Do you have time for it?
This is a big one. Yes in most cases when you set it to print you can leave it alone. However, depending on your budget the amount of time you need to spend troubleshooting your printer can sometimes be close to the actual amount of time you spend printing. There can also be a large pre and post print process. Looking to design your own materials? Learning software to be able to get designs to the point you want can take time, let alone the time it takes to design the thing you wish to print. Found a cool model online? Sometimes the model itself needs to be tweaked for 0 thickness walls or to solidfy objects that are hollow. Does your design need post-process? Things like painting, curing, trimming, sanding, and other process can be quite time consuming themselves.
Image by Artem Podrez
Do you know the hazards and safety measures required?
Some materials require googles, gloves, masks, and ventilation due to toxic properties. Can the room or enclosure for your printer accomodate this? Sometimes the printers themselves can be fire hazards in the event of a faulty wire or other electrical malfunction. What about storage? Some materials require a dry or sealed environment to avoid degredation so not only do you have to worth about your printer, but also the material. Some printers require additional equipment to get a satisfactory result or post-process. Do you have the space for the printer, material, and any other equipment you may need?
Image by ThisIsEngineering
What do you expect to primarily use a printer for?
This is a big budget consideration as if you don't have the time, need very high quality or specialty products, or need quick turn-around prints this can increase the amount of funds you need to start. Does your design need to be durable or detailed? Make sure you understand the materials the printers are able to use and if the strength and level of detail can fit your needs.
Printer Recommendations
Image by creality3dofficial.com
FDM
My first printer was a secondary Prusa i3 called a Wanhao Duplicator i3. It was a comparitively cheap printer that took a significant amount of upgrades and work to get it up to an acceptable quality and reliable prints. However, the name brand Prusa i3 is still proven to be a solid, yet more pricey, printer. Since my first printer, a great printer came out by a company called Creality 3D, which is the Ender 3. I have seem many reddit posts and prints that show the high quality of prints this printer is able to achieve, even with PLA. It also appears to take much less time to get comfortable with and definitely has my eye in the event I grab another FDM printer.
Image by anycubic.com
SLA
For SLA I have two recommendations. Both printers have been known to make it relatively easy to get going and produce the highly detailed products using resin. The first is the Elegoo Mars or its pro version. The second printer would be the Anycubic Photon or its "pro version" equivalent. Both these brands were able to make affordable printers that made it very easy to get into 3D printing while doing a great job.
Where to Find Models?
Designing models can take a lot of time and effort, and you still may not be able to get the quality of models you want. Thankfully, the internet has plenty of folks who are very good at creating models for 3d printing. Here are a number of sites who off free and/or paid models:
- Thingiverse - (Free) - This is a website hosted by 3D printer manufacturor MakerBot. It can sometimes be a low priority to them as an aside to their main business, but it is definitely one of the best resources for free models.
- Pinshape - (Free/Paid) - This is one of the more recent websites that has built up a collection of user provided models free to download or available to buy.
- MyMiniFactory - (Free/Paid) - This one is much more heavily focus on tabletop miniatures, however many are very high quality. Most are paid but you can find plenty of samples/demos for free.
- Yeggi Search Engine - (Free/Paid) - This is a rudementary search engine built to only search for 3d printable files across many of the other websites. As such the models it retreives can be free or paid.
- Kickstarter / Patreon - (Paid) - With the rise in popularity of 3D printing, the number of indie designers and printer manufacturors has also risen. Often times you can find their startups or businesses on either of these sites.
- HeroForge - (Paid) - I wanted to do a shoutout to HeroForge, whose focus is also on tabletop miniatures, as they offer a unique service of allowing the user to be able to design the model to buy and download. As 3D printing continues to rise I'm sure these kinds of services will also continue to pop up.