Which 3D printer

[Jay_Benson]

I am looking to buy a 3D printer to do some modelling on and don’t know anything about good and bad ones. I would be ok to spend up to £500 as it won’t be used for volume production and I am not after great speed. The size of the items being made will be around 125mm x 50mm x 50mm. One key input is the 3D CAD software requirement- it needs to be suitable for a beginner - me - to use.

I have no doubt that within the TDF there will be some good guidance.

Thanks

[Divemouse]

I have no doubt that within the TDF there will be some good guidance.

Yes, but how do you pick it out?

[Jay_Benson]

Yes, but how do you pick it out?

Currently, very easily.

[Divemouse]

I will ask Rob - he's currently on the road to Wales.

[Divemouse]

He says what kind of models do you want to produce? A resin printer might suit you if you want something very finished and polished, but it uses stinky chemicals which probably wouldn't phase you. What sort of finished quality do you want and what sort of application will they have?

[Jay_Benson]

The models are not required to be high precision - they are prototypes of a product I am developing. I have been working with Birmingham Uni to develop it but the project budget is coming to an end and I am tantalisingly close to having the final form sorted out. I would rather spend some money now getting the final product spot on than have to tweak the product later on.

[Divemouse]

I'll pass that on

[Divemouse]

Your inbox is over full

[Nickpicks]

I have a Creality Ender 3. It works well for me. The maximum print size is around 230mm cube.
It's a FDM (fused deposition modelling) printer. FDM is quite slow - can take 4 hours for a print of the size you're looking at. If you go with higer quality settings ("super" 0.12mm layer height prints can take days for a large, detailed print. - a detailed Kneeling Darth Vader pen holder takes 16 hours at that setting!, but about 6 hours at "low quality" 0.28mm layers)

Accuracy is pretty good - within 0.05mm is achievable without too much effort.

Popular printing mediums for FDM are:
PLA: Easy to use, not too many nasty fumes, doesn't stand up well to heat (warps) / UV (goes brittle)
PETG: Reasonably easy to use (gets a bit stringy), not too many nasty fumes, withstands UV/heat well (Inside of hot car is OK - my prints didn't warp when it was hot enough to burst a can of coke!)
ABS: Needs and enclosure for printer (very prone to warping if there's a draft) nasty fumes whilst printing.

Cost wise, I paid about £150 for mine - it was a "demo used" model which was fine.

[Nickpicks]

I've not used Resin printers, but they are supposed to be much faster and have better accuracy.