Typical 3D printing works by using software that slices a digital model. Those tiny vertical slices are then brought to life as hot plastic filament is extruded through a precise nozzle onto the print bed. Most of the below printers use this method of 3D printing, but we also have some alternative ideas for beginners or for people who want to explore fabrication. If you are interested in 3D printing but aren't ready to drop a few hundred dollars, 3D pens are a great place to start.
It takes some practice to learn how to draw in three dimensions, but if you are just looking to try out a new craft or make small pieces, this economical option is a good choice for you. Resin printers are also able to bring your digital models to life. These prints often appear higher quality since you won't see the tiny layers that filament printing leaves. However, you will probably get a smaller print size for a resin printer at a comparable price.
Consumers and schools will want a device that's easy to set up and use, doesn't need much maintenance, and offers reasonably good print quality. Hobbyists and artists may want special features such as the ability to print objects with more than one color or multiple filament types. Designers and other professionals demand outstanding print quality.
Shops involved in short-run manufacturing will like a large build area to print multiple objects at once. Individuals wanting to show off the wonders of 3D printing to friends or clients will want a handsome yet reliable machine. If you're looking to print highly detailed models, the ELEGOO Mars 3-D printer can deliver.
Somewhat of an outlier on this list, it's the only resin-based machine and offers something a little different thanks to its special UV photocuring technology. It has a slightly smaller build volume, so it's not great for larger projects, but can achieve a print resolution that the other printers can't. The printer is fully integrated with the industry-leading CHITUBOX software which means you can set up your printing projects up to 10 times faster than other software. The Anet A8 is a 3D printer kit developed by Chinese manufacturer Anet.
It based onFDMtechnology, and comes with a Cartesian FDM head that can printABS and PLA filaments. The manufacturer says that you do not need much experience to assemble the machine adequately. Additionally, Anet A8 is compatible with a wide variety of filaments.
It has a maximum build volume of 220 x 220 x 240 mm and comes with a heated print bed that can reach up to 100ºC. It is one of the most accessible machines on the market, with a starting price around $180. The Prusa i3 MK3S+ offers the reliability and print quality of the Mini+ plus an even larger print bed, which opens up new possibilities for printing large models, or multiple items at once. It also comes preassembled or in a DIY kit, though we found it much simpler to set up than the Mini+.
In addition, it offers you the option to print with more types of filament than the Mini+ does, and it's similarly quiet. Although the MK3S+ has a larger, 9.9-by-8.3-by-8.3-inch PEI print bed, the Mini+ is no slouch with its 7-by-7-by-7-inch print volume. Most free models you'll find available on library websites like Thingiverse are made for this size of print bed, so it's not often that you'll max out its abilities. We were able to remove the bed and bend it to pop off prints, but usually we used a scraper and gentle pressure instead. It automates as many quality checks as possible, so there's less manual setup each time you print. It's also built out of replaceable parts; that's useful if you plan to run the printer continuously and want as long a lifespan as possible.
And Prusa's printers are upgradable, whether you want to add nicer parts or swap in features from the latest printer. The LulzBot TAZ 6 boasts a large build volume of 280 mm x 280 mm x 250 mm (11.02 in x 11.02 in x 9.8 in). While it's only a minor discount, it's still a substantial amount of money at the end of the day. It's packed with lots of premium features, including settings for self-leveling and self-cleaning. An integrated power supply, the ability to print multiple small projects simultaneously, and the use of free, open-source print software are the icing on the cake. The Elegoo Mars UV photocuring 3D printer is an impressive printing machine that comes semi-assembled, saving you the hassle of spending extensive time researching setup.
A common theme in reviews is the intricate detailing in its prints, and the extremely low price. QIDI TECH's multipurpose 3-D printer can carry out both ventilative printing and enclosed constant temperature printing, depending on what you require. It's also compatible with a wide range of materials, from carbon fiber to nylon, which means you can create all manner of cool items. The machine is fitted with a double z-axis driver that ensures extremely precise printing. Furthermore, cutting-edge software promises to improve print quality by 30 percent and print speed by 20 percent, so you'll not only be printing better but faster, too.
The ambitious da Vinci Jr. 1.0 A Pro is a step-up printer with a big 6.9-inch square build surface and optional add-ons for both laser engraving and using specialized material like carbon-fiber filament. However, the lack of built-in Wi-Fi is a major hassle, and for this price a nonheated print bed is a serious omission. Some of the company's printers are locked to proprietary filament, but this model is not (which is good, because the sample roll of PLA filament included in the box wasn't great). The X Plus is manufactured by the Chinese company Qidi Technology and as its name suggests, offers a larger build volume than other models. Based on FDM technology, it comes with two different types of extruders. This 3D printer also features a 4.3 inch touchscreen, a removable build plate, and provides a slicer, QIDI Print Slicer.
The Prusa Mini+ offers the best overall 3D-printing experience thanks to its combination of print quality, reliability, and desk-appropriate size at a relatively low price. It produced some of the best-looking prints among the machines we tested, it works with a wide variety of filament brands and types, and it comes preassembled. The bad news is that, in most cases, the potential is very limited, so it would be very difficult to build a REAL business on Amazon using just a 3D printer. This is mostly because of the technical limitations of today's printing technology which still limits us in materials that can be used, the final product resolution/quality, and the speed of production.
Still, some people do successfully use 3D printers to MANUFACTURE products and sell them online. The DigiLab 3D45 is part of the range of FDM machines from the American manufacturer Dremel. What distinguishes it from its sister models is the integration of a heating plate capable of reaching 100°C and an extruder capable of reaching up to 280°C. It is able to process a wider range of thermoplastics such as ABS or PETG.
It offers a maximum printing volume of 255 x 155 x 170 mm and a 4.5 inch touch screen. The Dremel DigiLab 3D45 is also equipped with a camera to monitor the printing process. Practical and compact, this makes it a popular 3D printer on Amazon. Their Ender 3 Pro is an enhanced version of the extremely popular Ender 3.
This printer has a resume printing function, a print bed that heats up in a few minutes, and a stable power supply. It competes with the Creality CR10 in a similar price and size range, and we rate both printers highly. The Pro version of the Tronxy X5SA is more stable, due to being built out of stronger materials — mostly aluminium rather than acrylic — helping print more accurate prints. It's accurate to around 125 microns so it can't compete with resin printers for accuracy, but that's the tradeoff when you go for a FDM kit rather than a resin printer.
Despite this, it's a very easy printer to set up, with a quick-start guide included and no mechanical assembly required – just a simple levelling procedure for the printing plate. If you want to make a model out of more than one material you can often pause the printer part-way through a print job, switch filaments, then resume printing. In this way you could, for example, print an object with a red bottom and a blue top. If you want to combine colours more intricately than this, you'll need a printer with a dual extruder head, which can switch between two different filament feeds as it prints each layer. If you're looking for a printer that can print in two colors, the FlashForge Creator Pro is one of the best-reviewed options.
However, in our tests it printed only one great-looking model, along with six okay-looking models and one failure. We liked the printer's streamlined software, which made it easy to select what parts of a model to make which color. You load models onto the printer with an SD card, so queuing up a few prints at a time is also easy, and it has a large, 8.9-by-5.8-by-5.9-inch print volume. Some printers have print beds made of materials that prints adhere to extremely well—and judging from our experience, maybe a little too well. Adjusting print temperatures and a few other settings can help prevent sticking, but such tweaks aren't always enough.
Many printers now come with removable, flexible print beds; if your printer has one, remove the bed and carefully bend it to release your model. If the print is still stuck, heat the bed back up to its printing temperature and see if the model pops off easier. Next, use a scraper to carefully unstick the edges of the print and then move in a sawing motion toward the center.
If you're still stumped, one final trick is to remove the print bed and stick it in the freezer for an hour. This should shrink the print a little and make it easier to remove. FlashForge has been at the forefront of innovation in the 3-D-printing space. This particular printer is crafted by expert technicians using the very best materials. The sturdy metal frame and thick aviation-grade aluminum plate ensure reliable and precise printing so the machine won't wobble during use. Fitted with a dual extruder, the printer allows you to run double color or double filament printing.
Best of all, you won't run into any headaches connecting the printer to software because it's open-source and connects with all the different programs on the market. Recreate pretty much anything by putting it on this 3D scanner, where a rotating base and built-in camera create a 360-degree copy, which is then editable in any 3D program and printable on your 3D printer. Simply scan the object, import the scan into your slicing software for cleanup, and print. The included software alerts you of next steps in the printing process with either sound or texts. Scan quality and print resolution are great, and setup is easy, although you might want to clean up your 3D model a bit in a 3D software app after. The DIY Kit from SUNLU is a very cost-effective DIY 3D printer based on FDM technology.
It offers a generous print volume of 310 x 310 x 400mm, you could consider this a large size 3D printer, especially for the price! It also comes with end of filament sensor, high-precision extruder, resume print function and fast heating. The manufacturers states that the 0.4 mm nozzle will reach 200℃ in 2 minutes, and the build plate can heat up to 80℃. The Ender 3 is a desktop 3D printer that comes in the form of aDIYkit. It is produced by Creality, a manufacturer of 3D printers and 3D printing related products based in China. The company produces and sells a range of affordable desktop machines based on multiple 3D printing technologies.
Its most popular machines are based onFused Deposition Modeling, as is the case with the Ender 3. Most users of Ender 3 are either makers or hobbyists that enjoy its simplicity, affordability and reliability. This machine boasts a build volume of 220 x 220 x 250 mm, and a printing precision of 0.1 mm. The standard nozzle diameter is 0.4 mm, but it can also be 0.3 or 0.2 mm, and can heat up to 255°C. Ender 3 can print with 1.75 mm filament such as ABS, PLA, TPU, wood, copper, etc.
Make sure that a 3D printer's build area is large enough for the kind of objects that you intend to print with it. The build area is the size, in three dimensions, of the largest object that can a given printer can produce (at least in theory—it may be somewhat less if the build platform is not exactly level, for example). Typical 3D printers have build areas between 6 and 9 inches square, but they can range from a few inches to more than two feet on a side, and a few are actually square. In our reviews, we list printers' build areas in inches in height, width, and depth . Qidi Tech's X-One 2 offers a relatively small build volume, so it's more of a 3D printer for beginners or young users than a tool for makers.
The X-One 2 boasts a semi-closed frame, an LCD touch screen, and a heated print bed. Both beginners and experienced makers will prefer the simplicity the X-Pro offers. The large 4.3-inch touchscreen makes navigating printing options and using the printer painless and quick, and the innovative curved metal print plate makes for far easier finished model removal. Easier removal means less scarring to the print when scraping it off the build platform, and therefore better surface quality. Creality make some of the world's most popular low cost 3D printers, including the CR-10, Ender 5 and Ender 3 range. The Ender 3 is cheaper than the CR-10 and has a smaller maximum build volume of 220 x 220 x 250 mm, but there are many similarities in design and print quality.
For the price you might be expecting an assemble-it-yourself-kit, but this 3D printer comes ready to roll right out of the box, so you can start turning out models in minutes. It's easy to use too, thanks to a large 3.7in colour LCD screen and intuitive control wheel. The MP Cadet is noticeably smaller than most printers, with an overall footprint of just 8.3 by 8.3 inches. The melting filament gives off a maple-syrup or plastic smell, so in addition to having airflow in the room, you should avoid sitting right next to the printer as it operates to avoid inhaling the fumes. The MP Cadet is noisier than the Prusa i3 MK3S+, too, though it isn't unbearably loud.
The Prusa Mini+'s consistency and thoughtfully chosen, repairable parts will please more advanced users who need a dependable 3D-printing machine. It's also a bargain, with unusual features at this price including a large, 7-by-7-by-7-inch printing area and a color display, as well as 24/7 customer support. Prusa printers are the quietest models we've tested, too, and they're compatible with a wide range of plastic types. This award-winning 3D printer is now available for over $200 off the normal price. Key features to notice here are the automated loading system for filament, simple leveling process, and remote project monitoring using the 3DWOX mobile app. The product itself is backed by a one-year warranty from date of purchase, though it is worth noting that the nozzle and print bed are only under warranty for 90 days from product purchase date.
An easy mode for beginners helps to make this high-tech printer more accessible for kids and first-time hobbyists. It comes almost fully pre-assembled so you can get printing ASAP, and has the space and capacity to print large objects, allowing you to let your imagination run wild. The Magic DIY 3D printer from JGMAKER is a machine that is very easy to assemble, you should be done in 20 minutes. The frame is made from sturdy metal, and despite the simplicity of the assembly process, it offers a filament sensor and power failure detection.
The nozzle temperature can be adjusted between 180 and 245℃, and the bed's temperature can reach up to 110℃. The two most common types of filament are acrylonitrile butadiene styrene and polylactic acid . For example, ABS melts at a higher temperature than PLA and is more flexible, but emits fumes when melted that many users find unpleasant, and it requires a heated print bed.
PLA prints look smooth, but they tend to be on the brittle side. It's best to start with an FDM printer if you're just getting started with 3D printing and you don't print professionally. In an FDM printer, a thermoplastic material fiber is heated until it becomes malleable and then extends through an extrusion head onto the printer's table.
The table lies on the Z axis, while the head of the printer uses X and Y coordinates indicated by the pattern to lay molten plastic, layer by layer, until the object takes form. The performance category holds the promise of the greatest amount of value in 3D printing today and are poised to significantly disrupt the sales of printers in the industrial segment. Most printers in this category can print a wide range of materials, although to print them well, the manufacturer should provide print 'profiles' optimized to each material for their slicer software. Printers in this category are primarily toys but are a great way to experiment and learn about 3D printing. You will likely have to spend a considerable time assembling, calibrating and testing before you are able to print. They will only be able to print objects around 3-4″ in each dimension and likely limited to printing in one material.
