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Ask HN: Which 3D Printer for Product Design Prototyping in 2019?

11 points by nelsonic ↗ HN
We are creating a "Maker Space" or "Hackspace" and want to get a good 3D printer that we can use to make IoT prototypes. If you have experience with 3D printers and can give advice on which one to buy, please share! Thanks!

More detailed criteria in: https://github.com/dwyl/home/issues/37

13 comments

[ 4.9 ms ] story [ 39.9 ms ] thread
noonespecial
Our hacker space has one $12k Stratasys that is ridiculously fast and creates superb parts. We also have half a dozen "monoprice" grade printers that are slow and sloppy and at least two of which are always broken or being upgraded/experimented-on at any given time.

Nobody ever uses the Stratasys.

nelsonic
Really interesting insight that the $12K Stratasys does not get used ...! Are members of the hacker space charged per print? Do the "monoprice" grade printers get used much? Thanks!
noonespecial
It does cost more per print but not that much more to use the Strat. Mostly its just a big "emotional commitment" as people are afraid to take risks with so valuable a machine.

The others go non-stop. 1000's of hours. They are so cheap, and so ubiquitous that there are the equivalent of 2 more printers worth of spare parts in bins under each one.

People are forever experimenting on them with different nozzle sizes and arrangements, custom firmwares, wacky filament blends etc. We've made some wild, wild stuff!

nelsonic
Awesome! I would love to see a photo gallery or video tour! Thanks again for sharing your insights!
mcgregory
Thanks! I'm gonna to buy a printer in the near future. I think Monoprice Maker Mini/Maylan M200 could be a solid starter printer. It has competitive price
ericb
The clear winner in my opinion is the Prusa I3 MK3. In 3D printing forums both dedicated, and not, it gets pretty stellar reviews. It is as open source as you can get, and Joseph Prusa is one of the innovators in the field. I would buy an assembled printer. It costs $1000 fully assembled.

Now, if you're looking for low maintenance, I might not get the MMU multi-material addition. You have to build that, and it is more finicky, although you can get some amazing stuff out of it.

I have a pre-built Prusa Mk3. I love it.

https://shop.prusa3d.com/en/3d-printers/181-original-prusa-i...

nelsonic
Ordered the Original Prusa i3 Mk3. Thanks for your advice. :-)
ericb
Anytime. Good luck! If you need advice, feel free to ping me.

My three tips are: 1-Make sure you get a good Z calibration before the first layer (run the calibration a few times). 2-Wipe with Isopropyl alcohol between prints, and 3-If you ever start getting adhesion issues, wipe with Acetone.

Oh, also, get octoprint and install it on a raspberry pi. You can run and monitor your printer remotely that way. Really easy, and so handy. https://octoprint.org/

feistypharit
I have the Wirecutter recommended tiertime mini 2. It was my first 3d printer, and it works ok. I've enjoyed it and learned a lot. But it's serious drawback is you have to use their software, which doesn't have many settings. Want to use a non tiertime filament? Good luck. Also, print area is small.

My next printer will be a prusa. Haven't decided if I'll buy it assembled or do it myself. There's a 10 hour YouTube video of the assembly...it's a lot.

jononor
A whole makerspace and you want to get one 3d-printer? That will prevent someone from using it most of the time, printing is slow. And whenever you have a tiny issue, you have 0 machining capability until it is fixed.

I recommend to get 3-6 of an affordable printer instead. For example Original Prusa if you can afford it, else Ender 3. This way you can have long production jobs, quick experimentation and teaching someone new to use the printers at the same time. And you can keep one set of spares shared for all your machines.

If you have money left over, start saving for a small CNC and a CO2 laser.

jononor
Oh, and if someone wants to do a small run of prototypes they can use 6 machines at the same time. Which is 4x faster than what an single expensive machine can do.
nelsonic
Thanks for helping to clarify the question. ;-) When I ask “which printer” I should have clarified that if many people end up using it (and it’s a bottleneck) we will buy several identical printers.

We are currently considering the Original Prusa i3 MK3 as it’s been suggested by a few people (thanks for adding your “vote”). https://github.com/dwyl/home/issues/37#issuecomment-45999341...

As for other equipment, we already have a reasonably complete set of high quality hand/power tools and a Maslow CNC.

We will be opening a separate question on “Which CO2 Laser?” very shortly. (Thanks!)