Looking to buy a 3D printer £800 max budget

[rlcal]

I'd like to get into 3D printing, I haven't done any from I was last in school when it first became commercially available.  So I've basically forgotten everything I used to know about it. 

From the title my max budget is about £800 GBP. 

My use case will mostly be printing miniatures and the like.  So high quality on fine detail will be important to me. 

The features I know I'd like would be fully enclosed case as my understanding that helps with controlling temps, duel extrusion, heatable platform,

Filament detection & resumable printing would be nice but not required. 

 

This was one I was looking at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00YDSK0EG/ref=psdc_6283030031_t1_B00LC6NVXO

 

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated

[bob345]

If you're looking into printing miniatures, id go with an SLA style printer. Its a bit over budget, but the peopoly moai is probaly one of the best printers you can get at that price. The quality really rivals that of the formlabs form 2.

[tikker]

I get great results printing DnD miniatures on my Creality CR10-S (no dual extruder), using the profile from the video below:

The Prusa i3 is also well regarded from what I've read and has a multi extruder upgrade. Multiple extruders will probably raise the budget by another €300 on top of a regular Prusa though (€800). FDM printing with PLA is also safe. It's easy to print, does not expel harmful fumes, reasonably eco-friendly and is available in a wide range of colours and materials such as metal fill or wood fill (though they can be a bit more problematic to print). I can't speak for the Flash Forge Pro, but it'll probably be a good one; more so if you're set on dual extruders.

 

Resin printers are capable of great detail, much more than an FDM printer can do currently, but there's no multi-material/colour printing for these printers as far as I'm aware. The main problem is the resin they use though. Prints need to be UV cured after printing and the (uncured) resin itself should be treated as a hazardous material (meaning take precautions when handling it and dispose of it properly, i.e. not down the drain), so it's more of a hassle to print with these types of printers. @makersmuse has some nice videos about it (his 3D printing videos are great in general in my opinion).

 

Each printer will have it's pros and cons, but I'd suggest an FDM machine. I'd rather deal with cleaning up support material, rather than toxic resing, plus there's this vast array of different filaments available for PLA, should you want to spice up your prints.

[captain_aggravated]

A buddy of mine has an Elegoo SLA printer, I want to say he paid about $400 for it.

If going for FDM, Grab a Prusa Mk III.  Fantastic printers.

[zombieshy_guy81]

I'd say either a Prusa MK.III or a creality CR-10

[tikker]

Something I'd like to add, I wouldn't be too set on multi extruder capabilities yet as well. It's cool, but for now that's mostly all it is. It adds a reasonable amount of waste through a purge tower and time of course. If you go for a Prusa you can always get the multi-material upgrade. Realistically, combining a normal filament with e.g. a water-soluable support material is the best use case for now. Colours you can just paint  

[Hopalonghacksaw]

I personally have a Anet a8 and it cant print a decent square but at school we have Prusa Mk3 and they are amazing for what they can do. If you really want more info Check out Make’s 3d printer round up  they did a large number of price points and had nice graphs and everything.

[tikker]

15 hours ago, Hopalonghacksaw said:

I personally have a Anet a8 and it cant print a decent square but at school we have Prusa Mk3 and they are amazing for what they can do. If you really want more info Check out Make’s 3d printer round up  they did a large number of price points and had nice graphs and everything.

You probably still have some dialing in to do. Also, the A8 is a fire hazard. I wouldn't leave it alone. I still think the CR10(S) and Prusa Mk3 are among the best you can get at the moment. The Prusa being a bit more well done and easier to set up probably.