What are some good 3D Printer Recomendations

[grimreeper132]

Hey, so I have a couple of stupid projects I would like to try and for them I need a 3D printer so whats a decent 3D printer that meets the following specs. I am willing to build it myself so thats not a problem

 

Main Requirements (this can't be compromised on)

Max £500, but round £200-300 is much prefered

Should be able to print 2 materials simultaniously
Filament Fed (PLA and ABS and Weird PLA composite types e.g. Wood Filament)
Should have a nice finish (I am willing to sand etc but a nice finsih is nice)

Print Bed should be at least 200 mm by 200 mm (bigger is fine, smaller is ok, but as long as its by only 10 mm or so)
 

Additional Requirements/Nice to haves (I would love for it to meet all of these but drop them if the price becomes stupid)
Able to print the 2 different materials through 2 different nozzles
Able to print Metal (especially copper)
Accurate, more acurate the better
Hot Bed

Able to print small sections (e.g. able to print something thats 0.2 mm wide, at the moment however 1mm probably is fine)

 

Thanks in advance for help, any questions just ask and I will answer as much as possible

[ImAlsoRan]

If it's just a couple of small projects you may want to go check your local library. Here in the US several of them offer "maker spaces" with utilities such as 3D printing, CNC, etc.

[TheRandomness]

You're asking a lot of your potential machine.

If anything, you could get an Ender 3 V2 / Ender 5 and just upgrade the hell out of it. An E3D Chimera as an upgrade with their stainless steel/nozzle X nozzles (as you want to print abrasives) would fulfill the print two things requirements -- though that would require firmware changes and most likely, you'd need to upgrade the mainboard.

 

And, as you want to print abrasives, that somewhat limits your choices. With a requirement for 0.2mm wall thickness you'd want a 0.15 or 0.2mm nozzle, but it's not recommended to print abrasives through such a small nozzle due to the increased risks of clogs.

 

Why do you need to print 2 materials simultaneously? Is it inherent to your design? Or can the part be changed in such a way as to avoid this requirement?

[Kilrah]

The dual extruder requirement pretty much blows your budget straight away and severely restricts your choices.

[grimreeper132]

22 minutes ago, ImAlsoRan said:

If it's just a couple of small projects you may want to go check your local library. Here in the US several of them offer "maker spaces" with utilities such as 3D printing, CNC, etc.

Unforchantly I don't  know of any places like that in scotland.

 

18 minutes ago, TheRandomness said:

You're asking a lot of your potential machine.

If anything, you could get an Ender 3 V2 / Ender 5 and just upgrade the hell out of it. An E3D Chimera as an upgrade with their stainless steel/nozzle X nozzles (as you want to print abrasives) would fulfill the print two things requirements -- though that would require firmware changes and most likely, you'd need to upgrade the mainboard.

 

And, as you want to print abrasives, that somewhat limits your choices. With a requirement for 0.2mm wall thickness you'd want a 0.15 or 0.2mm nozzle, but it's not recommended to print abrasives through such a small nozzle due to the increased risks of clogs.

 

Why do you need to print 2 materials simultaneously? Is it inherent to your design? Or can the part be changed in such a way as to avoid this requirement?

yea thats fair, the design has it inherent as one will needs to be embedded in the other, its ok if they don't join as long one is inside the other. And good to know, as I said the thinness is something I can compromise on, so thats not a problem. As for modding/making my own I am open to that idea and might start looking into it, and I am open to writing my own firmware, as I am not a complete noivice on that side....... in theory we will see in practice.

 

8 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

The dual extruder requirement pretty much blows your budget straight away and severely restricts your choices.

Yea I did have a look and saw a couple, but yea its fair to say its not the standard.

[TheRandomness]

7 minutes ago, grimreeper132 said:

Unforchantly I don't  know of any places like that in scotland.

 

yea thats fair, the design has it inherent as one will needs to be embedded in the other, its ok if they don't join as long one is inside the other. And good to know, as I said the thinness is something I can compromise on, so thats not a problem. As for modding/making my own I am open to that idea and might start looking into it, and I am open to writing my own firmware, as I am not a complete noivice on that side....... in theory we will see in practice.

 

Yea I did have a look and saw a couple, but yea its fair to say its not the standard.

If it's such that one part must slide into another, and the centre needs to be printed in a different material (say, imagine two concentric cylinders, inside in PETG and outside in PLA), you could print the core first, then when printing the outside, you can tell the printer to pause at a layer for you to then insert the core, and then continue printing to embed the core. An example to explain what I mean because I have no clue how else to say it lol

[ImAlsoRan]

7 minutes ago, TheRandomness said:

If it's such that one part must slide into another, and the centre needs to be printed in a different material (say, imagine two concentric cylinders, inside in PETG and outside in PLA), you could print the core first, then when printing the outside, you can tell the printer to pause at a layer for you to then insert the core, and then continue printing to embed the core. An example to explain what I mean because I have no clue how else to say it lol

Basically just when you need to extrude a new material you can manually switch them out and have the printer pause. A far more budget option.

[TheRandomness]

25 minutes ago, ImAlsoRan said:

Basically just when you need to extrude a new material you can manually switch them out and have the printer pause. A far more budget option.

Less just repeatedly pausing and swapping materials, and more inserting another printed part like you would if you paused a print to insert a bearing.

[grimreeper132]

27 minutes ago, ImAlsoRan said:

Basically just when you need to extrude a new material you can manually switch them out and have the printer pause. A far more budget option.

Problem is although theoretically possible I would need to do that repeatably, to the degree it will not be fesable.

2 minutes ago, TheRandomness said:

Less just repeatedly pausing and swapping materials, and more inserting another printed part like you would if you paused a print to insert a bearing.

As I said above the two materials are far to intertwined to do that, so the swaping of materials would be required, but it would happen too often to be practical

[Kilrah]

Then yeah, not much choice but to either go with a dual extruder printer, or a single extruder one plus https://www.mosaicmfg.com/products/palette-3

 

And get ready for lots of tweaking.