Cheap 3d printers

[Nipplemilk909]

hello im looking at these two printers to buy which one of the two is better off. 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01ERDWSFU/ref=ox_sc_act_title_5?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2UHE58S2974CT

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B018GZBC3Y/ref=ox_sc_act_title_8?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

[manikyath]

well.. the word on the street is "avoid prusa i3 clone slike the plague"

 

although i have to say it looks extremely similar in structure as the monoprice, which is actually this wanhao duplicator i3

 

i have the "step up from that" from wanhao, the i3 plus, and i have to say it seriously has its faults, but as a base to work upon it's a pretty nice kit, and that chassis... is probably actually bullet proof.

 

there's a few downsides to list out tho:

- every cheap printer comes with a brass nozzle and a ptfe hotend (the ones with the little tube inside), and these are both very much not wear reistant, and a clogging nightmare.

- the bearings wanhao uses.. are painful to listen to, expect investing in lots of lube.

- the chassis is steel, which is extremely strong, but also extremely heavy.

- GOD these things are noisy, they're actually worse than a badly assembled ultimaker original.

- replacement parts while being widely available, are often only available from les practical retailers. but at least they exist.

 

while typing this, something about the "hictop" prusa i3 clone caught my eye...

WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THAT HOTEND... it's not even on straight in the picture, the cooling duct is 3D printed which is a terrible idea because that stuff WILL warp, and best of all:

there's a reason they're sold as a kit, because of the way the power supply is mounted, when it is plugged in, you can actually quite easily touch live wiring, which is pretty much against any sort of safety standards and i honestly wouldnt be surprised that your insurance would be like "oh derp, we dont cover that." if you manage to damage yourself on it or set your house on fire, because you yourself assembled something that's against any form of regulation.

[Nipplemilk909]

5 hours ago, manikyath said:

well.. the word on the street is "avoid prusa i3 clone slike the plague"

 

although i have to say it looks extremely similar in structure as the monoprice, which is actually this wanhao duplicator i3

 

i have the "step up from that" from wanhao, the i3 plus, and i have to say it seriously has its faults, but as a base to work upon it's a pretty nice kit, and that chassis... is probably actually bullet proof.

 

there's a few downsides to list out tho:

- every cheap printer comes with a brass nozzle and a ptfe hotend (the ones with the little tube inside), and these are both very much not wear reistant, and a clogging nightmare.

- the bearings wanhao uses.. are painful to listen to, expect investing in lots of lube.

- the chassis is steel, which is extremely strong, but also extremely heavy.

- GOD these things are noisy, they're actually worse than a badly assembled ultimaker original.

- replacement parts while being widely available, are often only available from les practical retailers. but at least they exist.

 

while typing this, something about the "hictop" prusa i3 clone caught my eye...

WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THAT HOTEND... it's not even on straight in the picture, the cooling duct is 3D printed which is a terrible idea because that stuff WILL warp, and best of all:

there's a reason they're sold as a kit, because of the way the power supply is mounted, when it is plugged in, you can actually quite easily touch live wiring, which is pretty much against any sort of safety standards and i honestly wouldnt be surprised that your insurance would be like "oh derp, we dont cover that." if you manage to damage yourself on it or set your house on fire, because you yourself assembled something that's against any form of regulation.

of these two clones its looking like monoprice is the better contender..

[manikyath]

Just now, Nipplemilk909 said:

of these two clones its looking like monoprice is the better contender..

exactly my point. especially because it's not a dodgy, wobbly safety hazard.

[Nipplemilk909]

Just now, manikyath said:

exactly my point. especially because it's not a dodgy, wobbly safety hazard.

and ive seen many 3d printed upgrades on the mono p one also changing the hotend to a metal one would be another upgrade

[manikyath]

3 minutes ago, Nipplemilk909 said:

and ive seen many 3d printed upgrades on the mono p one also changing the hotend to a metal one would be another upgrade

the fun bit about wanhao (which.. monoprice's OEM *is* wanhao for their 3d printers ) is that there's a lot of support for them, for some strange reason... i currently have a SUPER awesome full metal hotend for mine, that essentially doesnt clog except in very extreme cases.

 

comes to mention tho, if you can spare just a bit more, get the i3 plus, it's a much nicer package to work with:

https://wanhaousa.com/products/duplicator-i3-plus-steel-frame

 

EDIT: to put a comparison on the price difference, it's about the same as one or two rolls of fillament.

[SandersFlor]

On 3/26/2017 at 8:52 PM, Nipplemilk909 said:

hello im looking at these two printers to buy which one of the two is better off. 

I would strongly suggest saving up a little more too.

I did this too and ended up buying an Original Prusa i3 MK2 (the one every chinese company seems to clone).

 

Now I don't know about the first one, but I know the Monoprice Maker select is in fact a rebrand from the Wanhao duplicator i3 v2.

Which is actually a fairly well received printer in the community.
It's sturdy and with a bit of tuning you can get really good quality prints out of it :-).

Here's a review from the Aldi rebrand of the same printer by Maker's Muse, one of the best 3D Printer youtubers.