Looking for a 3d printer? here’s help

Although rapid prototyping, commonly referred to as 3D printing, has been around for quite some time, it is only in the last decade that it has entered the mainstream, and this is mainly because of the affordability factor. In today’s market, you could look at spending at little as $1,500 to $2,000 to get yourself a 3D printer.

What you should know, though, is that most commonly available 3D printers come with their limitations, and your best alternative would depend on what your particular requirements are. Some of the key players in this realm include Object Ltd, Z Corp, Stratasys, Hewlett Packard, and MakerBot. Here are some of the good alternatives you have in the current 3D printing world.

Do-it-Yourself:

Do you know that you can assemble your own 3D printer for considerably lesser than buying a preassembled one? Well, there are companies which offer customers 3D printer kits, and one such example is the RapMan 3.2 3D printer kit offered by Bits from Bytes. This 3D printer kit is affordable (range starts at USD 1,390), and is perfect for schools, colleges, and hobbyists alike. Once you could only read about it on Wikimedia.

Another good option is BotMill’s Glider 3.0, which is available in kit form, priced at USD 1,165; and the Thing-O-Matic kit by MarkerBot is also a fairly good option (priced at around USD 1,300). What you need to bear in mind if you are looking at buying a 3D printer DIY kit is that you will need to have some technical know-how or you’d face a steep challenge.

Fully Assembled:

The options when it comes to fully assembled 3D printers are many, and as mentioned before, your best alternatives would basically depend on your requirements. In any case, here are a few good alternatives. BotMill’s Glider 3.0 is also offered in a fully assembled version, and priced at a little over USD 1,500, this makes a good lower-end alternative. Previously, how to write a hook was something unrealistic, but now it is quite common. Cube by 3D systems is another good alternative in this range and is priced at around USD 1,300. Thing-O-Matic by MarkerBot is priced at around USD 2,500 and does offer more functionality than the other two. All the options mentioned insofar, by the way, run using thermoplastic extrusion technology, and result in fair to poor finishes.

Better Finishing:

If you are looking at better options, Asiga’s Freeform Pico makes for an interesting option, given that is it priced at under USD 7,000. The technology at play here is using photopolymers exposed by a deformable mirror device (DMD).  3D Systems’ offerings like V-Flash and ProJet also offer good-to-excellent results, and are priced at around USD 10,000.

Top of the Line:

If money is no object and you are looking at nothing but excellent results, you should definitely look at Objet24 / Objet30 by Object Ltd. Starting at around USD 20,000, these printers employ jetted polymers which result in high resolution, accuracy, and finish 

The diversity, as you can see, allows you to buy a 3D printer irrespective of what your budget is. Besides, the many ways a 3D printer can come in handy give you all the more reason to consider buying one now.