10 Affordable 3D Printers You Can Get Right Now. When 3D printers was first introduced, it was a marvel everyone wanted a piece of.
The problem was, not everyone could afford the hefty price tag it came with. 3D printing is new and still pretty expensive, but when you leave it to great minds to pull together power of crowdsourcing and passionate people, there are always alternative solutions. We have put together here 10 affordable 3D printers that you can own for less than $1000. Some of them are on a preorder status (it’s a few weeks’ wait) while others need until next year to come into fruition, due to the high demand and precision it takes to build these intricate machines. The wait time might be worth it though to turn your 3D creations to reality. Recommended Reading: 20 Amazing Creations You Can Make With 3D Printing [Note that the manufacturers may have more than one 3D printer model to their name. 1. Compare Home 3D Printers - TopTenREVIEWS. 3D Printer Buyer's Guide - How to Buy a 3D Printer.
L-R: Ultimaker 2, Printrbot Simple Maker, Formlabs Form 1+ The future is here: 3D printers that can build objects on demand are not just available, but also affordable.
This emerging area of technology offers a lot of potential, but also many pitfalls. So, what do you need to know, and which 3D printer is the right one for you? The first thing you will need is patience. 3D printing is an area that's developing very quickly, but the 3D printers you can buy now are a long way from the replicators of Star Trek fame. They print slowly — often taking many hours to produce a single object — and they offer a limited range of materials (most use two types of plastic, called PLA and ABS). MORE: Best 3D Printers Even the best consumer 3D printers can only build objects up to the size of a loaf of bread, and cheaper models have smaller build areas that usually measure only a few inches on each side. The Top Nine Consumer 3-D Printers For Every Budget. These 3-D printer things sound pretty cool, right? Prototypes printed right on your desktop! All you need is a CAD file (your own or one of thousands from an online database like the Etsy-esque Shapeways ) to turn digital dreams to plastic reality.
But as 3-D printing becomes more popular, the number of consumer devices available for purchase is exploding. Which one should you buy? Here’s a breakdown, by cost, of the best consumer 3-D printers on the market today. The Ultra Affordable If you’re looking to spend under $1,000, don’t expect perfect, prototype-ready builds without working for it. Printrbot Simple, $299 The cheapest mass-market model available today is the $299 Printrbot Simple . Kinpo da Vinci, $499 Taiwanese Kinpo Group just announced their XYZprinting line, which includes the vaunted $499 “da Vinci” model. Buy Now. Is 2014 The Year You Buy A 3-D Printer?
Imagine 3-D printing parts for your Ikea dresser that you purchased from an iTunes-like digital store.
That possibility might not be too far off, according to Douglas Krone, Internet entrepreneur and CEO of online tech store Dynamism. “Instead of buying something and having it shipped, [consumers] may just buy the rights for something and create it, like we buy music [today],” says Krone of a 3-D future not far beyond 2014. If you don’t already know someone with a 3-D printer, you will by the end of this year, says Bre Pettis, professional tinkerer and CEO of Brooklyn experimental technology company MakerBot Industries--comparing printers’ pending ubiquity to the precedent already set by the mass adoption of the Apple II in the early 1980s and ink jet printers after that.
Shipments of 3-D printers costing less than $100,000 grew 49% in 2013, and are expected to grow 75% more in 2014, according to an October report from Gartner. Thingiverse - Digital Designs for Physical Objects. Printrbot jr 3D Printer Specs. RoBo 3D 1 PLA 3D Printer Specs. Best- and Worst-Case Scenarios for Four 3D Printers. After CES, the future of 3D printers seems just a bit brighter.
But how bright? Let’s play out the best- and worst-case scenarios for four top 3D printers. 1. Formlabs Form 1 Best-Case Scenario The crowd-funded CES darling continues to win tech headlines and geek’s hearts across America. Worst-Case Scenario Consumers laugh at the Form 1’s $3,000+ price tag, opting for the $600 RoBo 3D. 2. The most familiar name in the industry, the MakerBot Replicator (5th gen) becomes the iPod of 3D printers, synonymous with sleek design, luxury, and ease-of-use.
MakerBot CEO Bre Pettis calls an emergency press conference after growing reports of manufacturer defects. 3. Cost-conscious consumers skip the buzz, and buy the Flashforge Creator 1, a Chinese-made alternative for less than half the price of its top competitors. “It brings us back to a simpler time of VCRs and record players,” writes a popular tech website. 4. With its $600 price tag, the RoBo 3D gains mass-market appeal.
Featured Products - 3D Printing by Shapeways. LEO the Maker Prince. 3D Printing. Alan Alan Alan Alaaaannnn! – Design!!! » PORTFOLIO. 3D Printer Creates “Magic Arms” For Young Girl. We’ve been covering 3D printers here for a while now and each new innovation just gets a little more amazing.
We’ve also seen a few uses that make us question the technology such as when a hobbyist printed the lower part of a gun. 3D printing is going to run into all sorts of conundrums as it matures, but sometimes we just have to appreciate the little miracles that the technology affords. Meet Emma, she’s a two-year-old who was born with arthrogryposis. It’s a terrible condition that limits how much she can move her arms. In fact, she can’t move her arms at all. There are available tools and treatments that could help her move again, but she’s much too young for the currently available technologies. The doctors and technicians at the Delaware hospital in which Emma visits used a 3D printer to create “a durable exoskeleton with the tiny, lightweight parts she needed.” As Emma grows, she’ll be able to switch to a metal exoskeleton that’s better able to match her size. 2009 3D Printer Buyer's Guide. CG Advertising - Computer graphics, 3d images, product design - Home.