Which budget printer?

[DAN3008]

Hi guys

This is probably going to sound strange, but I have been offered a £200 "hobby grant" which I want to spend on a 3d printer. So, looking around, I've found 3 options and I just wondered what peoples experiences with them are, and any advice

1. MakiBox - Brilliant for £179.99 but I'm concerned about the lack of post sales support, and I've read that MakiBox had (before they went under) a bad reputation, Does this carry over into there printers? I also dont reckon I'd use the larger print size or heated bed (I only want to do pla for personal reasons, so thats an extra cost for nothing)
2. Fabrikator mini - when coupled with this screen/SD reader seems to be the perfect little printer for my shelf, at just over £130 its a good deal, leaving me plenty of extra for fillament... However, I would need some advice on adding the screen, as I'm not as good with arduino firmware as I'd like to pretend i am
3. CoLiDo DIY - the last of the lot. at £199.99 its a bit more than I wanted on just the printer, but seems to come outfitted with everything...

Obviously there's the completely DIY approach, but I wanted to avoid that because I'll just end up deliberating over diffrent options for days...

thanks

dan

[Guest]

I briefly posted about this on your intro post, but my vote would be for the Fabricator mini. This is based on what I have heard others say about their experience with it. I have no experience with the MakiBox and I was not impressed by the Colido printers when I tested one a few months ago.

Hope this helps.

[DAN3008]

Hi Andrew
yes that does help, I was leaning towards the mini anyway, since it seams the most reliable and well rated. My only issue with it, is that I wanted to print a case for my Pi3 which is 85mm long, where the mini can only go to 80mm... But I guess I can split it into a few interlocking parts

[Guest]

That's probably one of the main downsides to that printer. Such a small build area. You could modify it to print in pieces, like you suggested. Would the Pi case be the largest thing you are looking to print?

[DAN3008]

Probably. Occasionally I'd like to print slightly bigger, maybe a card box and things. But nothing that cant be split down to make it fit.

That said, yesterday I found a mod to extend the y axis to 90mm. All I need to do is replace a washer, a bolt and a new bed. I have all the parts, so once in happy printing I may look at moding it to increase build volume a bit... I'm told increasing the z axis isn't to hard either

[Guest]

Sounds like a plan!