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what budget 3d printer would you suggest for a beginner?

so im a teen with not alot of money but i want to get into 3d printing, another community suggested the ender 3 original. it looks like a solid printer but who know im a noob after all. my budget is around 100$ or less. im looking into making mini figures and painting them or whatever nerdy thing i find. i know the budget is tight but im hoping there is something, also im debating on buying a used 3d printer because they seem cheaper.

also any tips for a noob would be great like what makes said model good or bad compared to other models and such.

41 comments
  • im looking into making mini figures and painting them

    Boom, right there should limit your section to SLA/resin printers, not FDM as most people here are suggesting. At $100 budget you're down in the absolute basement of printers, and will have to find a machine on sale. Good news for you is that this is the month of sales (Black Friday month). You are looking at either an Anycubic Mono (out of production, I think) or Mono 2 when they go on sale, or mayby an Elegoo Mars - I'd expect to see it between $99-119 sometime this month. (there's a monoprice mini SLA printer for $70 out there, but I don't know how good it is)

    There are two things to know about resin: the liquid used is toxic, so someplace with ventilation and a supply of cheap latex/vinyl/nitrile gloves are a must, as is a workspace which can be easily cleaned (they sell silicone mats...its a good idea; you might try ordering misc stuff from TEMU for your accessory list to save some cash) and a roll of paper towels is going to be necessary. The second is that standard resin requires 95% or higher isopropyl alcohol (IPA) to clean the prints, and to clean up the machine parts. That can get expensive, too - so SKIP IT and get Water Washable resin. It will cost more, but the ease (and lower odor) in clean up will be worth it, especially if your parents would rather you not be slinging flammable IPA around the house.

    You do NOT need a dedicated wash and curing station. It's a luxury you can't afford, so just skip it (for now). There are lots of videos about how to clean parts using a two-bin or three-bin method and they just use cheap dollar-store plastic bins or used buckets (do not use tupperware you eat from...water washable is still toxic, okay?). Then, just set your prints in the sun for a few minutes - it even works on a cloudy day (clouds only block a fraction of UV).

    You should be able to make table-top sized miniatures for painting in one go, or make them as two or three parts for bigger models. The detail you get out of an SLA printer will be worlds better than an FDM (extrusion) printer and require a lot less sanding, filling, and misc post-processing prior to painting.

    Quick edit: @QuietStorm@lemm.ee - Creality is also having a sale this month and there are two SLA printers on sale in the $99 range. The nicer (bigger) one is currently out of stock, but you might check back and see if it comes back in. Nearly all of the small SLA printers in this range are very similar, though you should read up in their forums just to see if there are some crazy problems everyone is having with a specific model (no news is probably good news).

  • Sovol SV06 works pretty great for me :)

    • Same here. SV06 was my first printer a few months ago. I've printed for a few hundred hours without issue. Very easy to upgrade the software with a raspi and mainsailos.

  • You won't get a good printer for doing minis for $100. Just the extra supplies that go with safely resin printing would blow out your budget. Even if you do find a decent $100 resin printer.

  • People might not agree but a prusa mini is a great reliable beginner machine but sadly way over budget. If you can find a secondhand prusa mk3 or mini within your budget I'd recommend that. They are very repairable and reliable and god for high pression prints. The best thing about a prusa is the huge amount of guides and resources online where you can find help for absolutely everything should you have problems. There's literally not a problem that has not already been described and solved on a prusa printer making it good for beginners. If you are going to make small high quality prints you should also buy a 0.25mm nozzle and you'd be amazed of how fine detail you can get (and long print time sadly, but no way around that)

  • Sounds like you might want to check out something from maybe Elegoo, AnyCubic, or Photon: Resin printers are unrivaled when it comes to detail/minifig printing.

    Resin printers are also much easier to assemble and calibrate.

    Keep in mind that you'll also need to buy or build washing and curing stations and set aside funds for the resin itself too. When working with resin, personal protective equipment and ventilation is also very important.

  • Ender 3, any, check ebay. Plastic is cheap on AliExpress. Mid quality though but it works.

  • I orginally bought an ender 3 and had had it for about a month before i returned it. Back when i bought it, in 2020 creality were swapping out parts, for cheaper alternatives some of which had defects like xt60 connectors for the psu. Which would catch on fire, i took that money and bought an i3 mega S from any cubic. It ran for about a year in a half until the 16pin cable burnt out and i decided to mod it. I switched the board for a duet wifi and the hotend for a hemeria and just recently upgraded to revo. The printer is rock solid and works well, the ender 3 is good if you want to tinker and learn about how a 3d printer works. But if you just want to make parts l, id suggest looking at other printers that are a little more expenisve, trust me you thank yourself.

    It looks sketch but it works well

  • As someone who owns an Ender 3 v2, a Bambu p1p and an Anycubic Mono 4k, here are my thoughts... If your goal is to print and paint tabletop minis, you do not want an Ender, SV06, or even a Bambu labs printer. Even if you swap out the nozzle for a smaller one, paint and washes WILL absolutely show layer lines, unless you're willing to do hours of post processing, filling, filing and sanding. FDM is not your friend in this regard. You can, by all means, get acceptable quality prints if you're willing to spend months calibrating, tuning, failing and burning through filament with printers in your price range, especially once you start upgrading / fixing your printer (ask me how I know). If, on the other hand, tabletop minis aren't your main goal and more functional parts, or larger decorative pieces are what you're after, I cannot recommend an FDM printer enough. Cost savings on filament vs resin, speed (kind of), selection and community support are light years beyond the SLA / resin printers. I would try to avoid the cheaper Ender printers however, as other have stated and I can attest, you will be spending a lot of time calibrating and troubleshooting, and eventually throwing money at it.

41 comments