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If you’re thinking of diving into the wide and magical world of 3D printing, there’s never been a better time to do so. This large and growing hobby is more accessible than ever, with excellent affordable 3D printers readily available along with a plethora of websites and online communities ready to welcome the uninitiated. But whether you’re new to this technology and are shopping for your first printer or you’re already a seasoned veteran looking to take your setup to the next level, our roundup of the best 3D printer deals is sure to have something to please.
Best 3D printer deals
The Creality Ender 3 is an icon in the 3D printing world, and might be the best filament-based unit you can get for less than $200.
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Intimidated by this whole 3D printing thing? Rest easy: The Fokoos 3D printer is easy to setup and beginner-friendly, with a foldable design that’s almost ready to go right out of the box.
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With a 3.22 by 5.11 by 6.10-inch printing space, the Voxelab Proxima is a great beginner-friendly SLA resin printer for creating small yet highly detailed objects like figurines and miniatures.
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PLA+ is arguably the best all-around filament for standard 3D printers, and Sunlu is one of the go-to brands for this material.
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If you’re looking for a reliable 3D printer with some upgrades over the entry-level Ender 3, look no further than the Ender 3 V2, with a glass print bed, silent motor, and upgraded extruder design.
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The Creality HALOT-ONE resin 3D printer is a superb option that balances exceptional printing output while remaining affordable, with UV light, air filtering, and high speeds to boot.
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The Ender 3 Pro features some nice upgrades over the standard Ender 3 model, including an extra glass bed, a Cmagnet build surface, and a MeanWell power supply, plus some extra extruder tips.
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Most resin printers are fairly small, but the Anycubic Photon Mono X is a 3D printer for larger projects thanks to its generously sized 7.5 x 4.7 x 9.6-inch building chamber.
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The FlashForge dual-extruder 3D printer is a solid sub-$1,000 value if you’re looking for a full-featured unit that works with both ABS and PLA.
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The Monoprice MP Mini is one of the best cheap name-brand SLA 3D printers, capable of creating small and highly detailed resin-based projects.
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With a bevy of awesome printing features and a huge workspace, the Creality CR-10 V3 might be the ultimate non-enclosed filament 3D printer from the biggest name in the printing game.
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The Creality Ender 5 Pro 3D printer is a first-rate option that improves what the regular Ender 5 can do to make printing output even more accurate and precise.
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The Flashforge Adventurer 3 is a versatile and powerful filament-based 3D printer with a 5.9″ x 5.9″ x 5.9″ work volume and an internal camera to monitor your build.
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The Elegoo Mars 2 UV Photocuring 3D LCD printer includes with Chitubox slicing software to speed up model file slicing. You can also save resin with hollowed models.
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With dual high-res extruders, a heat-resistant and virtually warp-proof aluminum build plate, and sturdy steel frame, the Flashforge Dreamer is a full-featured 3D printer for well under a grand.
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For a desktop-friendly 3D printer capable of handling smaller tasks, the Monoprice Mini Delta is arguably the best you’ll find for less than $200 with its 4.7 by 4.3 by 4.3-inch workspace.
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How To Choose A 3D Printer
Three-dimensional printers cover a huge range of sizes and prices, with some industrial models capable of printing houses. Such equipment is naturally beyond the needs or means of most people, however, and the vast majority of consumer-grade units are designed to fit on a tabletop. Even these run the gamut when it comes to cost, so it’s worth it to spend some time to track down a cheap 3D printer (or at least a worthy 3D printer deal on a more expensive unit) that can meet your budget while also satisfying your needs.
Modern 3D printers employ one of two manufacturing technologies: Fused deposition modeling (FDM) or stereolithography (SLA). FDM printers are more popular and use a printing medium known as filament. This filament is heated to its melting point and then extruded through one or more printing heads, which move along three axes to create an object layer-by-layer from the bottom up on a heat-dispersing build plate.
FDM printers tend to be the most user-friendly and the filaments they use are also very common and quite affordable, making these cheap 3D printers good for household items and other common projects. Items made with an FDM 3D printer usually have a noticeably striated appearance due to this layer-by-layer building method, but filaments and the printers that use them are improving and growing more capable of handling complex tasks as this technology continues to mature. Most cheap 3D printers you’ll find will be of this design.
Stereolithography, while actually a decades-old technology, is less common due to the greater cost of SLA printers and their proprietary resins (there are a few cheap 3D printers that use resin, but they tend to be on the smaller side). Instead of filament as a printing substrate, SLA printers start with a resin liquid that is hardened via UV radiation as it is molded into the desired shape within the printing chamber. The UV laser is reflected off of mirrors to selectively target the resin that is to be hardened; this is also done layer-by-layer, but in a much different manner than in fused deposition modeling.
Resin-based SLA printers are therefore capable of creating smoother, more detailed, and higher-resolution objects than FDM printers. These resin objects also tend to be considerably more durable. The trade-off here is that SLA 3D printers (and the resins) tend to be more expensive than FDM units, and the proprietary resins are less flexible and messier to work with.
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