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

overzeetop@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

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 - 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.

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