Starting out

[paulsroom @paulsroom My Robox is a Blue Commercial Version Chichester, UK]

I am looking for a 3D printer costing under £500 (about $700) to buy for my great-nephew, who is nine and lives in the USA. Since I don’t want to tread on any toes with his parents, I don’t wish to spend as much as the Robox costs. My idea is to encourage his interest and get him well into the technology. He will either eventually set up his own business (shades of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs here) or be prepared for a future career.

He will still suffer the same frustrations in 3D printing which ever printer I buy, but maybe not the angst that envelops adults. I’d like to think that he will form a kind of 3D printing club with his friends and thus gain from their combined attempts and ideas. I take the statement works straight out of the box with a degree of scepticism and he will need the support of his parents and technology teacher.

I don’t consider nine to be too young and yes, it will test him; but it’s an exciting technology and who knows what he might contribute. So any suggestions would be very welcome. Ideally it should all be USA based.

[click @click My Robox is a Green Kickstarter Limited Edition]

I’ve got one of these: https://printm3d.com/

Seems cheap in US. Also, it allows any 1.75mm filament and seems good starting point. It is not fast, has small printing volume (10cm^3), but not that bad either (with PLA). It is a bit simplistic, close to plug and play as Robox is - but that seems quite close to what you’re after.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 3 months ago by  click.

[hagster @hagster My Robox is a Blue Commercial Version UK]

@click i have only really heard bad things about the M3D. Maybe unfairly.

The microfabricator v1.5 from hobbyking is apparently very good and fairly plug and play. Small build volume and not heated bed though.
http://www.hobbyking.co.uk/hobbyking/store/__82021__Fabrikator_Mini_3D_Printer_V1_5_Transparent_UK_230V.html

My Wanhao i3 is excellent, but only after a bit of TLC.

That said i dont think there are any truely plug and play machines in that price bracket at the moment.

[click @click My Robox is a Green Kickstarter Limited Edition]

Interesting. I do have m3d on my desk and it prints. Not great, fast - but simple to use and does work. Worst part is prying parts of the bed - LOL.

Now, I heard quite scary stuff about m3d and (similar to many Kickstarter projects, unfortunately Robox included, too, they were late, failed to communicate with users at the beginning, etc…). Had that improved (like with CEL), I have no idea - I am not using it more than tinkering at work occasionally and lately I just gave it to my 12 year old son to play with. After all, build is solid and it didn’t break after 100-ish hours of work… As I said - it seems simple and toy-alike, while still prints.

Also, a colleague of mine got microfabricator and never managed to make it to work! No documentation, shabby built and neglected software (at least his view).

Beside that - m3d looks like a product, while HK’s stuff look like DIY kit put together.

[hagster @hagster My Robox is a Blue Commercial Version UK]

Ok so it looks like the M3D might actually be ok. Sometimes its hard to reconcile the conflicting information on the net.

[uhuglue @uhuglue My Robox is a Green Kickstarter Beta]

For a very cheap printer, I’ve seen good things about the Tevo Tarantula kit, a Prusa i3 clone. Starts at about £155.00 for the basic kit. I dismissed it at first glance because it didn’t look too well designed, but there seems to be a moderately strong following on the reprap forums.

The funny thing is, a lot of people who get this printer mod it to death, and it can easily wind up much dearer. Since it reportedly prints well enough out of the box after some tuning, I don’t see the point of modding it - I don’t think the cost is worth it as the overall design is a limiting factor.

The company that makes them however has teased a second printer called the Black Widow on their FB feed, and this one looks to be really good. C-Beam for Y and Z, what looks like synced Z axis running on lead screws, all aluminium parts, 400x250x300 print bed (!).

I think this model would be a good point to start modding as the frame looks to be extremely stiff. Maybe change the stepper for the moving bed to account for the huge size, rethink the bed heating (I assume it won’t be anywhere as good as the Robox), install an e3d V6 with the Titan extruder, and you’re gold. All parts appear to be openbuilds compatible as well, so should be easily available.

I guess a kit might be a little optimistic for a 9 year old, but heck, I also believe kids have the hunger to learn, and they do it fast - more power to them.

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