I would buy one of these for myself as a Christmas, but I kind of already have two of them.
As one of MAKE’s 3D printing experts I’ve had the opportunity to use just about every printer in MAKE’s Ultimate Guide to 3D Printing. I have yet to see one with as much value as the Printrbot Simple. At $299 this 3D printer is a pretty sweet deal.
With a 3.5” x 3.5” x 3.5” build volume, the Simple is definitely one of the smallest 3D printers available. Even though the printer just uses 200lb fishing string somehow it prints at an high resolution of .1 mm. It doesn’t take up much space so you don’t have to own a shop to store it. I keep one on my desk at work and my desk at home, and I hardly notice they’re there until I need one.
In the tech world, $300 usually won’t get you very far. With prices rising it’s often hard to find a good deal. This is one of those gems that really made me feel like I was getting a lot more the money.
The Printrbot Simple is a good device for people to start printing with. Building the printer is simple enough for almost anyone even if they’ve never built something this complex before. The build only requires a few Allen keys and a screwdriver. The build takes a few dedicated hours but I found that I learned a lot about how the 3D printer works and what it’d need to fix it something ever broke.
I recommend this to anyone looking for a relatively inexpensive way to start 3D printing, or just looking to build something fun and useful.
See all of the Shed picks here.
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