Best 3D printers for Windows users on a budget


Monoprice Maker Mini V2

If you are completely new to 3D printing and want something simple, reliable and cheap you really can’t do better than Maker Mini V2 by Monoprice. At only $190 it is far and away the best deal for a 3d printer at that price anywhere. The printer itself is small enough and quiet enough to sit on your desk in your office and allow you to make small, fun little projects fairly quickly.

The Mini has several high-end features like WiFi connectivity, along with the normal SD Card and direct PC connection that you normally get. There’s also a heated bed for printing with multiple types of filament that you would expect on a much more expensive printer, all wrapped in an extremely sturdy metal body that reduces the “noise” often associated with cheaper printers. With a 4.75-inch print bed, the Mini is the smallest of the printers here today but if you are just starting out in 3D printing and only want to experiment 4.75 is more than enough.

With the Bowden extruder setup already a part of the Mini the results of printing are significantly better than I ever thought a $200 would produce. I helped my local youth room purchase 3 of these so the young people there can learn how to design and print in 3D and so far the only issue I have had is a blocked nozzle and an uneven print bed, both of which are the very basic foibles of 3D printing and easily fixed by anybody.

See at Amazon


Monoprice Maker Select Plus

Another entry from the team at Monoprice, the Maker Select Plus is an absolute workhorse for hobbyists. Although this is a clone of the Wanhao i3 Plus which is itself a clone of the original Prusa i3 I prefer to recommend the Monoprice as I find their customer service to be far better. I was unlucky enough to have one of these printers damaged in transit and Monoprice had one shipped out to me the very next day.

With a print bed almost double the size of the mini – the mini has a 4.75-inch bed while the Plus has a 7.9-inch bed – and a significantly faster rate of print, the Select Plus is an excellent step for those who know what they want to print and know it will be too big for the Mini. The Select Plus would be a great choice for cosplayers, for example, it’s a good size to make parts for costumes and the resolution of the print can be set very fine to allow for a lot of details.

As a hobbyists printer priced at around $310, there are a lot of upgrades that can be done to make it print even better and most of which can be printed from the Select Plus so the cost is tiny. I would recommend looking at a Micro Swiss all Metal Hotend. At $50 this is a small upgrade that allows the Select Plus to use pretty much any filament and make some truly fantastic prints.

See at Amazon


Creality3d CR-10

For amazing prints on a huge print area, the CR10 has an impressive 11x11x15 inch print area — the biggest in this list. Out of the box, the CR10 effortlessly creates prints that took my breath away. Often you have to spend a lot of time adjusting a printer before you get the best of it but the CR10 seemed to be dialed in from day one.

Using a Bowden setup much like the Maker Mini means the printer can have a light-weight and very tall frame without having the wobble that can come from direct extruders like the Prusa i3 or the Maker Select Plus and the large print bed gives you so much space to make anything you could imagine. Full-size helmets printed in one piece are always impressive and I’m constantly blown away by the helpfulness of a larger print bed. The only downside to the CR10 is the heated bed cannot reach the 100 degrees Celcius needed for ABS Plastic though, with a little DIY know-how, you can build an enclosure to help you regulate the heat and print that style of plastic. Remember though, if you are thinking of using ABS to make sure the room is ventilated as ABS can be noxious.

For people with around $440 to spend, this is the printer I would recommend. It’s versatility, huge bed size, and seemingly magical ability to work out of the box means it is a go-to for anybody serious about 3D printing while having a medium budget to work with. I know 3Dprinting stores that have 10-15 of these printers working 24 hours a day, they really are that good.

See at Amazon


Prusa i3 mk3

In the world of hobbyist 3D printing, there are very few names as well known as Josef Prusa. His work in open source 3D printing has revolutionized what can be done at home and on a budget for those who want to create amazing prints. The Prusa i3 mk3 (around $900) is his latest machine based on his open source design and is easily the most advanced printer in this list.

This printer is a powerhouse of variety, allowing you to print with almost any material possible, with multiple colors – this is an optional upgrade and costs about $300 so be sure that’s what you want first – and with a speed and accuracy rivaled by none other at this price range on the market. I love this printer, I really do, it never fails to make a wonderful print for me time and again, largely due to the clever fail-safes built in.

The Prusa has automatic bed leveling, making each print start the best it can, but it also corrects the print on-the-fly if anything happens to shift the bed. With a sensor in the extruder, the Prusa can tell when you run out of filament, pause the print and alert you to add more, saving countless mistakes in the process. From the removable bed to easily remove prints without breaking them, to the excellent save function, which stops your prints being lost in a power cut, the Prusa goes out of its way to make every print work. It really is great, and you should buy one.

The link above is for the kit version of the i3 mk3 so you will be required to build it yourself. Prusa does supply a fully made one but it is $200 more when you add in the extra shipping and it is actually a lot of fun learning to build one from scratch.

See at Prusa Research

Did we miss anything?

There are a lot of budget printers out there and I really chose the ones I know and love. Are there other machines you guys use that you can recommend? Perhaps you have an SLA printer that everyone should know about? Let us know down in the comments section.

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