Not just science fiction. Not just a short-lived fad. 3D printing is here to stay.

According to Forbes, the 3D printing ecosystem – or Additive Manufacturing, it’s business casual name – is set to accelerate in 2020. In 2019, the industry grew to a market size of nearly $12 billion, according to the Wohlers Report 2020, a 21.2 percent increase. Whew.

Are you a tech-savvy artisan, a robotics enthusiast, or just another gal/guy looking to get into the scene? Now might be the best time to jump the fence and buy the best cheap 3D printer under 1000. It can help you prototype your projects, fix little things around the home, or make a Daft Punk helmet.

For your first (or not) purchase, you’ve landed on the right page. Read on to questions to ask yourself before buying, and the best 3D printers your thousand bucks can buy. And there’s a small glossary at the end if you aren’t sure what some of these terms mean.

On your way to making any meaningful comparison, you need answers to a few questions.

Described as the AK-47 of the printing world, the Ender 3 Pro is a versatile printer with excellent print quality for its price of about 290 dollars. You’ll want to shell out a few more bucks for the Pro version over the base – it has a better power supply and a wider Y-axis rail. While you’re at it, get a glass bed as your first upgrade as well.

The CR-10 Max is huge. That’s the first thing you’ll notice. You’ll need patience during the assembly and some technical know-how. Everyone seems to love the glass bed. You’ll have to spend about a grand to get this printer.

The X-Pro is a newer clone of the well-received FlashForge Creator Pro. It has dual extruders, an enclosure, and a removable print bed. The connectivity and touchscreen are highlights as well. However, the firmware might cause you a headache. This printer will set you back about $700.

The Artillery Sidewinder is precisely what it sounds like, big and fast. Its build and looks are surprisingly agreeable for its cheap price point of $450. Just steel yourself for frequent adjustments and maintenance.

Are you a parent or a teacher? Are safety and reliability more relevant to you than features? The Monoprice Voxel, a rebranded Flashforge Adventurer 3, is the safe bet in a sea of mods and DIY. Its reasonable price of $400 helps to sweeten the pot, too.

If you simply must have a resin printer, and you like making trinkets, have a look at the Elegoo Mars. It’s not really comparable to the others of this list, having a fine quality but extremely slow printing resin printing dictates. It’s quite cheap as well, at only $240.

The inventor/founder of this printer got fed up with spending all their time tweaking and upgrading their machine. And SecKit was born. If you’re not new to the scene and have already owned and upgraded a printer, this might be for you. It’ll cost you anywhere from $650-$1050.

Prusa, the Czech-based company, is revered by its fans for the great build and expert-level features. The MK3-s has a new filament sensor, updated extruder, and software updates to push it into forum discussions again. However, its high price point of about $1000, and extremely long lead times may make even veterans hesitate.

Read through this section if you are not sure what some of the terms we talked about means.

The base layer on which 3D printing starts. It can be of the heated type to prevent the bottom layer from cooling off and warping. It can also be removable, which helps to extract the whole build.

This is the moving head of the printer. It can be attached to belts or arms, depending on the configuration.

The tip of the extruder from where the material comes out of. It’s hot to touch, so be careful!

The most common type of personal 3D printers. They are best suited for larger objects and functional parts. They extrude plastic filament and build an object layer by layer. They have several sub-types.

Bedslingers: The bed moves horizontally in one direction while nozzle/extruder moves in the other two. They’re easy to service and upgrade as well as affordable. However, they’re not ideal for large formats due to errors at higher speeds.

Box/Z-bed: These printers move the print head on a flat XY axis while the bed only moves up or down. They are stable, solid, and fast. They’re suitable for higher temperature materials, but due to complex mechanics, they are expensive and complicated.

Delta: These have three moving arms for the nozzle and a stationary bed. They can achieve high speeds with high quality. The complex kinematics leads to varying resolutions, though: better at the center and worse towards edges. They’re quite tricky to calibrate.

The other popular type of printers. They selectively cure resin using light and build an object. They’re best suited to detailed shapes and take a long time to print.

DLP: Digital Light Processing splits up a digital model into a stack of cross-sections and projects them into a vat of resin. Then the process is repeated for each layer.

SLA: Stereolithography uses a moving laser that makes up an image of each layer.

Like paper and ink for a traditional paper printer, you need to feed your machine. There are a variety of materials with different properties and suited to different jobs.

PLA: Polylactic acid is a bioplastic, which is environmentally friendly. PLA is easy to print, less affected by warping and cooling. But, it is prone to breaking and not very strong.

ABS: Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene is a standard manufacturing plastic that produces unpleasant fumes. It requires heated beds but is more temperature tolerant and somewhat stronger. It can be welded and smoothed using acetone.

PET-G: Glcoylized polyester is a flexible, smooth material with good chemical resistance. Sadly, it produces thin hairs/strings and can cause uneven surfaces.

Other materials like Nylon, TPU, polycarbonate, or even glass, resin, ceramic, and food can be used in different printers.

A software that takes a 3D model and gives commands to your printer on what to do.

Replicating Rapid prototyper is an open-source project for 3d printers that print other 3d printers. It has a community of experts and enthusiasts around it.

Your journey into 3d printing has just started, dear reader. You can research the smallest details, and join other enthusiasts in communities.

– The 3d printing subreddit is a great community. Their wiki is also excellent.

– This filament chart by u/starbuck93 lists in-use filaments, their vendors, and tolerances.

– RepRap Forums is a great place to gain knowledge.

– 3D printers Discord is a community you can ask questions and meet fellow AM enthusiasts.

– Teaching Tech YT channel has helpful assembly videos and reviews.

There we have it, a guide to the most popular 3d printers for individual use. Diving into the details, especially if you aren’t an engineer or programmer, can be daunting at first. But after a bit of research, you too can be knowledgeable in this field.

Next time any of your friends talks about getting a cheap 3d printer under 1000, you are ready. You can send them to this guide, talk about SLA and FDM, or just show them your shiny new printer. It better be glorious.

Delighted in all things tech. Willing to debate at all times about gaming, culture, disruption and philosophy.

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