Best Home 3D Printers

Best Home 3D Printers Under $500.00

The best home 3D printers, all with price tags under $500.00!

In-home 3D printing is now something everyone can partake in, whether you are an experienced industry professional or a child just getting started. These hobbyists can now create, build, and model many new and creative products in the comfort of their homes. They can now make toys, fix broken parts, invent products, and even build replacement parts or components for existing products.

The great thing is that now you can find these printers for well under $500.00. The article aims to help you find the best home 3D printers for your specific need.

3D Printer Terminology:

Before purchasing your home 3D printer, you must understand some basic terminologies.

Masked Stereolithography (MSLA): Uses an ultra-violet cured resin material lifted from a vat of liquid, layer by layer, which is a highly fragile process. Often referred to as resin MSLA.

 Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM): Use a reel that is full of plastic filament that is extruded out of the hot nozzle in layers, which will then cool to form a solid model. Often referred to as filament FDM.

We recommend that beginners purchase an FDM printer, while those with prior experience with 3D printing could use the more advanced MSLA printer.

Shopping For The Best Home 3D Printers: 

The Best Home 3D Printers To Buy Under $500.00.

Below we will describe our top picks for the best home 3D printers and why:

If you are starting your 3D printing journey, then the Anycubic Kobra might be a great machine to learn first, with its easy-to-use touch screen functions and the excellent quality prints that it delivers.

This medium-sized, portable printer only weighs about 7kg, and its modular design allows makers to set up the machine in only 10 minutes. This machine also has a 4.3-inch LCD touch screen control and a bright display that is super intuitive.

They have self-developed a leveling function called Anycubic LeviQ that automatically adjusts when the heated printing bed notices any unevenness. This magnetic steel platform can withstand lots of printing and allows models to be easily removed, saving you lots on future maintenance costs.

Anycubic does provide various filament colors on its website, which gives makers lots of opportunities to be creative.

The Sonic Mini 4K is a superb beginner printer for makers just learning the process. This resin printer has 4K resolution capabilities at 35µm with 722 PPI, with a large 6.1-inch monochrome LCD screen. This machine comes fully assembled but requires some calibration before starting.

Depending on the job, the Sonic Mini 4K resin printers can be used for personal and professional use. The equipment can use multiple types of resin to make great-looking products. The easy-to-use USB functions make the equipment very user-friendly.

The Ender 2 Pro is great for makers who want to avoid breaking the bank to buy their first 3D printer. You can find this machine for well under its $169.00 price tag. The Ender 2 Pro is not just a lightweight (4.65kg) cheap flimsy kid’s toy but has similar components as the more expensive Ender 3 series printers. You can quickly move this printer around your home with its awesomely designed grab handle.

Refrain from letting the price tag fool you; this budget 3D printer can perform like higher-end printers. If you don’t believe us, check out their reviews on Google, which average this printer a 4.5-star rating.

This budget 3D printer comes with a grab handle because the company knows you will constantly be moving and storing this printer. 90% of this printer comes pre-installed; makers only need seven screws to complete the assembly. The machine is equipped with a toolbox that you can use for storage that you can use for screws, parts, or tools.

This printer has three outstanding features, including a resume printing function that will enable a full recovery after power is lost. The machine will continue printing from where it stopped. Second, the device has some quiet cooling fans and silent stepper drivers working in an office setting. Finally, the flexible textured print bed will hold the model firmly when printing and allows the model to peel off when it completes printing efficiently.

The Kobra Plus has the most significant build volume of any other printer on our list. Luckily this machine comes standard with a LeviQ 25-point precise automated leveling system for its massive 300mm x 300mm x 350mm print size.

This printer’s base is so extensive that it should be perfect for all your printing needs. With this colossal printing bed, the double-thread Z-axis can handle speeds up to 100mm/s. Its dual 6,000RPM fans cool the model quickly, and the 45w high-powered metal heating allows for fast filament melt out of the extruder.

The print bed is made from carborundum glass that locks during the hot printing process but will quickly release parts once they have cooled off. Makers may need a slight amount of persuasion from a scraper after release.

The user-friendly touch screen has a tremendous big 4.3” LCD to help better the user experience of the machine. This user experience was also considered when they thought about the broken filament or if you ran out. This machine’s intelligent printing features allow makers to easily continue printing after a pause or power failure.

For how easy it is to set up and get started and for its size capabilities, the Kobra Plus is an excellent addition to any at home workshop. 

This resin printer comes with an 8.9-inch 4k mono display for the large-sized print volume it can handle. The XY axis resolution is 50µm with 508 PPI, which ensures smooth surfaces. The Saturn can print about 2-3 seconds per layer at lower energy levels, reducing heat emissions and extending the LCD's lifecycle by 300%.

Saturn has excellent UV light protection. It offers a UV LED matrix, one of its most essential components on Saturn, giving it reliability and precision printing. This resin 3D printer has 54 LED lights that work hand-in-hand with the lenses. Saturn’s lights also help with energy savings because the LED light sources have low heat dissipation.

The double-Z-axis linear railway has sock absorption on the bottoms of the machine to give a quieter and more accurate motion. This resin 3D printer is equipped with ball bearings for leveling and is very easy to use for long-lasting performance. It also comes with two hand grips for traditional dismounting and legs to guard the FEP film against scratches.

We like the Chitubox slicer and its user-friendly interface, as Saturn is an excellent piece of equipment for someone just getting into 3D modeling or expert makers. The only downside of this resin printer is that it is difficult to find the product and have it shipped to the United States.

The Ender 3 S1 Pro is another big hit from the Ender-Series from Creality. This machine comes to the maker’s 96% pre-installed with only a 6-step assembly process required. This is one of the more expensive DIY 3D printers on our list, but this bad boy comes fully loaded and ready to go out of the box.

The 300°C high-temperature all-metal printing tip supports PLA filament and many other filaments. The “sprite” full-metal dual-gear direct hotend extruder will ensure a smooth feeding process for all of the filaments used in the machine.

Leveling is no longer an issue with the automated bed leveling system powered by the CR Touch probe, which quickly adjusts for assured build plate accuracy. This was the best feature leveling feature of all systems listed in this article.

The printing platform is a durable PEI spring steel plate with outstanding adhesion and requires makers to bend it to remove parts. The build plate has a magnetic sticker, making it easy to remove and clean up.

You can do remote printing and monitoring using the box assistant in the Creality Cloud App. The LED light provides excellent fill-in light, so makers can always see where they are with the model.

For those more experienced makers, the Ender 3 S1 Pro has an optional laser engraver module for makers who want to unlock their creative potential.

This printer took home our best 3D printer overall. Many things caught our eye, like the smooth feeding output from the dual-gear direct extruder on all the different filaments we tested. The prints had very fine lines without stringing with all the filaments tested. The CR Touch build plate leveling is an excellent addition to the machine and one of the best we have ever used. We liked the fantastic output from this high-temperature tip.

Examples of 3D printing:

There are many different uses for 3D printing, and as the technology expands, more diverse industries will start using this additive process with their products and applications.

Click on a few of these links to see examples:

• 3D Printed Manufacturing
• 3D Printed Shoes
• 3D Printed Meats
• 3D Printed Jewelry
• 3D Printed Real Estate
• 3D Printed Electronics
• 3D Printed Dental Products
• 3D Printed Costumes
• 3D Printed Tools
• 3D Printed Replicas
• 3D Printed Prosthetics
• 3D Printed Toys

Sources: Anycubic, Creality, Phrozen, Elegoo, Tinkercad, Acumen Research and Consulting, and BCN3D.

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