Find Yourself a 3D Printer - 3D Printing: Build your Own 3D Printer and Print your own 3D Objects - page 22

The most popular type of 3D printing involves extruding melted plastic. You read
about this in Chapter 1 , “ The Big Question—What Is a 3D Printer? ” and that meth-
od of printing is the focus of this topic. Melted plastic isn't the only method for
printing 3D objects; there are a number of techniques for creating 3D objects, but
only the extruded plastic method can truly be considered the “affordable” solution
at this time. But it's not all about money, either.
The following list is by no means comprehensive, but it does represent the six
factors that I believe someone new to 3D printing should consider when deciding
on a 3D printer to purchase and use:
• Initial cost
• Ease of assembly and tech support
• Operating System compatibility
• Cost and type of filament
• Resolution/nozzle diameter
• Print bed size and leveling
Note
Another option that I don't cover in this topic is the availability of dual
extruders. Dual extruders allow for users to load up two (or more) col-
ors of plastic filament. Printing multi-colored objects becomes avail-
able with the proper software that can instruct the Extruder on which
filament to feed into the hot-end. This topic is a bit beyond the beginner
level set for this topic, but if you find a reasonably priced 3D printer
that you like that also offers an upgrade to a dual extruder, it's worth
considering as a beneficial add-on.
I'm going to go through each of these factors and explain why I believe they are
key considerations for your future 3D printer purchase. For the purposes of this
book, I'll limit my discussion to the plastic-extruding type of hobbyist 3D print-
ers. (If you want to learn about other methods of 3D printing, point your web
browser to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3d_printing and you'll find details about
half a dozen or more 3D printing techniques, such as selective laser sintering, an
up and coming type of 3D printing that should become more affordable for hob-
byists over the next 3-5 years.)