We're into the second day of the Prime Day deals and even more bargains are hitting the site. If you've been planning a purchase then now is a great time to hit that Buy button.

Prime Day is an especially good time for tech deals, where you can often save hundreds of dollars on shiny new bits of kit. That's certainly the case when it comes to 3D printers. You can find a huge range to browse on Amazon, with prices ranging from under $200 to around $1000 depending on the brand, model, and your budget.

Here we've collected 12 of the best 3D printer deals so you can choose the right one for you, with big name brands like ELEGOO and Creality included.

The eufyMake E1, the personal 3D-texture UV printer that became the #1 most-funded project on Kickstarter, has landed in the UK at early access pricing, and there are only days left before the discount disappears!

From 6 May through 31 May, you can pick up the Basic Bundle (E1 UV Printer + Ink and Cleaning Cartridge Kit) for £2,069, or the Deluxe Bundle (which adds a UV DTF Laminating Machine and a Rotary Printing Attachment) for £2,599.

Standard pricing kicks in on 1 June at £2,249 and £2,949 respectively, so you’re looking at savings of £180 on the Basic and £350 on the Deluxe, so it's well worth getting in early.

But wait, there’s more! Every E1 purchase during the early access window comes with £80 off eufyMake Care plus free shipping protection, and Deluxe Bundle buyers get a second Ink and Cleaning Cartridge Kit thrown in for free!

The E1 printer is a compact A3-size desktop UV printer that handles over 300 surface materials such as wood, leather, acrylic, metal, glass and ceramic. Meanwhile, the specialised rotary attachment can handle cylindrical objects like mugs, bottles, flasks and tumblers.

Special UV inks cure under integrated LEDs in seconds, and they can even make 3D textures up to 5mm high directly on the print, for amazing tactile raised-edge art that sets it apart from the competition.

And for the sticker lovers out there, the UV DTF laminator pairs with the E1 to produce custom stickers on demand.

With May 31st closing in, this is probably the cheapest the E1 UV printer will be for a while, so get yours quick!

The eufyMake E1 UV Printer is in stock and shipping within 72 hours, delivering desktop full-color and 3D-texture printing. Your investment is fully protected by a 12-month warranty covering all repairs, replacements, and shipping, backed by expert support within 24 to 48 hours. Get started today with flexible PayPal financing for as low as £749 a month for 3 months.

Orchids make stunning houseplants, and although you could give a peace lily or an aloe vera plant as a gift, nothing quite feels the same as receiving an orchid.

They are a romantic houseplant with beautiful, long-lasting blooms that come in an array of colors, making them the perfect plant to gift or to say thank you, and they’ll last much longer than a bouquet.

But, while you’re admiring the blooms, you might notice that the leaves are turning yellow, and think that the plant is on its last legs. Here are the five most common reasons orchid leaves turn yellow, along with how to fix each one.

1. Overwatering

We’re all prone to overwatering our houseplants, but too much water can result in root rot or fungal infections, which turn the orchid’s leaves yellow. So, before watering your orchid, check that the potting medium is dry. And, if you discover that the roots are brown and soft, remove the affected parts and repot the plant in a suitable potting medium for your plant.

The ideal potting medium for an orchid should be fast-draining and well-aerated, such as an orchid bark mix or Sphagnum moss.

2. Underwatering

Too little water can also make the leaves turn yellow, so in this instance, give your orchid a drink. You should be able to feel how dry the potting medium is by placing your finger into the potting medium.

3. Too much light

My instinct is to place an orchid on a sunny windowsill, but direct sunlight can scorch the leaves and turn them yellow. However, the reverse can also damage the plant. The best position for an orchid is indirect light. For me, this is on a tabletop or surface close to a window, where it’s still in a sunny spot, but the light isn’t as intense.

4. Lacking nutrients

If your orchid’s oldest leaves are turning yellow, but the root system appears healthy, it could be a sign that your plant lacks nitrogen. But if you spot yellowing occurring between the veins of the leaves you plant could be short on magnesium. To correct the nutrient deficiency, give it a feed with a water-soluble orchid fertilizer, and repeat weekly.

5. Natural aging

The leaves on an orchid will start to turn yellow as it nears the end of its lifecycle. In this instance, all you can do is to remove the leaves, which are likely to be the lower ones on the plant. This will help to improve the overall look of your orchid.

More from Tom's Guide

• How to get an orchid to rebloom in 6 easy steps
• 7 mistakes to avoid when growing orchids
• How to care for an orchid and make it thrive all year long

In just the past few years 3D printers have come a long way and aren't just more affordable, they're shockingly begginer friendly, too. I’ve been testing the Elegoo Centauri Carbon for a few months, and now instead of dropping $10 to $15 on Amazon every time I need a basic accessory or doodad, waiting two days for it to ship to my door, and then realizing it isn't what I actually needed, I realized I could oftentimes print it myself for a couple of cents.

But it’s not just about the money; because let’s be fair, this has an upfront cost of $359 at Amazon. More importantly, Carbon has helped me create customized prints for things that not only can’t be found in a store, and has actually inspired me to be a bit more creative with my problem solving by re-sparking my interest in 3D modeling.

Why this caught my attention

It’s been about five years since I last owned a 3D printer. My introduction started with the Lotmaxx SC-10 Shark V2, a dual 3D printer and laser engraver, that while very capable, was a nightmare to use. It was time-consuming to set up, switch between modes, and honestly was more trouble than it was worth for my smaller prints. It also had an open-frame / very industrial design that was a total eyesore in my home office. I eventually gifted it to a relative — who did in fact add it to their woodworking workshop. But that's where I lost interest in 3D printing. I just didn't want the hassle.

That is until I saw a live demo of the Elegoo Centauri Carbon a few months ago which caught my attention for two reasons. They claimed no prior 3D printer experience was required, while it has features typically reserved for printers that cost twice as much. So I thought, 'what the hell, maybe this could get me back into the hobby.'

It's ready to go out of the box

I had this printer set up in under 10 minutes. I pulled it out from the packaging, removed a few retaining screws from the bed, attached the front touchscreen control panel, slapped on a filament spool on the side, powered it up and was ready for the first print. It took a few more minutes to connect it to my home wifi, update its firmware, and install the Elegoo Slicer app on my computer.

With its clean lines and space-gray die-cast aluminum frame — which, yes, is very big and requires a good amount of desk space — it looks like a modern appliance rather than something that belongs in your garage. Speaking of its design, this is a fully enclosed 3D printer, which alone is a huge advantage over many competing models at this price point that typically are open-frame. The enclosure keeps the temperature stable inside the chamber allowing you to print materials like ABS, ASA, or even PC-based filaments that can struggle to print with open printers.

Why this $359 printer feels like a steal

I’m still surprised that this printer retails for just $359 at Amazon, and as low as $299 from Elegoo. The Centauri Carbon uses CoreXY kinematics. Essentially, the motors stay stationary and only the light print head moves, allowing it to hit speeds of 500 mm/s without shaking itself apart. It features a 121-point automatic leveling system where it taps the nozzle against the plate to map out the surface, meaning you should never have to mess with the old piece of paper trick for fine tuning like I had to with the Lotmaxx.

I’m also a big fan of the built-in camera. Even though the printer is only a few feet away from my desk, it lets me monitor how well the prints are going remotely. It can also save time-lapse clips of every print which is pretty sick. Even my most boring models look like a work of art when you watch it grow in 15 seconds.

With a little help from AI — this is a powerful tool

Who says AI is only for making slop? With the help of Google Gemini and OpenSCAD, I’ve been creating custom prints from scratch. While I have a bit of experience with Blender3D, I'm not confident enough to create functional prints.

So here's what I've been doing. Because OpenSCAD is code-based, I can describe my new idea to Gemini like "design a bracket for my pegboard which measures 10cm between holes that can display my 1/24 die-cast cars at a 15 degree angle" and it generates the script for me. It starts off very basic, often doesn't really understand what I need, and needs quite a few follow up prompts to get the idea. But since I am taking that code and visually seeing it in the CAD program, I can more easily provide feedback for what needs to be changed. It's not perfect but this has opened up an entirely new world of creativity that I highly recommend trying.

What I've been printing so far

Mostly, I’ve been running smaller, handy prints that solve specific problems. One I'm most proud of is a custom designed pegboard accessory for my Cougar E-Oddyssey standing desk that perfectly holds my 1/24 die-cast model cars. This took a lot of trial and error to get the measurements and balance right, but because of how easy it was to just drop each of my revised models into the splicer and print, I really enjoyed the process and felt like a little inventor.

I also found this be a great tool for creating custom gifts for friends and family. My fiancée — who is a nurse — really appreciated this 3D model of a heart wall art and this heart shaped pen holder. The heart wants what the heart wants, what can I say? Puns aside, these are both relatively complex prints, which yes, almost took 4 hours and 7 hours respectively, but the printer had no issues handling it.

One of my more practical prints was a mic stand for the DJI Mic 3 so that I could pass it between guests during my video shoots. The finish was so smooth that I actually had people asking me where I bought this from and they were surprised when I told them it was a print!

This printer won't let you down

I'm still in no way a 3D printer whizz, but for the money, the Elegoo Centauri Carbon has been a surprisingly fun addition to my creative setup. It’s fast, mostly automated, and reliable enough that I can just hit print and know I'm going to get pretty impressive results. So if you're looking to bridge the gap between a digital idea and a physical object, this has a very small learning curve and won't break the bank.

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If you want to build things, there's no more enjoyable way than making it yourself with a 3D printer. You get the satisfaction of bringing something new into existence without all the manual labor that comes with other creative hobbies.

For 3D printers, it feels like Black Friday is already here. Some of the best models are on sale with huge discounts. My favorite printer, the Bambu Lab A1 Combo, has seen a price drop to $379 from its $599 price. The beloved Anycubic Kobra S1 Combo is on sale for $459, $290 off.

Anyone who has looked at the world of 3D printing from the outside and wished they could own one, this is the perfect time to jump in, as I don't anticipate these models becoming any cheaper when we hit Black Friday proper.

Quick Links

• Creality Ender-3 V3 SE 3D Printer: was $219 now $199 @ Creality
• Elegoo Centauri Carbon: was $413 now $279 @ Elegoo
• Bambu Lab A1 Combo: was $599 now $379 @ Bambu Lab
• Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra 16K: was $624 now $419 @ Elegoo
• Anycubic Kobra S1 Combo: was $749 now $459 @ Anycubic
• Anycubic Kobra 3 Max Combo: was $649 now $619 @ Anycubic
• Snapmaker A350T: was $1,349 now $1,099 @ Snapmaker
• Bambu Lab X1C: was $1,698 now $1,119 @ Bambu Lab
• Creality K2 Plus Combo: was $1,499 now $1,199 @ Creality

Best early Black Friday 3D printer deals

I've always looked at 3D printing from the outside, thinking it was cool, but not really for me.

Then I tried my first 3D printer. Now, I'm positively hooked. It's so much fun to make all kinds of stuff with a few mouse clicks. Usually $599, Amazon has the Bambu Lab A1 Combo for $399. That's $200 off the regular price, making this a deal sure to beat even the best Black Friday deals slated for next month.

If you've longed to experience the world of 3D printing like I did, I can confidently say this is the best time to buy that I've ever seen.

While I haven't dug deep enough in the world of the Bambu A1 to write a full review yet (that'll be coming soon), I can say that with the little over a week I've spent with it, I'm sold on the concept of 3D printing and this model being the perfect gateway into the experience. I'd go as far as to say that it will be on our best 3D printers list once I get a proper review out — I'm that confident in how good it is.

I love how quickly it can print basic and more complex projects. The longest thing I've printed so far took about 6 hours, but that was a very detailed skull-shaper flower pot. And it came out fantastic.

If you have kids, don't even get me started on how much fun they'll have (with your guidance). I've printed my stepson all kinds of Minecraft figures and fun accessories. Every day, he comes from school asking what I printed and wanting me to print something else. He's eight, but when he gets a little older, I know he'll be designing his own projects and learning through the 3D printing process. (I've just started designing my own with a really simple design for a golf ball marker display).

Speaking of children, another benefit is the relatively low noise output. I've had it printing for a couple of hours overnight while he's asleep, and it hasn't woken him up once (my dog barked at it a couple times, but that was just her adjusting to a new sound in the house).

Whether you thought 3D printing was dumb or you were intimidated by all the possibilities, put that aside and give it a try with this awesome deal. $200 off is enough to buy a boatload of filament, which you'll need once you're as hooked on printing everything and anything as I am.

How often have you been deep into a gaming session to discover that your pizza has gone cold? Rarely?

If you find yourself in that situation, Pizza Hut Canada has what you need with the new PIZZAWRMR (via Creative Bloq). It's a 3D-printed model that uses the heat exhaust from your PlayStation 5 to keep your pizza hot.

The model is free to download, but you must fire up one of the best 3D printers to get it. We should note that your printer needs to have a build volume of 15 x 15 inches, at a minimum, to accommodate the warmer. It does rule out many of our recommended 3D printers based on size unless you're okay with cutting the model up. We recommend trying the Prusa XL, a larger version of the beginner-friendly Prusa Mini+.

Usually, when companies post silly products on their social media accounts, there is no way that they become a reality — looking at that KFC gaming console.

The PIZZAWRMR will work best with the standard PS5. However, the PDF with the STL files says it should work on a PS5 Slim. There is no word on whether or not it can handle the PS5 Pro or Xbox Series X|S.

The model is printed in separate parts with STL files for the body, lid, manifold and left and right stands. It's not clear from anything released by Pizza Hut how long the print is expected to take, but based on the size and number of parts, we imagine this is a multi-day print. Also, Pizza Hut Canada recommends using food-safe materials in your print. They specifically mention PLA plastic. To prohibit grease and foil from getting everywhere, Pizza Hut recommends placing a foil tray that measures 34 x 23 x 2.5 cm in the warmer.

As for the pizza holder itself, it doesn't look like it will hold an entire pizza together, but instead, it seems like it can hold a small pizza split up.

Based on the design, we have to say this looks like it could work. However, as a general rule, you don't want foodstuffs near your gaming console or controllers. Who wants a greasy DualSense or Nacon Revolution 5 Pro? Also, we don't want to block heat exhaust from our electronics, even those with reliable heat sinks installed.

Still, I want to try it...

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Despite a relatively intense learning curve for 3D printing, the hobby has taken hold among creatives and driven manufactures of 3D printers to continually improve their offerings when it comes to high quality consumer-grade printers that don’t break the bank. The Photon Mono M5s is the first consumer grade leveling-free 12k resin printer from Anycubic, offering a feature rich resin printing experience that is geared toward professionals while still friendly enough for beginners by providing precise, accurate and high quality prints at an affordable price point. 

In a first for desktop 3D printers, the Photon Mono M5s features a 10.1 inch monochrome LCD screen at 12K resolution to create incredibly clear and well defined details that are as small as a strand of hair.  Perfectionists can rejoice as the pinpoint precision accuracy of the Photon Mono M5S allows for even the most microscopic details to shine in your creations. 

Anycubic’s Photon Mono M5s is the first consumer grade resin printer to be leveling-free. 

Thanks to an adoption of mechanical sensors that can detect and adjust the fit between the print platform and floating leveling module, The Photon Mono M5s nearly eliminates one of the most common causes for failed 3D prints. “Leveling is a common and sometimes tricky step when using resin printer,” said James Ouyang, Vice President of Anycubic.“To make the printing experience even user-friendlier and hassle-free, in a consumer-grade resin printer, we managed to add on the leveling-free solution.”

Anycubic has simultaneously released a High Speed Resin product that is compatible with the Photon Mono M5s and tailored to the printer’s 3rd Gen release film to further cut print times. When coupled with High Speed Resin and Anycubic’s Photon Workshop 3.1 software the Photon Mono M5s can hit print speeds of up to 105mm/h. The Photon Mono M5s is also compatible with a variety of other Anycubic resin products, including the Craftsman Resin which is formulated to help bring out the most detail in your carefully created designs. Anycubic's specially developed high-speed resin's low viscosity contributes to the reduction of exposure and curing time. Moreover, Photon Mono M5s's optimized motion control feature smoothens the lifting and lowering motion, making the print speed faster.

The Photon Mono M5s features resin detection technology to determine if there is a sufficient amount of resin in the vat to meet the project requirements before it begins printing in order to limit product waste and other print errors. Furthermore, the Photon Mono M5s is capable of self monitoring and project analysis, and can offer dynamic information pertaining to your print in order to provide solutions for why a print has failed or produced an error. With the 4.3-inch touchscreen, users can also monitor the results of the printer’s self check system wherein The Photon Mono M5s monitors the printing process for mechanical and operation errors. This allows the system to provide feedback during the print as well as support for potential hardware issues.

Anycubic’s Photon Mono M5s will be available for early bird purchases at a special launch price of $399 in the US and €399 in Europe, however the early bird sale price will only last for 3 days. Users can visit the official Anycubic Store and subscribe to get notified when they are available to purchase. Early bird customers even have the chance to win free STLs as gifts! 

Have you ever wanted to be your own action figure? I had the chance to do so at CES, where Hasbro was demoing its Selfie Series, which lets you put your 3D-printed head atop a Ghostbuster, Star Wars, Power Ranger, GI Joe, or Marvel action figure for $60. 

Hasbro partnered with the 3D printing company Formlabs (which makes some of the models on our best 3D printers list) to make customized action figures with some of the most valuable IP out there. 

So, is it worth spending $60 to get a personalized action figure for you or someone else? I went through the whole process, so you can see the results for yourself.

It starts with an app...

Here's how it works: Within the Hasbro Pulse app (Android, iOS), you scan your face by turning your head to the right and left; it's a bit like setting up Face ID with an iPhone. 

Then, the app generates a digital image of your head. From there, a series of screens lets you adjust your skin tone, and then select the action figure you'd like to be. 

At the moment, you can choose from the following, which is somewhat limited, but not too shabby considering the service started this past fall.

Star Wars — Mandalorian, Storm Trooper, X-Wing pilot, or Princess Leia

Marvel Legends — Spider-Man, Iron Man, Black Panther, or Black Widow

Power Rangers — Red or the Pink ranger

GI Joe — Snake Eyes or Scarlett

Ghostbusters — Male or a female Ghostbuster

Despite my lifelong affinity for Star Wars, I opted to go with the Ghostbuster body, as I had received the Ecto-1 Lego kit as a Christmas present, and thought that it would complement it nicely. (As an aside: The Ecto-1 Lego kit is a pretty fantastic build, with some really clever moving parts. Thanks to my wife and sister for getting it for me!) The Ghostbuster figure also comes with some nice accessories, including a proton pack and a P.K.E meter. 

A note to would-be Stormtroopers, Mandalorians, Iron Men, Spiders-Man and Black Panthers: Those figures don't come with helmets, so you don't necessarily get the full effect of the whole outfit. As you're going through the process, you can see what accessories each figure comes with. 

Next, you choose your hairstyle, of which there are 48 to choose from, as well as five different hair colors. After, you can give yourself facial hair, and choose its style and color.

And then you wait...

Then, go ahead and order it. At CES, I was told the typical turnaround is about 45 days; it took a slightly shorter amount of time to get to me (mine arrived in late January), but when I went through the process of making a new action figure on Feb. 9, it said that the estimated delivery would be March 26. 

So, if you're planning to give this as a gift to someone (you can send it as a gift code via the Hasbro Pulse app), just let them know that it'll be a while before they receive the finished product.

The results

And when it arrived? It had a passing resemblance to me, in that it had hair and a beard. The color of both was a bit lighter than my actual hair color, but ultimately, I think it looked more like Jake Gyllenhaal than myself. Which may not be a bad thing. 

Still, there's lots of great detail in the costume itself, and the figurine is very adjustable. All of the joints are articulated, so you can pose it in just about any way you choose. The only quibble (aside from the likeness) is that the hands had trouble keeping the proton gun in place. 

If you're worried about Hasbro saving your face data, a company rep told The Verge that it would be deleted 60 days after the ship date of your action figure. 

Would I get this as a gift for someone? Definitely. I have one cousin who has a basement full of action figures, bobbleheads, and other assorted toys for whom this would be a perfect present. I wish it would look a bit more like me, but the novelty of it outweighs the lack of verisimilitude. 

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to make like Dark Helmet and play with my dolls again.

The Prusa Mini+ is a well-built, solid small 3D printer that’s ideal for those who want to experiment with 3D printing. We’ve seen cheaper printers aimed at beginners, from the Monoprice Delta Mini V2 to the XYZ da Vinci Nano. But you won’t mind paying up for the toughness and reliability of the Prusa Mini+, which is among the best 3D printers precisely because it’s so easy to use.

Prusa Mini+ 3D printer review: Price and availability

The Prusa Mini+ comes in two versions: a semi-assembled kit for $459 and a complete, start-from-scratch kit for $429. Both are available now from Prusa.

Prusa Mini+ 3D printer review: Design

Most of the Mini+ is 3D printed itself, with the addition of pieces of extruded aluminum and metal rods to form the frame. The printer is not enclosed, so you’ll want to find a spot for it that avoids drafts or sudden temperature changes. The front of the printer includes a 2.8-inch LCD screen, with a combined control dial and button, plus a reset button. 

The main feature of the Prusa Mini+ is the print bed, which uses a removable metal plate. When a print is finished, you can lift the print bed off and bend the plate to help remove it. This also means you can quickly start another print by swapping out build plates — a big plus if you want to use the printer a lot. 

This print bed offers a 7x7x7-inch print area for a total of 343 cubic inches. That’s a decent size, especially for a smaller 3D printer. While that’s slightly smaller than printers such as the Adventurer 4, the Prusa Mini+ is big enough to handle most things you are likely to want to print. 

The Mini+ print head hovers above the print bed, moved by two motors that lift it and move it left and right. An additional motor moves the print bed back and forward. All three motors are quiet, so there are none of the usual crunching and grinding noises you’d expect to hear as a print is produced. 

The Mini+ also has a neat holder for the filament spool, which uses four bearings to let the spool rotate freely. Another unusual feature is a filament sensor that detects when the filament runs out and halts the print in progress, giving you the chance to load another spool and save the print. 

Prusa Mini+ 3D printer review: Setup

For this Prusa Mini+ 3D printer review, I tested the partly constructed kit, which is probably the better option for most people. The kit comes tested and calibrated, saving great hassle and heartache. 

The build process is simple and well-described in the included manual. Some nice touches make it easier. Take the Cheatsheet, a printed guide showing all the screws and bolts at life-size. This avoids many of the common hassles of assembling a kit, like not realizing the difference between an M3X20 and an M3X25 bolt until you’ve already inserted it and can’t figure out why it doesn’t work. 

The kit also comes with a small pack of Haribo bears, and the manual instructs you to eat these at various times during the process. I am not a big fan, so I substituted yogurt-coated raisins, which did not affect the build process and tasted better. 

Once the Prusa Mini+ is built, you run through the calibration wizard, which tests the printer and helps you set it up. Again, this is well described in the manual and is mostly automatic. This walks you through loading the filament and setting the Z offset, the gap between the print bed and the tip of the filament extruder. 

The Mini+ includes a sensor that detects the print bed, so you don’t have to level the print bed, but you need to set the Z offset, which involves running a test that squeezes a layer of filament onto the print bed, then looking to see how well this sticks and adjusting the setting to get the right height. It isn’t difficult and is fairly obvious once you get it right. 

Prusa Mini+ 3D printer review: Printing process

To print a 3D model on the Prusa Mini+, you must prepare it and create a print file. The Mini+ uses a program called PrusaSlicer, available for Windows, Mac and Linux. This program is very nice, with a simple, clean design that steps you through loading the model, positioning it for the print, and then creating the print file that you send to the printer. 

For materials, profiles for generic PLA, ABS, and PETG  and several Prusa filaments are installed by default. A huge number of user-created profiles for filament from other manufacturers can also be installed if required. 

PrusaSlicer includes many powerful features — models can be duplicated, spun around, automatically arranged, and tweaked in many ways. You also enjoy a lot of control over the printing process, with features like adding fuzzy skin to a part of a print to create a fiber-like texture that provides more grip. 

Once the print is set up, you save the print file to a USB drive and transfer it over to the Prusa Mini+. At the moment, the Mini+ does not support wireless printing. A basic monitoring app is built into that 3D printer that uses its ethernet connection, but there is no way to start or stop a print remotely. Prusa is working on this with its Prusa Connect service, which only works with the more expensive Prusa 3 printer at the moment; support for the Mini+ is promised in the future. 

When you insert a USB drive containing a print file into the Mini+’s USB port, the printer’s LCD screen shows a preview of the print and the basic info, automatically selecting the most recent one. You can start the print with a single click of the controller. That lovely, simple touch makes things quicker and simpler: no more hunting through a long list of files to find the one you want. 

The Prusa Mini+ is pretty quiet, producing only a slight humming noise as the motors turn, with the odd clonk or whirr as the printer head moves around. I wouldn’t want to try and sleep in the same room as it when printing, but it is certainly one of the quietest and least annoying printers I have tested.

When the print is complete, you remove the print bed and bend it to pop the print off.  I had no problems with failed prints on this printer — all of my test prints printed correctly, popping off the print bed with ease.

Prusa Mini+ 3D printer review: Print speed

We found that the Mini+ was a fairly fast printer. When working in the 0.2mm quality print mode, our 4-inch high test model of the Thinker took 7 hours and 52 minutes. It could go faster, though, as switching to the 0.3mm Speed mode sped this up to just 4 hours and 22 minutes, although the print quality suffered somewhat.That’s still a bit slower than the Monoprice Delta Mini, which took 3.5 hours to do a similar print. 

Prusa Mini+ 3D printer review: Print Quality

If you don’t mind the longer wait, the Mini+ can produce excellent quality prints. Printing in the Quality mode, I found that the Mini+ created excellent prints of all of our models, with smooth curves on the Thinker and sharp edges and tips on our geometric sculpture. 

We did notice quite a lot of stringing on the geometric sculpture, though, where thin filament strings are left behind as the print head moves from one part of the print to another. We were able to deal with some of this with tweaks to settings in PrusaSlicer — specifically the retraction setting, which determines how the printer pulls the filament back into the print head when moving it from one part of the print to another. However, strings remained on some prints. 

I also found excellent quality in our test where we produce a set of interlocking gears. These intricate parts fit together with very few issues, and the final mechanism turned smoothly and cleanly. The gears did need a bit of cleaning, though, as some small whiskers of filament stuck to parts of the print and had to be trimmed off with a sharp knife. 

These whiskers can also be caused by the filament absorbing moisture, which underlies one of the issues with open-plan printers like the Mini+: you are at the mercy of your environment. Printers like the Adventure 4 that have sealed enclosures can filter the air and dry the filament, but the Mini+ can’t. Prusa offers an enclosure, which adds another $349 to the cost of the Mini+. 

Prusa Mini+ 3D printer review: Materials

There are no restrictions on the printing material that the Mini+ can use. Any 1.75mm filament can be fed into the printer. The heated print bed (which can reach up to 100C/212F) and the hot extruder (which can get up to 280C/536F) can handle most materials, including the more exotic ones like Nylon and Polypropylene. 

Prusa sells its own line of filaments, including several filaments made with wood and metal additions to provide a more natural texture. The metal ones require a hardened nozzle, though, as the metal particles in the filament wear away the Mini+’s standard brass nozzle. Prusa does not make these, but it does offer a great guide on where to get a hardened nozzle and how to adapt the printing process to them. 

Prusa Mini+ 3D printer review: Verdict

There are plenty of cheaper 3D printers out there than the Prusa Mini+. These are often a false economy, though: cheaper printers require lots of calibration, testing, and tweaking to get good-quality prints. The Mini+ doesn’t make you jump through those hoops — all the prints I tried worked the first time and looked good, apart from some easily-trimmed whiskers. That’s worth a lot more than a lower initial price tag. 

The overall Prusa Mini+ package is excellent, with easy assembly, friendly software and a straightforward printing process. If you want someone to be inspired by 3D printing rather than frustrated, the Mini+ is a great pick. Get this 3D printer for the beginner who wants to get into 3D printing and doesn’t mind spending a bit more on a printer that can grow with them. 

Whether you're a beginner or your a habitual tinkerer, a good 3D printer is essential. From printing small parts to fix items around the home or creating entire products right in the comfort of your home, they can come in clutch so often.

But finding the best 3D printer for your needs and skill level can be tricky, especially given how many different models and designs are out there.

Lucky for you, we know a thing or two, as we've tested 3D printers for years, going all the way back to the first Makerbot.

So if you've got an ambitious creative vision that requires something more advanced, or you want to get creative and print a toy boat for your kid (he loved it, by the way), here are the best we've tested to date, replete with testing data!

The quick list

The best 3D printers you can buy today

The best 3D printer overall

Resin-based printers have seen a lot of competition from lower-priced devices in recent years, but the Form 3+ from Formlabs remains the device of choice if 3D printing is a regular part of your workflow.

The Form 3+ replaced the Form 3, formerly our top pick for resin printers. This new version churns out prints faster than before, and it's much easier to use than before. Loading up resin is simple, and a floating level sensor keeps close tabs on how much resin is in the print tray, controlling the flow so that just the right amount is used on each job. A more flexible build platform simplifies the task of removing prints.

The Form 3+ produces speedy prints, but more importantly, the quality of our test prints turned out to be superlative. A price hike puts the starting price of the Form 3+ at $3,750, so clearly, this particular model isn't for everybody. But the Form 3+ easily meets the demands of designers who need a steady flow of good-looking prints and have the means to pay for this top-tier option.

Read our full Formlabs Form 3+ review.

The best 3D printer for value

If you have a messy workshop with a lot of dust, the FlashForge Adventurer 4 might just be the 3D printer for you as it case is designed to keep dust out while a built-in fan and HEPA filter keeps the print bed clean. This is also a great 3D printer for those that want to have it run in the background while out and about since it has a live camera feed to show you how your print's are progressing.

While the FlashForge Adventurer 4 costs more than some other 3D printers like the Monoprice Voxel we've reviewed, you're getting a more advanced device that's also more affordable than pro-level 3D printers. It's also a bit larger at 21.7 x 19.7 x 18.5 inches but this is because the entire printing mechanism is enclosed.

The FlashForge Adventurer 4 is controlled through a simple touch-screen on the left side at the front of its case. This is easy enough to use when setting up prints but we found entering our Wi-Fi password to be a bit difficult. After a few failed attempts, we used a wired Ethernet connection to pair it with our computer and this worked flawlessly.

Read our full FlashForge Adventurer 4 review.

The best 3D printer for beginners

The Prusa Mini+ 3D printer is a terrific option if you're just getting started in 3D printing, though it seems to be in short supply these days. That's a shame because it offers novices reliable performance and quality prints right out of the box, even if it is more expensive than competing 3D printers for beginners.

In our testing, we found the Prusa Mini+ easy to set up, though the lack of an enclosed printing area may make this the wrong choice if you've got younger folks hanging around your workspace. Well-designed software walks you through the process of preparing your model for printing. And when it is time to print, the Prusa Mini+ performs relatively quickly at the 0.2mm quality print mode. We were pleased with the quality of all our test prints, including those that featured parts that had to fit precisely together.

Though pricier than most beginning printers, the Prusa Mini+ doesn't make you jump through a lot of hoops to get your printer calibrated and set up. We think it's a great alternative to the Monoprice Voxel.

Read our full Prusa Mini+ 3D printer review.

How to choose the best 3D printer for you

Not sure which 3D printer to pick? Here's a quick guide to help you decide.

Printer Type

There are two main kinds of 3D printers:

• FFF (Fused Filament Fabrication) printers melt plastic filament to build models layer by layer. They’re affordable, beginner-friendly, and widely used.
• SLA (Stereolithography) printers use UV light to cure liquid resin into solid shapes. They're known for high detail but usually cost more—though newer models are bringing prices down.

There are also 3D pens, a fun, low-cost option (under $100) that lets you draw in 3D using melted plastic.

Printing Materials

Materials matter to what you want to build!

• FFF printers use filaments like PLA (biodegradable), ABS (Lego plastic), nylon, TPE (flexible), and more. Filaments come in lots of colors and two sizes: 1.75mm and 3mm (not interchangeable).
• SLA printers have fewer options but can print in resins that range from rigid to soft and rubbery.

Some printers lock you into using brand-specific materials, just like your traditional inkjet printers. And others let you use whatever filament or resin you like. It pays to be careful about this!

Print Volume

The print volume depends on the print bed size and how far the head can move. Check both overall volume (we detail this in cubic inches) and individual dimensions (height, width, depth) to make sure it can handle the kinds of models you want to create.

Print Speed vs. Quality

3D printing takes time. There's no way around that.

A small model (about 3–4 inches) can take 6 to 12 hours to finish, depending on your print quality settings.

Here’s the trade-off:

• Thicker layers = faster prints, but more visible lines and less detail.
• Thinner layers = smoother prints, but it takes longer.

The best printers let you choose your balance — quick and rough or slow and polished — by offering a range of quality settings.

Price

As we've proved up above, great 3D printers don't have to break the bank.

• High-end models can cost several thousand dollars and are built for pros and heavy use.
• Mid-range options hover around $1,000, offering solid performance for serious hobbyists. But if you're happy to go back a generation, you can find printers at this level for cheaper too (like the Form 3+).
• Beginner and home printers can be found for under $300, with some solid picks even under $200 (looking at you, FlashForge Adventurer 4).

Tip: Don’t just stick to Amazon. Some brands—like Prusa or Bambu Lab—sell directly through their websites, often with better deals or bundles.

How we test 3D printers

When we review a 3D printer, we set up each model, noting how long it takes from the time to remove the printer from its packaging to calibrating the printer so that it's ready to use. We also take note of any special set-up instructions.

We look at what kind of materials a 3D printer supports and whether the manufacturer requires you to only use materials they sell.

When its time to test the printer, we have three different test models — a miniature statue of Rodin's Thinker, a complex set of planetary gears that incorporate interlocking parts, and a geometric sculpture to see well the printer can reproduce sharp edges and points. In addition to evaluating the quality and detail of each print, we also time how fast the printer works at various speeds, from draft mode to the highest-quality setting.

We also consider the software that a printer uses and the different ways you can control prints, whether it's from a computer or via a control panel on the 3D printer itself.

For more information, check out our how we test page for Tom's Guide.

The Form 3+ from Formlabs replaces the Form 3, one of the best resin-based 3D printers we’ve tested. This is an area in 3D printing that’s seen a lot of competition in recent years, as a number of lower-cost models have sprung up, looking to challenge Formlabs’ pricier printers.

While devices like the Photon Mono X offer a lower-cost entry into SLA printing, the Form 3+ remains the 3D printer of choice for professionals who need dependable and high-quality 3D printing. Formlabs’ latest printer takes all the great features of the Form 3 and improves ease of use and print speeds to remain the ultimate 3D resin printer.

Formlabs Form 3+ review: Price and availability

The Form 3+ originally cost $3,499, but Formlabs subsequently announced that the printer's price was rising to $3,750, citing supply chain issues. The printer remains available directly from Formlabs. Even before the bump in cost, $3,500-plus is a lot to pay for a printer, especially compared to the Photon Mono X, which now costs around $500.

There are optional add-ons for the Form 3+. The Build Platform 2, which is designed to help you remove parts from the build platform, costs $229, while post-processing devices like the Form Wash and Form Cure cost $599 and $750, respectively. (That $750 reflects a $50 price hike on the Form Cure.)

Formlabs Form 3+ review: Design

Formlabs describes the Form 3+ as a LFS (Low Force Stereolithography) printer that uses a 250 mA UV laser to zap resin into a solid. The Form 3+ retains the same heavy, industrial-style design of previous Formlabs models, with an orange see-through plastic cover that folds up from the front to provide access to the build area. 

The Form 3+ has a total build area of 5.7 x 5.7 x 7.3 inches, a total of 237 cubic inches, with a layer size of between 25 and 300 microns (0.001 to 0.012 inches) That’s much smaller than most FDM printers, and many SLA printers. If you need something bigger, Formlabs also offers the Form 3L, a step-up model that can print up to 13.2 by 7.9 by 11.8 inches: a total of 1,230 cubic inches. 

Below the lift-up cover of the Form 3+, you’ll find a large, clear touch screen that shows the status of the print and allows you to control prints in progress. Prints can be sent to the Form 3+ over Wi-Fi, ethernet, or USB connection to a computer running the PreForm software. There is also a USB port on the printer’s back for a USB drive.  

The back of the Form 3+ is also where you’ll slide in the resin cartridge. This holds a liter of resin, and each cartridge is coded to tell the printer what type of resin is in it. The design means that you don’t have to touch the resin yourself — a small printer-controlled valve at the bottom releases the resin from the tank into the print tray. That’s a lot easier than filling the tray by hand, and means that the Form 3+ only dispenses as much resin as is needed for the print. That’s important, as resin left in the print tray can go bad over time. 

The design of the print tray is also new for the Form 3+, with an improved mixer that moves the resin around before printing and a floating level sensor that measures how much resin is in the print tray. Much like the float in your toilet, this latter feature controls the flow of the resin so that there is enough to do the job, but no more.

The other new feature that we tested on the Form 3+ is the Build Platform 2, a revamped design for the platform that the print is built on. This is the part that is lowered into the reason that the print forms on, layer by layer. 

Usually, this is a solid flat slab of metal, so when the print is finished, you then have to pry the print off with a scraper. The new Build Platform 2 design uses a flexible metal panel held in place by magnets. After printing, you use the handles on either side to release the panel from the magnets and bend it, which makes removing the print much easier: it usually just pops off without needing any prying or other persuasion. It’s an optional extra, but it is well worth the $229 if you are printing a lot. 

Most of the other Form 3+ improvements are mostly to the user — these include an improved laser for faster printing and the addition of a heater. 

Formlabs Form 3+ review: Accessories

In addition to testing the Form 3+, we also looked at the Form Wash and Form Cure. These two devices wash prints in alcohol to remove unfixed resin and cure the print with UV lights to finish it off. 

Like the Build Platform 2, they’re optional additions to your Form 3+ setup: you can both wash and cure prints without them using a plastic container and a UV light. But adding them makes things easier and more effective: the Form Wash mixes the isopropyl alcohol to make sure that any nooks and crannies in the print are cleaned, and the Form Cure heats the print while it cures to make sure the resin is completely set. Together, they create an entire production line from loading the 3D model to the fixed print ready for use.

Formlabs Form 3+ review: Software and controls

You control the Form 3+ using one of three ways — from the touchscreen on the device itself, from the PreForm software, and through the Dashboard web interface. The Form 3+’s touchscreen is big, bright, and easy to see. From here you can start and stop prints, plus configure the printer and put it to sleep if you aren’t using it for a bit. 

The PreForm software (available free for Windows and Mac) offers the main way of setting up prints and controlling the printer. This loads the 3D models, orients them for printing, and creates the print file to send to the Form 3+. 

It’s an easy process, especially if you use the one-touch feature that handles most of the work for you. Because the Form 3+ communicates with the PreForm app, you don’t have to set up anything: it knows what type of resin is installed and how to configure the print for that. You do have to press a couple more buttons to send the file (and then go to the printer and start the print), so it isn’t quite one touch, but it is pretty close. 

If you prefer to configure things yourself. PreForm allows you to load multiple models, shrink or enlarge them and move them about the build plate. Alternatively, you can load one model and clone it to print multiples in one print, a process called plating. You can also add print supports, or let the program add them automatically. Once your model is ready, you can send it directly to the Form 3+, save it or put it on a USB drive. 

As for the dashboard, it’s a web-based service that allows you to monitor and control multiple printers, stop or start prints, monitor materials and check the print statistics. The Dashboard can have multiple users, so more than one person can use a single printer, or queue prints up on multiple devices.

Formlabs Form 3+ review: Print process

Once the print file has been sent to the Form 3+, it is time to get printing. Again, this process is pretty hassle-free: you select print and run through a couple of preparation steps (such as opening a valve on the resin tank and confirming that the print plate is in place); then, the printer gets on with it. The preparation process can also be done in advance: if you know you are going to be starting a print in a few minutes, you can prime the printer in advance, then start the print from the PreForm software. 

The printing process itself is automated: you don’t have to watch it. The Form 3+ also includes a heater that warms the inside of the printer, a definite plus for the chilly basement I use for testing printers, as the resin doesn’t flow as well when it is cold. 

This heater doesn’t extend to the resin tank, though, so filling the print tray from the tank sometimes took a long time, especially when switching materials. Formlabs told me that they recommend users put the Form 3+ into an air-conditioned or otherwise heated room, and that users should occasionally take the resin tank out, check the valve that the resin is dispensed from and shake the tank to make sure that the valve is not blocked.  

After several prints timed out while waiting for the cold resin to drip out of the resin tank, I took to manually filling the tray before the first print, another process that Formlabs recommended. That’s more of an annoyance than a widespread problem with the Form 3+, though, especially for those who live in more civilized climates than New England in late winter. 

Once the print is done, you can remove the print bed and finish the print. With the Form Wash and Form Cure devices, this involved putting the entire print bed into the Wash and setting it to run, which immerses and rinses the print in IPA (Isopropyl Alcohol) to remove any liquid resin clinging to the service. That process that takes about 20 minutes. 

The Form Was automatically circulates the IPA to get into the print, then lifts the print out of the liquid to let it dry. Next, you remove your print from the print bed, then trim off the supports (a number of clippers and other tools are included with the Form Wash for this purpose).  Finally, you put it in the Form Cure, which heats the print and bathes it in UV light to harden the resin. After that, the print is complete. 

Formlabs Form 3+ review: Print speed

The Form 3+ is a pretty speedy printer when it wants to be. Using the Draft resin, a print of our 4-inch high Thinker test model took a little more than 2.5 hours. That’s fast because the Draft resin is designed for quick printing on prototypes. The Flexible resin took somewhat longer — 8 hours and 52 minutes for that same model because the Elastic resin uses thinner layers that take a little longer to fix.

That time is a bit quicker than the Form 3, which took between 10 and 17 hours to print. We can’t make a direct comparison, however, as the different printers use different resins. Still, it’s safe to say that the Form 3+ is a little faster than the Form 3. 

Print speeds for the Form 3+ also compare well with other resin printers. The Photon Mono X, for instance, took more than 7 hours to produce the same size of print. Much of the speed of the Form 3+ is down to the draft resin we tested it with, but it is obviously a speedy printer that can crank out prints when needed. 

Formlabs Form 3+ review: Print quality

I was impressed with the print quality from the Form 3+, which consistently produced clean smooth prints with excellent detail and finish. The print quality depends a lot on the resin that you use, and we tried two in our testing — the Draft resin and the Elastic 50A. 

Formlabs’ Draft resin produced very clean, smooth prints, but each layer of the print is 0.3mm thick, which in 3D printing terms, is a lot. 

This does mean that the layers on prints are sometimes rather visible on flat edges and surfaces that are parallel to the print bed. In other areas, our test prints were very smooth, with well-reproduced details and smooth, organic curves. 

The print quality of the Elastic 50A resin was also excellent, with fine detail on our test prints. The prints in this material lived up to the elastic name: the clear resin is pliable and stretchable when cured, but is not rubbery: it holds its shape in fine details. 

The elastic nature of this resin does mean that it is a bit of a pain to work with, and we did find that the supports for the prints left traces on the final print that were difficult to remove: little pock marks in the otherwise smooth surface of the print. These aren’t a big problem on the draft resin, as the brittle nature of the cured resin means that the supports come off cleanly. 

But the elastic resin doesn’t snap off cleanly, and I had to trim off the surface marks with a sharp knife.This could probably be minimized by using  less support material to minimize the parts that need to be removed, though.

Formlabs Form 3+ review: Materials

The Form 3+ is designed to use resins from Formlabs, which offer a very wide selection of resins for special purposes, including high-strength engineering, dental, jewelry, and medical use. The cost of these varies from $149 for the draft resin to $299 for the extra rigid engineering resin or the castable Jewelers resin. Medical-grade resins can cost up to $349. That’s expensive, but given that the more specialist resins have been through things like FDA testing so they can be implanted into your body, that’s not unreasonable. 

Formlabs doesn’t offer different color resins: instead, they offer a color kit that includes clear resin and five dyes (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black, and White), allowing you to make your own colors. They include 16 recipes as a starting point, but you will need to mix a full liter of resin to get the result: you can’t mix smaller amounts. 

Older Form printers used to offer a feature called Open Mode that allowed you to use other resins, but this is not available on the Form 3+. 

Formlabs Form 3+ review: Verdict

If 3D printing is a part of your daily work,  the Form 3+ remains the printer to beat. It works quickly, is easy to set up and use, and prints with great quality. It’s not cheap, though: the package that we tested costs just under $5k. That could buy you two or three other cheaper printers, like the Photon Mono X, and a print finishing system. 

But a printer like the Photon Mono X lacks the finish of the Form 3+, and prints from the former machine will require more handling and tweaking to get the best quality. You also don’t get the ability for multiple users to queue and manage prints. 

Whether to pay up for the Form 3+ comes down to time and resources. If you don’t mind taking the time to tweak the printer, finish the prints then reprint them to get the results you want, a cheaper SLA printer will do just fine. But if you want to print and move on to the next task, the Form 3+ is the 3D printer to get.

Businesses and creators looking to invest in a new 3D printer to create models, prototypes, molds, and end-use parts will run into the question of which technology to use: fused deposition modeling (FDM) or stereolithography (SLA).

SLA was the first 3D printing technology created, and it has long been the preferred printing technology for professional designers and engineers. The SLA printing process uses an incredibly precise laser to cure liquid resin into the solid final part. Thanks to this precision, SLA prints can have incredibly fine detail, smooth finishes, and accurate sizing for machine parts and prototypes. 

SLA printed parts come out dense, watertight, and isotropic, giving them structural integrity in a wider variety of applications. Those qualities combined with the precision of SLA-printed parts even allows them to be used in industrial applications.

There’s also a greater degree of flexibility available with SLA printing. Creators can use different SLA resins to produce hard or soft objects, use resins filled with additives like glass or wax, create either opaque or clear prints, and choose materials for their unique mechanical properties. There are also biocompatible materials available for SLA printing, allowing for customized healthcare products, like dental aligners or surgical planning tools. 

There are some key ways that SLA printing differs from FDM, the other largely popular 3D printing technology. FDM printers deposit material in a melted form to build each layer of the print. Each line the printer deposits can be slightly rounded and may not always adhere perfectly to the layer beneath, creating an anisotropic structure. The resulting prints will show gradation between layers that can impact the aesthetics and functionality of the design. 

The precision of FDM prints is also limited by the size of the extrusion nozzles and inaccuracies caused by the thermal expansion and contraction of the filament, so FDM printers are not as well suited for creating fine details on smaller designs. While FDM prints come out of the printer without requiring cleaning or post-curing, they may require support removal and sanding to remove any unwanted layer lines. This makes them better suited for quick mock-ups or for use in workflows that won’t involve considerable post-production work, which adds time and labor expenses that may negate the relative affordability of the printers and low cost of filament material.

So if SLA printers have so many clear advantages over FDM printers, why would anyone opt for an FDM printer? The answer is thatSLA printing technology hasn’t been as accessible for many companies. The large, industrial machines previously used for SLA printing were expensive, especially compared to many of the affordable FDM printers available on the market today. 

A big factor in the price of SLA printers has been the expensive laser responsible for curing the resin. The resins can also be expensive, and the complicated process of shifting between print layers puts a strain on parts and could cause costly print failures. 

But the relative inaccessibility of SLA printing has gradually been addressed by the introduction of desktop SLA printers from Formlabs. Formlabs has spent the last decade eliminating the prohibitive costs of SLA printing while simultaneously making the technology more versatile, reliable, and intuitive. These investments have culminated in the recently launched Form 3+ SLA printer. 

The Form 3+ is a capable, fast, and reliable 3D printer for business applications. Its versatility allows users to employ it for rapid prototyping, end-use parts, model making, and more. The Form 3+ starts at $3,499 for the basic package.

The precision of the laser in the Form 3+ produces prints that require minimal post-processing. Beyond the smooth finishes of its prints, Formlabs’ software can automatically create support structures for each design and the laser can cure them in such a way that they break off easily and cleanly, further eliminating post-production work. The printer is backed by an ecosystem to improve and simplify the production pipeline, including automated washing and curing machines as well as a quick-release build platform.

The reliability of the printer and the quality of the prints can allow a business to save time and money on prototyping or designing custom parts. While the upfront cost may be higher than an entry-level FDM printer, the flexibility allows this printer to do more, and the reduction in post-production labor, print time, and print failures can outweigh the higher upfront costs. Ultimately, it’s an investment that makes sense for businesses looking to go from concept to final form quickly, precisely, and reliably. 

If you think Formlabs’ Form 3+ may be right for your business or application, you can find out more about the printer here. 

For the month of February, Formlabs will also be running a giveaway on a Form 3+ Basic Package that includes the Form 3+ 3D printer, Build Platform, Resin Tank, Finish Kit, and one liter of Draft Resin, valued at $3,500. You can enter for a chance to win here. 

We’ve seen the 3D printer market change over the past few years, with prices falling and the quality of the prints improving. The AnyCubic Photon Mono X continues this excellent trend by offering SLA printing for $599. That’s not the cheapest price we’ve seen for an SLA printer, but it’s definitely an attractive one for a devicer that produces high-quality prints and has earned a place among the best 3D printers we’ve tested.

As part of our AnyCubic Photon Mono X review, we also tested the Anycubic Wash and Cure Plus machine, a separate device that can wash the prints the Photon Mono X produces and cure them to harden the resin with a series of UV lights. 

Photon Mono X 3D printer review: Price and availability

The Photon Mono X is available now for $559 from Amazon. The Wash and Cure Plus costs $249.99 from Amazon.  

Photon Mono X 3D printer review: Design

The Photon Mini X is a Stereolithography (SLA) 3D printer, which means it uses a light source to turn a liquid resin solid. This solid material then sticks to the metal print bed, which is raised, lowered, and the process repeats, creating the print layer by layer. 

It’s a bit more complex than the FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) type of 3D printer, which uses melted plastic to build the layers, so SLA printers have generally been the more expensive option. (Our favorite SLA printer, the Form 3 from Form Labs, costs $3,499.) However, SLA printers produce more complex prints with finer detail because they produce finer layers. The default layer height for the Photon Mono X is 0.01mm, ten times smaller than a typical FDM printer. 

At 18 inches tall and 11.4 inches wide, the Photon Mini X is a small printer for the size of prints it produces: It’s capable of producing 9.6 x 7.5 x 4.6-inch prints — a total of 331 cubic inches. Most of the volume of the printer is the hood that fits over the printing area, made of see-through plastic that shows you the printing process, but blocks UV light from getting in or out. 

Many SLA 3D printers use a laser to zap the resin, but the Photon Mono X goes another route, using a panel of ultraviolet (UV) LEDs with an LCD screen above, right below the tank that holds the resin. This works like the backlight on your HDTV: the light shines through the LCD screen where each pixel is turned and blocked where each is turned off. The screen has a 4K resolution (3840 by 2400 pixels), which means that each pixel translates into a space of less than 0.01mm on the final print. The bottom of the resin tank is a sheet of clear film made of a material called Fluorinated Ethylene Propylene (FEP) that lets through the UV light to solidify the resin. 

Both the screen and the FEP film require replacement after heavy use, as the UV light damages them over time. AnyCubic claims that the monochrome screen used in this model will last for thousands of hours of printing, while the FEP sheet needs to be replaced every 20 to 30 prints. 

The other advantage of a monochrome screen is speed: while the color LCD screens that are used in most SLA printers have three filters to let through red, green, and blue light, monochrome screens don’t have any filters. That means more light gets through, so the printing is quicker. AnyCubic claims a printing speed of 6 vertical centimeters (about 2.3 inches) per hour, and we wouldn’t disagree: this is a fast printer. 

The Wash And Cure Plus is the same size and shape as the printer, with a similar design. Instead of the print head, there is an arm covered in UV LEDs which bends at the end to cover the entire print. A removable vat for washing is also included; it includes a built-in agitator to stir the liquid. 

Photon Mono X 3D printer review: Print process

The prints that the Mono X produces are set up in the Photon Workshop software, available as a free download for Windows and OSX.  It’s a decent if slightly quirky 3D slicer that allows you to load one or more 3D models and set them up for printing. The models can be moved, multiplied, and scaled up and down, the saved for printing. You can’t create new models in Photon Workshop, though. 

The Photon Workshop can automatically add the supports, the tree-like structures that hold the print in place while it is being produced, and which are removed later. This didn’t prove to be too successful, though: several of our print failures were caused by incorrectly placed supports, and I found that I would usually do the automatic supports, then go through and manually add more to the places on the print that might have issues. 

One interesting feature here is the ability to divide models. If a model is too big to print at once, Photon Workshop can divide it into pieces. Each piece is then printed in turn and stuck together. That’s a nice trick that would be good to see on other slicer apps. 

There is also an Anycubic app available for Android and iOS that you can use to start a print or monitor print progress from your phone. You can’t upload a print file from this app, but it is nice to have a way to see how far a print has to go before it’s done. Even nicer would be a camera to show you if the print is working properly, but that isn’t present on the Photon Mono Xr.

Once the print is complete, you use the Wash and Cure Plus to — as the name suggests — wash the print to remove any liquid resin and cure it to solidify the resin with UV light. Firstly, you wash the print in isopropyl alcohol, which can be done either after you remove the print from the print bed or mount the entire print bed onto one of two slots in an included basket. This large container holds a lot of liquid — up to 8.5 liters (2.25 gallons). You won’t always need that much, but you will need enough to cover the print completely. At the moment isopropyl alcohol is not cheap, as it is one of the main ingredients of hand sanitizer.  

When the print is in place, you select how long you want it to be washed for, then press the control dial in to start. The agitator stirs the liquid, changing direction every 2 minutes to make sure that all of the cracks and crevices of the print are washed. 

Once your print is washed, you remove the print and let it dry. After that, it is time to cure the print, which you do by replacing the alcohol container on the Wash and Cure Plus with a rotating platform. Again, you use the control dial to select how long to cure for: typically, this would be 2 to 5 minutes, depending on the size of the print.

Once you start the process, the platform rotates exposing the print to the UV light from the LEDs on the arm that towers over the print. The process won’t start until you replace the plastic cover, which blocks the UV light from coming out. That’s a good precaution, as this intensity of UV light can damage your eyes. 

Photon Mono X 3D printer review: Print speed

The Photon Mono X is a speedy printer: our 4-inch high Thinker test model took 7 hours and 35 minutes to print, which is significantly faster than most printers in this class. The Peopeoly Phenom, for instance, took just over 13 hours to print the same model at the same size. 

We usually print the Thinker model vertically to make it fair for printers that don’t have enough space on the build plate to print the Thinker lying down horizontally. The Photon Mono X has plenty of print space large enough to handle this, so we also tested this and found out that it was much, much quicker, taking just 3 hours and 56 minutes to print in this direction.

Photon Mono X 3D printer review: Print quality

I was impressed with the quality of the prints that the Photon Mono X produced. My prints had clean, sharp edges and smooth, organic curves and surfaces. We test using three models that test the ability of the printer to reproduce details: a scan of Rodin’s Thinker, a set of planetary gears, and a geometric sculpture. 

The Thinker statue was generally well reproduced, with fine details and smooth, organic curves that looked like the real thing on the head and shoulders. The Geometric sculpture had sharp, clean edges with nice points and accurate interlocking surfaces. The Gears were easily assembled and ran smoothly, although the grey resin we tested with this printer produced a lot of dust and residue (the white material) when we screwed the various parts of the gears together. 

We did notice some problems on prints, though: sometimes, some of the layers seemed to come loose, leading to loose flaps of resin. Look, for instance, at the keg in the horizontal print of the Thinker: the inner calf of his right leg has a few layers that didn’t stick to the ones above. Likewise, one of the points of the geometric sculpture seems to be flattened because the layers were pushed down by the liquid resin as the print was produced.

Most of these issues can be corrected by tweaking the print, though: the loose layers and the squashed point indicate that the print required a few more supports to hold it in place while printing, or that the object might be better printed at a different angle. 

All of this indicates something that is true of most 3D printers: they still require a lot of tweaking to get the best quality prints out of them, and much of this tweaking relies on working out why a print failed and trying again. 

Photon Mono X 3D printer review: Verdict 

The AnyCubic Photon Mono X breaks new ground, pushing down the cost of SLA printing to a new low. It does so without making too many compromises: printing remains a slightly messy business that occasionally fails, but once you get used to the Photon Mono X (and buy a mask and a big box of disposable gloves), it is generally hassle-free and fast. 

SLA printing is definitely still a process that requires patience, though, as some prints from the Photon Mon X failed and require alteration and re-printing. I would also recommend that you buy the Wash and Cure Plus, as it makes the rather icky business of cleaning and curing SLA prints much easier. 

Combined, the two cost less than $800 and can produce large, high-quality prints at a faster speed than most of the competition. The Form 3 remains the SLA printer to get for professionals who need to do a lot of heavy-duty printing, but the Photon Mono X is an excellent option for at-home work by hobbyists or those curious about 3D printing. 

Even though it sports an unusual look for a 3D printer, there’s something familiar about the Monoprice Delta Mini V2. That’s because this is actually the second version of this device — we reviewed the original Monoprice Mini Delta a while back when it was a low-cost if flawed way to get started in 3D printing.

Does the new version address those flaws, which included unreliable USB connections and printing modes along with other bugs? Our Monoprice Delta Mini V2 3D printer review finds a much improved device, though software remains a weak spot.

Monoprice Delta Mini V2 3D printer review: Price

You can get the Monoprice Delta Mini V2 3D printer for $179, a very attractive price for entry-level printers. Consider that our top rated choice for best 3d printer — the Monoprice Voxel — costs $449, that’s quite a bargain.

The Monoprice Delta Mini V2 is available directly from Monoprice.

Monoprice Delta Mini V2 3D printer review: Design

The Monoprice Delta Mini V2 is a cute little printer, measuring just 14.5 inches high.  While most 3D printers use left-right and forward-back rails that the print head slides along, the Delta 2 uses three spider-like arms, with the print head attached in the middle. Move one of these legs up, and the print head moves in that direction. By coordinating all three legs, the Monoprice Delta Mini V2 can move the print head anywhere in the print area. 

It’s a rather compelling motion to watch, but it does have one limitation: the print area is circular and is smaller than a more standard printer of the same size. For the Mini Delta 2, the print area has a diameter of just over 4.3 inches and a height of just over 4.7 inches. That’s a total of about 81 cubic inches, which is somewhat smaller than the 107 cubic inches provided by the Polaroid Playsmart.

The Delta Mini V2 features several ways to connect to the outside world, including a micro SD card slot, a Micro USB port and a Wi-Fi interface. The latter option is of limited use, though — you can’t control the printer over a web interface or connect to it directly with a slicing app to send files. Instead, Wi-fi only works through a rather poor mobile app.

Monoprice Delta Mini V2 3D printer review: Controls

You’ve got several options for controlling the Delta Mini V2 — an on-device display, the PoloPrint Pro app, or through a slicer app such as Cura.

The small touch screen on the printer itself can be used with a fingertip or with an included plastic stylus. The latter is preferable, especially for precise jobs like entering a Wi-Fi password via the on-screen keyboard. Fingertips are fine for simpler jobs like pressing the start button, though. 

The pre-release version of the PoloPrint Pro app that I tried is available for both iOS and Android. It’s a bit rough around the edges: I found that it often crashed or failed to connect to the printer. When it did work, I was able to start a print from the micro SD card or from the online library and monitor the print progress, although there is no camera in this low-cost printer that lets you see the print in progress. Another omission here is the ability to load your own models and print them from the app; Monoprice told us that this might be added at a later date.

The best way to set up a print is with a slicing app such as Cura. A customized version of this open-source program for Windows and Mac is included on the micro SD card that comes with the Monoprice Delta Mini V2, and that is what we used to print in our tests. This doesn’t support connecting to the printer over WiFi, but it does support USB or saving a print file to the micro SD card. So, if you are using Cura to prepare prints, you have to use USB or micro SD to print.

Monoprice Delta Mini V2 3D printer review: Print process

The Delta Mini V2 is a pretty simple printer to use. Once you’ve created your print file in Cura or another program and copied it onto the micro SD card, you hit the print button in the on-screen menu and select the file to start printing.

The first thing the Delta Mini does is automatically level the print bed, touching the print head to the bed in three places to press a switch underneath it. That lets the printer know exactly where the print bed is— an important step for laying down an even first layer. Once ready, the Delta Mini lays down the first print layer on the heated print bed, then moves up to do subsequent layers.

I found that prints worked well, with few errors and no major failures. If anything, prints stuck to the print bed a little *too* well, as I usually had to pry the final print off the bed with a paint scraper. 

The Delta Mini V2 can handle multiple filament types including PLA, ABS, and PETG. You’re not restricted to filament from any one source, as the Monprice 3D printer can use 1.75mm filament from any manufacturer. We tested the Delta Mini with both PLA and ABS material and found it produced excellent results with both. 

Your biggest limitation will be the maximum temperature of the print head and the print bed (250℃ and 100℃ respectively). The Delta Mini V2 also can’t handle flexible materials, as these require a different style of print head. 

Monoprice Delta Mini V2 3D printer review: Print speed

The Delta Mini V2 is a pretty fast printer in draft mode: it cranked out a 3.5-inch high Thinker figure in a little more than 3.5 hours in this mode, which uses a 0.2 mm layer height. The 3D printer is a blit slower if you run it in normal quality, as my print took 7 hours and 10 minutes. This mode halves the height of each individual layer to 0.1mm.

Monoprice Delta Mini V2 3D printer review: Print quality

We use several test models to test 3D printers, including a scan of Rodin’s Thinker statue, a set of gears and a geometric sculpture. I was impressed with the quality of the prints that the Delta Mini 2 produced, thanks to the excellent detail. 

Our Thinker test print came out looking very nice, with smooth, natural curves on his shoulders and good detail on the face. There was some noticeable layering, though in both the draft and normal modes.

Our gears test model also came out well: All we had to do to fit the gears together was to remove them from the raft that they were printed on. We didn’t need to do any other trimming, cutting, or tweaking to produce a set of gears that turned smoothly and evenly.

The geometric sculpture is a difficult print, which is why we use it in our 3D printer testing. It involves printing a lot of sharp edges at angles, which taxes the ability of the printer to precisely control the flow of the molten filament. The Delta Mini V2 handled it without issues, producing a print that had sharp, well-defined edges and points. Once we had trimmed off the support material that held the print in place during the printing process, we were left with a very well printed, spiky sculpture.

Monoprice Delta Mini V2 3D printer review: Verdict

The Monoprice Delta Mini V2 is a simple printer that does an excellent job. It prints quickly in high quality and can handle a wide range of different materials. The only limitation is the size of the print bed: with a diameter of 4.3 inches, it can’t print anything wider than that or more than 4.7 inches high. That is plenty big for most users, though, and at the price, you can’t beat the value the Delta Mini V2 offers. 

The mobile software issues still prove to be frustrating, but it’s hard to find a better printer at this low of a price. The da Vinci Nano from XYZprinting hovers around $200, but it can be hard to find these days. For that reason, beginners would be wise to give 3D printing a try on a low-cost option like the Monoprice Delta Mini V2.

Part of 3D printing's promise is that you'll be able to print useful things at home. And that's precisely what the Toybox from Make.Toys does: it simply and quickly prints toys. You just pick the toy you want from a selection on the company's website, hit the print button and wait. Your completed toy then pops out, ready for play.

The process works, mostly: We were able to print some of the best toys like trains, track, castle parts and walls and small action figures from the simple-to-use web interface, and they were faithfully printed in sturdy, nontoxic PLA in a range of colors. But, like growing up, there are a few teething issues you need to get through first with the Toybox, such as the odd failed print and an interface with a few rough edges.

Still, if you look at 3D printing as a hobby for you and your kids can enjoy together, Toybox is one of the best 3D printers you can buy.

Toybox 3D printer review: Price and availability

The Toybox 3D printer debuted a few years ago for $399. These days, the starter bundle costs $299, and you buy it directly from Make.Toys.

Toybox 3D printer review: Design

Not to put too fine a point on it, but the Toybox is cute. It's a small printer, less than 8 inches wide and a little more than 9 inches high. The frame is metal, with open areas revealing the printhead and removable print bed. The print bed is a magnetic sheet that holds tightly onto the base, but which slides off easily when the print is done. Because this base is flexible, you can remove prints by bending it until they lift off.

Spare print beds are cheap: three will cost you $14. The filament comes in 0.5lb (about 220g) reels that cost $10 each and fit onto the back of the printer. Although these reels are smaller than most and carry only 0.5lb of filament, you can use any 1.75mm PLA filament if you can work out a way to feed it to the printer.

The Toybox can't produce large prints: they are limited to just over 3 inches on each side. Considering the size of the printer, that is no big surprise, and the toys on offer are either small, or print in small parts. The train track, for instance, can be printed in 2-inch lengths that fit together to produce a larger model. The layer height (the thickness of the layers used to create the print) is also fixed at 0.2mm, which is pretty standard for small printers.

Make.Toys plays up the cute angle with the naming of the parts: the power supply is an "electron feeder" and the filament is "printer food." The food metaphor stretches to the colors as well: green filament is called apple, purple is grape, white is coconut and so on. It's a cute idea, but it also has to be accompanied by the warning that the filaments are not edible.

MORE: 10 Things You Never Knew Your 3D Printer Could Produce

Although the Toybox is designed to print toys, there are a few things about the printer that aren't kid-friendly. The hot printhead can be touched fairly easily, and fingers could be crushed by the moving printhead. (Update, 12/17: Make.Toys tells us that the Toybox uses low torque motors, so the motors should stop rather than crush anything.) There is also another curious omission: There is no way to stop the print midway on the device itself. The only way to stop it is to pull the power plug out, or hit the stop button in the web print interface. The latter method takes a couple of seconds to take effect.

Toybox 3D printer review: Controls

The Toybox keeps the controls on the printer itself simple. There's a single small LCD touch screen that shows the status of the printer and offers a simple interface to load filament, set up the printer and configure a few other basic settings. The printer connects to the Make.Toys online service over 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, so you'll need to set up an online account to control your printer.

There's are a great selection of free toys available at Make.Toys, from trains and tracks to castles, miniature figures, seasonal toys like a cute pumpkin and oddities like an owl cookie cutter. The Make.Toys web interface also allows you to create your own toys, either by modifying one of the available models or uploading your own.

To print one of the existing models, you just select the model and hit print. The service does the rest; there is no need to copy files, connect cables or process files. An online editor lets you create personalized figures or tweak an existing model by stretching and scaling it. The service's 3D editor is pretty basic, but I could build a few simple models without problems.

You can load existing 3D models in .stl or .obj formats, but the editing tools are still pretty basic. If there is a problem with the model (such as a hole in the 3d mesh), the system will warn you, but can’t fix it. We also found that more complex models, such as the geometric sculpture and set of planetary gears we typically use in testing, were a bit much for this system to cope with. That's not surprising, as both are complex models designed to confuse a printer, and are not really what the Toybox was intended to work with.

Toybox 3D printer review: Print process

Once you've chosen or created your toy, you hit print in the web interface, and your object starts printing. All of the hard work of configuring the print, creating the print file and sending it to the printer is done by Make.Toys' online service.

We found printing to be mostly successful, but we did have a few failures. The PLA print material does not always stick to the Toybox's unheated print bed, so we had some prints fail at the beginning as parts came loose and stuck to the extruder rather than the printhead. On more than one occasion, I had to pry a goopy lump of melted PLA off the extruder when it became stuck.

Other prints failed partway through the process, ruining the print. A print of the train track bridge, for instance, failed when one of the towers of the bridge came loose and stuck to another part of the print.

But these cases were more the exception than the rule. Most of our test prints on the Toybox worked flawlessly, creating prints that stuck to the print bed and which were easily removed from the print bed afterward.

Toybox 3D printer review: Print speed

Because of the small size of the print area of the Toybox, we were not able to do our full comparative tests that feature a 4-inch-high print. Toybox prints max out at a little more than 3 inches tall. However, we did find that the Toybox is a fairly fast printer — a 3-inch high version of our Thinker print took just 1 hour and 45 minutes to print.

Toybox 3D printer review: Print quality

We were generally impressed with the quality of the prints produced by the Toybox, which were clean and well printed. The thick layers of the print are somewhat obvious (look at the close-up photo of the Thinker statue, for instance), but don't usually detract from the look and playability of the prints.

The Toybox did struggle with some fine details,though: The clips that hold the wheels on the train were not very well formed, so the wheels had a tendency to stick as they went around, or to sometimes fall off.

Toybox 3D printer review: Verdict

The Toybox is a lot of fun, allowing you to print simple, colorful and fun toys on demand that might give a young maker insight into how things are made. And the process is wonderfully simple: no messing with installing apps and configuring slicers. It is just press print, wait and play. But the Toybox is not perfect: We had a certain number of failed prints and other quirks that make it not quite the hassle-free process you might hope for.

So, is this 3D printer going to replace a big box of Legos? No. The prints the Toybox produces are not as high quality as mass-produced plastic blocks, and some users will find the print times frustrating. But for older children who know where not to stick their fingers, and who want to add a creative angle to their play, the Toybox is a great and not overly expensive printer.

One thing that strikes you immediately about the Peopoly Phenom when you first lay eyes on this 30.7-inch tall 3D printer — it’s one of the biggest models available to home users. That’s because this 3D printer has a huge build area: a stonkingly large 10.8 x 6.1 x 15.8 inches, for a total of over a million cubic inches of build volume. That’s more than four times the build volume of the Form 3 at about half the cost. 

That sounds awesome, but is the Peopoly Phenom usable enough to land on our list of the best 3D printers? Our Peopoly Phenom review find that the answer is yes, but with enough caveats to make this a pick for 3D enthusiasts only. 

Peopoly Phenom review: Price and availability

When we first reviewed the Peopoly Phenom about a year ago, it cost $1,799. These days, the printer costs $1,999, which is still significantly less than the Form 3's $3,499 asking price. You can buy the Peopoly Phenom directly from Peopoly's website.

Peopoly Phenom review: Design

The Peopoly Phenom uses a combination of an LCD screen and UV LED rather than the UV laser used in the smaller Peopoly Moai and the Form 3. In the Phenom, the UV light comes from a grid of LEDs under the print bed which shines through the LED screen. 

Where this screen is opaque, the light is blocked and the layer of resin between the build plate and the print bed remains liquid. Where the screen is see-through, the UV light passes through and the resin is solidified. Once the resin is solid and sticks to the build plate, the plate is raised, liquid resin rushes in and the process repeats, building the print layer by layer.

The upside of Peopoly’s approach is that it is simpler and requires fewer moving parts: you don’t have to use an intricate mirror system to bounce a laser beam around. The downside is that the parts wear out quicker: the LCD screen can be damaged by the intense UV light and will need to be replaced eventually. Peopoly estimates that this will happen after about 400 hours of print time. That might sound like a lot, but with large prints often taking 24 hours or longer, it can quickly get eaten up. The LCD screen, which is a modified 4K laptop screen, can be replaced with a replacement unit costing about $100. 

Although the Peopoly Phenom design and construction is generally excellent, we noticed a few quirks. For one, there is no Wi-Fi on the 3D printer, despite the on-screen display advertising it as a feature. Peopoly told us that this is because the firmware used on the printer supports Wi-Fi and that the company was not able to remove it. Instead, you have to use wired ethernet to connect to the Peopoly Phenom.

Peopoly Phenom review: Controls

You control the Phenom through a small touch screen on the front of the printer, which is pretty easy to use. With that touch screen, you control every function of the 3D printer including moving the print bed up and down, setting the brightness of the UV light and starting and stopping prints. 

The print files are sent to the printer either through a wired ethernet connection or on a USB drive. To create files for the Phenom, you could use any 3D printing app, but Peopoly recommends the free Chitubox. Available for Windows, Mac and Linux, it’s a good choice that is easy to use and is focussed on printing with resin printers like the Phenom. 

With Chitubox, load the model and click on Add Supports; the program analyzes the model and automatically adds supports that will make it easier to print. Chitubox can also do things like automatically hollow a model, removing the interior so it uses less resin to print. 

Once the print file is ready, you can save it to a USB drive or send it directly to the Peopoly Phenom over the wired ethernet connection. 

Peopoly Phenom review: Materials and maintenance

Peopoly doesn’t place limitations on which resins you can use with the Phenom: you can pour any resin you like into the print tray. Different resins require different settings, though, so you will need to tweak settings (notably the LED power and exposure time) for different types. Peopoly mentains a Google Sheet of recommended settings and there is an active community of users on the Peopoly forums. 

Peopoly offers its own Delft resin for this printer, which is priced at $60/kg. Due to the coronavirus pandemic occurring during our testing, this resin was not available. Instead, we used Siraya Tech Fast, a resin designed for use with LED printers like the Phenom that was recommended by Peopoly. This costs a very reasonable $35/kg. It’s a good example of the benefits of not having your 3D printer tied to just one material — when the global supply chain is interrupted, you can just switch to another. 

As noted above, the LCD screen that the Phenom uses is damaged over time by the UV light and requires replacing after about 400 hours of print time. A replacement screen costs $100, and the process of installing it requires removing the tape holding the old one in place under the print vat, disconnecting the controller cable, plugging in the new screen, putting it in place and taping it down. It’s not a difficult process, but it is more hands-on than the simple snap-into-place process of replacing the laser module on a Form 3. It also presupposes that you are comfortable enough to start tearing large amounts of masking tape out of the printer and unplugging things. 

Peopoly Phenom review: Print process

Producing a 3D print with the Peopoly Phenom is fairly straightforward, though it involves a few manual steps. First, you have to fill the print tray with resin since there is no auto-fill feature like what you’d find on the Form 3. The Phenom also lacks the ability to detect low resin, so, if you don’t fill the tray enough, your print will just fail part way through without warning or notice. 

Once the tray is ready, you insert the USB drive with the print file and hit Print on the control panel. If you need to confirm you are printing the right thing, the Phenom shows you a small preview of the print on the screen. 

During our testing for this Peopoly Phenom review, we found printing to be a bit of a stinky, noisy process. To keep the UV LEDs cool, the Phenom has two fans on the side of the case, pulling and pushing air over the LEDs. This makes a lot of noise — about the same as a vacuum cleaner running in the next room. This also means that the slight chemical smell of the resin gets spread through the room. Let’s put it this way: You wouldn’t want to sleep in the same room as the Peopoly Phenom. 

Peopoly Phenom review: Print speed

The Phenom is a fairly fast printer, because the UV LED and LCD screen approach means it can print an entire layer at once. That doesn’t make it much quicker than printers that use a single laser spot, though, because the LED lights aren’t as intense as the laser, so they have to be exposed for longer. 

In the end, the two different approaches are about equal: The Phenom took just under 13 hours to print a 4-inch high Thinker model, which is comparable to the Form Labs 3. 

Peopoly Phenom review: Print quality

We were impressed with the print quality of the Phenom, which produced clean, smooth-surfaced prints. We found that our test print of Rodin’s thinker was printed with natural, smooth curves.

Our geometric sculpture print had sharp, clean edges, and our test print of a set of gears fit together well, requiring little cleaning to make the various gear teeth and screw threads fit together. 

That’s not to say that the process is hassle-free, though: like all resin printers, you need to treat the prints to get the best results, washing them in alcohol and hardening them with UV light. None of this is handled by the Phenom; you have to handle all this yourself. 

Peopoly Phenom review: Verdict

There is no doubt that the Peopoly Phenom is a great printer. It offers a huge print volume, it’s relatively easy to use and it can produce excellent prints. And the price for this 3D printer is great: at $1,999, the Peopoly Phenom costs almost half as much as the Form Labs Form 3 and can print much larger objects.

There’s some “buts,” though. The Peopoly Phenom is  a hands-on printer that needs a fair amount of tweaking to get the best quality out of it. To use it effectively, you need to be comfortable with getting into the guts of the thing, tweaking settings, fiddling with rather unpolished software and doing multiple print tests to find the settings that work best for each type of resin. That’s a different approach to the hands-off, press-and-print approach of the Form 3. 

If you just want to print and not worry about the process, the Form 3 is the better pick. But if the idea of tweaking and fiddling to get the best results sounds like fun (and you have the time and energy to do it), the Peopoly Phenom is the resin printer to get. 

XYZprinting produces a wide range of 3D printers, but the company seems especially adept at making printers aimed at novices and newcomers. The da Vinci Nano, XYZ's  entry-level printer released in 2018, is a prime example of that, as this simple printer offers a lot of features for a small price, and it remains among the best 3D printers.

da Vinci Nano 3D printer review: Price and availability

As an older model, the da Vinci Nano 3D printer can be hard to find at retail sites, but you'll still have some luck if you buy it directly through XYZprinting's store. There, the da Vinci Nano w is available for $199. This is a wireless version of the printer, but it's essentially the same model we reviewed here. A wired version of the printer is listed as out-of-stock, as of this update to the review.

da Vinci Nano 3D printer review: Design

The da Vinci Nano, which measures 14.9 x 14 x 11 inches, looks more like a kitchen appliance than something high-tech; it's like a cross between a bread maker and a 1970s sci-fi movie prop. Though a front door blocks off the moving and hot parts of the printer, there is no override. If you open the front door, the printer keeps going, so it isn't suitable for unsupervised use by younger printers.

The door does help block off much of the noise of printing, though — a low whirring and buzzing sound that is quieter than that from most printers.

Behind the lift-up front door is the print area, with a glass print bed that allows for prints of up to 4.7 inches on each side. That's not as big as the prints possible from printers like the Dremel Digilab 3D40, but it's big enough for most uses. (And considering the size of the Nano, it's a pretty generous print area.) This print bed is a piece of glass that can be easily removed by releasing a couple of latches, which makes it easier to remove prints.

da Vinci Nano 3D printer review: Materials

The Nano uses filament stored on a reel that fits onto the printer's back. As with most XYZ printers, the PLA filament features a chip that identifies it to the printer, with the Nano working only with filament supplied by XYZ. Each of these reels, which holds 600 grams of filament, costs about $27.99.The filament comes in 14 colors, ranging from clear to black. That's a bit more expensive than the printing materials for many other printers, some of which can use third-party resin that costs about $20 for a 1-kilogram (2.2 pounds) reel.

Because the Nano lacks a heated print bed, you're limited to PLA; the Nano won't work with ABS or other filament materials.

da Vinci Nano 3D printer review: Setup and controls

The da Vinci Nano is simple and straightforward to use. You just unbox the printer, remove the numerous bits of tape and foam holding it in place, snap the print head into place and feed in the filament. It took us less than half an hour to go from opening the box to starting the first print.  

The controls on the da Vinci Nano are limited to a single glowing button on the front and a power switch on the back. The glowing button shows the status (green for ready, orange for print in progress and red for error), but everything else is controlled through the XYZmaker software, which is free for Windows, Mac and Linux. (However, you do have to register with XYZprinting to access the download page.)

The XYZmaker software is quite simple to use, offering the ability to import, scale, move and combine 3D models. It can also create 3D models such as text, logos and primitives such as spheres, cubes and pyramids. These can be combined with (or removed from) existing models, so you can do things like create a 3D model of text and then use it to cut out the shape of that text in another 3D model, like a machine that engraves your pet's name onto a tag. XYZmaker is not a full-featured 3D-modeling program, but it is nice to see that more features for these kinds of simple tasks are becoming available in 3D-printing programs.

Once the print is ready to go, you pass it over to the XYZ Printer plugin, which slices up the model and prepares it for printing. Again, this is a simple-to-use program that offers all of the basic features you will need, plus a few more. You get a 3D preview of the model, and it can add supports (the pieces of material that hold a complex print in place) and tweak other settings, such as infill (the amount of material that is printed inside the model to hold it together). You can use the four print-quality settings — Draft, Normal, Fine and Hollow, a special mode that removes any infill — or tweak the settings yourself to get the perfect print.

da Vinci Nano 3D printer review: Print process

Once you hit Print, the XYZmaker program sends the file to the da Vinci Nano over the printer's USB connection. Once that's done, you can disconnect your computer from the Nano without affecting the print, but the software provides the only way to monitor the progress. There is no visual or other indication on the printer itself of how long your print will take.

We found the da Vinci Nano to be a fairly quiet printer while running; it exhibited only a slight whine from the motors and fans, accompanied by a whirr and buzz from the print head moving. It's a little irritating if you are sitting right next to the printer, but the noise was barely audible a room away.

da Vinci Nano 3D printer review: Print speed

The da Vinci Nano is not a fast printer, especially when compared to a blazing fast model for beginners like the Polaroid PlaySmart. Although the Nano can print sizable objects, it takes a long time to do so, especially on the higher-quality settings. Our test print of Auguste Rodin's The Thinker, which is about 4.3 inches high, took between 7 hours and 36 minutes on the Draft setting and a lengthy 21 hours and 3 minutes on the High Quality setting.

That's a lot slower than other, more expensive printers, such as the Dremel Digilab 3D40, which took between 3 hours and 15 minutes and 14 hours and 2 minutes, respectively, for the same print. Even some similar low-priced printers were faster; the $160 Monoprice MP Mini Delta, for instance, took less than 5 hours to print in its highest-quality speed mode.

This is probably the most obvious place where XYZprinting has cut corners to keep the cost down: In the High Quality print mode, the print head moves more slowly so that it can be controlled more accurately. More expensive printers, by contrast, use bigger motors that can be accurate at higher speeds, thus maintaining both speed and print quality. The cheaper motors in the da Vinci Nano make you choose one or the other.

da Vinci Nano 3D printer review: Print quality

We were impressed with the quality of the prints that the da Vinci Nano produced; they had a clean, smooth finish and well-made edges in the Draft and Normal modes.

The print of our Thinker model in the Draft mode (which uses a 0.4-mm print height) had very visible print layers, but it still featured an attractive, clean finish on the back and arms of the figure and little or no disjointed layers. Prints produced in Normal mode, pictured above, (0.4-mm layer height again, but printed a bit more slowly) looked smoother but still had a lot of visible layering and some deformed layers that didn't quite seem to have stuck together properly, especially on smaller details such as the fingers and toes of The Thinker model.

The High Quality print mode (above) still had some obvious layering. But the smaller layer height made them less intrusive and produced a smoother overall look, and the details were reproduced more accurately.

da Vinci Nano 3D printer review: Verdict

For around $200, you get a lot of printer with the da Vinci Nano. Although it is restricted to printing with PLA from XYZprinting, the Nano does a great job of producing attractive prints, and the company's PLA filament is not overly expensive (although it costs more than third-party options).

The software that controls the da Vinci Nano is simple to use and offers some neat, unusual features, like basic modeling tools to add text to existing models. The printer is slow, though, so expect to wait a while for your prints. 

Since we first reviewed the da Vinci Nano 3D printer a few years ago, other models aimed at novices have come along with more impressive features, including the Monoprice Voxel and the Polaroid PlaySmart. But those 3D printers cost more than the da Vinci Nano, which remains a great package for anyone who's curious about 3D printing — whether at home or in a classroom — and doesn't want to spend a lot to get started.

Editors' Note: We originally publish this LulzBot Mini 2 review in 2018. We've updated pricing and availability info for 2021, but otherwise, this review reflects our testing at the time.

Released more than half-a-decade ago, the LulzBot Mini balanced a price that made it attractive to home users with a flexibility to print in multiple materials. The Mini hit the sweet spot for those who are serious about 3D printing, making it our favorite midrange 3D printer for a long time

The LulzBot Mini 2 ticks those same boxes, only better, offering a lot of under-the-hood upgrades, such as support for flexible printing materials and faster printing. It's among the best 3D printers we've tested.

LulzBot Mini 2 review: Price and availability

The LulzBot Mini 2 cost around $1,500 when it debuted in 2018. These days, the price is a bit higher at most retailers, as supplies of the printer have dwindled. However, Dynamism still offers the LulzBot Mini 2 for $1,495.

LulzBot Mini 2 review: Design

The Mini 2 shares the same spare, industrial look as LulzBot's original Mini, putting the focus on printing rather than aesthetics. Not that it's an ugly printer: The anodized aluminum frame and 3D-printed parts give the Mini 2 a clean, functional look.

There's another reason the new printer looks very much like the previous model: most of the upgrades are on the inside. These include a new, more flexible printhead; faster motors; a new modular print bed; and a slightly larger print bed.

The new printhead uses a E3D Titan Aero nozzle and a redesigned feeding mechanism, which means the Mini 2 can handle flexible materials like Ninjaflex. Previous models required an upgraded printhead to print these since they use a different method of feeding the material into the nozzle that heats and melts the filament. The printhead of the Mini 2 can feed in these squishy filaments without problems.

The modular print bed on the Mini 2 also helps with different materials. Some materials (like the PLA material used in most 3D printers) stick best to a heated print bed coated with tacky plastic, while others work best on a plain glass surface. The Mini 2 offers both: You can take out the 6.3 x 6.3-inch glass print bed and flip it over. One side is coated with PEI plastic, while the other side is uncoated glass. Whichever side is up, the print bed can be heated to a toasty 248 degrees Fahrenheit (120 degrees Celsius), so it will work nicely with materials like ABS that stick better to a heated print bed. The process of turning the print bed over does require undoing the hex screws at each corner, but that doesn't take too long.

The print bed on the Mini 2 is an auto-leveling one: Every time you start a print, the printhead touches the four washers that hold the print bed in place to detect the height of the print bed. In addition, a piece of fabric at the back of the print bed wipes off the printhead, removing any stray material that could clog up the printhead.

The print bed is a little larger than it was on the original Mini, providing a print area of 6.3 x 6.3 x 7 inches, for a total print volume of 281 cubic inches. That is big enough for most things, but it can be limiting. For instance, I was unable to print a case for an iPhone 7 Plus, as it wouldn't fit onto the print bed. My only options were to tilt the case up (which wasted a huge amount of material for the supports) or cut the print into two parts.

LulzBot Mini 2 review: Controls

The Mini 2 can be controlled either through an LCD screen on the printer  or via the free LulzBot edition of Cura.

The LCD screen and dial control on the front of the printer allow you to access any of the controls and features of the printer. By turning the knob and pressing in, you can step through the menu system to load filament, set temperatures or print files from the SD card. So you can use the Mini 2 as a stand-alone device without connecting it to a PC over a USB connection if you want.

The more flexible way to control the printer is through the LulzBot version of the open-source program Cura, available for Windows, macOS and Linux. This program allows you to load 3D models in a number of formats (.STL, .OBJ and others) and prepare them for printing.

You can scale, rotate and join models together, preparing multiple models to print at once. These models are presented in a 3D view, which allows you to move around and zoom in or out, which is useful for spotting any potential printing problems. When the model is loaded, the program automatically creates the printing file (a process called slicing), and you can then view a preview of the printing process, layer by layer. You can tweak this process to a very fine degree, controlling if supports are added to hold the print in place during printing. You can also control how dense these supports are, along with many other options. Alternatively, you can let Cura do the hard work using one of the 34 included profiles for different materials from standard PLA to nylon.

LulzBot Mini 2: Printing performance

Once you've prepared your model, you can print it over the USB connection, or save the print file to an SD Card and insert that into the printer. Either way, we found that the printing process was simple and generally problem-free. We printed dozens of models in a number of materials and had only a couple of failures when the print material didn’t adhere to the print bed.

Printing itself is very quiet, with the Mini 2 making only a low squeaking noise as the printhead moved around. In fact, my wife confused it with a mouse, wondering if our cats had caught something in my office when I left the printer running.

LulzBot Mini 2 review: Print materials

There are no restrictions on what type of 3mm filament you can use with the Mini 2, and LulzBot provides an excellent set of guidelines for many types. The upgraded extruder and modular print bed make it significantly more flexible than most 3D printers, with the ability to use flexible filaments such as Ninjaflex or PolyFlex that usually require different printing heads. (Models printed with these materials are soft and flexible, like rubber.)

The Mini 2 can also handle materials like Nylon or the stone and wood filaments that have wide-ranging requirements of temperature and print-bed type.

LulzBot Mini 2 review: Print speed

We found that the Mini 2 was significantly faster at printing than the original Mini, printing out our 4.5-inch-high Thinker model in between 3 hours and 7 minutes in high-speed mode and 6 hours and 37 minutes at high quality. That’s about an hour faster on the highest quality than the original Mini, and much faster than cheaper printers such as the da Vinci Nano, which took more than 21 hours to print at the highest quality.

If you plan to use your 3D printer a lot, the Mini 2's combination of high speed at high quality could be a significant time-saver.

LulzBot Mini 2: Print quality

We found that the Mini 2 produced high-quality prints across the board, yielding excellent prints from our test models that offered good detail and very few issues.

The Mini reproduced the details of our Thinker test model accurately in all print modes, although the layering on the fast-print modes was very visible. The same was true of our geometric sculpture model, which had lots of sharp edges and points. The Mini 2 had no problem with these, producing smooth edges and sharp points in this complex and difficult print. The same was true of our test print of a set of planetary gears, which fitted together easily after removing and cleaning.

We did find that prints made with flexible material had a lot of whiskering, though, where thin whiskers of filament are left attached to the print as the printhead moves. To be fair, these were not difficult to remove, and this was with the default settings for this material; we could probably have removed them with some tweaks to the temperature and print speed.

LulzBot Mini 2 review: Verdict

The LulzBot Mini 2 is a more than worthy successor to the original Mini. It’s a fast, flexible printer that can produce high-quality prints in both the standard ABS and PLA filaments, as well as work with a wider range of materials than most printers.

That speed and flexibility comes at a cost, though. At $1,500 originally, the Mini 2 costs substantially more than lower-end printers like the da Vinci Nano and midrange models like the Dremel DigiLab. But if you want faster prints made of a wide variety of materials, the extra cash it costs you for the LulzBot Mini 2 is more than worth it.

The Form 3 from Formlabs is a high-end Stereolithographic (SLA) printer that uses a laser to zap liquid resin into solid form. It's a sophisticated printer that can produce excellent quality prints with little maintenance or tweaking, making it a great pick for those who want to do a lot of printing without hassle. 

These quality prints don't come cheaply, though — the Form 3 starts at $3,499. That may be a hard price to swallow, especially as rival 3D printer makers developer cheaper SLA models, such as the Peopoly Moai. But budget SLA printers often require a lot of experimentation and maintenance to produce quality prints. The Form 3 requires little of either: It just works. And that's why we include the Form 3 on our list of the best 3D printers you can get right now.

For this review, we tested the $4,999 complete kit that includes the Form 3 printer and the Form Wash and Form Cure devices used for cleaning and finishing prints.

Form 3 3D printer review: Price and availability

Your best bet to buy a Form 3 3D printer is to head directly to FormLabs. There, you'll find the printer available for $3,499 these days, with service plans adding to the cost of your 3D printer. 

Since we first reviewed the Form 3 a few years ago, less expensive SLA printers led by the Peopoly Phenom have come out. And while those devices cost a fraction of what you'll pay for the Form 3, the Formlabs printer remains the standard bearer for SLA models.

Form 3 3D printer review: Design

The Form 3 looks much like previous printers from Formlabs, with an orange plastic hood over the printing area and a black plastic base. That's about more than just aesthetics: the UV-blocking orange plastic lets you see what is going on while printing is underway, but without outside lights interfering with the process. This hood folds back to reveal the important parts of the Form 3 — the resin tank and the print platform. Both are a little larger than the previous Form printers, offering a print area of 5.7 x 5.7 x 7.3 inches, or just over 237 cubic inches. A larger model, the Form 3L, ups this to 11.8 x 13.2 x 7.9 inches, a total of 1,230 cubic inches. The Form 3L, which is due to start shipping later this year, will cost you a cool $9,999, though.

The removable resin tank is where the liquid resin sits during printing. The tank's base features a thin, clear plastic layer that the printing laser shines through. To create each layer of the print, the build platform is lowered down to just over this base layer, trapping a thin layer of liquid resin. The UV laser then zaps the liquid, turning it into solid resin, which sticks to the build platform. The printer then lifts the platform, taking the hardened resin with it. The platform lowers again, trapping another layer of liquid resin, and the process repeats. Thus, the Form 3 creates the print layer by layer with layer heights ranging from 0.1mm down to 0.025mm.

One of the innovations here is the flexible plastic on the bottom of the layer, which means that the Form 3 can use less force in pulling the hardened layers up. Formlabs calls this Low Force Stereolithography, and claims that it makes printing more reliable. Formlabs isn't the first printer maker to use this technique (it's available as an upgrade feature for printers like the Peopoly Moai), but it definitely seems to be effective. We had no failed prints in our Form 3 tests, which is a first for a 3D printer. 

The Form 3's laser and optics are found under the resin tank, located in a sealed package called the Light Processing Unit (LPU). This, Formlabs claims, makes the printer more reliable as dust can't get in to block the path of the laser. It also makes the LPU easier to replace, as the whole unit can be easily removed and replaced by the user.

The Resin cartridge in the rear of the Form 3 holds the liquid resin. The printer automatically fills the resin tank: You never need to touch the resin or fill the tank yourself, which is a plus because it is nasty, stinky stuff. The resin tank and cartridge are removable so you can swap out different printing resins without having to clear out the whole printer. The tanks can be cleaned out and reused, but the resin cartridges can't be reused. It is possible to fill a cartridge with a third-party resin, but Formlabs stresses that this might void the warranty of its printer. If you aren't using the printer for a few days, Formlabs recommends that you remove the print tank and store it in the airtight shipping container it came in to prevent it hardening in place. 

Form 3 3D printer review: Controls

The Form 3 includes an excellent touch screen that allows you to control the printer directly, accessing all of the features and stopping or starting prints. Most users will turn to the PreForm software and the online printing dashboard to operate the Form 3, though.

PreForm is the software that prepares your print, loading a 3D model (standard .stl and Wavefront .obj formats are supported) and slicing the model for printing. Available as a free download for Mac and Windows, PreForm is straightforward to use, with a helpful one-touch printing feature that automatically prepares the print, creating the supports that hold it in place while printing and sending the file to the printer. If you want to tweak the process yourself, PreForm allows you to scale, move, spin and otherwise mess with 3D models, as well as arrange several models for printing at one time (a process called plating). 

The printing dashboard is an online service that manages the Form 3. It's aimed more at users who operate multiple Form printers or those who share a single printer between multiple users. This dashboard allows you to queue and schedule prints, monitor print progress and pause or cancel printing. The dashboard can also notify you through your cellphone when a print is complete or when a printer has a problem or requires maintenance. 

MORE: How to Buy a 3D Printer

Since there's no camera inside the Form 3 to monitor the prints, you generally don't know if a print has failed until it is complete, unless you take a look during the printing process. The Form 3 isn't unique in this, though: The way that 3D printers like this work, with a large print platform obscuring the printing area, makes it harder to see how the print is progressing. 

Form 3 3D printer review: Performance

In our tests, the Form 3 produced excellent quality prints, with fine details and smooth, organic curves and surfaces, even when we used the fastest print settings. Our test models had smooth, even detail with barely detectable layers.

Our first test model is a 3D scan of Rodin's The Thinker sculpture. The resulting prints looked excellent. We appreciated the curves on the sculpture's shoulders and arms and excellent detail on its face.

The layers of the print were barely visible, even on the fastest 25-micron printing setting.

With the layer height on the minimum 0.025mm setting, the layers are barely visible on the shoulders of The Thinker.

Our second test creates complex set of planetary gears, to see how well the printer can produce interlocking parts. The Form 3 produced excellent quality prints here, too, handling complex details like the screw thread and gear teeth. The parts fit together without any hassle, with screws fitting tightly into other parts and gears meshing together cleanly.

Finally, we use a geometric sculpture as a test of how well the printer can reproduce sharp edges and points. Again, we found excellent results here, with the many angled surfaces of the sculpture coming out with clean, smooth edges and sharp points that almost look like they could draw blood.

Form 3 3D printer review: Speed

The Form 3 is not a particularly fast printer, taking between 10 hours and 17 hours and 21 minutes to complete our standard 4.5-inch Thinker test print, depending on where we set the layer height. SLA printers are not generally very fast, and the Form 3 doesn't buck the trend. These times are comparable to other SLA printers like the Peopoly Moai, which took between 7 hours and 20 minutes and 18 hours to produce a similar print.

One thing to note, though: while our tests were done with the standard gray and clear resins from Form, the company offers a special resin called Draft Resin, which can be printed in layers 0.3mm thick. That would make printing significantly quicker, but less detailed. That resin wasn't available for us to test. 

Form 3 3D printer review: Print materials

The Form 3 is designed to work with parts and materials only from Formlabs. You have to buy the resin tanks and cartridges from the printer maker. A new resin tank will cost you $149, while a cartridge that contains a liter of resin costs $149 for the standard resin, $175 for the tough resin and $299 for the castable wax resin that jewelers and artists use to create molds.

It is possible to use third-party resin with the Form 3 by filling one of the printer's cartridges with another supplier's, but Formlabs claims that this could void the Form 3 warranty. For reference, we got seven fairly large prints out of a single cartridge of the gray resin, so each print cost about  $21. 

Form 3 3D printer review: Verdict

The Form 3 is a real plug-and-play 3D printer. We didn't have to do any tweaking or fiddling around to get printing — we just plugged in the Form 3 loaded it up and started printing. The whole process was clean and generally hassle free, which is a lot different from typical SLA printers that require a lot of tweaking, calibration and other fiddling to get good results. The Form 3 just works.

At $3,499 and up, though, the Form 3 is also one of the most expensive 3D printers we have tested, and it is expensive to run. For professionals and anyone else who relies on 3D printing, that won't be an issue. The Form 3 will cost a lot up front, but will be worth it for the easier printing it offers. For enthusiasts and amateurs, it's trickier, as you can get equally good results from a much cheaper printer like the $1,999 Peopoly Phenom if you are prepared to take the time to tweak the printer and develop a workflow for cleaning and hardening prints afterward. 

Still, if 3D printing is a critical part of your workflow, you'll be pleased with the ease of use and quality results you'll get by the Form 3.

The Monoprice Voxel is a neat, low-priced 3D printer that offers a lot for the home user. For a relatively low price, you get a 3D printer that can handle PLA and ABS filament with equally high print quality while also offering a decent-size fully enclosed build space.

The MP Voxel has are some rough edges, however: Buggy firmware and so-so software make printing a bit more difficult than it should be. Even so, the MP Voxel is an attractively priced package for school or home use, and it produces high-quality prints, and we think it's among the best 3D printers you can buy, especially for budget models.

Monoprice Voxel review: Price and availability

These days, you'll find the Monoprice Voxel available at Monoprice's website for $449. But some online retailers, including Amazon, offer the 3D printer at a discount, with the price often falling below $400.

That's not the cheapest price we've seen on a printer — you can get the XYZprinting da Vinci Nano for about $250 less. But it's a pretty good value for a printer aimed at novices.

Monoprice Voxel review: Design

The MP Voxel has a simple, dark design, with an enclosed frame of black plastic. Clear panels that you can lift off cover the front and top of the enclosure, providing access to the print area and the mechanism. The print volume is 6.9 inches on each side, for a total of about 329 cubic inches. That’s big enough to handle most objects.

The print base is heated, which makes printing materials such as ABS much easier and more reliable. It is also easy to remove prints from the MP Voxel, as the whole top of the print bed slides out; it’s also bendable, which helps with lifting the print off.

A small LCD touch screen on the front of the printer provides on-device controls. They’re mostly easy to use, though I found it a little awkward to enter things like a WPA key on the small, on-screen keyboard. Once the MP Voxel is connected to the Polar Cloud service, though, you don't need to use it for much, so it's not a major problem.

Monoprice Voxel: Setup and controls

The MP Voxel is a mostly plug-and-play printer. All the setup required was to unbox it, plug it in and load filament; then, you’re ready to print. The process is not without issues, though. Despite a firmware update, I couldn't connect the printer to my Wi-Fi network. I wasn't able to figure out why and ended up using the wired ethernet connection instead, which worked without issues.

Loading the filament for printing is also easy. The filament reel fits into a space on the side of the printer body, and the filament feeds up through a tube into the body and the printhead. Once you load the filament into this tube, it's fed into the printhead automatically.

The Voxel also works with the Polar Cloud, a free online service that allows you to control and monitor the printer from any web-connected device. Polar Cloud also supports the Voxel's built-in camera, so you can see the print in progress from a smartphone or tablet. We found this service to be simple to use, and it is definitely the easiest way to use this printer.

Once registered with Polar Cloud, you can upload 3D files or create them in a basic editor. These models can then be prepared for printing and sent directly to the printer from the web — no PC required. Alternatively, you can download and use the MP Flashpoint software, available for Windows and Mac, to control the printer over USB or your local network. This software is fairly easy to use, offering the usual approach of loading a 3D model, basic editing and then outputting it to the printer or a file. This software was somewhat prone to seemingly random crashes in our tests, though.

Monoprice Voxel review: Print speed

We found that the MP Voxel was a fast printer, producing our Thinker test print in between 3.5 hours and 5 hours and 21 minutes for draft and normal quality. 

That's a short time to produce a 4.5-inch tall print, and is comparable to more expensive printers such as the Lulzbot Taz Mini 2, which took about the same time. It's also much faster than XYZprinting's daVinci Nano, which took more than 7 hours to produce the same print. Another budget printer, the Polaroid PlaySmart 3D, is faster, though it usually costs more than the Monoprice Voxel.

Monoprice Voxel review: Print quality

We were impressed with the quality of prints from the MP Voxel. Our Thinker model came out with great detail and smooth, natural curves and surfaces. There were some glitches in the draft mode, which looked like random bumps on the surface of the print. These were much less evident when we printed again using the Standard mode of the Polar Cloud software, though, which produced a much cleaner, smoother print.

Our test model of a set of gears also came out well, with the gears fitting and screwing together neatly. We only needed to do a little trimming to get rid of the odd, stray whiskers of filament.

Monoprice Voxel review: Verdict

The Monoprice Voxel represents a sweet spot of 3D printing at the moment, delivering a lot of features, high print quality and fast printing for a decent price. For around $400, it is more expensive than some entry- level printers, costing twice as much as the XYZ da Vinci Nano, though it's still not as costly as the Polaroid PlaySmart. The MP Voxel gives you a lot more for your money than less expensive printers for novices, with support for cloud printing and the heated print bed that makes printing both easier and cheaper.

For that reason, the MP Voxel is a great pick for the casual user who is interested in 3D printing or a school or small office that wants to have a printer that several people can use.

Polaroid isn’t a name that springs to mind for 3D printing — at least not for U.S. shoppers — but the Polaroid PlaySmart 3D printer might change that. Polaroid has built a simple device that produces excellent quality prints using a variety of materials, as we discovered during testing our Polaroid PlaySmart 3D printer review.

The Polaroid PlaySmart 3D printer costs $599. Like the Polaroid 3D Play Pen we tested for our 3D pen face-off, Polaroid's 3D printer is an exclusive at craft retailer Joann, currently offering the printer at an attractive discount as of this writing.

Without that discount, you’ll find less expensive choices for novice users among our list of the best 3D printers. But the Polaroid name and the quality output from the PlaySmart make this device worth a look if you want a 3D printer for the home.

Polaroid PlaySmart 3D printer review: Design

Polaroid’s better known for its instant cameras, and the PlaySmart takes some design cues from that iconic product, using white and black plastic and the Polaroid logo. The printer might come across as dated to some, but it didn’t look out of place next to one of my vintage 1970s Polaroid cameras. 

The print area of the PlaySmart is rather small, at just 4.7 by 4.7 by 4.7 inches, for a total of 103 cubic inches. That’s a lot less than comparable printers like the Monoprice Voxel (329 cubic inches in total), but it’s the same as the Da Vinci Nano. Printing area is less of an issue than you might first suspect, though: it isn’t difficult to cut objects into parts and print one at a time if need be. 

Above the PlaySmart’s print area is a small camera, used to monitor prints in progress and to produce timelapse videos. The filament is stored on a separate holder that also monitors how much filament you have left. It’s a nice touch, but one that feels somewhat redundant when you can clearly see how much filament is left on the roll. The PlaySmart works with filament from either Polaroid or third-party manufacturers.

Polaroid PlaySmart 3D printer review: Controls

Next to the print area, the Polaroid PlaySmart 3D printer features an LCD controller, which is a small but easy-to-read touch screen. It is also responsive, and picking out on-screen options is easy to do. 

Still, you’ll find it easier to control the PlaySmart with the Polaroid PLAYSmart app, available for iOS and Android. This free app allows you to start prints from the library of manufacturer-supplied models, monitor a print in progress through the camera or run maintenance tasks. If you’re printing your own model though, you’ll need to use the control panel and the Polaroid SmartPrep software for Windows or Mac. 

This simple 3D modeling program can load existing models in the .STL and .OBJ formats. You can resize, move, combine or otherwise manipulate your models, saving them and preparing them for printing. The print file can’t be sent directly to the PlaySmart printer, though: you have to save the print files to a USB drive, then connect this to the printer yourself and select it for printing. That seems like an odd requirement as the PlaySmart supports Wi-Fi.

Polaroid PlaySmart 3D printer review: Print speed

The PlaySmart is a pretty fast printer: it cranked out a 4-inch high print of our Thinker model in 3 hours and 56 minutes in Draft mode. Changing the settings to Fine mode lengthened the print time to 10 hours and 13 minutes. That means the PlaySmart can quickly produce a rough print when required or produce a finer, smoother print overnight. 

The PlaySmart is a little faster than most printers we have tested, producing a draft print quicker than the Monoprice Voxel, currently our favorite 3D printer for beginners.

Polaroid PlaySmart 3D printer review: Print materials

The PlaySmart can print using three different materials: PLA, P-Wood and PETG. PLA, or polylactic acid is the standard printing material that most 3D printers use. PETG, or Polyethylene terephthalate, is a plastic that is commonly used in plastic bottles and the like. It is lighter and stronger than PLA, but is also more expensive. P-Wood is a form of PLA that is mixed with sawdust to produce a wood-like feel. 

These materials aren’t expensive: a 1KG reel of PLA costs $38, while a similar amount of PETG  costs $48 and P-Wood is $55 for half a kilogram. You aren’t limited to these filaments, though: the PlaySmart can also use third-party filament, making this device more flexible than 3D printers restricting you to their manufacturers’ filaments.

Polaroid PlaySmart 3D printer: Print Quality

As fast as the Polaroid PlaySmart 3D printer created prints, we also were impressed by the print quality of those models. The PlaySmart 3D printer yielded prints with clean, smooth details and very few issues. 

We test print quality by printing three models: a scan of Rodin’s Thinker sculpture, a geometric sculpture and a set of gears. Our first test model came out very well: the Thinker sculpture had excellent detail and smooth, organic-looking surfaces. The printer did a great job of reproducing the curves of the sculptures back and muscles. The layers of the print were rather obvious in all of the print modes, though: the print lacked the polished smoothness of SLA printers and some more expensive FDM printers. 

Our second test model uses a geometric sculpture that really showcases the ability of a 3D printer to produce clean, sharp edges. The PlaySmart struggled a little here, with a print that had a lot of thin filaments of PLA between the edges of the print. Those filaments were produced by the material stretching as the print head moved between the different parts of the print. These are not difficult to trim off, though, and once removed the PlaySmart’s geometric sculpture print had sharp, smooth edges and well-defined points. 

Finally, we printed a set of gears that are designed to snap together to form a set of hand-cranked planetary gears. The PlaySmart handled these without too many issues, producing a set of gears that fit together with only minimal cleaning. We did have to trim off a lot of the brim that held the print onto the print bed, though. 

Polaroid PlaySmart 3D printer review: Verdict

The Polaroid PlaySmart 3D printer offers a lot for $599: it can produce high-quality prints and churn out quick draft prints very rapidly. It also supports a variety of materials and doesn’t lock you into one supplier for your filament. 

But when comparing this device to other 3D printers aimed at novices for our Polaroid PlaySmart 3D printer preview, Polaroid’s offering is relatively expensive. The Monoprice Voxel, for example, can produce prints that are nearly as good while costing $200 less.

Even at its regular price, though, you're getting a high-quality device for your money with the Polaroid PlaySmart 3D printer. And if that price drops below $599, then it becomes a very good deal indeed. Even when not on sale, though, the Polaroid PlaySmart 3D printer is a very good pick for home users who want to get started with 3D printing and want the very best prints, regardless of how much they have to pay upfront.

The Ultimaker S5 is a professional printer that commands a professional price. At $5,995, it’s the most expensive printer we've reviewed, but it is also one of the most capable, handling a huge variety of materials, with an immense build volume and excellent software that lets a group of users share the printer. This is a big printer for big groups who need to make big prints, and who don't mind investing a big chunk of change to do so.

Design: Big print volume needs lots of room

The Ultimaker S5 is a large white box, measuring a substantial 20.5 x 19.5 x 19.5 inches. It takes up a lot of desk space, but that is for a reason: it has a very large print volume of 13 x 9.4 x 11.8 inches, for a total of 1442 cubic inches build volume.

The closest thing to that we have tested is the LulzBot Taz 6, which has a volume of 1238 cubic inches. While that's not a huge difference in volume, the printers take different approaches. The Ultimaker S5 is a more enclosed, professional-looking printer than the TAZ 6.

At the bottom of the S5's print area is the glass print bed, which can be easily removed to take prints off. This is heated, which makes it easier to print materials like ABS, and can be heated to a toasty 140 degrees Celsius (about 280 degrees Fahrenheit), which means it can handle materials like high-temperature nylon. Ultimaker says that it will also be sending an aluminium print bed out to anyone who buys an S5: this wasn’t available for testing at the time of writing.

At the business end of the S5, you'll find two swappable printheads. These can be easily removed by selecting an on-screen menu option to remove the material, and then pressing a retaining clamp. This allows you to use printheads for different materials, or to print in two different colors of material at once.

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Three printheads come with the S5 — two AA 0.4mm printheads for printing materials like PLA and ABS, and one BB 0.4mm printhead for printing PLA. Additional options are available that support different materials and have different size openings that can squeeze out the melted print material faster for faster printing.

Controls: Many options

You control the S5 via the interface on the printer itself, the Cura software on your PC or Mac or on your smartphone with Ultimaker's app.

The S5's large, clear LCD screen can control most functions of the printer, from loading filament to starting a print from a USB drive. This display also shows the status during a print, and lists what filament, printheads and bed temperature settings are in effect.

The S5 is mainly controlled through the Cura app, an open-source app that Ultimaker has customized  for use with its printers. It's available for Windows, Mac and Linux and is very easy to use, allowing you to load a model, scale it and move it around on the print surface. You can use Cura to load several models at once, and the program can automatically create the supports that hold the model in place.

Cura provides a lot of options, but not much guidance. For instance, rather than have options for print quality (fastest, best quality and so forth), the software has a slider for layer height, from 0.06mm to 0.2mm (or 0.4mm with the optional bigger print head). Layer height is actually the main thing that determines print speed and quality, but it could confuse novice users. There is an option available to create print profiles that cover layer height and many other features, though, so you can create presets when required.

The Cura app included with the Ultimaker S5 provides a lot of options, but not much guidance.

Once you've configured your print, Cura slices the model and creates the final print file. This process is pretty quick, taking only a minute or so for our test model. The software can then send this print file to the printer over USB, the Ethernet or Wi-Fi.

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You can monitor prints via Cura or on your phone with the Ultimaker app, available for both iOS and Android. The app lets you monitor a print through the built-in webcam, stop or pause printing and cancel a print. You can't start a new print (that has to be done from the device or through Cura), but you can reprint a recent print.

Print Process: Simple and straightforward

The S5 includes both a wired and wireless Ethernet interface, so the printer can be connected and controlled over a home or office network. The Cura software makes this easier as well, allowing you to control the print queue and the printer itself through the software or through a web interface. This allows multiple users to queue up prints and be notified when they are done.

One minor annoyance we did find here: when a print is completed, you have to press a button on the touch screen to confirm that the print has been removed and the print bed is clear. Skip this step, and the software shows the printer as still in use. It’s a bit like the office coffee maker: if the previous user doesn't clean up after themselves, it makes life more difficult for the others.

Print Speed: Slower, but detailed

We found that the S5 was a rather slow printer in the lowest quality mode, taking a little less than 6.5 hours to create our 4-inch high Thinker test print with the print height set at 0.2mm per layer. When we decreased that to 0.06mm, the print time increased, maxing out at a lengthy 18 hours and 47 minutes.

Both of those speeds are much slower than the Taz 6, which could produce the same size of prints in just over 2.5 hours in the lowest quality mode and 6.5 hours in high-quality mode. However, it is worth remembering that the S5 uses much thinner layers than the TAZ 6: The S5 uses 0.2mm layers for its low quality mode, while the Taz 6 uses 0.38mm. For the highest quality possible, the S5 uses a 0.06mm layer height, while the Taz uses 0.18mm. So the low- quality print mode of the S5 is pretty much the same as the highest-quality print mode of the Taz 6.

It is only fair to point out, however, that other printheads are available for the S5 that would greatly increase the print speed. The $115 AA 0.8 printhead, for instance, has a larger hole that would allow it to squeeze out more melted filament at a time, laying down levels faster.

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Using the S5’s second printhead greatly increased the printing time. Printing our geometric sculpture test model, for instance, took about 4 hours using just PLA, but about 19 hours using PLA and the dissolvable PVA filament. That's because the S5 has to spend more time switching between the printheads.

Print Quality: Excellent results

We test print quality using three test models: a scan of Rodin's Thinker, a geometric sculpture and a set of planetary gears. And the difference in print level height on the S5 means Ultimaker's device can produce much smoother, higher quality prints than most FDM printers.

The Ultimaker S5 can produce much smoother, higher quality prints than most FDM printers.

The S5 handled the Thinker model without issues, producing consistently smooth curves and details on the back, head and hands of this complex model. With the highest quality setting of 0.6mm, we did see a few problems with bits of loose filament coming from the support material. However, these were not visible on the print itself, and didn't detract from the quality of the final product.

We also found excellent print quality with our geometric sculpture test, which was printed with sharp points and clean, smooth edges. Our set of gears was also well-printed, with the gears fitting together after only a small amount of cleaning to remove the odd whisker of loose filament.

Print Materials: Very wide range

The S5 can print in a wide range of materials, thanks to its heated print bed and interchangeable printheads. Out of the box, you can print with PLA, ABS, Nylon, CPE, TPU and PVA. The latter is very useful: Polyvinyl alcohol is a flexible, water soluble material that can make flexible supports. Once the object is printed, those supports can then be dissolved with warm water and disposed of down the sink.

For example, we printed a 20-sided dice inside a icosahedron, inside a dodecahedron. These three parts are held in place by the PVA support material. Once our print was done, we dissolved the PVA supports with warm water, leaving the die and inside shape free to move around inside the outside shape.

The Ultimaker S5 can print in a wide range of materials, thanks to its heated print bed and interchangeable printheads.

Ultimaker does not place any restrictions on where the 3mm filament it uses comes from, working with filament from any manufacturer. Ultimaker’' Cura software also comes with presets for 11 different types of materials, and many manufacturers also provide material profiles that can be downloaded and added to Cura. It is also pretty easy to create new profiles if you know the details of the filament. If you do use Ultimaker's own filament, though, it comes with NFC tags that identify the type and color to the printer and to the Cura software — useful if you frequently change filament and want to make sure you are using the right one.

MORE: 3D Printing Materials: The Pros and Cons of Each Type

Bottom line

The Ultimaker S5 is a serious printer for someone who's serious about 3D printing and has a serious budget to match. We found the S5 performed flawlessly, producing prints large and small in a variety of materials.

That said, the S5 offers way too much for most 3D-printing enthusiasts. The Taz 6 has a slightly smaller print volume, but is less than half the price. Lulzbot's printer requires more tweaking and does not have the same robust software for sharing the printer between users. Ultimaker also makes models that are cheaper and smaller, like the Ultimaker 3, that offer most of the same features at a lower cost.

Still, people that do a lot of printing, be it for a school or at a company, will find the Ultimaker S5 fits their demands, especially if they want the best, most flexible filament 3D printing available, regardless of price.

Credit: Ultimaker

The Peopoly Moai is the first of a new generation of low-cost printers that use stereolithography assembly (SLA) printing. Priced as a build-it-yourself kit for $1,295 or available preassembled for $1,995, the Moai offers excellent printing quality at one of the lowest prices for an SLA printer that we've seen. But there are a few caveats.

The printer has no USB or network connections, and the process of preparing 3D models for printing is complex and confusing. It's daunting for the novice, though 3D printing enthusiasts will welcome the level of control this procedure offers; you can tweak pretty much any aspect of the printing yourself. And you will have to do this to get the best results, so the Moai turns out to involve much more of a hands-on process than the click-to-print experience of more-expensive models such as the Form 2.

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Design: Monolithic

The Moai is an imposing printer once you assemble it, with a shiny, dark, plastic case that stands nearly 26 inches tall. On the front of the case, you'll find the power button, a single control dial and a small LED screen. A lockable door provides access to the print area, which can handle prints of up to 7 x 5.1 x 5.1 inches. That's a lot of printing space, especially in the vertical, making it much easier to print tall, thin models.

At the bottom of the printing area, you find the tray that holds the printer's resin. There is no auto-fill or pumping mechanism here; you just pour in as much resin as your print is likely to need.

These trays are replaceable, and Peopoly recommends that you install a new one (which costs $55) after every 4 liters or so of resin, as the special layer that the print is created on degrades over time. That's typical for SLA printers.

The Moai is an imposing printer once you assemble it, with a shiny, dark, plastic case that stands nearly 26 inches tall.

Above the print tray is the print base, the removable metal block that the print sticks to. It's lowered by the printer into the resin tray, then raised for each level. The print is thus created upside down, emerging from the resin like a confused Venus.

There are no Wi-Fi, networking or USB ports on this printer. Instead, you load your files onto an SD card that fits into the front of the printer, and you set the print going using the control wheel/button and LED screen. That means you can't control the printer over a network or monitor the progress of a print, except by opening the door and having a look.

With a greater number of high-end printers offering integrated software and webcams to monitor progress, the Moai's simpler setup could be an issue for users who want multiple people to use the same printer, like in a small office or design shop. Rather than use a software queuing and monitoring system, like the one Form 2 offers, Peopoly Moai users will have to queue up with SD cards.

Print Materials: Any SLA resin

SLA printers use an ultraviolet laser focused on a tray filled with resin goo to make the material harden. The printer then lifts this layer, more resin goo flows in, and the laser zaps this to form the next layer. Compared to the the filament-melting fuse deposition manufacturing (FDM) printers we usually test, SLA devices can print smaller details at higher resolution and in thinner layers. This means prints are smoother, cleaner and more detailed; these devices can also use materials that FDM printers can't handle, like clear resin or the neon green resin we use in our tests.

The Moai can use any resin designed for SLA printers, with no limitations on where this resin comes from. Peopoly even keeps a list of recommended settings for resin from different manufacturers, based on feedback from users in its online forum. Peopoly does manufacture its own resin, which costs $85 a liter. That's a little cheaper than most: Form Labs charges $149 for a liter of its standard resin. It's hard to determine how many prints you might get out of this, though, as a certain amount is wasted during printing, but we were able to get five of our 4-inch high "Thinker" prints out of one 0.5-liter bottle of the neon green resin.

Setup: Kit vs. pre-built

We tested the kit version of the Peopoly Moai and found that it was mostly easy to assemble, with an illustrated guide that explains the process and a series of videos that show the method step by step. There are a few confusing steps, though, because some of the photos in the guide don't show the details very clearly. Some factors, like the orientation of the bars that form the frame, aren't clear. Install these the wrong way around, and you might not realize until several steps further on, so you'll have to go back and turn them around.

The step-by-step videos definitely help, though, and there are no soldering or other tools required; everything you need to put the Moai together is included. Mostly, it's just about screwing one bit into another and plugging a few things in. The laser and galvanometers that are the heart of the printer come pre-assembled; you just install the assembly and bolt it in.

The whole process took me about 4 to 5 hours, so the lower cost of the kit is definitely worth it, unless you are very busy or don't fancy the idea of installing the laser yourself.

The Moai requires a considerable amount of preparation work and passing of files from program to program compared to other SLA printers.

Speaking of which, the 405nm UV laser at the heart of the printer is not that powerful (it outputs 150 mW, which is less than a Blu-ray writer), but that's enough to seriously damage your eye if you shine the laser into it. Part of the building process involves calibrating the laser by running the printer with the case off to make sure that the laser works properly. You need to approach this with some caution, so use the included protective eyeglasses. Once this step is done, you install the plastic casing and the locking door, which block any stray light, but the laser should still be treated with respect.

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The Moai doesn't include any software; instead, the company provides links to open-source programs like Cura and Meshmixer that process and create 3D models. This can be a somewhat baffling process at first; although the Peopoly forums offer plenty of helpful advice, this is often based on users' personal preference or the specific features of the program.

After some experimentation, I came up with a process that used three programs: Meshmixer to read in the initial model and hollow it out (which makes models easier to print), B9 Creator to build the supports that hold the model in place while it is printing and Peopoly's own version of Cura to create the final file that the printer reads. I then copied this file onto an SD card and put that into the printer to start a print.

That's a considerable amount of preparation work and passing of files from program to program compared to what other printers require. In contrast, the Form 2 does all of this work automatically in an simple package that can also queue print requests from multiple users.

Printing Process: Simple once started

To start a print, you insert your SD card containing your print file and use the control dial and screen to select Print. The printer then kicks into action, lowering the print bed into the resin, zapping the resin with a laser, then raising the print bed slightly and zapping again, slowly producing the final print.

Once the print is complete, the printer lifts the print bed out of the resin, so you can remove the bed by loosening a single thumbscrew You can then remove the print itself from the print bed using a small paint scraper that's included.

This is simple to do, although smaller parts do require some care, as they can be damaged when you use the scraper. You then have to wash the print in isopropyl alcohol, which dissolves the unzapped resin on the surface of the print. Another quick rinse in water, and the print is ready for the final step: zapping it with UV light to make sure all of the resin is completely solidified.

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For small prints, an hour or two in the sun to dry should suffice, but if you live in less sunny climes or produce larger prints, you will require more UV. This does not have to be a complex process: I bought a $30 strip of UV LEDs from Amazon and mounted them inside a cardboard box to create a UV finishing chamber for our test prints.

During our testing, we found that the Moai is also very sensitive to the temperature. If it is below about 60 degrees, the resin may not set properly. My office is on the cold side, so I had to put a small heater inside the printer case to bring the air to the required temperature. Again, this is a complication that other printers do'’t have; the Form 2 includes a heater that warms the resin when required.

Print times: On the slow side

The Moai is about the same speed as most SLA printers, which is to say, rather slow. It took between 7 hours and 20 minutes at draft quality and 18 hours and 20 minutes at the highest print-quality setting to print our 4-inch-high "Thinker" model. Still, those times are comparable to those of other SLA printers we've tested, including the Form 2 and the XYZ Nobel.  

Print Quality: Excellent details

We were impressed with the print quality of the Moai, which produced excellent detail. Even on the draft mode, which uses layers 100µm (0.1mm) high, the layers were barely visible in our test prints. In the Normal and Fine print modes, which use layer heights of 50µm (0.05mm) and 25µm (0.025mm), respectively, these layers became invisible.

The smooth curves and details of our "Thinker" test print were very well-reproduced, with a natural, attractive look. That means the Moai could handle tasks where small details are important, such as making casts for jewelry.

We were also impressed with the quality of our other test prints. The Moai did a good job reproducing our geometric sculpture, printing sharp, clean edges and sharp tips.

Our test print of a set of planetary gears also turned out well, with the complex gears and cogs fitting together well. That said, the neon green material that we used in our tests was somewhat brittle, and one of the outer rings of the gear set cracked when we pried it off the print bed.

Bottom Line

The Peopoly Moai can produce very high-quality prints, and at $1,295, the kit sells for only a bit more than XYZprinting's Nobel SLA model while producing better results. The Moai is less than half of the price of the Form 2, but produces similar-quality prints.

What the Moai doesn't offer, though, is the software that the Form 2 and similar printers boast that makes the process of preparing prints much easier. The Moai can produce great prints, but it needs more tweaking, configuring and general fiddling-with than other printers.

For 3D printing enthusiasts and artists who don't mind (or even enjoy) this process, the Moai would be a good (and cheap) way to get into SLA printing. Those who want to be able to just print quickly might be better off looking elsewhere.

Credit: Tom's Guide

Most people know Dremel from the rotary and saw tools for home owners and hobbyists that can handle multiple small jobs in one package. The company wants to bring this same flexibility to the home and educational 3D printer through its DigiLab division and the mid-priced Dremel DigiLab 3D40 3D printer.

Priced at $1,299, the DigiLab 3D40 is an interesting 3D printer that has a good selection of features and produces high-quality prints. But it works only with Dremel's own filament, which is more expensive than most.

Design: Clever, With Some Caveats

The 3D40 has a clean, smart design that shares the silver-and-blue color scheme of Dremel tools. It's an enclosed printer, so the large print area is surrounded by plastic panels that keep fingers away from the moving and hot parts. The front and top covers are clear, so you can see what's going on, and open to provide easy access. The covers can't be locked, though, so younger printers will need to be supervised.

Below the front panel, you'll find the controls — a simple touch-screen LCD display. Most of the process of preparing and creating prints is done either through the Dremel Digilab software that is included with the printer (Windows only at present, with a Mac version coming soon) or the DigiLab Cloud Print service. Either way, the printer connects to the outside world over included Wi-Fi, Ethernet or USB connections.

The print bed is made of glass, which is covered with a sheet of painter's tape that the PLA filament sticks to. The whole bed can be removed, which makes removing prints easier. However, because of that glass, you can't bend and flex the bed to remove the print, so you often have to pry and scrape, which can damage the painter's tape on the bed.

Two sheets of Dremel-branded painter's tape are included, and a pack of three more costs $30. An additional sheet of a more robust plastic cover for the print bed is also included, which costs about the same. That's rather expensive, especially when a roll of 100 feet of similar tape will cost you just $3. Dremel told us that the cost is due to the custom size of the sheets, but that it expects most users will just buy their own painter's tape and use that. 

You can't bend and flex the 3D40's glass print bed to remove the print, so you often have to pry and scrape, which can damage the painters tape on the bed.

We found that the print bed was rather hard to place back inside the printer. You have to place it just at the right angle and push hard to get the bed to snap into place. If you don't do this, the print bed looks right, but it won't be  held firmly in place.

The 3D40 prints with PLA filament, which is stored on a reel that fits neatly into a holder in the side of the case, out of sight. The filament feeds up through a guide tube to the print head, which is covered in a plastic shroud.

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One nice touch here: A vent on the back of the case allows you to connect the printer to an air- extractor system with a standard air hose, so you don't get the usual popcorn aroma of PLA 3D printing if your workshop or office has an air extractor and filtering system.

Print Materials: Pretty Pricey

Dremel only supports its own PLA filament. The printer doesn't check where the filament comes from, but if using a third-party filament damages the printer, it won't be covered under the warranty. This means you can't use other types of filament, so there is no support for printing with flexible materials or newer materials like Nylon.

Dremel only supports its own PLA filament, which is a bit more expensive than most.

Dremel's own filament is a bit more expensive than most, costing about $29 for a 500g reel. That's about 175 meters of filament per spool, compared with the 340 or so meters of filament on a $22.99 1Kg reel of PLA filament from Hatchbox. The Dremel filament is available in 10 different colors: We used the white type in our testing.

Setup: Some Preparation Required

The 3D40 is fairly simple to set up, but does require some time and preparation. After unboxing, you have to put the tape on the print bed, install the filament and level the print bed. This is a semi-automatic process; the printer detects the print bed itself, but you have to turn a screw underneath it to adjust the height. It's less sophisticated than the automatic systems of printers like the LulzBot Mini, but you don't have to do the process that often.

Once the printer is leveled, you can run a test print from one of the models pre-installed by Dremel. After that, you can connect it to the cloud print service over Wi-Fi or a wired Ethernet connection.

This did require a firmware update and a couple of restarts before the printer connected to the service for us, but once done it does not need to be redone unless you change networks or shift to a new account on the cloud print service. Once connected, you can stop and start the printer remotely.

Interface: Some Limitations to Controls

The on-printer interface is through the touch LCD screen on the front of the case. This is fine for pressing buttons, but more complex things (like entering a Wi-Fi key) are more difficult, as the touch screen isn't accurate enough to reliably detect which key you have pressed. But again, once you've connected to the Wi-Fi network, you're set, unless you change networks.

There are two other ways to control the printer: the Dremel Cloud Print web interface and the Dremel slicer software.  The cloud-print web system is the main way to control the printer. Once you set up an account with the service, you can upload models in .STL or .OBJ format, then prepare the models for printing.

There are no real editing features, though: you can combine multiple files into one print, but you can't edit the models. You have a lot of control over how the model is prepared for printing, though: You can tweak pretty much any setting such as infill or how supports are added. A 3D preview of the print is also shown.

Once the print is ready, you can send it to a printer that is connected to the Dremel Cloud Print service with a couple of mouse clicks, and the print process can be monitored online. There is no camera on the 3D40, though the more expensive $1799 3D45 does include one that shows the print in progress.

Dremel used to offer an app for iOS and Android devices that worked with the cloud print service, but that’s been discontinued in favor of the mobile version of the Cloud Print site.

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The other way to create files for printing is the Dremel Slicer software. This is available for Windows only at present, but a Mac version is coming soon. It is a rebadged version of the open-source program Cura, which is easy to use and offers a lot of control over creating 3D printing files. The software can send files to the printer over a USB connection, but not over the network connection.

Print Process: Sticky Business

Printing is very simple and trouble-free on the 3D40. Prints stick well to the tape-covered print bed, and the enclosed case keeps the noise down. The clear case means you can keep an eye on the print as it is being created, but the lack of a built-in camera means you can't watch it remotely. The Cloud Print system does track the progress of prints and monitors the temperature of the printer, though, and warns you if an error is detected, such as if you're running out of filament.

Printing is very simple and trouble-free on the 3D40.

The final prints were somewhat hard to remove from the print bed. The flat, round raft that the Cloud Printing system added to the print stuck very tightly to both the blue painter's tape and black plastic print bed covers, and I often ended up damaging the cover while trying to pry the print off. If you are using the official print bed covers from Dremel, their $30 cost for a set of three can add up quickly.  

In our testing, some prints didn't stick nearly as well. That caused parts of the print to not form properly.

Print Speed: Par for the Course

The 3D40 is a fairly fast printer, printing out our 3.5-inch high thinker figure in between 3 hours and 15 minutes in Draft mode and 14 hours and 2 minutes in the highest-quality Best mode. That's about the same speed as the MP Mini Delta for draft prints, but the 3D40's highest quality print mode is a little slower than most.

Print Quality: Clean, with Some Exceptions

We were impressed with the quality of most of the prints produced by the 3D40, which came out clean and smooth, with excellent detail in both the Standard and Best print modes. The prints did not need much cleaning up, as there were very few stringy bits of filament or blobs of loose filament that had to be removed.

Our test prints of Rodin's The Thinker were well handled, with both the smooth curves of The Thinker accurately reproduced. The printer also aced the set of planetary gears that we use as a test: The printed cogs and gears fitted together without problems.

This printer struggled a bit with the geometric sculpture model that we use as our third test: The base didn't stick to the print surface, so some of the points were not formed, turning to globs of printed material. Some of the edges of the sculpture were also ragged and ill-formed, but most of the points were admirably sharp and spiky.

Many of these issues could be resolved with further tweaking of the print settings in the Cloud Print service to create supports that stick to the surface better and to better form some edges.

The default settings of the Cloud Print service were a little aggressive in how much support they added to a print, as well. When we printed a hexagonal-latticed vase  that came with the printer as a sample file, the 3D40 used as much material for the supports that get removed after the print is complete as in the vase itself. Although most 3D prints need some support, using too much is wasteful — a concern for a printer like Dremel's that uses expensive proprietary filament.

Most of the prints produced by the 3D40 came out clean and smooth, with excellent detail in both the Standard and Best print modes.

We did find that the Draft print mode was rather rough. In our Thinker test print, the final print had very visible layers and a couple of holes where the larger layer had fallen into the print. That's a problem we don't see often, so the Draft mode should be used with caution for simple prints only. To be fair, the 3D40 does allow you to tweak the settings and save these as new print modes, so you could get around these issues by creating a new print mode between the Draft and Standard mode.

Bottom Line

The Dremel DigiLab 3D40 is a solid 3D printer that produces high-quality prints most of the time at a decent speed. It also boasts simple-to-use software, making it a good pick for a classroom or lab that needs to produce 3D prints quickly and without fuss.

Unfortunately, the high cost of the proprietary filament and other parts may put off those who need to print in large quantities. It also means you can't use materials other than PLA, so the new flexible, tough or food-safe materials can't be used.  This contrasts with the similarly priced Taz Lulzbot Mini, which can handle a much wider range of materials, though the Dremel is easier to  set up and start printing.

Editors' Note: An earlier version of this review misstated which materials you can use with the Dremel DigiLab 3D40. We've corrected that section of the review.

Credit: Dremel

If you find yourself the proud new owner of a 3D printer — whether as a gift or a personal purchase to try out a new hobby — you've probably unboxed your new printer, plugged it in and produced the test print that comes with the device. But now what do you do?

It's time to step into the wide world of 3D printing. That includes finding or making your own 3D models, prepping them and printing them out. Here's how to take your next steps in 3D printing.

Find Things to Print

There are a huge number of places to find 3D models that you can turn into real-world objects with your 3D printer. Start with 3D models sites like Thingiverse, MyMiniFactory and Threeding. These sites offer 3D models for free download or purchase that have been created by the sites' other users. Search any of those sites, and you'll find an incredible range of models, from engineering parts to toys, many of which can be freely downloaded, used, copied or edited as you want.

If you are looking for models of specific objects, focus your search on where they are made or held. NASA, for instance, offers free 3D models of most of its spacecraft, buildings and other things they have built. Want to print a Saturn V rocket? Here you go. The space agency also offers 3D scans based on the data that these spacecraft have captured, such as models of the Apollo 11 landing site, asteroids and much of Mars.

Many museums are also getting into 3D printing, offering free downloads of scans of their sculptures. The British Museum, for instance, now offers 3D scans of more than 200 of its most famous treasures, from the Rosetta Stone to Marcus Aurelius.  

It's also easy to create your own 3D models to print, either by scanning objects or creating your own designs from scratch. To scan an existing object, use an app on your cellphone, like Qlone or Scann3D, that uses multiple photos to create a 3D model of an object.

If you want to try creating your own 3D model, websites like Tinkercad or programs like SketchUp allow you to create 3D models using simple tools. Both of these are surprisingly capable, and can create very complex or intricate objects.

If you have a virtual-reality (VR) setup like an Oculus Rift, you can also create your own 3D models. With a program like Oculus Medium, you can create your own 3D sculptures that you can then output with a 3D printer.

Preparing 3D Models for Printing

So you've obtained your 3D model. It's now time to get it ready to print.

Most 3D models for printing come in a format called STL, where the files end with .stl. These are the easiest files to work with, so if the site or program that your models came from offers that option, save the file as a .stl file.

If the 3D model isn't available as an .stl file, don't panic. Many 3D printing programs can load other formats, such as .obj, .cat and .prt, among others. If the program your 3D printer uses doesn't support the format of your 3D model, use an online tool such as an online 3D converter that can process models from many strange formats.

Once the model is loaded into your 3D printing program, it's time to scale and move it. Scaling lets you decide how big you want the print to be. Many 3D file formats don't specify the measurements they use, so sometimes a model will show up at an unexpected size. If the model was created using inches as the measurement, for instance, but your program works in centimeters, your model will be about 2.5 times bigger than it is meant to be. Many programs offer a feature to convert a model to a different measuring system. You can also just scale it up or down by percentage.

You can also move the model around, putting it in the center of the print space for the best results. You also can rotate it, twisting it around to find the best angle to print.

For most consumer 3D printers, the best way to orient the model is either tall and thin, so that the tallest bit of your model points upward, or long and flat, so that the longest side lies on the print bed.

For instance, when we review 3D printers, we have a test model of Rodin's The Thinker statue. We print it upright, while a long, flat object — such as a case or box — is best printed with the largest flat area against the print bed.

After scaling and moving your model, your next step is to process it. That requires running a process called slicing, in which the model is cut into slices that your printer will create one on top of the other. You've got two decisions to make here: do you want to use supports, and how much infill should you use.

Supports are the extra pieces of the print that the program adds to hold bits of it up. If your model is complex or has bits that overhang (the arms and hands of our Thinker test sculpture, for example), you will need to add supports. You don't have to do this yourself: just find the option in the printing program to add supports, and it will create the support structures as it slices your model up.

Infill is the stuff inside the print. To save material, 3D prints are hollow, but they need something inside to give them strength, which is what infill does. You specify this as a percentage, which determines how much of the inside is filled.

A larger percentage of infill — say, 30 to 50 percent — uses more material and takes longer to print, but makes the final print stronger. Lower percentages of infill (under 30 percent) use less material, but the print will be weaker. If the print has moving parts (such as a set of gears) or will have something resting on it, use a higher percentage. Otherwise, for prints such as figurines or sculptures, use a smaller percentage to save printing material.

Once you have your printer set-up, it is possible to print several models, or several copies of the same model at once. This is called plating, and it's useful if you want to produce several copies of a single model, or print multiple parts of a project at once.

Printing & Finishing

3D printing can be a frustrating business, but the key is perseverance and testing. Most 3D printers require a lot of tweaking for best performance, which often includes running the same print several times to find the right settings for things like layer height and print speed. If a print fails, don’t panic; instead, change settings incrementally until you find the ones that work.

The settings provided by the printer maker are a good starting point. But don't feel bound by them, as we have often found that you can get better results by tweaking these settings further. Your fellow 3D printer users are also a great resource, so spend some time looking through the forums of the printer manufacturer or at places like the Ultimaker forums, where the people who write the popular 3D-printing program Cura hang out.

Once your print is finished, it's time to remove it and finish it off. Larger prints are often difficult to remove, but one tip is to use a painter's blade — a large, flat-edged tool that can slide under  one edge of the print. Once you have one edge up, slowly push the tool farther in to gradually lift the print up.

Next, cut off any supports using a pair of wire cutters, cutting as close as possible to the print body. Once you have the print clear of all supports and the base, use light sandpaper to remove the bits of plastic left over from the supports.

Many materials can be processed further to produce a different finish. ABS plastic, for instance, can be smoothed with acetone vapor to produce a glossy finish, but be careful as the vapor is very flammable. PLA can be covered with filler and sanded down for a surface ready for painting or detailing. Prints done with metallic filaments need to be sanded and polished to produce the metal effect.

When you buy a 3D printer, it comes with a sample roll of filament to use. But what do you use when this runs out? Find out in our guide to the different types of 3D printer filament available now for fused deposition modelling (FDM) 3D printers. We'll look at the pros and cons of each material as well as which types will work with your 3D printer.

ABS

What it is: Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) is the same  plastic used in Legos. It’s tough, nontoxic and retains color well. It's also easy to shape, but tough to break, as it melts and becomes pliable at about 220 degrees C (about 430 degrees Fahrenheit).

These properties make ABS very suitable for 3D printing. You do need a large heater to reach that 220 degrees C melting point, but ABS becomes soft and pliable when heated and then sets quickly. A printer with a heated print bed is also usually needed as ABS will stick to a hot print bed.

As anyone who has stepped on a Lego will tell you, ABS is tough. It’s also water- and chemical-resistant. ABS does produce a slightly unpleasant smell when heated, and the vapor can contain some nasty chemicals, so you'll need good ventilation. Because ABS is broken down by UV radiation, it isn't suitable for long-term outdoor use, as it loses its color and becomes brittle.   

Pros: Tough, impact-resistant material; Nontoxic and water resistant

Cons: High melting point; Unpleasant fumes; Not suitable for outdoor use

Good for: Gears and moving or interlocking parts

Cost: $20 to $50 per kilogram

Compatible with: Printers with extruders that heat to 220 degrees C, such as the Ultimaker 3 and TAZ Mini

PLA

What it is: Polylactic acid (PLA) is a polymer plastic, made from biological materials like cornstarch or sugarcane. It is similar to the material used in biodegradable plastic packaging and melts at between 180 and 200 degrees C, depending on other materials that are added for color and texture. PLA is a tough, resilient material with a matte, opaque quality, but it is not as tolerant of heat as ABS is. PLA begins to deform at temperatures above 60 degrees C, and it is not water or chemical resistant. There is a slight smell when it is heated, rather like microwave popcorn, but no toxic odors or vapor.

PLA is generally the preferred option for low-cost 3D printers, because it is easier to print with than ABS, as it is stickier. It will stick well to aprint base covered in white glue or blue painter's tape, which means that a heated print bed is not needed. The material is also biodegradable; like other corn- or sugar-based materials, it is slowly consumed by many common bacteria. It will last a long time in normal conditions, though. It's only when buried that it breaks down. That said, PLA is not food safe and somewhat brittle, making prints prone to shattering under stress. However, chemicals can be added that make it less brittle and more heat-tolerant, creating what some manufacturers call tough PLA.

Pros: Easier to print with than ABS; Biodegradable

Cons: Prints degrade over time; Rougher texture than ABS

Good for: General printing, painted miniatures.

Cost: $20 to $50 per kg

Compatible with: All FDM 3D printers, including XYZ da Vinci Mini and LulzBot Mini.

PVA

What is it: Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) is one of a new class of 3D printing materials that are used to make supports that hold 3D prints in place. A synthetic polymer, PVA is water soluble. It melts at about 200 degrees C, and can release some nasty chemicals if heated to higher temperatures.

This is why PVA is used in 3D printing. It can be used in a standard 3D printer extruder to form parts that support other objects, and it sticks to a heated, glass print bed well. Once the printing is complete, you immerse it in water, and the PVA parts will dissolve, leaving the rest of the insoluble print behind. This makes it easier to print complex models that require supports, or even models that include moving parts. If you do use water to dissolve PVA, you'll need to properly dispose of it, as the sticky residue can clog drains. Check with your local water company for the recommended disposal method.

Pros: Water soluble; Good for supports; Fairly easy to print

Cons: Can release toxic vapors if overheated; Expensive; Requires appropriate disposal

Good for: printing complex models with PLA or ABS

Cost: More than $100 per kg

Compatible with: Standard FDM printers with multiple extruders, such as the Ultimaker 3

Nylon

What it is: The name nylon can be used for any one of a number of synthetic polymers originally created as replacements for silks. Nylon is a tough material that has a very high tensile strength, meaning that it can hold a lot of weight without breaking. It melts at about 250 degrees C and is nontoxic.

Nylon's use as relatively a 3D printing material is relatively new, but the material is becoming popular because the prints it produces are very tough and resistant to damage. It is cheap, because nylon is widely used in other industries, and it's not damaged by most common chemicals. However, nylon does require high temperatures to print: 250 degrees C is hotter than many extruders can manage. And it is harder to get it to stick to the print bed than with ABS or PLA. Generally, nylon requires both a heated print bed and white glue to stick while printing.  

Pros: Tough; Inexpensive printing material

Cons: Requires high temperatures to print

Good for: Utensils that touch food, plant pots that fill with water

Cost: $18 per kg

Compatible with: FDM printers that can heat the extruder to 250 degrees C, such as the Ultimaker 3 or TAZ 6

HDPE

What it is: High-density polyethylene (HDPE, though it's also known as high-impact polystyrene, or HIPS)  is used in pipes and recyclable packaging such as plastic bottles and packages (ones with the recycling ID code 2). It is a light, flexible material that sticks to itself and other materials well. HDPE is also easy to dye and mold. It melts at about 230 degrees C, but releases unpleasant fumes if accidentally heated to higher temperatures.

In 3D printing, HDPE is often used instead of ABS, as comparable prints turn out lighter and stronger than ones with ABS. HDPE does require higher temperatures to print, though, and can release unpleasant fumes if the temperature is set too high. It is resistant to most chemicals, though you can dissolve HDPE with limonene, a solvent commonly used in industrial cleaners. HDPE does have a tendency to warp: as it cools, HDPE contracts slightly, which can lead to warped prints.

Solubility in limoleme means that HDPE can also be used for printing supports for 3D prints made with other materials. After the printing is complete, the supports can be dissolved by immersing the print in limonene, which won't affect materials such as ABS or PLA. HDPE does require an extruder that can reach 230 degrees C, though, and a heated print bed.

Pros: Easily dissolved in limonene, a common solvent; Lightweight

Cons: Requires high temperatures for printing

Good for: Lightweight prints, supports for ABS prints

Cost: $30 per kg

Compatible with: Any printer that can handle ABS

T-Glase/PETT

What it is: Polyethylene terephthalate (PETT) is the chemical name of a material sold as t-glase. It is similar to polyester, often used to make clothes. It melts at about 230 degrees C, but cools into a rigid solid that resembles glass. It can be dyed while still retaining its glass-like qualities, so it is available in multiple colors. T-glase is approved for food use by the FDA, so you can use it to make dishes, cups and the like.

For 3D printing, t-glase can be printed onto a print bed heated to about 70 degrees C. It is mainly sold by Taulman, which introduced the material. While t-glase itself is strong and resilient, it has to be printed rather slowly to make sure that layers adhere properly. So printing with t-glase is typically much slower than with other materials.

Pros: Food-safe; Clear material with glass-like look

Cons: Requires heated print bed; Slow to print

Good for: Utensils, cups and others that touch food.

Cost: $30 per kg

Compatible with: FDM printers with high-temperature extruders and heated print beds, such as Ultimaker 3 and TAZ 6

Wood Filament

What it is: These filaments are not made out of wood, but instead contain very fine wood particles combined with PLA and a polymer that binds them together. When printed and polished, the finished material can look a lot like wood. Versions are available for many different types of wood, from bamboo to ebony and mahogany. Some of these filaments allow you to change the color of the printed material by varying the temperature; at higher temperatures, the wood particles take on a darker, burned look.

These materials are printed in the same way as PLA filaments, with similar extruder temperatures and the addition of white glue to help the print stick to the print bed. The addition of the wood particles does make the process more prone to problems, though, and each different filament will require a lot of experimentation for successful prints. The material also requires extra finishing, such as sanding or mild abrasive treatment, to bring out the wood look.

Pros: Attractive, wood-like finish

Cons: Finicky to print with; Often requires sanding or other treatments to get the final desired look

Good for: Sculptures or faux-wood carvings

Cost: $60 to $100 per kg

Compatible with: Any PLA printer, but experimentation with settings will be required

Metal Filament

What it is: Metal filaments are made of very finely ground metals combined with PLA and a polymer glue. This means that they print like PLA, but have the look and feel of metals when you polish the final print. They work on any standard printer that supports PLA filament.

Available versions include steel, brass, bronze and copper particles to create the look and feel of those respective metals. The addition of the metal does change how they print, though, so experimentation is required to find the right settings on your 3D printer. These filaments also require sanding or polishing to create the metallic look. Right off the printer, they generally look like ceramics, but brushing with steel wool ora metal polish will  expose the metal particles to create the metal look.

Metal filaments are not as heavy as solid metal, so a print of a statue with a bronze filament will not weigh as much as a cast bronze version. Also, since the particles of metal are bound by the PLA and glue, these filaments won't conduct electricity.

Pros: Attractive metal finish.

Cons: Requires experimentation to find correct print settings; Expensive

Good for: Metal sculptures, figurines

Cost: $75 to $120 per kg

Compatible with: Any PLA printer, but experimentation with settings will be required

Carbon Fiber Mix

What it is: Carbon fiber filaments — like this one from MatterHackers that uses nylon, or this one from Proto-pasta that uses PLA—  combine carbon fiber and the filament material to give you some of the advantages of this new material: rigidity, strength and very low weight. However, this should be used with caution. Carbon fiber is a very abrasive material that can wear away the hot end of the extruder very quickly, so you'll need to get a reinforced extruder or replace it after a few prints.

There is one company that is making true carbon fiber 3D printers: MarkForged. Its Mark Two, Onyx and Mark X printers can print using the company's own pure carbon fiber filament. But those printers aren't cheap; the Mark Two will cost you a cool $13,499, while the carbon fiber filament it uses costs $149 a reel.

Pros: Has some of the lightweight strength of carbon fiber

Cons: Can damage some extruders; Expensive

Good for: Structural prints that need to be strong and lightweight.

Cost: $50 to $120 per kg

Compatible with: Any FDM printer with a replaceable extruder

Flexible Filament

What it is: Most 3D printing materials strive for rigidity, creating prints that are strong. That's not always what you need, though, and flexible filaments like NinjaFlex, PolyFlex or TrueFlex produce rubber-like prints that can be used to make things like phone covers, flexible joints and wearable prints.

However, this flexibility also poses a problem. FDM 3D printers work by pushing the filament into the heated extruder, where it melts. You can't do that as easily if the material is flexible: it would just block up the print head. So most printers will require modification to use these flexible filaments. 3D printer maker LulzBot, for instance, offers a replacement print head, called the Flexystruder, that's designed to handle flexible filaments

Other manufacturers offer what they call semiflexible filaments, like MakerBots Flexible Filament or the new TPU95 A from Ultimaker. These aren't as rubber-like as the ones above, but they still provide some flexibility; for instance, the MakerBot filament becomes flexible when you put it in hot water, allowing you to reshape or squish a print into a tight-fitting spot before the material cools and becomes rigid again.

Pros: Produces squishy, flexible prints

Cons: Requires modification of the printer or extruder

Good for: Wearable prints, phone covers, toys

Cost: $50 to $120 per kg, plus the cost of a modified extruder

Compatible with: Any FDM printer with a replaceable extruder

Conductive Filament

What it is: New on the market are conductive filaments from companies like Proto Pasta or BlackMagic 3D that combine PLA with graphene, a form of carbon that conducts electricity. This means that you can print electric circuits directly without needing to add wires. This can be great for things like touch buttons, wearable electronics or styluses that conduct electricity.

These materials do require care when printing, as the layers of the print don’t stick to each other as well as normal PLA. The prints also tend to be brittle, and bending them can break the conductive graphene part so that they no longer conduct electricity. They are best used alongside normal PLA filament. Generally, you would print a PLA case around the parts that conduct electricity to protect it and give it more strength.

Conductive filaments are also not cheap. You’ll typically pay about $70 for a small 100g reel of this experimental new filament.

Pros: Conducts electricity; Prints like PLA

Cons: Expensive; Still very experimental

Good for: 3D printing electrical devices

Cost: $70 for a small 100g reel

Compatible with: Most printers that support PLA

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Monoprice is taking a new approach to 3D printing with the MP Mini Delta. As a delta 3D printer, it uses a print head at the end of three motor-driven arms. Monoprice claims this $160 device is the cheapest professionally made 3D printer available.

The MP Mini Delta certainly offers a lot of features for its price, although there have been a few obvious edges cut to keep costs down. Some annoying bugs, such as an unreliable USB connection, may prove frustrating to the printer's core audience of novices. Bargain hunters and tinkerers who don't mind a few workarounds will find good value for money.

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Design: Simple Construction

The Mini Delta's print head is held by three arms, each of which is attached to a drive belt that is turned by a motor. Three motors in the base of the printer move each of the drive belts, which in turn move the arms up and down. This movement shifts the print head, laying down the print material on the Mini Delta’s circular heated print bed.

It's a design that looks odd the first time you see it running, but it works and offers decent print quality, especially for the price.

Print Materials: PLA and ABS

The combination of a heated print bed and extruder means that this printer can handle both ABS and PLA materials. The Mini Delta uses 1.75mm filament with no restrictions on where it comes from, so you can use filament from any manufacturer. This applies to the new filaments that include wood or metal to produce prints that look like these materials.

Setup: Do-It-Yourself

Physically, the MP Mini Delta is a simple printer to set up: you just unpack it, remove some packing tape and foam, and plug it in. You then use the LCD screen and controls on the printer to load the filament, with the reel hanging on a hook on the back of the printer body.

To set up the software, you install the Cura open-source package that comes  with a microSD card; you then input the settings for the MP Mini Delta. That’s a fairly simple process, but it does require some care. The first version of the manual that came with the printer  showed a wrong setting, which meant the printer couldn’t print. A later version of the manual updated this to the correct setting, though. The manual also encourages users to experiment with these settings as they get more familiar with it and 3D printing in general.

The printer includes a microSD card port, a micro USB and an 802.11g Wi-Fi connection. The Wi-Fi connection requires the use of a free mobile app (available for iOS and Android), as you can’t enter the Wi-Fi details directly on the printer. Instead, you press and hold a button on the back of the printer and run the app, which passes the details of your Wi-Fi network to the printer. It's a slightly complicated process, but it worked without issues, and only needs to be done once.

MORE: How to Buy the Right 3D Printer

The Mini Delta also includes a self-leveling print bed, where the print head pushes the bed down to trip a switch. This runs every time a print starts, and it does a good job of setting up the print.

Interface: Minimal But Functional

There aren't a lot of controls to master on the Mini Delta: just a single 3-inch LCD screen and three buttons (two for scrolling through options and the other to select an option). The on-screen menu is simple and straightforward to use. It handles basic operations such as starting a print, loading filament and setting up the printer. It's a simple but effective system that works well. The only issue that we found was when a print goes wrong. You have to scroll through a number of options on the on-screen display to get to the cancel-print option, and that scrolling takes time.

One other button, located on the back of the Mini Delta, changes the print mode. Press this button and the printer will read a file off the microSD memory card and start printing it. So, you can print something by saving it to a microSD card, inserting the card and pressing that back button.

We did find one major (and annoying) problem with the MP Mini Delta: printing over USB just didn't work. Every time we tried printing from Cura using a USB cable connected to the printer, it failed before the print began, halting while the print head was still heating up. This happened on two different units, so we used the microSD card for printing instead. (All the company would tell us is that it doesn't recommend USB printing, as it's the slowest method with the highest rate of GCODe corruption. That raises the question of why it's an available option in the first place.) However, that option wasn't hassle-free either: We found that some prints in the highest quality setting of the printer repeatedly stopped part way through, leaving us with a half-finished print.

Print Process: Noisy

Monoprice doesn't offer any software of its own, instead relying on the open-source 3D-slicing program Cura. Instructions are provided for configuring this program to create print files for the MP Mini Delta, but it's a somewhat complicated process that will intimidate newcomers to 3D printing. It definitely isn't a plug-and-print process like many of the XYZprinting devices, or more sophisticated models like the Makerbot Replicators.

The Mini Delta is a rather noisy printer, producing a continual whine from the motors, and lots of buzzing and clanking as the print head moves.

Once you have created the print file in Cura and saved it to the included microSD card, you print it by putting the microSD card into the printer and selecting print from the on-screen menu. The printer then springs into life, first moving the print head to the top of the printing area, then down to detect the print bed by pushing it onto a switch.

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The Mini Delta is a rather noisy printer, producing a continual whine from the motors, and lots of buzzing and clanking as the print head moves. You definitely wouldn't want it sitting next to you for a long print, as the clunk-clunk-buzz-buzz-clunk of the multiple motors  combined with the whirr of the fan that cools the electronics in the base of the printer would get very annoying.

Print Speed: Speedy

We found that the MP Mini Delta was a fairly fast printer, producing our 4-inch tall Thinker test print in 3 hours and 36 minutes in fast mode, and 8 hours and 41 minutes in normal print mode. That’s a little faster than other low-cost printers like the XYZ da Vinci Jr Mix 2.0, which took a little less than 5 hours in a similar fast print mode.

Print Quality: Decent, but Not Outstanding

The quality of the prints produced by the MP Mini Delta was decent, though not outstanding. The surfaces of our Thinker test model were smooth in both the fast and normal print modes, but the fast mode had some obvious glitches where bits of material had not stuck to the print layer below.

The normal print mode model had fewer glitches, but the layers of the print were still easily visible.

We found similar results on our geometric sculpture test print, where the edges of the print were mostly smooth, but had lots of filaments of material hanging off. That was caused by the material stretching as the print head moved from one part of the print to another. These were easily removed, but that takes time, and the surface of the print still showed somewhat obvious layering.

Because the high-quality print mode failed to work reliably, we were not able to judge the quality of the prints it produced.

Bottom Line

The MP Mini Delta brings 3D printing to a new low price, and offers a lot of valuable features for $160. But it isn"t a printer for beginners, as the configure-it-yourself software, odd glitches and failing USB port mean that it takes some time and tweaking to get printing reliably.

A group of users have put together a Wiki that offers a lot of great advice for getting started with this printer. But it is a rather frustrating and complex process, so this printer would not work for a newcomer to 3D printing despite the novice-friendly price tag. For a more experienced user who wants to see what they can get out of a low-cost printer, though, it's an interesting device that has a lot to offer. 

Credit: Tom's Guide/Monoprice

Skriware is a new name on the 3D printer scene. Hailing from Poland, the company has launched its first 3D printer, the eponymous Skriware. This $999 midrange FDM (filament deposition manufacturing) printer targets home users who want simple, hassle-free printing. (The $999 base model is available in white; other colors are available for an additional $99.) It falls short of that goal, largely because of problems with its software. It's a bit on the expensive side as well, compared with models like the XYZ da Vinci Mini at less than half the price.

Design: Clean, Practical and Easy to Use

The Skriware is an attractive printer, made out of an O-shaped metal shell that gives it a clean, industrial look. The body measures 17 x 15 x 13 inches, so it should fit on even a small desk. The filament reel (a standard 1.75mm reel that holds 1kg of material) fits under a panel on the left side, which keeps it out of the way.

A 3.5-inch LED touch screen on the front  is the main way to control the Skriware, but the printer also comes with wired and wireless 2.4GHz Ethernet connections. A single USB port is next to the power switch, so you can print models from a USB thumb drive.

The Skriware's printhead is fairly small, moving left-right and up-down. The print bed moves forward and backward while printing, which does mean that the hot printhead and the moving parts are rather exposed: curious fingers could get squished or burned. In an unusual move, the company includes a spare brass extruder, the part of the printhead that squirts out the melted material to form the print. These parts do wear out with time, so it is nice to see a extra one included with the Skriware.

The print bed is interesting: The Skriware prints the model onto a square 6-inch wide removable plastic bed held in place with magnets. When the print is completed, you can just pull this bed off and remove the print, which is much easier than removing it from a fixed bed. Two of these beds come with the printer, so you can set another print going while you remove the first one.

Skriware's printer offers a printing volume of about 177 cubic inches — slightly smaller than similarly sized printers like the XYZ Da Vinci Mini, which offers 209 cubic inches. Still, that print volume is big enough for most purposes.

Print Materials: PLA Only

Because the Skriware's print bed isn't heated, the printer can handle PLA filament only. There are no restrictions on where you get your PLA from, though: The printer will work with any 1.75mm PLA filament on a standard 1Kg reel. Just note that Skriware's warranty doesn't cover damage caused by using third party filaments, though.

MORE: Your Guide to 3D Printing Materials

Setup: Manual Print Bed Leveling Required

The Skriware is pretty simple to set up: you just unbox it, remove the large amount of foam and packing tape, then plug the printer in and install the filament. You can then connect the Skriware to your Wi-Fi network or wired Ethernet and start printing.

The only cumbersome part of the process is leveling the print bed, which involves turning three screws under the print bed to adjust the gap between the print bed and printhead. While many modern printers do this automatically, the Skriware makes you do it manually.

To connect the Skriware to the online service that prepares the files, you create an account at Skrimarket.com and enter the printer serial number. The service then connects to the printer, ready to send the files to it for printing.

Interface: Meet Skrimarket

The Skriware printer is controlled through a combination of the touch-screen display and the Skrimarket online service. The touch-screen display is easy to read and use, presenting large buttons that allow you to control the printer and set prints running from a USB thumb drive.

Skrimarket is an online program where you can create, upload and process models, then send them directly to the printer. This allows you to build simple models with a series of straightforward editing tools, saving them for later use. (You can even sell them: Skrimarket offers a deal where you can sell your models and Skriware takes a 30 percent commission.)

You can also upload 3D models from other sources; Skriware's website can handle G-Code, STL or OBJ files. That means you can grab a file from a source such as Thingiverse and upload it to your Skrimarket account for printing.

Print Process: Pretty Buggy

You prepare files for printing through Skrimarket, using the company's online software to scale your model and position it on the print bed. When everything is ready, you can set it to print, and the print file is sent straight to the printer. You don't need to stay connected while this is happening, and you can even set a print going remotely.

I did find a few issues with the print process. My test printer initially failed to connect to the Skrimarket until I raised the issue with Skriware, which put the blame on technical issues and fixed the problem remotely. The Skrimarket also failed to process two test models — our gears test model, which includes all of the parts for a set of planetary gears, and our geometric sculpture model.

When I uploaded these models to the Skrimarket to print, I received an unhelpful and unspecific error message, with Skrimarket refusing to even display my model.

Skriware points out that its printer can also work with other 3D slicing software, such as Cura. I could easily set up this open-source program to create 3D print files and print them from a USB thumb drive plugged into the printer. Still, that misses the point of the Skriware 3D printer, which is designed to make 3D printing easier and more convenient by doing the hard work for you; simply referring people to other, nonsupported solutions doesn't help the confused user.

Skriware told us that "our whole ecosystem is dedicated to helping beginners start their adventure with 3D printing. To fit their needs and process different kinds of prints, the slicer is set to universal settings and it may be unsuitable for very complex models. With that in mind, we are working on solutions that will give the users more options while keeping it as simple to use as possible."

Print Speed: Eventually Average

My testing also ran into some print time issues with the Skriware. Our Thinker test model usually takes between 5 and 10 hours to print, but a first attempt using Skrimarket took more than three days. Skriware blamed bugs in its slicing software, which resulted in the internal supports of the model printing much slower than they needed to.

I tried it again a few days later after Skriware had updated its online software, and the same Thinker model took a much more reasonable 6 hours and 11 minutes. That's a pretty average print speed for this model, though the da Vinci Mini took less than 4 hours to produce the same print at its Normal quality preset.

The Skrimarket processing software doesn't allow you to tweak the quality settings of the printer, so we were not able to judge the speed at different quality settings.

Print Quality: Very Good — When It Works

Despite the problems with the online Skrimarket software, the Skriware printer yielded some excellent quality 3D prints for one of the test models. Test prints of the Thinker statue looked very attractive, with smooth curves and accurate details on difficult parts like the shoulders and head. I noticed some occasional layer glitches, where a layer of the print was more visible than others in a horizontal band.

However, I couldn't print the other two models we use to assess print quality. Both our set of gears and our geometric sculpture model seemed to be too much for the Skrimarket processing system, as each produced an error message when we tried to upload and prepare them for printing.

Bottom Line

It's a shame that the Skriware 3D Printer couldn't reliably produce our test models, as the printer itself is well-designed and capable of turning out attractive prints. Although it is limited to printing in PLA, thoughtful touches like the multiple removable print beds and included spare nozzles would make it a compelling choice for heavy users.

At the moment, though, Skriware's limited and buggy online software is too much of a limitation. Skriware says that it's improving its Skrimarket processing software, but until then this contender is best avoided.

XYZprinting puts 3D printing within anyone's budget with this $270 device. Easy-to-use software and an auto-calibration feature make the da Vinci Mini a great 3D printer for novices, and you'll get clean, smooth prints at decent speeds. (Printing at higher resolutions slows things down considerably, though.) You're restricted to using PLA filament from XYZ, but since that filament isn't expensive, that's a fair compromise to make for an attractively priced 3D printer with good-looking output. The Mini is hard to find these days, so consider XYZ's da Vinci miniMaker as an alternative: it's the same printer essentially, only it uses USB instead of Wi-Fi.

The $449 XYZ da Vinci Jr. 2.0 Mix is a low-cost 3D printer with a twist: it can print in two colors, blending them together in the same print. It’s a neat trick, but it comes with some limitations. The blending works well with only certain types of material, printing in two colors is slow, and it requires filament from XYZ. Although the print quality is good, it’s not great, as finished prints look a little rough.

Design: Two Filaments, One Extruder

The da Vinci Jr 2.0 Mix is a rather industrial-looking printer, seeming more in place in a lab than a home. The printing mechanism and filaments are all inside the case, which has a hinged front panel that lifts up to give you access to the 6 x 6-inch print bed and the filament rolls. Both rolls of filament are inside the case, but rather oddly, the two tubes that the filament runs through stick out of the top before swirling back in again, like a pair of cartoon ears.

Although the da Vinci Jr. can use two different filaments, the printer has only one extruder: it pulls off its multicolor magic by feeding both filaments into the same extruder so they melt together together.

You have two modes for turning out prints in different colors. Multicolor mode allows you to use two different colors in the same print, producing two-color prints. In Mixer mode, you can produce color gradients mixing the two colors. So, if you are using clear and green filament (the two colors our test model came with), you can produce a print that is clear at the bottom, then gradually turns green until it is pure green at the top.

Print Materials: PLA from XYZ Only

This 3D printer works only with PLA filament produced by XYZprinting. The company’s filament is reasonably priced (about $29 for a 600-gram reel of the clear filament we used in our testing). There’s an NFC chip inside the reel to authenticate the filament and record how much of it’s been used, so you know if you have enough left before starting a large print.

Setup: Some Hassles

The da Vinci Jr. 2.0 Mix is a rather involved printer to set up. Besides the usual unpacking and removing numerous bits of foam and tape, you have to install the printhead and the filament guides that lead the material into the printhead. An included manual doesn’t do a great job of describing this, due to small, unhelpful photos. Instructions also appear in an odd order: You have to run through several steps of the unpacking process, install the printhead, and then go back to complete the final steps of the unpacking sequence.

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Loading the filaments is also a little more complex than it needs to be, as you have to put the reel in place and then feed the filament through the guide tube. The instructions don’t clearly spell this out, but you need to load both filaments at once and make sure that both are being pushed into the extruder. This is because there’s no warning if one isn’t loaded properly or gets jammed.

Thankfully, the da Vinci Jr. Mix includes automatic bed leveling, where a small sensor on the side of the printhead detects the print bed and automatically adjusts the print for it. This worked well in our tests:  prints did not stick as long as we used this feature occasionally.

Controls: Two Different Options

You’ll find two sets of controls on the da Vinci Jr. Mix — an LED screen and buttons on the device itself, and the XYZware software.

The controls on the device give you access to most print settings. You can start prints from an SD card plugged into the slot on the Mix’s right side, control various settings of the printer or start the calibration process. While printing, you can stop, pause or monitor a print in progress from the on-device controls.

Still, the XYZWare software is the main place to control the printer. In this easy-to-use program, you can load a 3D model and do basic editing, such as scaling, moving and combining models. You can also manage the printer’s color-mix features from the software. In the multicolor mode, you combine two models, with each model printing in one of the two different colors. For the color-mix mode, you set how the two colors will be combined, creating a color gradient in the print from one to the other.

Print Process: Complex with More Colors

When producing single-color prints, the da Vinci Jr. Mix’s printing process is fairly straightforward. You load your model into XYZWare, resize it if required, and hit print.

For two-color prints, the process becomes a bit more involved. In the Multicolor mode, you have to load two separate models and assign a color to each. These need to be lined up precisely, something the software doesn’t help you with. For the Mixer mode, you load a single model and then select how the two colors are mixed on the Z axis (up-down) of the print.

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Next, you hit Print, and XYZWare slices the models, before sending your print to the printer. From here, the printer works autonomously. We found that the da Vinci Jr. Mix performed well: the PLA prints stuck to the printbed, and we had only a couple of failed prints.

Print Quality: Decent, But Not Outstanding

The da Vinci Jr. Mix produces decent quality prints, with good levels of detail and mostly smooth, clean surfaces. We found that our Thinker model (based on a scan of the sculpture) was well-reproduced in all of the printer’s quality modes, with smooth detail and natural, clean shapes. The layers were clearly visible in all modes, though.

The Mix also did well on our geometric sculpture test model, although the edges of the print were not especially smooth: the layers of the print produced a distinct stair-stepping look to the sharp edges of this model. We also found a lot of filaments of printing material between the tips of the sculpture, which would need to be trimmed off.

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The multicolor mode turned out to be a little disappointing. Although the da Vinci Jr. Mix can use two different color filaments, it has only one extruder. This means that the two filaments get mixed in the extruder, so you get traces of one in the other. Although this isn’t a problem with the Mixer mode, it does mean that the Multicolor mode (where two models are printed at once) produces muddy, mixed results.

I split the Thinker model in two, and printed one-half in clear filament and one in green. The resulting print was a mix of both filaments, with little difference between the two sides of the model. A sample model from XYZ of a koi fish looked more impressive, but the two colors still lacked definition and blended together. These look especially disappointing next to models produced by printers with two separate extruders, like the Ultimaker 3, though that printer costs $3,000 more than the da Vinci Jr. Mix.

Print Speed: Average for a Budget Model

Regarding speed, the da Vinci Jr. Mix is in line with the average time for a low-end 3D printer. When producing our 4-inch Thinker test mode, the Mix takes a little less than 5 hours on its lowest quality setting and a little more than 9 hours and 19 minutes on the highest quality setting. Both of those times are for printing in a single color; printing in more than one color slows the process down significantly.

Bottom Line

The XYZ da Vinci Jr 2.0 Mix has a lot of things to like, producing decent quality prints at an acceptable speed. But the headline feature of dual color prints disappoints somewhat. Using a single extruder means that the two filaments inevitably get somewhat mixed together, producing a blurry line between them. While the Mix is a solid 3D printer that can create decent-looking prints, it doesn’t quite deliver on the special feature that justifies the extra cost over XYZ’s $270 da Vinci Mini.

The Ultimaker 3 comes from the Dutch 3D-printing giant, and this printer arrived with a big set of shoes to fill. We loved the Ultimaker 2, but the Ultimaker 3 offers more flexibility and dual extruder support that make it a very attractive 3D printer for serious users. It's not cheap, though: At $3,495 for the standard model and $4,295 for the extended model that offers a larger printing area, the Ultimaker 3 is a serious investment.

But for those who want cutting-edge fused deposition modeling (FDM) printing and flexibility in materials, the Ultimaker 3 is a sound investment and one of the best 3D printers still available today.

Design: A Sleek Machine

The Ultimaker 3 has the same white-plastic design as the Ultimaker 2, with built-in LED lights that give it a sci-fi look. The standard model that we looked at measures about 13.5 x 15 x 15.5 inches, so it will take up a fair chunk of your desk space.

The build volume that this 3D printer offers is impressive for the size, though: It can print objects up to 8.5 x 8.5 x 7.9 inches — a total of 570 cubic inches. That's a touch bigger than the 555 cubic inches that the similarly priced MakerBot Replicator+ offers, but both are big enough for most print jobs. Most people will never want to print something that large, as it would take a long, long time.

The Ultimaker 3 Extended model is taller than the standard one, measuring 19.3 inches high. This allows it to increase the printing area to 8.5 x 8.5 x 11 inches, though, for a total of 794.75 cubic inches.

The major innovation in the Ultimaker 3 is a redesigned printhead, which includes two swappable extruders. (Ultimaker calls these "print cores.") This means the Ultimaker 3 can print from two reels of filament at once, so you can print in two colors or with two different materials. The best use of this is the water-soluble PVA filament that Ultimaker offers (and a reel of which is included with the Ultimaker 3), which can be used to print supports. When printing with a single extruder and material, you have to manually remove the supports after printing. With PVA filament, you can print the object in one material and the supports in PVA, and then remove the supports with water.

The redesigned print head also allows you to easily swap out the print cores for different materials. Three print cores are included: two that can be used with materials such as PLA and ABS, and one that can be used with the new PVA water-soluble filament. These print cores can be swapped in less than a minute, so you can quickly switch from printing with PLA and PVA to printing with two colors of PLA, then back again. Each of the print cores has an ID chip embedded in it, so you won't accidentally use the wrong one.

The Ultimaker 3's print bed features a glass sheet over a heating element that warms the glass. You can remove the glass sheet by undoing the two clips that hold it in place on the front of the print bed, which makes it easier to remove large prints. We found that most prints stuck to this print bed without issue, but painter's tape or white glue can be used and easily removed after the printing is complete.

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Print Materials: Lots of Support

Ultimaker has always supported a wide range of print materials, and the Ultimaker 3 continues this tradition. Out of the box, the Ultimaker 3 can print with standard materials, such as PLA and ABS, plus more exotic ones, like nylon and copolyester (CPE), that require higher temperatures. The printer doesn't support flexible filaments such as NinjaFlex, but Ultimaker does offer an alternative called TPU 95A that is as flexible as rubber. The extruder can reach a maximum temperature of 536 degrees Fahrenheit (280 degrees Celsius), and the print bed can reach 212 degrees F (100 degrees C).

The Ultimaker 3 uses 3-millimeter (0.2 inches) filament, which is thicker than the 1.75-mm (0.7 inches) type used in many FDM 3D printers. Reels of this material bought from Ultimaker cost about $50 and include an NFC tag that identifies the type and color to the printer. Unlike printers from the likes of XYZprinting, though, this doesn't stop you from using other manufacturers' materials. The printer will work with filament without an NFC tag, and the material type can be selected manually on the printer or in Cura easily.

Setup: Getting Started with Ease

The Ultimaker 3 comes mostly preassembled, so setting it up is simple. You remove some tape, install the print spool holder and connect a cable, and the Ultimaker 3 is ready to go. The printer includes a Wi-Fi interface, which you set up using the Ultimaker app, available for both iOS and Android. This app can also monitor and control prints. We were up and printing about 30 minutes after opening the box.

All printers require bed leveling, where the distance between the print bed and the extruder is set to make sure that the first level of the print is nice and thin. The Ultimaker 3 does this automatically at the start of every print with a process called automatic leveling. During this process, the printer uses the printhead, moving it over the print bed and lowering it until it touches the print bed and triggers a switch. Doing this at six points on the print bed ensures the print bed is level. This can also be done manually using a piece of paper if required, but we found that the automatic process performed flawlessly.

Interface: Filled with Features, But Easy to Use

There are three ways to control the Ultimaker 3: the onboard controls, the Cura program running on a computer, and the mobile app.

The straightforward onboard controls include a small OLED screen and a combination dial and button. From here, you can start a print, monitor print progress or control the printer options, such as changing filaments or print cores. It's a simple system that works well; you can print from a USB thumb drive with just a couple of clicks of the dial.

The Cura program is how most users will control this printer. This open-source app is available for macOS, Windows and Unbuntu Linux, and can control the printer over a USB or network connection. Cura can read most 3D-model formats, and then slice and prepare them for printing. You can't create new models, but you can do basic editing actions, such as scaling, moving and combining multiple models into one print. Cura also converts the model into the layers that will be printed (called slicing) and creates the file that is sent to the 3D printer. Finally, it sends this file to the printer and sets it working. You can monitor the print from Cura, and see images from the small camera built into the printer body.

Cura is a fairly simple program to use, providing a 3D preview of the model that you can move around. It also provides access to the numerous settings that control how the print is created, including how much material is used to support the inside of the model (called infill) and how the model is supported during printing. Using the NFC tags inside the Ultimaker print reels, the printer itself tells Cura which material is loaded, so you aren't going to accidentally use the settings for ABS with PLA filament.

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Finally, the Ultimaker mobile app allows you to load and print models directly, using the slicing engine built into the Youmagine.com site that Ultimaker runs. It also lets you monitor the print from the printer's built-in camera.

Print Process: Straightforward with Few Failures

The Ultimaker 3 proved to be a very reliable printer, with few problems occurring in our test prints. None of our prints failed completely. All of the prints that we did with PLA, ABS and the water-soluble PVA material stuck nicely to the print bed and didn't wobble or fall during printing. We found that parts of the PVA supports had a tendency to fall off or become loose, leaving bits of material lying around the print bed. However, this didn't cause the print to fail; precisely for this reason, Cura builds more supports than are needed.

The print process can also be monitored from Cura or the Ultimaker 3 app through a small camera built into the printer. The printer isn't overly noisy, but it is definitely an advantage to be able to monitor it from another room.

Once the print is complete, you have to remove it from the print bed. This does require some force, as both PLA and ABS stick to the glass print bed too well. We found the best technique was to use the included paint spreader to lift a corner of the print and then slowly push this under the print until it lifted off. It works (and it doesn't damage the tempered glass print bed), but it does require some brute force.

Print Speed: Very Slow

The Ultimaker 3 is a rather slow printer; we found that it took anywhere from 6 hours and 6 minutes in draft mode to a little more than 24 hours in best-quality mode to print our 3.5-inch tall "The Thinker" test model. That's a lot slower than some printers; for example, the MakerBot Replicator+ could crank out a similarly sized draft print in less than 2 hours, or about one-third of the time the Ultimaker 3 took. The Ultimaker 3's print quality was superior to that of the Replicator+, though, even in draft mode.

Notably, although using the PVA filament to build water-soluble supports definitely makes it easier to clean prints, it also adds time. It took about 14 hours to print our geometric sculpture model in normal mode with supports printed in the same PLA material as the model itself. In comparison, it took a little more than 28 hours — twice as long — to print the same model with soluble PVA supports. That's a huge time difference, which means you'll probably end up using PVA supports only when you absolutely have to.

Ultimaker told us that it is working to improve the printing speeds for PVA, and the company releases regular updates to Cura and the printer firmware that will speed up the process somewhat. However, the company notes that printing with multiple materials will be slower than with a single material, as it involves heating two materials and shifting between the extruders. Ultimaker is not wrong in that regard, so be warned that using this feature will probably always result in slow printing even as it opens up new possibilities for 3D printing.

Ultimaker offers the example of a 3D-printed sculpture of freely spinning spheres inside each other, where each sphere is printed inside another and held in place with dissolvable supports. This means that the spheres can be printed at one time with soluble support between them, rather than being printed as multiple parts that are glued together. This means the whole object can be printed in one pass, with the supports removed later with water, leaving the spheres to move independently.

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Print Quality: Some of the Best We've Seen

We were very impressed with the Ultimaker 3's print quality. The printer handled all of our difficult test models smoothly, producing very attractive prints with great detail and smooth, clean surfaces. Even in the fastest draft mode, we found that the prints looked great, with very few glitches or problems.

In our tests using the 3D scan of Rodin's "The Thinker" sculpture, the Ultimaker 3 produced some of the best-quality prints we have ever seen, with a very smooth surface and excellent detail. In fact, we saw very little difference between the Normal and High-Quality print modes; both prints were of excellent quality and had barely visible layers.

We saw the same excellent print quality with our other test models. The geometric sculpture was accurately printed with clean, sharp edges and points. Meanwhile, our geometric gears set printed cleanly and required only minimal cleaning before we could fit the whole mechanism together.

Bottom Line

The Ultimaker 3 is a class act — a very solid 3D printer that can produce excellent-quality 3D prints. It's also easy to set up and print with, supports a lot of materials and has flexible, easy-to-use software. New features, such as the dual material support and camera for monitoring prints in progress, are welcome additions that increase the usability of the printer.

Still, that $3,495 price is kind of scary, and the printer is rather slow. These factors certainly rule out the Ultimaker 3 for those only casually interested in 3D printing, or educational users who want to produce lots of prints quickly. But the Ultimaker 3 will be a great pick for users who want a flexible, top-draw 3D printer that can produce stunning quality in a great range of materials and that can grow with them as they experiment with 3D printing.

We've seen a lot of inexpensive 3D printers hitting the market recently, bringing 3D printing into the hands of new users. This spate of releases includes the Mod-T, a $399 printer from New Matter that claims to be the simplest and easiest to use. That's not just talk: After putting the Mod-T through its paces, we found this 3D printer to be very simple to set up and capable of producing good quality prints.

Design: Clean White Style

The Mod-T looks more like a concept design than a working 3D printer. The base is white, with a clear plastic cover over the top. The print bed seems to float on two metal rods. The print head is hidden in a wedge of plastic that lifts up and down as the printer works. The Mod-T lacks the wires, cables and belts that most 3D printers are covered with, hiding the mechanism in the white plastic base and providing a clean, simple design.

The print bed isn't attached to anything, which allows you to lift it off and remove it when a print is done. The surface of the print bed is also removable, so you can take it off the print bed and bend it to make removing a large print easier.

On most 3D printers, the print bed is firmly attached to a drive belt or other motors that move it around. On the Mod-T, though, the print bed is moved left and right by two grooved rods that it sits on. These match with teeth on the base of the bed, pushing it around as the rods are rotated by motors. The print head doesn't move horizontally: Instead, the entire print bed moves forward-back and left-right to move the print around. It's a very different drive system that looks rather odd, but it works surprisingly well.

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Print Materials: PLA Only

The Mod-T works only with 1.75mm polylactic acid (PLA) filament ― there is no support for ABS, Nylon or the other print materials that many 3D printers support. There are, however, no limitations on where this filament comes from: PLA from any manufacturer or source is fine.

That opens up a huge range of colors and textures, and New Matter itself offers 12 colors (such as Midnight Black, Sky Blue and Cupcake Pink for $19.99 per half kilo reel) of standard filament. It also offers eight colors of a pearl finish filament that produces a pearlescent surface with more pastel, muted colors. The samples in this review were printed in the Champagne Yellow Pearl filament that came with our review unit. At $29.99 for 0.5Kg, this pearl filament is more expensive, but the finish is very attractive on prints with smooth, flat surfaces.

Setup: Complex, But Well Supported

The Mod-T features a slightly complex setup process because it isn't controlled through a program running on a computer, like most 3D printers. Instead, you control the printer through a web interface that's part of the New Matter web store.

After unboxing the Mod-T, you have to turn it on and connect it to a computer over USB running the New Matter software. That in turn connects to the printer, sets it to join your wireless network and sets you up with an account on the New Matter store to control the printer. Once this is done, you can disconnect the USB connection, as it isn't needed again. After this setup is complete and the printer is registered, you can load the filament and start printing through this web interface, without running any apps on the computer or a mobile device controlling the process.

Although a little complicated, the startup process worked without issues, thanks to an excellent online setup interface that walks you through the whole thing from unboxing the printer to making the first print.

Interface: Simple to Use, But No Access to Some Advanced Features

From the Mod-T's web interface, you load models into your library (or grab them from New Matters' model library.) That gives you a 3D preview of the model that you can scale, move or rotate; there's no way to edit it, though.

Once your model is ready to print, you select one of the three quality presets and click print. The model is then spooled out to the Mod-T by the print server that New Matter runs ― you don't have to stay online or leave the computer turned on. A single click of the button on the front of the printer confirms that it is ready to go, and the printing begins.

The web interface is pretty simple to operate, and offers most of the features that users need. As well as the print quality presets, you can access advanced settings to control things, such as the infill (how much filament is used inside the model to support it) and how the overhanging parts of the print are supported. You don't get access to some parts of the process, though: You can't preview the print layer by layer, or get an estimate of how long it will take.

Print Process: Straightforward and Quiet

Printing with the Mod-T is mostly trouble-free. The printer starts by moving the print bed and print head around to calibrate their location. It makes a gentle grinding noise while printing, rather like a large cat snoring or a car in the distance. The sound's not overly irritating, but you will definitely hear it a room or two away. The plastic cover over the printer blocks much of the noise, though, so it isn't overly distracting.

We found that most prints stuck to the plastic print bed without problems, and only had an occasional failed print when the print didn't stick to the bed. Sometimes a loose bit of filament got stuck to the print head or printed model and marred the print. The print bed does shift around at quite a speed when the print is in progress, but that didn't seem to cause a problem. Even tall, thin parts, such as the screws on our printed gear set test model, didn't fail.

Once the print is complete, you can lift off the entire print bed to remove the print. The print plate that the print sticks to can also be removed, and this plate is flexible enough that you can bend it to persuade the print to lift off. This definitely makes removing prints easier than it typically is with other 3D printers. For example, rather than using a tool to scrape the print off a fixed print bed, you can remove the entire print bed and flex the print plate to get it off.

Print Speed: On the Slow Side

The Mod-T isn't a particularly fast printer. We found that it could create a 4-inch-high print of our Thinker model in between 4 hours and 16 minutes on the High Speed setting and 14 hours and 28 minutes on the High Quality setting. These settings use a 0.4mm and 0.1mm layer height, respectively. That puts it on the slower end of the 3D-printing speed range. The slightly cheaper XYZ da Vinci Mini printed a similar model in a little less than 4 hours at low quality and a little more than 12 hours at high quality.

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Print Quality: Some Issues

The Mod-T produced clean, smooth prints with decent detail in many of our tests, though it struggled with others. We tested using three models (a set of gears, a geometric sculpture and a 3D scan of Rodin's Thinker) and found that the Mod-T handled the Thinker and gears without major issues. We did notice some quirks, though: The printer left filaments hanging off the prints, which we had to clean off with a knife. This is caused by the printing material stretching out as the print head moves away to another part of the print, but it's more of an irritation than a problem. We saw more issues when using the High Speed preset, though. On several prints, some layers were offset, as if the print bed had shifted between layers without the printer realizing. This didn't occur on the Balanced or High Quality presets, though. There was still some visible banding, however, and some occasional problems with loose filaments of print material.

We also had to do some tweaking to get the best results out of the printer. For our set of gears, the printed parts were too brittle to work together on the default settings. To be able to assemble the parts, we had to increase the infill of the print (the amount of plastic used to build the inside of the print) to make the prints more solid.

The Mod-T failed to handle our third test print, a geometric sculpture that has a lot of overhanging edges. We tried many variations, but the print always failed because the pointy arms of the print didn't hold together as it was being printed: a part would fall or stick to another part, ruining the print. This does show one of the problems with the approach that New Matter takes. By putting all of the slicing and processing steps that convert a 3D model into a printable model online, you make it simpler, but you don't get the same level of control and access to some of the more arcane controls that 3D printing sometimes requires.

In the case of our geometric sculpture model, this relates to the overhang angle setting in the slicer program, which determines if an overhanging part of the sculpture has supports built underneath it. Other printers we've tested have had similar issues, but we were able to alter settings to persuade the slicer to add more supports to hold the parts in place. This particular control isn't available through the online software that the Mod-T uses. When we asked New Matter about this, it confirmed that this setting isn't available, and suggested that we use Cura to create the print file, then import this into their online system to print. They have detailed this process here.

Bottom Line

The Mod-T is an elegant-looking printer, with a clean, simple design for both the physical and software sides of the 3D-printing process. Despite some initial complexity, it is one of the simplest 3D printers to set up that we have tested, because you don't have to worry about calibrating, setting print height and so forth. That's all done by the printer and software itself.

However, this simplicity comes with some limitations: You can print only with PLA filament, and the printer struggled with some 3D prints. Most users, however, will like the simplicity and decent print quality that the Mod-T offers.

Priced at $270, the XYZ da Vinci Mini is a small but well-equipped 3D printer that is aimed at 3D-printing newcomers and the casual consumer. It offers a lot of printing performance for the price, producing decent quality prints at an acceptable speed. But there are compromises: the highest-quality printing is very slow, and it works only with filament from XYZprinting. Since the filament isn't expensive and comes in a good range of colors, it's an acceptable compromise. So, for most users, the da Vinci Mini could provide a good intro to 3D printing.

Design: Colorful Look

With its bright orange plastic case, the XYZ da Vinci Mini certainly stands out from the crowd of me-too black printers. (If you really want to stand out, XYZ offers a $249 education-focused version called the da Vinci minimarket that is made of multicolored plastic, like the illegitimate offspring of a Lego factory and a Terminator.)

The case covers the workings of the printer, but the print bed and hot extruder are still open to the world. A cheap fold-it-yourself plastic cover is included, but this won't stop curious fingers for long, so some caution is required with younger users.

On the left side of the printer, a fold-out hook that holds the filament reel also contains an NFC card reader that identifies the filament reel to the device. This allows the printer to track both the color and how much of the printer filament is left on the reel.

At the bottom of the open space in the middle of the Mini is the print bed, a 6 x 6-inch aluminum slab covered with a sheet of tape that the PLA print material sticks to. This sheet can be easily swapped out if it is damaged while removing a print. The Mini ships with three, and replacements cost less than a dollar each.

This print bed means the da Vinci Mini can build prints up to 5.9 x 5.9 x 5.9 inches, or a little more than 205 cubic inches. That's a good size for a small printer, but it comes with one caveat: there is no heating on the print bed, so larger prints may not always stay stuck to the bed. XYZ recommends that you should apply a bit of white glue to the print bed before starting on a large print.

Above the print bed is the extruder assembly, hidden in a black box that snaps into place when you put the printer together. This print head moves left to right and up and down, while the print bed moves forward and backward to provide the full range of movement. On the right side of the print head is a single button that lowers the bed sensor. The filament feeds through the top of the frame in a plastic tube that routes it to the mechanism that pushes the filament into the extruder.

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Controls: Stick with Software

The da Vinci Mini has no controls on the printer itself. Instead, everything's located in the XYZware program, available as a free download for Windows and Mac. This program is straightforward and simple to use, presenting you with a rotatable preview of the 3D model. You can scale, shift or load multiple models to print at once, but you can't edit the models.

Setup: Auto-Calibration Is Key

The da Vinci Mini is a fairly simple printer to set up, with most of the time taken up removing the multiple pieces of tape holding the various parts in place during transit. This does involve some hassle: the arm that the print head sits on has a couple of plastic tubes holding it in place that you have to yank out, making an alarming cracking noise that initially made me think I had broken something. Once I concluded that I had not, the next steps involved installing the filament spool, feeding the filament into the print head and starting the printer up.

Once you install the XYZware, the Mini can be calibrated. This is a mostly automated process: you select the calibration option in the software, and press a button on the print head when requested. This lowers a small sensor, which the printer uses to detect the print bed and ensure it is level.

That's a lot simpler than printers like the Monoprice MP Select that ask you to calibrate things manually; thus, the Mini is less prone to user error. Auto-calibration also works well: we found that we needed to recalibrate the printer only when it was moved from one location to another.

Materials: Pretty Restricted

The da Vinci Mini works only with PLA filament from XYZ: if you try to install a reel of third party filament without one of the NFC tags that accompanies a reel of XYZ’s own filament, the printer will refuse to accept it. As well as authorizing the filament for use, these tags contain the color of the filament, plus a running total of the amount used.

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XYZ currently charges $27.99 for a reel of PLA filament that holds 600 grams of material, which is comparable to the cost of most third-party filaments.

Print Process: Sticky Business

We did have some issues with prints not sticking to the print bed: we found that moderate-size prints tended to peel a little at the edges, even with the addition of white glue as recommended by XYZprinting and its software. However, we found that, if the print was built on a raft — a latticework of printed material laid underneath the print to help it stay stuck to the print bed — it succeeded most of the time.

In our tests, we found that our standard gears print failed without a raft, because the parts were too small to stick to the print bed. However, the gears printed without problems when the raft was added. 

Print Speed: Setting Determines Speed

Depending on the setting you use, the da Vinci Mini can be both a very fast and a very slow printer. Printing at the Normal quality preset (which uses a 0.4mm layer height), it could crank out a 4.5-inch-high print of our Thinker model in a little less than 4 hours. That's impressively fast, especially for a printer at this price, and it's significantly faster than more expensive printers like the da Vinci Pro.

But when you raise the print quality, things slow down. Using the Good setting increased the print time to 6 hours and 43 minutes, and at the Excellent quality print setting, this printer took more than 12 hours to produce the same sized print. This setting uses a 0.2mm layer height and slows down the movement of the print head to improve the print quality.

To be fair, we should point out that the Mini achieves its fast speeds by having a slightly larger layer size than most 3D printers. It uses a layer height of 0.4mm for the Normal preset, while the da Vinci Pro uses a 0.2mm layer height for its Normal preset. Think of it as trying to paint a wall with a brush that is 4 inches wide, or one that is 2: the larger brush spreads more paint, so it will go quicker.

Print Quality: Clean and Smooth, But Some Flaws

We were impressed with the print quality of the da Vinci Mini: it produced clean, smooth prints with acceptable detail in most of our tests, with only a few glitches.

The Normal quality preset produces the quickest prints, but that comes at the cost of visible layering and some glitches, such as the odd misjoined layer that produces a visible gap in the print, which looks like a layer of filling in a cake. On our gears test model (which creates a set of planetary gears that fit together), we found that this layering produced some malformed parts that didn't fit together.

Switching to the Good preset gets rid of these gaps, and produced gears that fitted together nicely. On our Thinker test print, the layers are still visible close up, though. The Excellent preset lives up to the name: The prints produced using this are very smooth and clean, with very nice curves and sharp edges. There are still some slight glitches, though: the top of the Thinker’s head had a few lumps and strands of filament on it that looked like a bad comb-over. 

The only model that the da Vinci Mini failed to print properly was our geometric sculpture. The printer failed to print parts of the flat faces that form the core of the sculpture, so the print fell apart when we removed the support material.

MORE: How 3D Printers Work

Bottom Line

The da Vinci Mini offers a lot of printing performance for its $270 price, producing clean, attractive prints with only a few glitches. The Good preset provides the best balance between speed and quality.

What you don't get with the Mini is the flexibility of other 3D printers: it can print only with ABS filament bought directly from XYZprinting. This material isn't any more expensive than others (and comes in a good selection of colors), but it means you can't experiment with different types of filament, such as wood and nylon, that are now available and that can be used with printers like the $399 Printrbot Play.

That may not be a problem for most users, though, and the da Vinci Mini offers value for money that is hard to beat.

Since being bought out by 3D printing giant Stratsys in 2013, Makerbot has struggled to find a new spot in the 3D printer market. The company is now aiming at educational and high-volume print users with the $2,499 Replicator+, the sixth generation of Makerbot’s flagship model.

This Replicator is a decent, if unspectacular printer that provides good printing performance and an excellent software suite that will appeal to those who teach 3D printing and design. In addition to the Replicator+, Makerbot also recently announced a smaller, cheaper model, the $999 Replicator Mini+. For bigger prints, the behemoth $6,499 Replicator Z18 that was launched in 2015 is still available.

Design: More Volume

The Replicator+ boasts a lot of upgrades from the fifth-generation model: Makerbot claims a 22 percent increase in build volume and 30 percent faster printing speed. The changes in design are subtle, though, with the same open grey plastic frame over a metal skeleton. The front, sides and top of the printer are open, so younger users will need to be supervised (or the printer put into an enclosure) to avoid squished or burned fingers.

Print volume for the Replicator+ is a sizeable 11.6 by 7.6 by 6.3 inches, for a total of 555 cubic inches. That’s pretty darn big, but it is still a lot smaller than the 1,238 cubic inches that the similarly priced TAZ 6 offers. To be fair, print volume isn’t a critical factor once you get big enough for a few inches: most users won’t print anything that would ever fill this volume, and printing something to fill it would take a very long time.

The print bed is not heated and covered with a removable plastic coating that the print material sticks to. This can be easily replaced, and Makerbot sells packs of 3 sheets for $40. You can also easily remove the print bed assembly by simply pulling it forwards, which simplifies removing large or complex prints. Makerbot also offers additional print beds for $60.  That would be a smart investment for busy printers, as you could set a second print going while still removing the first from the print bed.

The business end of the printer is the Smart Extruder+, a snap-on part that melts and pushes the filament out to form the print. Makerbot had issues with reliability on this with previous printers, as the mechanism would jam and fail. The new Extruder+ doesn’t have the same issues, the company claims, and we had no jamming or failures in our tests. The new Extruder+ isn’t cheap: if one does fail, a replacement costs $199. On most other 3D printers, the extruder is much cheaper to replace. 

You’ll find a 3-inch LCD on top of the Replicator+ along with a combination dial and button that can control all of the features of the printer. Next to this is a USB port for USB thumb drives or memory card readers for printing directly. Additionally, the Replicator+ includes Wi-Fi and Ethernet connections that allow it to join your local network for printing from PCs, Macs and mobile devices. A small webcam is also included, pointing down onto the printing area so you can monitor a print remotely to see when it is complete. 

The reel of filament used for printing is stored in a tray that lifts from the back of the printer. This is definitely tidier than having the filament reel hanging off the back of the printer, but it does make it harder to figure out how much filament is left, which can be annoying if you often switch print materials.

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Controls: Mobile Joins the Mix

You control the Replicator+ directly from the device itself, from the Makerbot desktop programs running on a PC or Mac or from the Makerbot app in iOS or Android.

On the printer itself, you’ll use that large, clear 3-inch LCD screen with two buttons and a combination dial/button. These allow you to start and stop prints, monitor the printing process and change settings.

On a PC or Mac, you’ll control the printer through the MakerBot Print program, available as a free download for Windows and Mac OS. This simple-to-use app presents a 3D view of the print area that shows the loaded models. These can be moved around manually or automatically arranged if you want to print more than one at once. When everything’s ready, the program slices the models and sends the print file to the printer. You get plenty of feedback on the printing process, as well as a webcam view. The program can also control several printers at once, so you can have more than one print running at a time.

New on the scene is MakerBot Mobile, an app for Android and iOS devices. This is a fairly simple app that allows you to load and print 3D models. It doesn’t allow for editing or a detailed look at the models, though: you get a preview image and a print button. You can monitor prints in progress and view video from the webcam.

Print Materials: PLA Support, With Third-Party Warnings

Makerbot focuses the Replicator+ on printing with polylactic acid (PLA), especially the company’s own tough PLA. The printer supports other materials, though there’s a big sticker that warns that “using 3rd party filament may void your warranty” — a rather regressive attitude compared to the open policy of other manufacturers.

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Makerbot sells a 0.9kg reel of PLA for between $48 and $65, and is available in 30 different colors and finishes, including glow in the dark material. The tough PLA that we tested is only sold in packs of 3 reels, with a smart extruder included for $379.

Setup: Quick and Simple

The Replicator+ doesn’t take long to set up: just unpack it, plug it in and load the filament. The whole process took less than 20 minutes, plus a few minutes of waiting for the printer to install a  firmware update.  You need to use the mobile app to connect it to a wireless network, but that didn’t take me long. Overall, it is a very simple and straightforward process.

Print Process: Some Challenges with Removal

Once you’re ready to print, you load the model into the MakerBot Print app and configure it. This includes choosing the layer height and letting the program generate the print file. Once the print file’s been sent to the printer, you can turn off the computer, or use it to monitor the print.

Printing on the Replicator+ was straightforward: the prints stuck well to the print bed, and we had very few failed prints. Even tall and thin prints (like the long screws that hold our gears test structure together) were printed without issues.

Removing the prints from the print bed required some effort: much of the time, we had to remove the print bed, then bend it to lift the edges of the print and pry it off. That’s preferable to prints not sticking, though, and as we noted above, having a second print bed is a smart investment for a busy printer.

Print Speed: Fast Printing

The Replicator+ is a pretty speedy printer: it cranked out our Thinker test model in between 1 hour and 48 minutes at the lowest quality and 6 hours and 7 minutes at the highest quality with a 0.1mm layer size. That’s significantly faster than other 3D printers: the Lulzbot Taz 6 took between 2 hours and 35 minutes and just over 8 hours to produce similar prints. This makes the Replicator+ one of the fastest printers we have tested, which is important if you are producing lots of prints.

MORE: How 3D Printers Work

Print Quality: Good Quality, Though, Not Spectacular

The Replicator+ produced decent, but not outstanding print quality in our tests. Most of our prints had good levels of detail and came out clean, but we did find a tendency for the printer to leave lots of whiskers, small bits of filaments that we stretched out when the print head moved around. These can be removed, but that takes time and often leaves marks.

Our first test print is a scan of Rodin’s sculpture the Thinker, which tests how well a printer can manage reproducing the smooth curves and details of the original. We found that the Replicator+ did well on the medium and fine detail settings, producing clean prints with smooth, realistic detail. The fastest print mode (which uses a 0.4mm layer height) was kind of a mess, though, with some of the the layers in the sloped shoulders of the figure barely joining together and leaving gaps in the print.

Next we use a geometric sculpture that tests how well the printer can produce straight lines and angled edges. The Replicator+ aced this test, producing a clean, smooth print of the sculpture with sharp edges. The points of the sculpture were not very sharp, though, and the print was again covered with whiskers of stretched filament.

Finally, we use a print that assembles into a gear mechanism, which tests how well the printer can produce the small details that allow the mechanism to work. The Replicator+ did well here, producing a smooth, detailed set of gears. We did have to spend a lot of time removing the gear parts from the raft of printed material that they were printed onto, though as the two were stuck together pretty tightly. After this, though, the mechanism assembled easily and without problems.

Bottom Line

The Replicator+ is a serious piece of 3D printing kit. It produces good quality prints at an impressive speed, and the software that runs the printer is easy to use and can run multiple devices. That would make it a great pick for a school or college that teaches design or 3D modelling, as it could crank out 3D prints all day.

However, the Replicator+ won’t work for those who want to experiment with printing in more exotic materials, as the lack of support for third party filaments limits what you can do with it. Experimental users will be better off with the TAZ 6, which can use a wider range of materials. Tor those who just want to print with the limited range of filaments that Makerbot offers, though, the Replicator+ is a solid pick that should stand up to heavy use.

Editors' Note: This article has been updated to correct information about the Replicator+'s print bed. The correction did not affect our rating.

Monoprice has a reputation as a producer of cheap but high-quality accessories for the audio world, but the company is now branching out into 3D printers with the $699 Maker Select Ultimate. The printer does the company's cheap-and-cheerful reputation no harm: It's a well-priced 3D printer that offers strong performance and some surprising features.

In addition to the Maker Select Ultimate, Monoprice offers an even cheaper model, the $199 MP Select Mini. Monoprice claims that the $199 Select Mini takes less than 10 minutes to set up, but can still print in ABS and PLA. We plan to review it to see what features you're giving up in exchange for that lower price tag.

Design: Bulky but practical

The Maker Select Ultimate is a hefty-looking chunk of a printer. Its frame sports an industrial look made of heavy, black, anodized metal. That won't win any prizes for graceful design, but it is practical: It keeps the moving parts contained and allows you to add covers for the openings if required. The insides of the printer have the same look made of black, anodized metal.

In the middle of the Maker Select Ultimate, you'll find the print bed, a 9 x 9-inch plate covered with a removable plastic coating that you lay print onto. This gives the Maker Select Ultimate a sizeable print volume, measuring 7.8 by 7.8 by 6.8 inches, for a total of about 413 cubic inches. That compares well with the 223 cubic inches offered by the similarly sized LulzBot Mini. This solid construction feels very robust, and doesn't shake or move as the print head swishes back and forth during printing.

The print head above the print bed is another chunk of heavy metal with a brass nozzle that the print material squishes out of. The filament feeds into the top of this print head from a reel of filament that fits onto the back of the printer frame. I did find some issues here: The print nozzle on my test model had some sort of obstruction in it that impeded the flow of melted filament. I had to remove the print nozzle and clean this out manually, but fortunately, the removable nozzle design made that process fairly easy.

The removable plastic sheet covering the print bed is replaceable, so if the sheet becomes damaged (or you just can't remove a print from the print

bed), you can peel it off. One print got so tightly stuck to the print bed that I ended up damaging the sheet when prying it off. Fortunately, sheets are easy to replace; you get three replacement sheets from Monoprice and can order more from the company, though there's no listed price at the moment.

On the front of the case are the controls: a small LED screen and a combination dial and button. Next to the screen is the SD card slot. The controls are simple to use: Turn the dial to scroll through the on-screen menu, then press it in to select.

If you're wondering why this printer is labeled with the name IIIP, this is a rebadge: Monoprice buys its printers from Wanhao and resells them under its own name.

Setup: Manual labor

The Maker Select Ultimate comes mostly assembled. You remove the packaging, install the dial and plug it in. Once the printer starts up, you have to level the print bed. Many recent printers, such as the LulzBot Mini, come with an automatic print-bed leveling system, in which a probe detects the print bed so the print head can hover just over it, but the Select Maker is strictly manual.

To level the print bed here, you have to slide a piece of paper between the bed and the print head and adjust three knobs until the gap is the same thickness as the paper. It's not particularly difficult, but automatic bed leveling is preferable.

Once the print bed is level, you can insert the filament and start printing. This is another simple but manual process, in which you follow a series of on-screen prompts. The reel of print material fits onto a hook behind the printer, then feeds over it and down into the print head. It isn't very obvious where the filament feeds into, but the illustrated manual covers the process well enough.

Print Materials: Flexibility, with some limits

The Maker Select Ultimate doesn't put any restrictions on the materials you can use for prints. The printer will work with any 1.75mm filament material that comes on a reel. The wide range of temperatures that the extruder and print bed can manage (260 degrees Celsius and 100 degrees C, respectively) means it can handle a wide range of materials, including PLA, ABS, HIPS, many nylon filaments and others.

We did most of our testing with PLA filament, but we also tested with ABS filament, another material used frequently for 3D printing. The Maker Select Ultimate struggled somewhat with ABS, with several prints failing because the layers didn't stick together properly. This was disappointing: One of the selling points of the Maker Select Ultimate over cheaper models is this flexibility, so we would have hoped for better performance out of the box with ABS.

Print Process: Straightforward with one catch

The Maker Select works with a software package called Cura IIIP Edition that comes included on an SD card that ships with the printer. This is a customized version of the open-source program Cura, although it is a few versions behind the latest release of Cura. It is pretty simple to use, presenting the user with a rotatable 3D view of the loaded model. You can also move and scale the model, but since it's not a full-on 3D modeling program, you can't create models from scratch. You can view the model in several different ways, including the layer view that provides a preview of the 3D print as it is created layer by layer.

This customized version of Cura also offers the ability to get into the more technical details of 3D printing and tweak them. By setting the software to expert mode, you can get access to a bewildering number of options and settings and create custom profiles for different materials and types of print.

Once the print is ready to go, you can print it directly over USB, or save the print file to the SD card. If you are doing the latter, you then have to choose Print from the menu on the printer and select the model from the list on the printer LED screen. If you are connected over USB, the software handles most of the process, heating up the print bed and nozzle and starting the print.

Once the printer was configured correctly, the print process turned out to be largely straightforward and trouble-free. I did find that getting the all-important first level of the print right required some tweaking, though. The manual print-bed leveling process described above didn't quite cut it. In my first few prints, the first layer of material didn't stick to the print bed, causing them to fail. To get them to stick, I had to turn the knobs slightly to adjust the print bed, then try a print and adjust again if required.

This is an overly finicky process, and another argument in favor of automatic print-bed leveling. Even after adjusting the print bed, I noticed some prints peeling rather alarmingly. This is when the first layer of material doesn't stick to the bed and peels up as subsequent layers are added. This didn't cause the print to fail, but it's somewhat alarming to see.

Print Speed: Nothing out of the ordinary

In terms of speed, the Maker Select Ultimate is a fairly average 3D printer. Printing with PLA filament at Normal quality with a layer height of 0.1mm, our 4.5-inch Thinker test sculpture took about 16 hours and 40 minutes to print. A similar print on the XYZprinting da Vinci 3-in1 took about 14 hours and 13 minutes, so Monoprice's printer is a little bit slower. 3D printing is never a speedy process, and the Maker Select Ultimate does nothing to change this.

Print Quality: Decent, not spectacular

The Maker Select Ultimate offers good, though not spectacular print quality. Most of my models printed cleanly, with some visible layering and a small amount of filament whiskers left hanging from the prints when they were complete. On our angular sculpture print, for instance, a lot of whiskers of melted filament came from the edges, caused by the material stretching into whiskers as the head moved to another part of the print. Layers were clearly visible in the shoulders of the test print of Rodin's Thinker sculpture.

The Maker Select Ultimate offers three print-quality settings: Fast, Normal and High. These use a 0.06, 0.1 and 0.2mm layer height, respectively, which is somewhat smaller than most — and thus slower to print. If you want to produce less detailed but quicker prints, the Expert mode allows you to set the layer height manually.

Bottom Line

The Maker Select Ultimate offers a lot for not a lot of money. The printer provides acceptable print quality and a decent range of features. Monoprice's printer is rather slow, though, and is missing some of the more sophisticated features that make a 3D printer like the LulzBot Mini. easier to use: There is no nozzle cleaning, for example, or automatic print-bed leveling. These features make a printer more reliable; without them, you have to do more manual tweaking.

For those who don't mind doing this sort of fiddling, the Maker Select Ultimate is a good pick, especially as it is so much cheaper than the LulzBot Mini and offers the same flexibility with printing multiple materials. But for heavy-duty or educational printing, the LulzBot Mini. remains the better pick.

Can you really get well-made custom insoles from an app? Using ExoSols' mobile app to take photos of your feet, you can create 3D-printed insoles, and the company promises to deliver them to your door in a week. Is this $99 service for real? Count me as one who was skeptical, but I'm now convinced.

Getting Fitted

When I was fitted for insoles by a podiatrist a year or two ago, he had me place my feet inside a foam-filled box that recorded every single contour of the bottom of my feet. ExoSols eliminates the middleman by having you take photos of your feet, and then you can use its app to send those photos to the company.

The first step in getting sized for the insoles is to download the ExoSols app to your Android or iOS device. It’s probably easiest if you use a smartphone rather than a tablet, as you’ll have to take photos with whatever device you use.

After creating an account on the app, it had me enter my height, weight and shoe size. Next, it walked me through a few other screens, to see where my shoes were most worn, and when I experienced the most discomfort.

The app then guided me as I took four photos of my feet (two photos per foot). The first was an overhead profile of my foot next to an 8.5 x 11-inch piece of paper. The other photo was a side shot from the floor, to show the arch of my foot.

ExoSols recommends that you have a friend take the photos. I recommend that you do, too. I tried taking the photos, but it was very difficult, if not impossible, for me to get the correct shot. Finally, the app scanned and uploaded the photos of my feet.

You can also choose between two fabric options: Comfy, a layered top-knit fabric with a smooth foundation; and Sturdy, which has interwoven steel fibers. I went with the latter.

I received a confirmation email from ExoSols, but despite a claim on its site that the company's lead time is just six days, two weeks passed with nary a word from ExoSols. I finally emailed the company's customer support center, and heard back that my order would be shipped out "in the next few days." However, to my surprise, the insoles arrived the next day.

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If the Shoe Fits…

The insoles slid easily into my shoes, so I didn’t have to trim the tops of them, as you would have to do with the ones you buy from a store. And they felt great as I went about my daily routine, and they even survived a business trip.

They provided very nice arch support, but unlike my other insoles, which were made by a podiatrist, they didn’t have any additional support for my metatarsal arch, even though I had indicated in the app that I experienced pain in that area of my foot. Regardless, while wearing the ExoSols for two weeks, I never felt pain in my feet, so it must have been doing something right.

If you purchase ExoSols through the company's app, health insurance plans don't cover the cost. However, ExoSols can also be sold by podiatrists, who can provide more precise fittings. You can search for providers through Exosols’ website; I found three within a mile of my office.

Bottom Line

As someone who runs a lot, keeping my feet comfortable is a big priority, so I was a bit wary of ExoSols’ claims. After wearing them for two weeks, however, I liked the support they gave to my arches. While I still might go to a podiatrist for a more accurate fitting, the ExoSols are a good, do-it-yourself alternative.

The XYZprinting da Vinci 1.0 Pro 3-in-1 has a lot of numbers in its name, because it does a lot of stuff. For $899, you get a 3D printer that can print with ABS and PLA filament, along with a 3D scanner. For an extra $99, you can add a laser engraver that can etch wood, plastic and other materials with 2D images.

The da Vinci Pro 3-in-1 does a decent job at two of its tasks: 3D printing and engraving. But the 3D scanner did not work well, making this device a jack of all trades, master of none.

Design: Make Some Room

This large, imposing printer will take up a lot of desk space: At 22 x 20.5 x 18 inches, the da Vinci Pro 3-in-1 isn't going to fit into a tiny corner. A bulky, red-and-black plastic case encloses all of the features, with a door at the front that opens to reveal the 3D printing, scanning and etching area. Another door on the top provides access to the cavity where the filament cartridges fit.

The heated print bed can handle a print of up to 5.9 inches high, wide and deep, providing an impressive 205 cubic inches of print volume. XYZprinting recommends using painter's tape and white glue to help prints stick to the print bed, and the company includes three sheets of tape with the printer. Most of the prints we made stuck well to this combination of heat, tape and a bit of glue, though it's rather easy to damage the tape when removing the print, meaning you have to replace the entire sheet. The da Vinci Pro 3-in-1's print bed is definitely not as tough or resilient as the plastic bed on printers such as the LulzBot Mini.

The 3-in-1 includes USB and Wi-Fi, but the latter is a little limited. You can use the 3D-printing and laser-etching functions over a Wi-Fi network, but not the 3D scanner, which requires a USB connection.

Print Materials: Broad Support

Support for third-party materials distinguishes XYZprinting's Pro lineup from its amateur offerings. Whereas printers such as the da Vinci 1.0 AiO work only with filament in XYZprinting's own print cartridges, the Pro can handle these cartridges and 1.75-mm filament from other manufacturers. That said, XYZprinting does still try to nudge you toward using its own filament; when you start the companion software, a pop-up message warns you, "Print quality may vary with third-party filament."

For print materials, XYZ includes 18 colors of ABS and seven colors of PLA. These range from the natural white to a particularly lurid neon magenta, and cost between $20 and $40 for a roll that contains 600 grams of filament. That's a decent value and comparable to most third-party filaments.

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Setup: Calibration Complications

It's fairly simple to get the da Vinci 1.0 Pro 3-in-1 up and running. With the exception of the etching laser, the printer comes fully assembled, so all you have to do is unbox it, remove the numerous bits of packing foam and tape, and plug it in.

It's also easy to load the filament. You just install the cartridge or reel, and then feed the filament into the tube that leads to the printhead. A motor pulls the filament into the printhead. Once you see the melted filament coming out of the printhead, you're ready to go.

Our test unit didn't need any calibration before printing, but XYZprinting does recommend you calibrate every time the printer is moved, to make sure the print bed is level. Whereas printers such as the LulzBot Mini automate this process completely, the Pro 3-in-1 requires some manual intervention, which can be a little cumbersome.

The da Vinci printer uses a sensor on the print head to detect the print bed, and then asks you to adjust the print bed leveling dials. It might ask, for instance, that you "turn the right dial 0.5 steps forward." With each "step" representing a quarter turn of the dial, this gets a little confusing, as you have to figure out what something like 0.1 steps backward actually represents. Once you have made the adjustments, the printer tests the level of the bed again.

Interface: Two Different Controls

You control the Pro 3-in-1 two ways — through the XYZware Pro software, available as a free download for Windows and Mac, or through a small LCD and buttons on the device itself. The XYZware Pro software is straightforward and simple to use, taking you through the process of loading a model, scaling and shifting it, and sending the file to the printer for building. When you load a model, the program shows a rotatable preview of it on the print bed, which you can scale, rotate, shift or delete.

The program hides most of the technical aspects of 3D printing from the casual user, but they are available if you dig. If you want to change the layer height or the infill (how much of the interior of the model is filled with material), you have to select Print and then go to the General tab of the Print Settings screen.  

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Once you're ready to print, the program sends the file to the printer, and you can then exit XYZware Pro. From there, you can monitor the print, pause it or cancel it through a simple menu on the Pro 3-in-1's LCD screen. You can also do things such as change the filament or monitor the temperature of the various parts.

Print Process: Solid, with Some Failures

I found the process of printing on the Pro 3-in-1 to be mostly straightforward. For most materials, you place a sheet of bed tape (similar to painter's tape) on the print bed, and also apply white glue to the print area to help the print material stick to the bed. I found that this combination worked well, with most prints sticking to the bed properly.

I did have occasional failures where the print failed to stick, or a small bit of melted filament stuck to the print head and blocked the extruder. When this happened, I ended up with a large gunky mass of melted filament stuck to the print head that required cleaning. XYZprinting includes tools for this, such as a copper wire brush and a pin for unblocking the extruder head.

Print Speed: Slow Output

The Pro 3-in-1 is not a particularly fast printer; the print time ranged from 6 hours and 45 minutes (on the largest 0.3-mm layer height) and 11 hours and 23 minutes (on the 0.2-mm layer height) to produce a 4.5-inch-high print. That's significantly slower than the comparably priced LulzBot Mini, which managed to produce a similar print in about 2 hours, albeit with a slightly larger 0.38-mm layer height. 

Print Quality: Some Issues with Small Layers

I was impressed with the quality of most of the prints produced by the Pro 3-in-1. Most of these were very clean, with smooth surfaces and very few printing glitches. However, I found that prints at the smallest, 0.1-mm layer height did not work very well, with some parts of these prints not sticking together, often causing the print to fail.

To test 3D printers, I use a series of test models: a geometric sculpture, a 3D scan of Rodin's "The Thinker" sculpture and a set of gears. The Pro 3-in-1 aced this test, producing a clean, well-formed 3D print of the sculpture that had smooth edges and nice sharp points at the end. I did, however, see some odd filaments hanging off the edges of the sculpture, caused by the melted filament stretching as the print head moved away to print another part of the sculpture. These were easily trimmed off the final model.

The Rodin sculpture test looks at the printer's ability to reproduce natural objects, such as the muscles in the sculpture's shoulder. Again, I saw few issues here, with the printer producing a clean, accurate print of the sculpture with the layer height set to 0.3 mm and 0.2 mm. However, the printer struggled to produce a print at a layer height of 0.1 mm; the supports for parts of the sculpture were formed incorrectly, and several parts came loose and stuck to other parts of the print.

Finally, I printed a set of gears, and then assembled the final gear set to see how well the printer could create details such as the cogs of gears and the thread of screws. The 3-in-1 did well here, producing a clean set of gears that fit together well. Some of the gears did need a bit of cleaning with a sharp knife, as there were odd bits of loose filament stuck to some parts.

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3D Scanning: Disappointing Results

The da Vinci Pro 3-in-1 also acts as a 3D scanner; it can build a 3D model of an object by scanning and reconstructing it in software. The Pro 3-in-1 disappointed in this area, however, producing scans that lacked detail and often completely missed parts of the object. When it did work, the scanner did best with smooth, matte objects such as sculpture or pottery, but it couldn't scan dark, shiny or glass objects.

You can scan 6 x 6-inch objects — basically, anything the size of a hardback book. The 3D scanner shines two laser lines on the scanned object, which sits on a rotating platform in the bottom of the case. Then, two cameras detect this laser light, using the position of the detected laser line to calculate the shape of the object. One laser/camera combo looks up at the object from the left, while the second combo looks down from slightly above on the right side. The XYZscan software controls the process, which takes about 4 to 5 minutes.

Your initial scan produces a rough version that you can edit using the software, smoothing parts of the scan. You can't do large-scale edits, such as filling in large holes.

If a scan misses parts of the object, the software's Multiscan feature lets you move the object, scan it again and mark similar points on the two scans. The software then tries to combine the two scans into one. This process had mixed results: On complex objects, it wasn't able to combine the results, but simpler objects could be combined for better scans.

The resolution of the scan isn't great: intricate details smaller than a quarter of an inch or so won't be captured very well. In one example below, I scanned a 4.5-inch print of "The Thinker." Though the general shape of his body is captured, his head is missing, and large areas of his body just aren't captured at all.

Laser Etching: Good with Some Tweaking

XYZprinting's 3-in-1 also offers laser etching if you opt for a $99 attachment. It can etch images into materials like wood, paper or cardboard. It does a pretty good job, but the process requires a lot of tweaking and experimentation to get good results. The quality also varies depending on the material you're etching.

The laser etcher contains a small (0.25 watt) blue laser, similar to the one in a Blu-ray player. The laser isn't powerful enough to do other tricks that bigger laser etchers can do. For example, it can't cut through things or etch materials harder than wood.

To use the etcher, you have to remove the 3D printhead. Just set the 3-in-1 to the Change Print Head option in the on-screen display, turn off the printer, remove a cable from the printhead, release a latch and lift the printhead out. To install the etcher, you simply reverse the process; the whole thing takes just a couple of minutes. It's unfortunate that you can't have both printheads installed side by side.

Once the etcher head is installed, you can start etching, using the same XYZware Pro software you use for 3D printing, but with a slightly different interface. Using a 2D representation of the print bed, you can load image files (JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF and BMP formats are supported) that you want to etch.

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You can choose between two modes: Vector and Raster. Vector mode works best with simple, one-color logos; it processes the image by detecting the edges of the areas of colors. Raster mode is more complicated; it tries to turn different colors in the image into different shades, which will be etched by using the laser at different strengths. This creates a gray-scale version of the image. Either way, expect to spend some time experimenting with this for the best results, as the software offers a number of controls for tweaking the result.

Once the file is processed, it is sent to the printer, and the etching starts. This is pretty quick for simple images; a Tom's Guide logo took less than 10 minutes. Etchings with larger areas to fill in or more complex images take longer; a 6.5 x 3-inch sample image took about 4 hours to etch into cardboard.

Etching can also be a little stinky, as you are burning the image onto the material being etched. It didn't set anything alight or trigger any smoke alarms in my tests of etching light wood and cardboard, but you should definitely make sure the area is well ventilated and keep a close eye on it.

Bottom Line

The XYZprinting da Vinci 1.0 Pro 3-in-1 packs a lot into its large case, and the 3D-printing and laser-etching features of this do-it-all device work fairly well. Though it's slow, the 3D printer produced decent 3D prints at all but the smallest layer height, and the laser etcher produced nice, clean etchings on soft materials. However, we were disappointed by the lackluster performance of the 3D scanner, which produced scans that were missing parts and lacked detail and could not scan many common materials, such as glass, glossy metal and very dark objects.

Still, when you consider the low price tag, two out of three ain't bad. The da Vinci 1.0 Pro 3-in-1 represents a decent value compared to competitors such as the LulzBot Mini that may offer better performance, but at a higher price.

The TAZ 6 is the latest version of LulzBot's flagship 3D printer, a $2,500 high-end device that can handle prints large and small while supporting an impressive range of materials. This new version of one of the most popular filament deposition manufacturing (FDM, also known as FFM) 3D printers adds a number of new features that make it more flexible, faster to print and easier to set up.

Design: Upgrades All Around

The TAZ 6 has the same industrial-looking design of previous models, with an open framework built from extruded aluminum. Most of the printer's nonmetal parts are 3D printed themselves, and as with previous models, the plans to build your own TAZ 6 are available online for free.

Still, the new TAZ 6 offers a lot of improvements and new features not included on the previous model, the TAZ 5. Foremost is the addition of an automatic print bed leveling system that uses four metal discs at the corner of the print bed to detect its level. The extruder touches on each disc in turn, completing a circuit that ultimately detects the location of the print bed those discs hold in place. This avoids the need to level the print bed manually, which makes it much, much easier to set up and calibrate the printer. In addition, a small felt pad automatically cleans the extruder before each print, removing any blobs of filament that got stuck to the printhead that could ruin a print. Both of these automatic features worked flawlessly in our tests. 

The large print bed is covered in a plastic material called polyetherimide (PEI), to which most 3D-printing materials will stick, especially when the print bed is heated. The print bed can reach a maximum temperature of 248 degrees Fahrenheit, and it can withstand the application of white glue that helps some materials (such as polystyrene) stick to the print bed. The usable area of the print bed is an impressive 11.7 x 10.8 inches, and prints can be up to 9.8 inches high. That gives you a total print volume of 1,238 cubic inches — more than double the volume of the $2,499 Makerbot Replicator.

The extruder that melts the print material to form the print also got an upgrade, with a bigger heater to melt the material, and three fans to cool the extruded material. The extruder can heat up to an impressive 572 F, which means it can handle print materials that need high temperatures to melt, such as nylons.

The TAZ 6's SD card slot and large LCD screen allow the printer to work in stand-alone mode without a connected PC. However, there is no Ethernet or wireless connection; you have to use the LCD screen or USB connection to control the printer. Many 3D-printer companies, such as Formlabs and Polar 3D, are now offering software that allows groups of users to operate a single printer out of the box. However, the TAZ 6 does not; third-party software (such as Octoprint), which will work with the TAZ 6, does offer these features, though.

Print Materials: An Impressive Range

The TAZ 6 can work with an incredible range of materials. Out of the box, the Cura software supports 29 types of filament, ranging from old favorites like ABS and PLA to more exotic materials like conductive PLA, nylon and wood-like filament materials.

LulzBot sells these materials in 1-kilogram reels of 3-millimeter filament, but the TAZ 6 will work with 3-mm filament from any supplier. Any damage to the printer caused by untested materials is not covered by the warranty, though, so do some research on the very active LulzBot forum.

The only materials that LulzBot actively warns against using (so far) are filaments that use carbon fiber, as they can damage the extruder. We tested the TAZ 6 using ABS, high-impact polystyrene (HIPS) and plasticized copolyamide TPE (PCTPE), a new and very tough, nylon-like material.

Setup: A Little Hands-On Time

The TAZ 6 is simple to set up, but you do have to handle parts of this process yourself. While the printer comes mostly built, you have to do the final steps yourself, installing the base of the printer and the print head using a few screws and connecting a few cables. The well-documented process takes an hour or so. 

Once the printer is ready, you install the Cura software, plug in the USB cable and add the filament. This involves heating the printhead, feeding the filament through the guide tube, popping the printhead feed mechanism open and pushing the filament into the extruder. Again, the process is relatively simple, but it is much more hands-on than the cartridge-based filament installation process of printers such as the 3D Systems Cube 3.

Interface: Solid, with Some Glitches

You control the TAZ 6 by using either the LCD screen on the device or the open-source Cura software. LulzBot offers a slightly customized version (available for Windows, Mac and Linux) that loads 3D models, processes them for printing and then either saves the files to an SD card for later printing or directly controls the printer over a USB 2.0 connection. It's a powerful but easy-to-use program that offers a lot of features in a simple interface.

The main window of Cura presents a virtual view of the print bed, with the loaded 3D model placed on it. You can easily load multiple models at once to print at the same time (what 3D-printer users call "plating"), and move, scale, rotate and shift the models with the mouse.

The program can also automatically orient the model to the best angle for 3D printing. Several different views of the virtual print bed are also available, allowing you to have an X-ray view of the print (so you can see one object behind another) or see if there are any overhanging areas that might be difficult to print.

The most useful view is the layers, which provides a preview of the print process. Using the layer slider on the right, you can see how the printer will actually create the model, one layer at a time.

Cura makes it simple to pick a print material: Just select the filament material you want to use from a drop-down menu. The supported filaments are divided into types such as Beginner, Intermediate and Expert, and there's a link to a web page that shows more information on material, including the required temperatures and if your selection needs additional glue on the print bed in order to stick properly.

Additionally, you can choose from three presets for print speed and quality: Standard, High Speed and High Detail. The High Detail setting uses a very small (0.18 mm) layer height, while the High Speed setting uses a much larger 0.38 mm layer height for much faster printing.

Although Cura is generally easy to use and responsive, it does have some glitches. For example, when we performed more complex operations (such as scaling down our model of Rodin's "The Thinker" for printing), the program sometimes locked up for about 5 to 10 seconds, not responding to key presses before responding to all of the key presses at once. This can be frustrating when you're doing things like entering a new measurement to scale the print to; you have to wait and see if you typed in the number correctly.

Print Process: Hassle-Free

You control stand-alone printing via the LCD screen and control dial on the printer body; it's a fairly simple interface to use. When printing directly from Cura, you use a Control screen that pops up when you hit the Control Printer button; it presents a simple, point-and-click way to control the printer. You can move the printhead, set temperatures and extrude filament with a click or two, which is important because you need this access to unload and load new filament into the extruder.

The Control screen doesn't provide a lot of feedback about the print process — just a "percent complete" count, a progress bar and a few technical messages. A more visual indication, such as a preview of the layer or an estimated time to finish, would be useful here.

Generally, the process of printing on the TAZ 6 was simple and hassle-free. We did have a few failed prints, but they were much more the exception than the rule, and less frequent than what we've seen with other printers. A couple of thin, tall prints failed to stick to the print bed and fell over, and the layers failed to stick together on another, producing a goopy mess that stuck to the print head. But most of the prints in our tests were produced flawlessly, sticking well to the print bed and staying still as they were built up. The approach of moving the print bed backward and forward, rather than moving the extruder, can sometimes cause issues with large prints rocking back and forth from this motion, but that didn't happen here.

The TAZ 6 is not a quiet printer. It produces a fair amount of bzzzup-bzzzup and clunk-clunk-clunk noises as the print head moves around. The fans that cool the extruded material also produce a very audible whooshing noise, so you won't want to set this up on your desk or dining-room table. 

Print Speed: Quality Takes Time

The TAZ 6 can be both a very fast and very slow 3D printer, depending on what you need. If you don't mind the somewhat rough finish of the high-speed print preset, the TAZ 6 can crank prints out faster than most of the 3D printers we have tested, producing a 4.5-inch-high copy of our "The Thinker" test print in just 2 hours and 35 minutes. That's about the same as the 2 hours and 28 minutes the TAZ 5 took, but it's much quicker than the results from other 3D printers. The Polar 3D took 5 hours and 19 minutes to make the same-size model.

If quality is your aim, the High Detail preset of the TAZ 6 produces better-looking prints, though it's much slower, taking a little more than 8 hours to produce the "Thinker" print.

The Cura software produces grossly optimistic estimates of the time a print will take. It estimated that our "Thinker" model would take a little less than 2 hours to print on the High Speed preset, and 6 hours and 23 minutes in the High Detail setting.

Print Quality: Impressive, After Some Cleanup

The TAZ 6 produced impressive-quality prints, handling the smooth curves of organic shapes and the sharp edges of geometric shapes with equal aplomb. 

Our 3D scan of Rodin's "The Thinker" statue tests how well a 3D printer can handle smooth, organic and complicated shapes. The TAZ 6 aced this test, producing prints that accurately captured the smooth curves of the original. We did notice some layering on all of these prints, though. Even on the High Detail preset, the shoulders of the Thinker had a distinct stair-step look. All filament 3D printers show this, though, and it can often be removed by processing the print in acetone to smooth the surface.

Next, we tried a set of planetary gears — a complex set of interlocking cogs and gears that tests how well the printer can handle fine details. We had no problems there; the finished gears fit together easily, smoothly locking together to produce the working-gear set. Some parts of the gears did require a little cleaning, though. The top of the long screws that hold all of the other parts in place had some filament threads attached that had to be removed, and some of the holes in the gears that these screws fit into had to be scraped with a sharp knife to remove odd bits of printing material that were blocking the screw thread. These were minor issues, though, and the prints from the TAZ 6 required significantly less cleaning than most. 

Finally, we used a 3D model of a geometric sculpture to see how well the printer could handle sharp edges and fine points. The TAZ 6 produced an impressive print there as well, giving clean, sharp edges to the vanes of the sculpture. The tips of these vanes were a little rough, though, with some loose threads of filament trailing from the tip, caused by the material stretching as the print extruder moved away from the tip. Other tips and some edges had small blobs of filament attached. Both of these can be removed easily with a sharp knife but can leave marks that detract from the quality of the final print.

Bottom Line

The TAZ 5 represented the state of the art for FDM 3D printing, and the TAZ 6 does nothing to lose that crown. It is the best FDM 3D printer we have tested. While print quality remains the same, the TAZ 6 is more reliable and easier to use than its predecessor. Plus, the self-leveling print bed and extruder cleaner make printing more consistent and reliable.

Of course, quality has its price. At $2,500, this is a very expensive printer that is nearly double the cost of the $1,350 LulzBot Mini, which remains a better pick for casual users. The TAZ 6, though, is the king of the hill when it comes to 3D printing for the well-heeled enthusiast, experimenter or professional who wants fast, reliable 3D printing.

The less expensive end of the 3D-printer market is very competitive, with lots of printers vying for the attention of the first-time user. One of the latest (and most interesting) entrants is the M3D Micro, a $349 printer that offers the same features as many larger and more expensive models.

The M3D Micro produces acceptable 3D prints and has easy-to-use software. There are compromises, though: It is slow, the prints sometimes had surface blemishes and the printer's open-frame design means it wouldn't be good for younger users. But these are compromises you should expect with printers at this price, and the M3D Micro is a good pick for casual users who want to see what this 3D printing thing is all about without breaking the bank.

Design: Big Print Volume for the Size

Not to put too fine a point on it, but the M3D Micro is cute. It's a small 3D printer in a 7.3-inch frame, made of light plastic. Our review unit was an attractive pale blue, but the printer is also available in black, white, green, orange, clear or silver.

The only bit that pokes out of this cube is the tube that feeds the print material from the reel, through the back of the frame and into the top of the print head. On the front, an LED-illuminated M3D logo shows you the printer is turned on. There are no buttons or controls on the printer itself: everything is controlled from your computer via the USB connection that plugs into the back.

Inside the frame is the printing mechanism, made of a number of rods and belts that move the print head left and right, forward and back, and up and down. The print bed is made of slightly textured plastic called BuildTak that the print material sticks to, and the entire print bed can be removed by sliding it backward and lifting it. This removable print bed has two purposes: It makes removing the completed print off the print bed easier, and it reveals the cavity where the print material is stored on a small reel, which holds about 0.5 pounds of filament.

Given the size of the printer, you can produce surprisingly large prints: the M3D Micro offers a print volume of 4.2 x 4.4 x 4.6 inches, for a total of 85 cubic inches. As the entire cube is just over 7 inches on each side, that's an impressive print volume. While it's less than what you'd get from larger, more expensive printers like the Polar 3D (which has a cylindrical print volume of 400 cubic inches) or the LulzBot Mini (223 cubic inches), it's still large enough to print many objects.

Print Materials: PLA Works Best

The M3D Micro uses unique 5-inch reels to hold the printing filament, called 3D Ink, which the company sells directly for between $14 (PLA and ABS) and $28 (new ABS that changes colors depending on the temperature of the print head). That works out to between $56 and $112 a kilogram — a little more expensive than most print materials.

Fortunately, you are not restricted to buying from M3D. The Micro will work with 1.75-mm filament from any manufacturer, but you will have to find a way to mount the larger reels that most 3D filament is supplied on. When it's running from one of these larger reels, the filament feeds directly into the print head — a much messier and less aesthetically pleasing solution than the hidden approach of the smaller M3D reels.

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The M3D Micro's print head and bed also support a wide range of material types, including PLA, ABS, nylon and other materials. We tested it with both PLA (polylactic acid) and ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) filament, and had the most success with the former material. With PLA, we made large 3D prints that covered much of the print bed and stuck well to the bed while printing. We had less success with ABS. It's a tougher material, and prints with bases that were larger than a couple of square inches tended to warp, bending as they cooled. Sometimes, the ABS prints didn't stick to the print bed — the base lifted from the print bed and the whole print fell off and failed.

Setup: Simple to Get Started

Almost all you have to do to set up the M3D Micro is unbox it, remove the foam and plastic shipping clamps, install the software onto a Mac or PC, plug the printer in and connect the USB cable. Our printer came loaded with a reel of PLA filament, and it was ready to print.

The only major bit of setup we had to do was to run the calibration feature of the M3D app, which makes sure the print head is correctly set just above the print bed. This is an automatic process: The print head detects when it is in contact with the print bed.

Interface: Controlled from an App

The M3D Micro is controlled solely by the M3D app, which is available as a free download for Windows and Mac. There are no mobile or tablet versions of the app, as it requires a USB connection to the printer.

The M3D program is simple to use, presenting you with a number of options to load a 3D model or reload a recently used one. Once the model is loaded, you get a preview of the printed model with options to move, scale and rotate it. There is no way to build a new model or otherwise modify one; you'll need a separate 3D modeling program to do that.

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Once the model is ready, you hit print, and the program processes the model for 3D printing and starts the print process. You get a few options to control the print process, such as determining the print quality and the fill density (how much of the print is filled with supports). More advanced controls, such as for turning off the supports that hold a print in place, are available from a More Options button. You can't control more advanced features, such as the number of supports the processing adds to the model while building, or the type of internal fill used — features that can, when used properly, make it quicker and more efficient to make a print.

Print Process: Straightforward, But Not Glitch Free

While the print is in progress, a simple dialogue box in the program shows a percentage meter. It doesn't tell you how much time remains in the print process, and the estimates the program gives when starting a print were rather optimistic: a print estimated to take 16 hours ended up taking more than 25 hours. While a print is running, you can't use the M3D program: it has to remain running until the print is complete.

The M3D Micro printer is quiet. You'll hear only a slight fan noise and the buzzing of the motors moving the print head. Because it is not enclosed, you do get the smell of the melted printing material — a popcorn-like smell for PLA and a burnt-plastic smell for ABS. Sensitive noses might find these unpleasant, especially after many hours of printing.

We did have several failed prints during our tests. In particular, we had problems with the print head jamming, in which melted material either got caught in the nozzle, blocked the nozzle or the motor that pulls the material into the print head didn't pull hard enough to keep the filament pushing through the extruder and out of the nozzle. When this happened, the printer didn't notice, and the print head kept moving, even though no material was extruded and the print stopped being formed. This happened with both filament mounted inside the printer and on an external reel. This happened only intermittently, however, but it was definitely annoying when a 24-hour print failed most of the way through.

Most printers use a heated print bed, which keeps the bottom of the print slightly molten so it will stick; the M3D Micro doesn't. Instead, it relies on the stickiness of the BuildTak print bed, which doesn't work well with larger ABS prints. It might be possible to use other methods to make the ABS stick (such as blue painters' tape or a slurry of ABS dissolved in acetone), but the location of the print spool under the print bed makes these approaches difficult: liquids would flow over the edge of the print bed and onto the reel and mechanism below.

Print Speed: Sloooooow

The M3D is a very, very slow 3D printer. We test print speed by printing a number of standard-size models in each of the print-quality modes the printer offers, and the M3D was one of the slowest printers we have ever seen.

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Printing a 4.2-inch version of our Thinker test model using PLA filament took 13 hours and 54 minutes in the low-quality mode (with a layer height of 0.3 mm), while the high-quality version, using a layer height of 0.1 mm, took an achingly long 25 hours and 34 minutes. That's more than twice as long as the Polar 3D, which took 5 hours and 19 minutes to produce a draft print and 6 hours 51 minutes to produce a medium print.

Print Quality: Acceptable, But Some Glitches

The M3D Micro produces decent-quality 3D prints, but it has a few issues that detract from the quality: It was prone to leaving whiskers of print material behind, and we saw some odd printing glitches that detracted from the quality of the final prints. Our geometric sculpture model tests the ability of the printer to produce sharp and straight edges, and the M3D Micro did well here: Our test prints had mostly clean edges with only moderate stair stepping from the print layers. We did find that the edges of the sculpture had a lot of whiskers stretched between edges as the print head moved over gaps.

These were also accompanied by occasional clumps of the print material on the edges themselves, caused by odd lumps of melted material gathering on the print head and sticking to an edge as it was printed.

The M3D did a decent job printing our Thinker test model, which has lots of smooth edges and organic curves that test the ability of the printer to control the movement of the print head and the flow of molten printing material. Most of these were well-reproduced, with the smooth curves of the Thinkers' head and shoulders having a smooth, organic look.

However, we did see an odd, almost camouflage pattern on the sides of the print, which wasn't present in the original model. This hasn't shown up in other printers, and is rather a problem. It makes the Thinker look like he has some sort of unpleasant skin condition.

Bottom Line

The M3D Micro is a neat little 3D printer with a lot of good features. It has decent software and produces acceptable print quality. And let's not forget, it is cheap — at $349 for the printer alone, or $449 for the retail version that includes a roll of PLA filament, it is one of the cheapest 3D printers out there.

The downside is the speed: the M3D Micro is much, much slower than others. And although it can use ABS filament, it struggled to produce prints with it that larger, more expensive printers had no issues with. But, if you don't mind sticking with PLA and waiting, the M3D Micro is a decent introduction to 3D printing that shows what a basic printer can (and can't yet) do without breaking the bank.

LAS VEGAS — With every CES, XYZprinting's da Vinci 3D printer seems to shrink. Last year, the company unveiled the da Vinci Junior, a $349 3D printer aimed squarely at beginners. This time around, it's rolling out the da Vinci Mini, which comes in a smaller size with an equally smaller price tag.

Measuring 15.7 x 13.2 x 14.3 inches, the da Vinci Mini is 30 percent smaller than last year's Jr. printer. It will also cost $269 when it ships by the third quarter of 2016, which XYZprinting says would make it the lowest-priced 3D printer to come fully assembled. Though it may not be as large as the da Vinci Jr., the Mini offers the same 5.9 x 5.9 x 5.9-inch build space.

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If the price tag didn't hint that the da Vinci Mini is designed for home use, the printer's features drive that point home. It's available in a variety of colors — I spotted red, orange, yellow and white models on the CES show floor — and the printing area is enclosed by a protective case so that it's safe to use around kids. The da Vinci mini also takes care of calibration of the printer bed and the nozzle, so that users don't have to worry about making those kind of adjustments.

The da Vinci Jr. isn't getting ignored. XYZprinting is adding multifunction capabilities to a new model, the $549 da Vinci Jr. 3-in-1, which features 3D scanning and Wi-Fi capabilities alongside printing. Another model, the $499 da Vinci Jr. 2.0 Mix, has the ability to blend two colors through a dual-extruding single nozzle. The result — prints that gradually change color from the base to the tip — can be quite striking based on what I saw on the show floor. One object blended yellows and greens in a distinctive way that will appeal to 3D printing enthusiasts with an artistic bent.

The 3-in-1 version of the Jr. ships in the second quarter; the Mix follows it later in the year.

Another CES debutant underscores XYZprinting's belief that 3D printing's place is also in the home. The company is coming out with a $49 3D pen. With the press of a button, you dispense the filament that's fed into the easy-to-hold pen, forming whatever shape you want.

The idea, a spokesperson explained to me, is that XYZprinting's 3D Pen lets anyone come up with 3D projects, even without a computer or 3D modeling skills. That latter part certainly describes me, but I managed to use the pen to make some nifty-looking shapes, and I imagine this is the sort of thing that will be welcome as a craft tool in both homes and schools.

Speaking of schools, XYZprinting has developed an online curriculum program aimed at helping teachers work 3D printing into their lessons plans. The XYZ STEAM program — that takes the science, technology, engineering math elements of STEM and adds art to it — will include curricula from XYZprinting, discounted printers for schools and other tools to help students learn real-world uses for 3D printing.

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LAS VEGAS — Sculpteo thinks that 3D printing could use a little more flexibility. So the 3D printing service is taking the wraps off a new material that makes its prints more flexible without compromising on durability. The material is called Flexible Plastic, a thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) that's notable for its ability to produce soft 3D prints that remain functional.

If you're swayed by methods of measuring the hardness of different materials, Sculpteo says Flexible Plastic rates a Shore hardness level of 65A, which is below what you typically see in the 3D printing market.

In practical terms, that means items printed with Flexible Plastic will have some give to them. Sculpteo CEO Clement Moreau showed me a 3D-printed model of a human heart made from the material. I was able to squeeze the heart without any fear of it shattering in my hand; I also took note of the intricate details on the surface of assorted arteries and aortas.

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Moreau had a photo of an eve more impressive example of the material's flexibility — a dress printed out of this flexible TPU featuring intricate, interlocking patterns. That's the result of selective laser sintering, Moreau says, which specializes in interlocking patterns.

"It's a completely new way to produce flexible material," Moreau said.

It's also not that expensive, relative to more rigid materials. That human heart model would have cost $80 to print using Sculpteo's service, about the same price as if it had been printed using nylon. There are some constraints on Flexible Plastic, though: you can only produce prints that are limited to 6 x 6 x 6 inches. It also takes a little longer to produce prints with Flexible Plastic, as Sculpteo is taking extra care with the new material. Whereas an order printed from nylon might be ready to ship to a customer in two days, Flexible Plastic prints take closer to a week.

Still, Moreau is excited by what a more flexible, durable material can mean for 3D printing — namely, that 3D printing can expand beyond prototyping into different kinds of manufacturing. Among the types of manufactured goods Moreau believes could be printed with Flexible Plastic are automotive parts, wearables and consumer electronic parts that require material that need to bend or twist without breaking.

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Makerbot has come up with a fix for its troubled 5th generation Makerbot Replicators — a new extruder aimed at avoiding the wear issues that have plagued many users of the 3D printer. Dubbed the Smart Extruder+, the part has been redesigned to make it easier to load filament, while a new mechanism looks to make the Replicator less prone to clogs and jams.

The Smart Extruder+ costs $199 and is slated to ship on January 18; current MakerBot customers can buy their first Smart Extruder+ for $99. The extruder comes with a 6-month replacement guarantee. That’s double the length of the warranty for older models. If the Smart Extruder+ fails during those six months, Makerbot says it will replace the extruder no matter how much filament has been used. 

We’ve been testing the new Smart Extruder+ for several days on a Replicator that Makerbot supplied, and it certainly seems to deliver improved performance. We’ve had no printer jams while printing several large models. More testing will be required to see if this new extruder fixes the issues over the long term, but our initial impressions are positive.

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The new extruder is not likely to assuage the anger of many existing users, though, who will have to pay $99 for the new part. New Replicator 3D printers will continue to ship with the older Smart Extruder as well, so new buyers will have to buy the Smart Extruder+ as a separate item.

Behind the Problem

Unlike most 3D printers, the 5th gen Replicators that Makerbot released in 2014 used a removable extruder — the equivalent of a print head on a 2D printer — that was held in place by magnets. The intention was that users could swap out the extruder when a different one was needed for different materials.

This Smart Extruder was bedevilled by problems, though. Users complained that it jammed frequently, print quality degraded over time, and the touch sensor it used to detect the print bed failed often. Perhaps most troubling for a printer designed for heavy educational use, the Smart Extruder wore out quickly, with the nozzle that the molten print material came out of getting worn after extended use.

In late 2015, the company acknowledged there were issues and posted a series of tips on how to avoid jams and clogs, but is still facing class action lawsuits from several pension funds over the subsequent drop in the share price of Stratasys, who bought Makerbot in 2014.

These issues were not unique to the Replicator: most 3D printers sometimes require the removal of filament jams and the replacement of the heated nozzles that the melted filament is squirted out of. However, the Replicator seals these parts inside the print head: you can’t disassemble it to to fix it yourself. Other printers put this feed mechanism behind a removeable panel and offer replacement nozzles at low cost (usually less than $25 from companies such as Lulzbot and Printrbot). Instead, Makerbot initially charged $175 for a replacement Smart Extruder. Later, it offered a $50 rebate if you returned the broken Smart Extruder.

Makerbot claims that the new Smart Extruder+ has been extensively tested, with 90 percent of those tested still working well after more than 1,200 hours of printing. It remains to be seen if this fix is enough to keep the product going in a fiercely competitive 3D printing market, though.

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One of the first low-cost stereolithography (SLA) printers for 3D printing enthusiasts, the Form 1 from Formlabs has seen other, cheaper models like the $1,500 Da Vinci rise up to challenge it. Formlabs' response, the Form 2, is a powerful, easy-to-use printer that smooths out most of the rough edges of the older model and produces beautiful prints.

It's no longer inexpensive, though: At $3,499 for the printer kit and $150 per liter of resin, the Form 2 is too pricey for all but the most dedicated home users. But professionals will love it, and new resin materials widen the appeal to users like jewelers and other artisans. That's why we include the Form 2 on our list of the best 3D printers available.

Design: Simple, Easy to Control

The Form 2 is an SLA printer, which means it prints by firing an ultraviolet (UV) laser into a thin layer of liquid resin between the print head and the bottom of the print tray. Once hit by the UV light, the resin solidifies. By tracing a pattern with the laser, the printer creates a solid layer. When the layer is complete, the print bed slides sideways and the print head lifts, taking the solid layer with it and letting in more resin. The print head then lowers to make another liquid layer, and the laser fires again. This process repeats to form the 3D model, layer by layer.

That is the same process that was used on the previously reviewed Form 1+, but there have been lots of improvements in how this process works. First, the print area on the Form 2 has increased to 224 cubic inches, measuring 5.7 x 5.7 × 6.9 inches. That's up from 156 cubic inches on the Form 1+. Second, the ultraviolet (UV) laser that solidifies the resin is bigger as well, doubling the power to 250 mW.

A new mechanism in the Form 2 also deals with the tricky business of lifting the solid layer and making sure that no gunk or air bubbles interfere with the liquid resin. The Form 1+ did this by tilting the print tray to peel the printed layer off the bottom of the print bed, but the Form 2 slides the print tray as it lifts the print head, then uses a wiper to clear any bits and bubbles away before the print head is lowered again.

Finally, an automatic mechanism fills the print tray with resin as required. It's a more complicated mechanism, but it is also better. We had significantly fewer failed prints than with the Form 1+.

The Form 2 shares the same simple overall design as its predecessor, with an orange plastic hood sitting over the simple silver box that holds the laser and electronics. Both are slightly bigger than on the Form 1+, and a color touch screen has replaced the LCD display. This screen means that you can start, stop and pause prints from the printer itself, which makes controlling things much easier. During printing, the screen shows the progress of the print and an estimate of how long is left.

On the back of the box are the connections: power, USB and Gigabit Ethernet. That's the other big change here: The Form 2 connects to your computer over either USB or wired/wireless Ethernet. That feature makes it much easier for multiple people to use the same printer. Each user can run the PreForm software to prepare a 3D model, send it to the printer, and then walk over and touch the screen to start printing.

The Form 2 has other under-the-hood changes, with its base now sealed to keep dust away from the laser mechanism. A heater warms the print tray to get the resin to the right temperature for printing.

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The plastic hood that covers the printing area is orange, to block any stray UV light from hardening the resin in the tray. This hood is attached to the base by a hinge on the back, so you can lift it up and over to reveal the printing area. Here, the print tray sits on top of the silver base, locking into the mechanism that moves it and slides the wiper across the transparent base. This was easy to install, and the print tray comes with a lid that fits on top of the tray after you’ve removed it. This stops the resin from setting.

Above the print tray is the print head, an imposing chunk of metal that attaches to the arm that lifts the print head up. The print head is removable, locked in place by a metal latch on the top. When a print is done, you remove the whole print head so you can pry the print off.

Print Materials: Third-party Resins Allowed

Formlabs offers seven types of resins for the Form 2: Clear, Tough, White, Grey, Black, Flexible and Castable. That covers a wide range of uses and should satisfy most users. The castable resin is particularly interesting, as it is designed for jewelers and modelers who want to cast objects in metal. Missing from Formlabs' list, though, is a dyeable resin that can be made a particular color.

We used the clear resin in our tests. These resins come in a new container, a rectangular tank that drops into the back of the printer. This means you don't have to pour the resin yourself, because the printer automatically monitors the level of resin in the tray and fills it when required. That's a big step up from the manual filling of the Form 1. These resin tanks have a chip inside that identifies the type to the printer, so the printer will warn you if you use the wrong type of resin for the 3D print.

We found that the clear resin produced clean, sharp details of models, with an attractive, almost glasslike quality. Prints came out mostly clean, but definitely benefitted from a little bit of touch-up with a sharp knife and a light polish with sandpaper. The clear resin was a little soft, though. Our set of test gears quite quickly became worn from the repeated motion, and the surface of prints does easily get scratched and marked.

You'll have to pay up for the Formlabs resin. Each tank (which holds 1 liter of resin) costs $149 for the clear, white, grey and black resins; $175 for the tough; $199 for the flexible; and a steep $299 for the castable resin. That's a big step up for someone used to using spools of filament that cost $30 per kilogram.

To put those numbers in context, our gear-set test model used about 52 mL of resin, which costs about $7.80 to print. A solid, 4.5-inch-high print of our Thinker figure used much more: about 155mL, which would cost about $30.85. The same Thinker figure would cost $85 to print in white plastic at the 3D printing service Shapeways. Printing on a filament printer like the LulzBot TAZ 5 would be even cheaper, though. You can buy a kilogram of filament for less than $30.

One of our complaints about the Form 1 was that you were locked in; you could not use resins from other manufacturers. That seems to have hit a nerve, as FormLabs has said that it will allow use of third-party resins. However, you'll have to manually fill the print bed since the automatic filling and reservoir features will be disabled when third-party resins are used. This support will be added in a future firmware update.

Print Quality: Excellent

We found that the Form 2 produced prints of excellent quality, with very fine detail and excellent reproduction of our test models' shapes. The printed parts needed little trimming or cleaning, and fitted together well.

Our first test model is a complicated pile of gears that comes together to form a planetary gear-reducing set. The Form 2 aced this test, having no problem creating the screw threads and cogs of the gears. After we had removed the supports, these parts fit together smoothly, needing only a small amount of trimming to remove a few small lumps of resin that were still attached. Once assembled, the gears turned easily and smoothly.

Our second test model is a geometric sculpture which involves a lot of complex overhanging parts and edges. Again, the Form 2 handled this without issues, reproducing the difficult model very well. This included the numerous sharp edges and pointed parts that defeat many printers.

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Finally, we used a 3D scan of Rodin's Thinker to create a 3D print. The Form 2 also printed this without issues, producing an attractive, clean print of the sculpture. Printing at both the 0.1mm and 0.05mm layer heights, we did see a certain amount of layering. In the shoulders of the sculpture, the layers that the printer uses to build the model are clearly visible. All 3D printers produce a certain amount of this, but the clear resin that we used for testing seemed to exaggerate the layering somewhat. This can be mostly removed by some gentle sanding, though.

Setup: Simple

All you have to do to set up the Form 2 is unbox it, plug it in, install a print bed and slide the resin tank into place, then connect it to USB or a network. It's all very simple.

We had no issues getting the printer up and running, and were ready for our first test print in less than half an hour.

Before each print, the Form 2 needs to fill the print tray and preheat the resin to 30 degrees Fahrenheit. That can take a fair amount of time if the room is cold.

Interface: Software And Control Panel Are Easy To Use

The printer offers two methods of control: the PreForm software and the touch-screen controller. With the PreForm software, you load 3D models and prepare them for printing. You can do some simple operations like scaling and shifting a 3D model here, but PreForm is not a 3D-modelling app. Still, the app is well-designed and easy to use, with the controls on the left side and a 3D preview of the model in the main window.

One very welcome feature with the software is the Quick Print button. Click this, and the software checks your model, orients it for the best print quality, builds the supports that hold it in place while printing and prompts you to send the model to the printer. This performed well in our tests; we used it on all of our test models with good results. The program also offers a good level of detail on how long the print will take and how much material it will use, a critical factor when the resin costs as much as it does for the Form 2.

PreForm supports multiple printers, and each printer supports multiple users, so it would be easy to set up an office with multiple printers for high-volume printing, or for several users to connect and send prints to a single printer.

Once the print file has been sent to the printer, you control the process from the Form 2 itself. The 3-inch LCD touch screen on the front of the printer makes this a simple process. You just look for the model name in a list of loaded models, tap it and press the button to confirm that you want to print.

You use the same touch-screen interface for managing the printer in tasks like joining a wireless network. To enter the password for a wireless network, you use a small touch-screen keyboard, which is somewhat awkward. Fortunately, you only have to do that once; the printer saves the password and automatically joins the network when it's powered on.

The same touch screen shows you a small thumbnail of the model, and once the print has started, a progress indicator and an estimate of the time remaining. 

Print Process: Mostly Straightforward

Printing a model on the Form 2 is a somewhat-involved process, because prints need to be cleaned after they are complete. You remove the print head and release the model from it.

Release is a kind way to put the process. It often involves some fairly serious chiseling to get underneath the bottom layer of the print, especially with large models. This is a little easier than with the Form 1, though, because Formlabs has changed the way the supports for models are made. The base of the print now has holes in it, which means less sticking. A plastic base that holds the print bed while you are doing this chiseling is included, too, which also makes removal easier. Once you get the included scraper or prier tool under one edge of the print, you can (gently) pry the model off the base to release it.

Once the print is free, you use the included finishing kit to wash the print in isopropyl alcohol; that removes any liquid resin left sticking to the model. This kit includes a stand, two containers for the alcohol, a sieve tray that fits inside the containers, disposable gloves and a few tools. The alcohol itself is not included, but it is available from most drug stores.

After washing your model, you leave it to dry, and then remove the supports. These can usually be trimmed off easily with the included snippers. The PreForm software makes these supports tapered, so the support connects to the model only at a very small area. It does leave a slight mark on the model, but we had no issues buffing this out with fine-grade sandpaper.

We did have a few print failures in our tests. Several times while printing on the thinnest layer height, parts of a print were not properly formed, leaving only a partial print. After some investigation, we found that a loose piece of resin from a failed print had scratched the base of the print bed. This meant that the layers formed in that area were not lifting from the base of the print bed, but instead sticking to the base, causing the entire print to fail. The only way to fix this was to replace the entire print tray, with a new tray costing $59. The problem did not occur again, but it is a reminder that the whole mechanism is rather fragile, and even a small problem can cause the prints to fail.

Print Process Photos

The 3D model is loaded into the software, processed and sent to the printer. The software automatically places the model and builds the supports.

While printing, the Form 2 shows the status and estimated time left.

The finished print, removed from the print bed and washed in alcohol with the supports still in place.

The final print, with the supports removed.

Print Speed: Faster For An SLA Printer

We didn't find much of a speed increase with the Form 2 compared to the Form 1+, though the new model is by no means a slow printer. Using the Print Wizard in PreForm, a 4.5-inch high model of the Thinker sculpture took 7 hours and 5 minutes to print on the 0.1mm layer height, or 11 hours and 15 minutes on the thinnest layer height (0.05mm) that the Form 2 offers. That's a little faster than the Form 1+, at 0.05mm, which took 12.5 hours. However, the Form 1+ was faster at the 0.1mm layer height, taking 6 hours and 5 minutes.

To compare this with a more-current model, the XYZprinting Nobel 1.0 took 10 hours and 21 minutes, and 29 hours and 6 minutes, respectively, to print the same model at the same layer heights. So, the Form 2 is significantly faster than the cheaper XYZ model.

Bottom Line

The Form 2 is an excellent 3D printer that can produce high-quality prints with very clean, sharp edges and fine reproduction of subtle details. Although the clear material we used in testing is quite soft, we were able to easily assemble our set of test gears, with multiple cogs, screws and pins fitting together after only minimal trimming; the complex overhanging edges of our geometric sculpture were also cleanly printed. All of the SLA 3D printers we've tested are slow, but the Form 2 is definitely the speediest of the lot.

You get good software, excellent models and decent speed, making the Form 2 a great printer for engineers, artists and jewelers who need accurate, attractive prints on demand. But you pay for the privilege: The Form 2 costs a steep $3,499, and the resin costs $149 and up for a liter. That puts the Form 2 out of the range of many users. Casual printers will be better off with a cheaper FDM printer like the LulzBot Mini, using the leftover money at 3D printing services like Shapeways that can produce occasional prints in other materials.

That said, a cheaper SLA model might be a false economy. We found that the $1,499 XYZprinting Nobel SLA printer had disappointing print quality. If you can justify the cost outlay, the Form 2 is the high-end SLA printer to beat, and nothing we have tested so far comes close.

Aimed at the education market, the $799 Polar 3D takes an unusual approach to 3D printing, with a rotating print bed. It offers a good range of features, including support for multiple types of filament and a webcam to monitor prints.

The real high point is the software, which lets multiple users build and load 3D models, and then queue them to a printer under one person's control. Educational users get a price break: The company is offering the printer for $599 to schools, teachers and students.

Design

Usually, 3D printers produce objects by moving the printhead left to right, front to back and up and down over a static, square print bed (or sometimes moving the printhead left to right and up and down, and the print bed front to back). In contrast, the Polar 3D moves the printhead up and down, moves the print bed front to back and also spins the print bed around.

It sounds odd, but by combining the motions, the Polar 3D can reach every part of the large 8-inch-diameter print bed without requiring a large overhanging mechanism. That allows a small printer to produce a sizable print volume of a little more than 400 cubic inches (8 inches high, and 6 inches in diameter) — nearly double the print area of the much larger LulzBot Mini, which manages 223.2 cubic inches (6 x 6 x 6.2 inches).

The Polar 3D has a simple look; it's composed of a black-painted "L"-shaped metal frame. The printhead protrudes from the upward arm of this "L," driven up and down by a motor in the base. A roll of plastic filament fits onto a hook on the back of the arm, with the filament fitting through a guide loop in the top and into the printhead.

The printhead is not covered, so you'll need to use some caution — you could easily burn your fingers on the exposed hot end from which the melted filament extrudes. The circular print bed sits on the bottom arm of the "L," with another motor in the base pushing it forward and backward. Additionally, a third motor underneath the print bed spins it around.

The print bed is made of mirrored glass. It isn't heated; instead, the printer comes with a canister of hair spray (Aqua Net Extra Super Hold brand) that you spray onto the print bed to make the plastic stick to the glass surface during printing.

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You'll find a camera just under the print head, which is an unusual placement for 3D printers. This provides a live view of the print on the print bed, to see how well it's progressing.

The back of the L features a power port, Ethernet port and two USB ports (one input, one output). The Ethernet port is the primary method of connecting to the Internet, but the Polar 3D includes 802.11b/g wireless capabilities. When we tried to set the printer to automatically join an existing wireless network, it often failed to do so, creating its own wireless network instead. This is the default mode of the Polar 3D, so to get it onto our existing test network, we had to connect to it with another device and reset it from the Web interface.

Print Materials: Wide Range, But No Heated Bed

The Polar 3D comes with a roll of 1.75-mm PLA filament, but the printer supports other materials as well. However, the lack of a heated print bed means that you have to use different methods to get the print to stick.

With the included PLA, a quick spray of the included hair spray makes the glass build plate sticky enough that the PLA sticks to it. However, this won't work with ABS, the other commonly used print material. Instead, Polar 3D recommends the use of Elmer's X-treme Glue Stick, which is basically water-soluble superglue. After the printing model, you use water to remove the glue and lift the print off the print base.

We tried this method when printing in ABS, spreading a thin layer of the glue before printing — and it works, though removing the prints is rather awkward. With a heated print bed, ABS prints usually pop right off or require only a bit of prying to lift. Here, we did need to do quite extensive soaking to get a print with a large base (like our Thinker model) to lift off.

Print Speed: Midrange

The Polar 3D is a fairly fast printer, with our Thinker model taking about 5 hours and 19 minutes to print with the Draft quality setting, which has a default layer height of 0.32 mm. Changing this to the Medium quality setting (which had a layer height of 0.2 mm) upped the print time to 6 hours and 51 minutes. Those are the only two quality presets offered by this printer.

The printing times put the Polar 3D in the middle of the 3D printer pack for speed, comparable to both the more expensive Taz Mini, which took about 5 hours and 13 minutes for a similar print, and the similarly priced XYZ da Vinci 1.0 (5 hours and 9 minutes).

Interface: Controlled Through the Cloud

In addition to its rotating print bed, the Polar 3D is different from other 3D printers in how you control it. Rather than controlling the printer directly or through a program running on a PC, you run the Polar 3D via the Web, with a cloud interface that puts all of the features of the printer online. This ties in with the educational approach of the Polar 3D, as it allows a teacher to set up and control the printer, deciding which models are printed and in which order. These users (called managers) can also add, remove or alter models and printers, so a group of students can upload models and schedule prints, with the administrator overseeing the process and intervening as required.

This online approach also covers the creation of models. A basic Web-based modeling program comes with the 3D Polar and can create models from scratch using simple modeling tools. You can also use the modeling program to upload and edit other files in .STL format. Either way, models can be scaled, rotated and prepared for printing.

While this approach is adequate for basic use, the Polar 3D is missing some features. For instance, there's no way to scale a model to a particular size or to see the specific dimensions of a model. You're presented with a 3D view of the model on the build plate, but no specific measurements.

Once the model has been loaded or created, it can be saved (again to the cloud), shared or sent to a printer for printing. You can scale a model here, but again, you can't set a specific size; you have to look at the size and then calculate the scaling yourself.

Polar 3D's online approach generally works well. It is easy to navigate and edit models, and create and share them. But it becomes a little confusing when you are looking at a saved model, and it isn't clear what, exactly, the buttons marked Edit and Open do. Edit opens the information for the model (who created it and when), while Open, somewhat confusingly, loads the model for more detailed editing in the built-in 3D modeler.

This interface also hides many of the features that other programs offer. Most of the technical settings that you customize for different printing materials (such as the layer height, the speed at which the printhead moves and so on) are kept out of sight. These are available by opening the model and selecting Cura Settings, although this process isn't really covered much in the documentation.

Print Process: Straightforward

To print with the Polar 3D, you first load the model to the cloud service, saving it for future printing. Then, you open the model and select Load To Printer. The system then gives you the option of which printer to use if you have more than one. From there, you go to the printer in the Printers tab, and hit Start Print.

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The printer screen shows the basic information on the printer and the progress of the print, including the time remaining, the printhead temperature and the amount of filament remaining. There is also a live view of the print in progress. It isn't necessary to stay on this Web page; the printer will happily keep printing if you turn off the computer and walk away. This page also works on portable devices; we had no problem loading and starting prints from an iPad and an Android phone.

Print Quality: Good, But Some Issues

We found that the Polar 3D generally produced high-quality prints with good levels of detail and smooth, natural curves. However, it struggled with one of our test models, and prints did require some cleaning up to remove odd whiskers of print material.

Our first test model was a scan of Auguste Rodin's "The Thinker" statue. We print this model (which is created from a scan of the original) at a height of about 4.5 inches. The Polar 3D had no major problems with this, producing a print that accurately captured the smooth curves and fine details of the original, especially around the shoulders and head. The levels of the print were fairly visible, and we did see some whiskers of the print material from where the printer had shifted the printhead between parts of the print, dragging a small whisker of material with it. These are easily removed, but they do leave some traces on the print that require trimming.

Next, we tried a set of gears that can be assembled into a planetary gears set. The Polar 3D did a decent job here, but again, some of the parts had to be trimmed with a knife to fit together. In particular, we found that the small holes in the gears that fit over pegs on other parts were overfilled with material, caused by the material slumping and spreading slightly as the print was formed.

Finally, we tried a 3D model of a modern sculpture that has lots of hard-to-print angles and edges. We were not able to get this model to print on the Polar 3D using the default settings, as the slicer — the program that converts the 3D model into layers that are printed one by one — created insufficient support for the model to stick to the print bed. After some testing, we were able to create a print by using the advanced settings to build a raft, a layer of plastic underneath the model that supported it while printing. But that's a weakness of the Polar 3D: Its hairspray method for getting models to stick does not work very well for small areas, so you need to make sure that there is sufficient area on the print bed to keep it held down.

Bottom Line

The Polar 3D is designed for educational users, and it excels in that area. The combination of excellent, cloud-based software for creating and managing 3D models and the printer itself makes it easy for a large group of users to build models and have them printed on one or a number of these printers. It is less suited for other users, though; these features are overkill for home users.

Although the Polar 3D is well priced, at $799, and can produce good-quality prints, the lack of a heated print bed makes the use of materials like ABS more complicated. If you are happy to stick to PLA or don't mind messing around with glue sticks and the like, the Polar 3D can work. But those who want to experiment more with other print materials will be better off spending a bit more on a printer that can handle them, like the LulzBot Mini.

Lulzbot's TAZ 3 has been the 3D printer to beat. And now an update to version 5 delivers on Lulzbot's claims of faster printing and more flexibility. Priced at $2,283 (which is typical of high-end 3D printers of this type), we found the TAZ 5 to be the fastest printer we’ve tested, cranking out attractive 3D prints at high speed.

That said, the TAZ 5 isn't perfect: the setup process is frustratingly manual in an age of auto-leveling print beds, and we found a few odd printing glitches on some prints. Overall, though, this is an excellent 3D printer.

Design: Open Frame Industrial

The TAZ 5 looks like a piece of industrial machinery: it is all about form over function. The whole thing is built around a tough aluminum frame that provides rigidity, but without taking up too much space. This isn't a small printer, though: measuring just under 27 inches high and 21 inches wide, it needs a good amount of desk space, especially with the moving print bed at the bottom of the printer that slides forward and back. Most printers that can handle large prints like this require similar amounts of space, though.

The TAZ 5's print bed is large (at just over 12 x 11 inches, with a print area of 11.7 x 1.8 inches) and is made of PEI plastic-coated glass. Above the large print bed, the print head moves up-down and left-right. This print head offers layer heights of between 0.075mm (0.003 inches) and 0.35mm (0.0138 inches): a very wide range that means it can produce both detailed and fast prints.

Most of the business end of the print head is metal, including the hexagonal print nozzle that releases the molten print material. 

The print head has an opening for the melted filament that’s 0.5mm across; it's bigger than most 3D printers, which have a standard opening of 0.35mm. The TAZ 5's wider opening allows more of the molten print material to flow out, making printing quicker. But it can also make the flow of plastic more difficult to control, and we did find a tendency to leave thin whiskers of plastic behind during printing.

Print Materials: A Huge Range

The range of materials supported by a 3D printer depends on two things: the temperature that the print base and print head can manage and the willingness of the manufacturer to support these materials. The TAZ 5 scores top points on both of these fronts, with a print bed that can be heated up to 248 degrees F (120 degrees C) and a maximum temperature for the print head of 572 F (300 C). Lulzbot also actively supports users trying out new materials, providing details of the best settings for printing with a wide range. This wide temperature range also puts some new materials in the sights of the TAZ 5, including polycarbonate (the stuff used to make bulletproof glass) and Nylon. The latter material includes new food and dishwasher-safe Nylons, which you can use to print cups, glasses or your own flatware.

Lulzbot itself favors a new material called HIPS (High-impact Polystyrene), which is light, tough and easy with which to print. We used this on most of our test prints, and it produced impressive prints, with clean detail. The TAZ 5 also supports flexible materials like Ninjaflex, which we found produced very attractive, flexible models. We were able to print in this material with the standard print head, but the filament did have a habit of kinking and blocking the print head. To get around this, Lulzbot offers a dedicated print head designed for printing with flexible materials. Lulzbot also offers a dual extruder as a $495 add-on, which can print two materials at once.

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Print Quality: Impressive But with Flaws

We were generally impressed with the quality of the prints from the TAZ 5: it produced clean, smooth prints in most of our tests. There were a few issues, though, with a tendency to leave thin wisps of filament stretched between parts of some prints. Prints also had a tendency to sag slightly, making holes and other features smaller than what we intended.

We use three test models to judge print quality: a 3D scan of Rodin's thinker, a set of planetary gears and a complex geometric sculpture.

The smooth and complex curves of the Thinker statue test the ability of the printer to control the flow of plastic, and the TAZ 5 obviously has this under control. The shoulders and features of the statue were well reproduced in our test prints, although there was some layering visible at all of the print quality settings. The highest print quality (on the right in the image below) produced the most attractive print with the least layering, but it is still visible.

The TAZ 5 also did a decent job of producing the supports that hold the print in place where parts of it overhang. These supports were easily removed, and left little trace on the final print.

The TAZ 5 did struggle a little with our planetary gears set. The TAZ 5 is a fused deposition modeling (FDM) printer, which works by melting the plastic and fusing the layers together. For many printers, this process means that the bottom layer of the prints slumps: the plastic in this layer is heated by the print bed to make sure it sticks, but this means that the plastic remains slightly melted and spreads a little as the other layers are piled on top.

For models like our gear set, the holes in the gears turn out slightly smaller than required, because they are filled with this spreading plastic. You either have to trim the plastic to get the hole to the required size, or tweak the settings. We found tweaking to be the most effective: if we lowered the print bed temperature to 90 C (about 194 F) from the default of 110 C (about 230 F), the gears were printed with less slumping and spreading, and didn't require much trimming.

The TAZ 5 produced a good-quality print of our geometric sculpture. Most of the edges looked clean and sharp, but there were a lot of thin wisps of plastic between the tips of the model, where the print head dragged a thin piece of melted plastic with it as it rapidly moved from one part of the print to another. Since these can be easily trimmed off, they're more of an annoyance than a problem. Some of the edges were also a little rough, though, with obvious stepping between the layers of the print and the odd glitch that lead to a missing section of an edge.

Setup: Some Assembly Required

The TAZ 5 ships partly constructed, requiring you to mount a part, turn a thumbscrew and plug in a few cables. We were up and running in about an hour after first opening the box.

There is one odd omission with the TAZ 5. The TAZ Mini included a very neat auto print bed leveling feature, where the printer would touch the print head to the four corners of the print bed to see how high it is, and if it's level. This feature isn't present on the TAZ 5: instead, you have to manually adjust a thumbscrew for the print bed height, and then move the print head around and adjust a screw on each corner to level it. You then run a test print to make sure everything is working correctly. None of that’s difficult to do, but the automatic system would be preferable.

Also missing on the TAZ 5 from the Mini is the brush that cleans any stray bits of fabric off the print head before each print: a very useful feature when a stray bit of filament can ruin a print.

Lulzbot told us that it's working on adding both the auto-leveling feature and the print head cleaner to a future version. The features are in development, and the company's open-source approach will allow handy users to download plans for these features and make their own. Details of the in-development version are available here.  

Interface: Two Ways to Control Prints

You control the TAZ 5 via its screen and a dial on the printer itself, or through the free Cura software download for Windows, Mac and Linux systems.

The printer screen is a simple LCD display that usually shows the status while printing; the selection knob alongside it also allows for stand-alone printing. A simple menu structure provides access to every aspect of the printer controls, from changing a temperature to loading and unloading filament, though it can involve a lot of dial-turning and button-pressing, since some features are buried under several layers of menus.

Printing from the screen is straightforward. After inserting the SD Card with the file into the slot behind the screen, you select Print From SD on the menu, and select the file you want. That means you can start a print with just a couple of button presses and a bit of knob twiddling.

The open-source Cure software allows you to load 3D models in the two most commonly used formats (STL or OBJ), do some basic editing (scale, move and load several models to print at once) and then process the model for printing. It also gives you an estimated print time (which is usually fairly accurate) and a preview of the printing process.

When you are ready to print, press Cura’s control button, and go into the printer control screen. From here you can set the temperature of the extruder and print bed and set the print going (or cancel it if it goes wrong). You don’t get much feedback on the progress of the print, though: the only indication is a simple progress bar at the bottom of the screen.

Print Process: Reliable, Easy to Remove Prints

3D printing is not an error-free process, but the TAZ 5 gets pretty darn close. While making more than 20 prints, we had only one print failure when the print material failed to stick to the layer below part way through a print. Every other print was completed without problems, and we had no issues removing the final print from the print bed afterwards. We didn't even need to work to remove these completed prints: when printing with HIPS and ABS, the prints popped straight off the print bed once the print bed had cooled. That is unusual: on most printers, we had to scrape or pry the finished print off the print bed.

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Print Speed: Faster Than the Rest

The TAZ 5 is one of the fastest FDM (filament deposit manufacturing) printers that we've tested. It could print our 4.5-inch high Thinker test model in the Fast mode (using a 0.38mm layer height) in an impressive 2 hours and 38 minutes. Contrast that with the fastest speed of the UpBox (5 hours and 8 minutes) or the Orion Delta (6 hours 22 minutes). In the highest quality mode (using a 0.18mm layer height), the same print took 6 hours and 49 minutes on the TAZ 5. The upshot here: the best-quality print mode of the TAZ 5 was nearly as fast as the lowest- quality print modes of other 3D printers we have tested.

Bottom Line

The TAZ 5 emerges as the filament 3D printer to beat: it is the fastest 3D printer of its type that we have tested and produces very high quality prints in a wide range of materials. We did see some issues with these prints, but most of these could be addressed easily by cleaning prints or by tweaking settings.

We do wish that some of the features that we saw on the smaller (and easier to use) TAZ Mini had made their way up to the TAZ 5, though. It would be nice to have an auto-levelling print bed and print head cleaner on this model. Casual users might be better off with a smaller, easier-to-use printer like the TAZ Mini, but if you’re serious about printing large models as quickly as possible, the TAZ 5 is your best pick.

Who it's for: Designers and artists who want to produce fine prints of small models.

XYZprinting is breaking new ground with the Nobel 1.0, a stereolithography (SLA) resin printer that costs just $1,499 and can produce far more-detailed objects than mainstream FDM (plastic) printers can. With other SLA models costing a lot more — take, for example, the $3,299 price tag of the Form Labs 1+ — the Nobel 1.0 puts resin printing into the hands of home users. The Nobel 1.0 does a good job of producing intricately detailed 3D prints for objects like jewelry, engineering models or other models, although there are some compromises: It is much slower than other SLA printers, supports a limited range of materials and struggles with some fine details.

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Design: Simple and plastic

The Nobel 1.0 has a fairly simple, straightforward design. A translucent-orange plastic hood covers the print area to block harmful UV light, while still allowing you to look inside and check a print's progress. Underneath the hood, you'll find a support holding the removable print bed. This bed moves up and down via a motor in the base; as the print bed is raised one layer at a time, the print is gradually formed. You remove the print bed by twisting the large knob and sliding the bed out.

The resin sits under the print head in a tray with a clear bottom that allows the UV laser to shine through, solidifying each layer of resin. The print bed rises for each layer of the print. Most SLA printers require you to manually fill the resin tray, but XYZprinting has come up with a neat mechanism that automatically pumps resin from the container into the tray, refilling the tray as required during printing.

The largest print that the Nobel 1.0 can create is a cube measuring 5 x 5 x 7.9 inches, for a total of 197.5 cubic inches. That's a decent size for an SLA printer, as these devices tend to be smaller than their filament-melting cousins. For example, the $1,299 Lulzbot Mini, which prints with filament, can manage 6.2 x 6 x 6 inches, a total of 223 cubic inches. The Form 1+ SLA printer can manage 4.9 x 4.9 x 6.5 inches, a total of 156 cubic inches. That said, SLA printers are usually used for smaller models, so print volume isn't a major criterion.

If you lift the hood in any direction other than straight up after the Nobel 1.0 finishes the print, you can knock into the print or the print bed, possibly damaging them. The Form One+ has a better solution: a hood on a hinge that tilts the cover back.

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It is not easy to switch resins with the Nobel 1.0, either, as this requires draining the auto-fill system and cleaning out the resin tray. XYZprinting also recommends doing this if you are not going to be using the printer for a few days, so the resin doesn't set. XYZ recommends disposing of this resin rather than using it later. The Form 1+, on the other hand, has resin trays that can be removed, covered and stored, so you don't lose any trays. If you often change resin colors, the Form 1+ approach will be easier. But the Nobel 1.0 auto-fill system makes it quicker and easier to produce multiple prints.

Print Quality: Excellent, with soft resin

The Nobel 1.0 delivered excellent quality for most of our tests, creating clean models with fine detail, though some layering was visible on close examination. We tested the printer using the clear Crystal resin that XYZ provided.

Prints of both our Thinker and geometric sculpture test models had good detail and smooth, natural curves. The Nobel 1.0 managed all of the complex geometry of the sculptures, producing overhanging surfaces and sharp, clean edges. The supports that the printer added to keep the print in place were easy to remove with a knife, leaving little or no trace.

I did notice some layering, with individual layers of both prints visible using all three of the quality settings that this printer offers. Layers were more visible than in the same prints from other, more expensive SLA printers, such as the Form 1+, and they detracted somewhat from the clear look of the Crystal resin.

The resin can be very soft straight out of the Nobel 1.0. On our test model of a set of gears, for instance, most printers produce rigid prints of the outer rings that hold the gears in place. With the Nobel 1.0, after printing and washing in alcohol, the rings were so soft that they could be easily squished.

The resin did get harder after curing the prints with UV light, by leaving them outside on a sunny day for a couple of hours. But I still could not build the set of gears because of another problem: The holes in some of the parts were inconsistent. The mechanism is built around three small cogwheels that have to fit onto pins on another part. But when I examined our printed gears closely, I found that some of the central holes were almost filled with resin, so they would not fit onto the pins.

I didn't receive any of the other color resins that XYZprinting offers, but I was able to successfully print these gears on the Form 1+ using a similar clear resin. It is possible that the other colors of resin may perform better, but it seems that XYZ still has some work to do.

Print Materials: Very limited

The Nobel 1.0 works only with resins from XYZprinting, sold in 500-ml bottles that cost $119 for two bottles. (You can't buy the bottles individually.) That's not cheap, though it's a little less expensive than the resin used in the Form1+, which costs $149 a liter, and the bottles last a fairly long time. For reference, our test model of the Thinker statue, which is about 4.5 inches high, used approximately 130 grams of resin, about $16 worth. I could produce three prints from each bottle, with some resin left over.

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XYZprinting sells five resin colors: Crystal (clear), Gray, White, Blue and Magenta. The bottles these materials come in have an NFC tag on the bottom, which the printer reads to verify them as genuine, and to track how much resin is left. This tagging prevents you from using resins from other manufacturers.

Setup: Simple and Straightforward

There are more steps involved in getting the Nobel 1.0 up and running than there would be for an FDM printer. After unpacking and turning the device on, you have to wait 10 minutes while the Nobel 1.0 runs a diagnostic test. Then you have to level the print bed, which involves waiting for it to lower before adjusting four screws that hold the print bed in place to get it flat against the base of the resin tray. After that, you put the resin bottle in place and connect it to the auto-fill mechanism with a couple of tubes. None of these steps are difficult, but they do involve a fair amount of waiting around: It took about an hour before I could set the first test print running. That's about twice as long as with an FDM printer, but roughly the same as on other SLA printers, which tend to be more complex than FDM versions. A model of a ring is built into the device, and this is a good first test.

Print Process: Straightforward

The Nobel 1.0 can print from a connected PC or from a file on a USB thumb drive. Frustratingly, there is no front USB port for the latter: I had to reach around the back of the Nobel 1.0 to plug the drive in. With an open tray of resin in this printer, you should avoid moving it, to keep from causing spills. As a result, it's easiest to print from a connected PC using the XYZWareNobel software, which is available for Windows only. Mac owners are left in the cold.

This program is quite straightforward, with all of the basic features easily available from the icons on the left. With XYZWareNobel, you can load models (in STL format only), move and scale them, and export the files for printing from a USB drive. The software also controls the printing process, but you don't get much feedback on this. Other software like MatterControl shows how the print is progressing in exquisite detail, showing you exactly which bit of the print is being created; XYZWareNobel gives you only basic information, like how much longer the print has to run and how much resin is left.

After you remove the completed print from the print bed, you wash it in alcohol to remove any unset resin. XYZ includes a scraper, plastic tub and gloves for this purpose, but no alcohol. That's easy to find, though: A standard bottle from the drug store with more than 75 percent alcohol content does the job. After you wash the print for 10 minutes and dry it, your print is ready. This process was very easy, if a little messy. I had no problems removing the prints from the print bed with the included scraper and washing them.

Print Speed: Slow

The Nobel 1.0 is not a fast printer, taking between 10 hours and 21 minutes on the 0.1mm preset and a lengthy 29 hours and 6 minutes on the highest-quality, 0.05mm preset to print out a 4.5-inch-high Thinker model. That makes this printer much slower than the Form Labs 1+, which took 6.5 and 12.5 hours on those two presets, respectively, with similar layer heights. FDM printers are generally much faster: The LulzBot Mini took a little more than 7 hours to produce a similarly sized print.

Bottom Line

The Nobel 1.0 brings resin SLA printing to a new price point that competes with FDM printers — offering the advantages of different materials and cleaner prints. The Nobel 1.0 does a decent job of printing in resin: Larger prints like our Thinker figure are undeniably attractive, but it is slow and struggles with the fine details that models like our gear set require. The printer is also considerably slower than more-expensive SLA models like the Formlabs Form 1+. So, the XYZprinting Nobel 1.0 is a significant step forward in making SLA printing cheaper, but there are compromises.

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Who it's for: Sculptors and potters experimenting in 3D printing, and those looking to do large, tall prints at low cost.

SeeMeCNC is mainly known as a supplier of kits for people who want to build their own 3D printers. The Orion is a departure for the company: It's a pre-built 3D printer that comes almost fully assembled. Priced at a reasonable (for its capabilities) $1,299, this machine offers flexible printing for objects up to about 9 inches tall, making this a good pick for those who need to regularly produce large prints.

Design: Simple and industrial

Most 3D printers are boxy and square, but as a delta-style printer, the Orion has a cylindrical design, 4 feet tall and 2 feet wide. It has three arms that are linked to platforms that slide up and down the three posts that form the printer frame. These are driven by motors in the base that, in turn, move the print head. It's a more complex design than the platform that moves left-right, up-down and front-back, such as that used in the LulzBot Mini (see review), but it has the advantage of offering a very large, tall build space. While the LulzBot Mini can build objects up to only 6 inches high, the Orion Delta goes up to a little more than 9 inches.

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These objects can have a maximum diameter of 6 inches (for a total 261 cubic inches) if they are circular, or a side length of just over 4 inches (for 148 cubic inches) otherwise. That compares well with the 76 cubic inches of the MakerBot Mini, or the 223 cubic inches of the LulzBot Mini, both of which are similarly priced. But print volume isn't the whole story: The circular print bed and tall print height make delta printers like the Orion especially suited to large, tall objects. The open design does mean, however, that any drafts or sudden temperature changes could cause failed prints, so you need to pick a location with care. If you are looking to print meditating Buddhas, flower vases or 3D scans of yourself in heroic poses, this is the device for you.

The base of the printer contains the electronics, motors and controls, with a single 4-line LCD panel providing status updates. A single rotary dial and button form the controls, and an SD Card slot is located on the left side of the display panel. The Orion can print from an SD Card inserted into its slot or from a computer connected to its USB port.

On top of the base is the round, glass, heated print bed, measuring a little more than 6 inches in diameter. This is held onto the heater and platform by a rather low-tech solution: a series of binder clips. One nice touch is a small, red LED that illuminates when the print bed is heating.

Print Materials: Support for a wide range

The Orion can use a wide range of materials, with PLA, ABS and Ninjaflex plastic supported right out of the box. The temperatures supported by the print bed (up to 120 degrees Celsius) and print head (up to 245 degrees C) should allow the Orion to use nylon and transparent materials like T-Glase. The Orion forum on the SeeMeCNC site features a thriving community of users who are experimenting with materials.

Print Quality: Smooth curves but rough details

The quality of the Orion's 3D prints varied. The device did an excellent job printing larger models with smooth surfaces, but it struggled with the fine details on models that required more precision in sharp edges and more intricate shapes.

Our Thinker statue came out with clean, smooth curves around the shoulders. We did have some issues with visible layering, though, on the Standard and Coarse presets that the Matter Control software offers: Some layers seemed to have slipped slightly, producing a vertical stripe in the final print. These issues were much less pronounced when using the Fine preset, though, so it's a trade-off between detail and speed. We did notice some whiskers of filament, though, where the melted plastic had continued to flow as the print head pulled away. You can see some of these filaments in the photo below, printed in PLA using the Standard preset in MatterControl. Below are close-up examples of part of this print using the Coarse, Standard and Fine presets.

The Orion also did a decent job with our test model of a set of gears. After printing at the standard preset, these gears fit together with only a small amount of trimming to widen some of the holes that other parts have to fit through. That's not unusual, though: Most filament deposition model (FDM) printers that we test require some finishing work, as the prints tend to slump a little as new layers are added. I also had to clean off a few small bits of filament that stuck to the threads of the screws and other parts. The gears from the Orion looked somewhat rougher than those we've produced on other FDM printers like the LulzBot Mini, but the gear mechanism fit together quite easily and worked well.

Our hardest test model — a geometric sculpture — proved to be a bit much for the Orion: The device produced a print that was complete, but with rough edges and a lot of stray filaments hanging off. At one spot near the top, a printed layer seems to have slipped (see the second close-up photo below). At the very least, this piece would require a lot of trimming and cleaning to make it look nice.

Setup: Minimal assembly required

The Orion requires minimal assembly before you can start printing — mainly removing packing materials and plugging in a few cables to connect the display. No tools are required, and the process is well illustrated in the downloadable manual. I was up and running about 30 minutes after I opened the box.

The other bit of setup required is to adjust the Z height, allowing the print head to hover just above the print bed. You use a piece of paper to set the small gap between print bed and print head by adjusting a screw on the arm connected to the post. Some printers (such as the LulzBot Mini) now do this automatically, using a sensor to detect the print head. Once this was done, the printer ran the included test print of the SeeMeCNC mascot, Blinky that stuck to the print bed nicely using the included roll of PLA filament.

Interface: Simple controls, sophisticated software

The onboard controls of the Orion are simple: The 4-line LCD, control dial and single button provide access to an on-screen menu that allows you to set up and control the printer, and set prints going from the SD Card. This is a little awkward, though, with a lack of indicators to let you know that you have selected an option. When you set the printer to preheat, for instance, there is no visual indication that it is preheating except the red light on the print base. You don't get any indication on the LCD screen until you go back up the menu structure to the initial page that shows the print-head and print-bed temperature. Similarly, there is no indication when the printer has finished preheating. This makes it rather too easy to set the printer preheating and forget about it, as it takes between 10 and 20 minutes to heat the bed (depending on the temperature).

The Orion has one control that I wish were present on more 3D printers: a stop button, located below the control dial. If you spot a problem in a print, hit this, and the Orion stops and moves the print head back to the home position at the top of the printer. That's much quicker than using an on-screen or in-program menu. All 3D printers fail sometimes, but at least this one can be quickly stopped when that happens.

The Orion can be controlled from a variety of 3D printing programs (such as Cura or Repetier), but SeeMeCNC recommends a program called MatterControl, available as a free download for PC or Mac on SeeMeCNC's  website. I found MatterControl to be straightforward and simple to use for loading and processing all of our test models. It offers better visualization of the 3D model than the rival program, Cura, providing a 3D view of the print layer by layer. This can help you spot possible problem layers, and help you track how a print is progressing. MatterControl is also better at queuing up multiple print jobs, a definite plus for high-volume print setups where you need to produce multiple copies of the same print.

MatterControl is also available as an Android app, and SeeMeCNC offers a version of the Orion with the software pre-installed on a 7-inch Android tablet for an extra $266 ($1,565 in total). That's an attractive option for those who want to avoid the complications of a PC, but also keep the additional features that MatterControl offers.

Print Process: Rather noisy and lots of movement

The open delta design of the Orion involves a lot of movement: The shifting platforms and arms are clearly on display. That and the open, heated print bed mean that this isn't a printer to use around children without a separate enclosure: There are too many components that could crush or burn curious fingers.

The Orion is a little noisy while printing, with a continual low-frequency buzz sounding like a hive of angry bees, and an occasional clonk and thump as the print head shifts. There's also an occasional note of honking geese in there, producing a combination of noises that is noticeable rather than unpleasant, but which is definitely audible in the next room.

Print Speed: Rather slow

3D printing is still a rather slow business, and the Orion Delta doesn't do a lot to change that.  Printing our 4.5-inch statue of The Thinker takes between 6 hours, 22 minutes using the Coarse preset and a 0.3mm layer height, and 17 hours, 32 minutes using the Fine preset, with a 0.1mm layer height. That's a little on the slow side; the Ultimaker 2 (see review) managed the same print in 3.5 hours for coarse quality and 14.5 hours for fine quality. 

Bottom Line: A solid printer for large prints

There's a lot to like about the SeeMeCNC Orion Delta: It offers a large print volume for the cost and size, and it usually produces fine-quality prints, especially with smooth, clean curves. This will make the Orion especially appealing to people who want to produce tall objects like statues or vases. The Orion struggled with fine details, though, and objects with very sharp edges didn't come out as well. This would not be a printer for engineering models or small, detailed prints. For those objects, you would do better the similarly priced LulzBot Mini.

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The words "3D printing" may bring up a wide range of images, from DIY-looking boxes churning out lumpy plastic figurines to miracle machines printing new organs to extend patients' lives. Rarely do people picture the middle ground: smaller, prettier printers for around the house, or real-life objects made a little better or cooler thanks to the technology.

But those changes are coming. This year sees the emergence of tiny 3D printers smaller than the proverbial breadbox, silent and stink-free 3D printers and — especially handy — printers with 24/7 tech support. These home printers, and far fancier ones in factories, are turning out toys, tools and clothes that weren't possible before, including scale models of users themselves made from 3D scans.

(Click on any of the images for a larger version.)

1. Mini Printers for Mini Prices 

While phones are getting bigger, 3D printers are often getting smaller — much smaller. M3D's Micro looks like a toy replica of the real thing, but it can print objects nearly as big as itself, up to about 4.5 x 4.5 x 4.5 inches. That matches the output of many larger printers.

Simplicity is the secret. The Micro uses PLA (polylactic acid) plastic, which melts at a lower temperature than others and doesn't require a heated print bed to stick to. After shipping models to Kickstarter backers, M3D will start selling the Micro to the public in the summer for $349. The Micro is one of the smallest printers, but it's not the only one. Makers of traditional big machines, such as Robo and Lulzbot, are releasing models with "mini" in the name, including the excellent Lulzbot Mini (see review). 

2. Whisper-Quiet Printers

The trend isn't always toward small. 3D printer-maker Up, known for its Up Mini line of petite printers, has gone in the other direction with the new Up Box. Close to the size of a mini fridge, it can make objects with dimensions of up to 8 x 10 x 8 inches. Despite its size, the Up Box is meant to keep a low profile by being extremely quiet — I heard little more than a hum standing next to it — and odor-free thanks to an enclosed design and a HEPA air filter. 

The Up Box goes on sale shortly for $1,899, which includes one year of free parts replacement and 24/7 tech support to deal with annoyances that inevitably arise. "Customer service is going to be the name of the game," said Brian Quan of Up's parent company Tiertime.

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3. Cooler, Custom-Made Toys 

Many 3D-printed toys are just shabbier, more-expensive versions of what you could get at Toys "R" Us or online. Mark Trageser of 3D-printed toy company InsaniTOY is using the technology to churn out original concepts based on any whacky idea that comes to mind — almost instantly. For example, he had an idea for a lamp in the shape of a spider, with the light bulb mounted in the critter's body. "That spider, between concept to being on sale on Amazon — seven hours," said Trageser.

He also pointed to the ability to experiment with materials, such as a toy car printed in semi-flexible nylon on an SLS (selective laser sintering) printer. It came out fully assembled with the wheels on and the axel mounted to functioning shock absorbers. 3D printing and online selling allow Trageser to produce niche, made-to-order products without worrying about getting shelf space for them at a retail store, and his toys stay on sale indefinitely. "I don't have to take my products off the shelf," he said. 

4. Full-Body 3D Scans

People aren't cloning themselves yet, but they can make extremely accurate replicas that rival Madame Tussauds' handiwork. And you don't have to go to a special facility to do it. Artec, which makes 3D scanners, recently started selling a full-body scanner called Shapify — a rotating drum of cameras and lights the size of a small bedroom — to locations including malls and supermarkets.

"Anyplace where people are ready to spend money on cute things," said Artec's director of sales Julia Bulakh. The device captures a full scan in about 12 seconds, allowing people to hold some creative poses, like freezing midstride. The 3D models are cleaned up automatically and sent off to a printer if the customer decides to order a mini-me keepsake. Want your own scanner? It costs $99,000, with 3,000 scans included.

5. The Rise of Resin Printing

Traditional FDM (fused deposition modeling) 3D printers are typically limited to a plastic layer resolution of 0.1 millimeters. That may sound very fine, but the resulting ridges are often easy to see and feel. Instead of squeezing out plastic, resin printers use light to turn a photosensitive liquid into a solid, one layer at a time, and with layers at least five times smaller than with FDM, at 0.02 mm. That's fine enough to make tiny figurines (that can then be painted) or molds for casting intricate jewelry.

Resin printing isn't new, but it's becoming more affordable. Formlabs Form +1 printer, which excelled in our review, sells for $3,299. A company called SprintRay is launching a Kickstarter project for its MoonRay resin printer, priced at $2,499. That's in line with higher-end FDM printers, like the $2,899 MakerBot Replicator. SprintRay aims to cut costs, in part, by using fewer parts. It's also different because it uses a projector with an ultraviolet LED instead of lasers, as the Form +1 does. See it in action in the stunning video below.

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6. Superstrong Carbon-Fiber Prints

Carbon fiber is a dream material due to its combination of strength and lightness. But it's a nightmare for 3D printing, as it won't stick to itself. MarkForged has found a fix by layering carbon-fiber filaments with Kevlar in a traditional FDM printing process. The company's Mark One printer makes objects strong enough to use in place of metal, for example in specialized tools that would cost a fortune to produce in limited quantities with traditional forged manufacturing.

The Mark One starts at $5,500, but it's not intended for your desktop. The company is targeting clients like aerospace firms and the military. 

7. Metallic, Rubbery and Other Exotic Materials

Carbon fiber isn't the only new 3D printing material, and many of the others don't require a special printer — just a typical FDM model that can handle high temperatures. Among the new substances are nylon, metal-infused filaments and a rubbery substance called NinjaFlex. Objects, or even parts of objects, made from NinjaFlex can have more or less give depending on how you print the object. For example, it can be very stiff if printed as a solid object versus more flexible with an internal honeycomb structure. Aside from making fun rubbery toys or tchotchkes, NinjaFlex has the potential to be used in practical objects like shoes. 

8. 3D Clothing You Could Actually Wear 

Printed fashion is still an experimental area, often used more to simply show what can be done. But clothes you could almost imagine wearing are starting to appear. Design firm N Topology recently showed a one-piece dress printed in an intricate, multilayer weave of TPU (thermoplastic polyurethane) — a stretchy material that hugged the model's body but flexed to let her move easily.

Going up a notch, designer Melinda Looi and printing company Materialise created an Oscar-party-worthy dress made from thousands of interlocking white pieces of polyamide, a slightly flexible material with a grainy finish. No assembly was required: The dress came out of the SLS printer in final form, folded in thirds. It cost "thousands of Euros" to make the dress, said a representative of Materilise, and that was before affixing thousands of Swarovski crystals. 

Most buyers of 3D-printd fashion will wear simpler, but also more useful products, such as sneakers with well-tuned levels of strength or flex. "The first consumer-facing [3D-printed] products will most likely come from sports-apparel makers," said Greg Schroy of  N Topology. 

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Senior Editor Sean Captain has been 3D scanned several times. Follow him @seancaptain. Follow us @TomsGuide, on Facebook and on Google+.

Who it's for? Designers, artists and makers who want to experiment with different materials.

Small is in when it comes to 3D printers this season. The LulzBot Mini is typical of this trend, providing a smaller, cheaper option in LulzBot’s model lineup, at about $1,350. That’s not to say that it isn’t sophisticated and powerful, though: In our tests, the LulzBot Mini produced excellent-quality prints, at a good speed. It also supports a very wide range of printing materials, such as nylon and polycarbonate, providing you more creative freedom. The Mini is much more expensive than rival 3D printers like the $999 Cube 3 and the $799 da Vinci AiO, but it's worth the extra money.

Design: Simple and Industrial

The LulzBot Mini eschews the DIY-looking extruded-aluminum frame of its larger siblings, going instead with black rolled steel. It shares the same open-frame design, though, exposing the hot and finger-squishing parts. So the Mini wouldn’t be suitable for youngsters to operate without close adult supervision.

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The large red power switch and USB port are on the front — convenient if you are regularly swapping out the controlling computer. (The Mini must be tethered to a PC during the print process.) But this design would be a pain if you wanted to permanently tether the computer and printer, with the USB cable visible and prone to unplugging.

The Mini's extruder moves left to right and up and down, while the print bed moves front to back. Most printers use a fixed print bed, with the extruder moving in all three directions, On some printers with moving beds that we have tested, like the older LulzBot Taz 3, tall objects fell over or came out distorted because of the front-to-back motion. But the LulzBot design works well: Even tall items like the long screws in our planetary gears set printed without issues.

The LulzBot Mini supports a large variety of printing materials beyond the usual PLA and ABS plastic filaments. Other options include high-impact polystyrene (HIPS) filament — a new, lightweight material that is proving to be popular. That’s because the material is easy to print, as it adheres to the print bed at lower temperatures and it's very durable.

The Mini's Cure software also comes with profiles for printing nylon, t-glase (a new transparent material), polycarbonate and new filaments that produce a bronze, copper or wood look. Broad material compatibility is partly due to the wide range of temperatures supported by the extruder (up to 572 degrees Fahrenheit/300 degrees Celsius) and the heated print bed (up to 248 degrees F/120 degrees C). Any 3-mm print filament can be used: there are no locks or proprietary cartridges. The LulzBot Mini supports a layer height of 0.005 mm, which is a little finer than average.

The Mini is smaller than some rivals, measuring 17.1 x 15.2 x 13.4 inches, but it offers a comparatively large print size of up to 6.2 x 6 x 6 inches (223 cubic inches). That is much larger than the similarly priced (about $1,375) MakerBot Replicator Mini's 4.9 x 3.9 x 3.9 inches. The Mini has a maximum print size very close to that of the 3D Systems Cube 3, but smaller than the da Vinci AiO, which can work with prints of up to 7.8 x 7.8 x 7.5 inches (456 cubic inches).

One interesting design touch: On the back of the print bed is a small piece of fabric, which the Mini uses to clean the printhead before each project begins. This is an excellent idea: Many jobs are ruined when a stray piece of filament sticks to the print head, then catches on the job in progress.

Setup: Simple and Straightforward

The Mini is easy to set up: I unpacked it, downloaded and installed the software, and was ready to print in about 25 minutes.

Once installed, the Cura software automatically loads a test model for the first print. LulzBot includes a small amount of HDPS filament for this test, but not enough to print anything else. We had an attractive, clean print of the wonderfully named Rocktopus model in short order.

Before printing, the Mini automatically checks that the print bed is level by touching the print head to four washers on each corner of the printing area. If it isn't, the printer automatically compensates, saving you from having to make manual adjustments — another simple design idea that works very well.

Controls: Clear and Intuitive

The Cura software (a free download for Windows, Mac and Linux) imports 3D models, sets them up for printing and controls the printing process. You can also use many other open-source control programs with the LulzBot Mini. The printer has no SD Card slot or physical controls, which means you need to keep your computer connected and turned on during the entire print. But this setup makes for a more consistent and simple printing process, as there is only one set of controls.

Cura is simple to use, with a clean, logical interface. It allows you to load 3D models in a wide range of file formats such as TSTL, OBJ and image files and then scale, shift and move them before printing. You can load several models to print at once, but you can’t edit or change details on the models. Cura is not a 3D modeling program. Cura handled all of the 3D models we tried without any issues and managed our test prints without problems, running smoothly in the background while I did other things.

Print Quality: Very Good, Few Glitches

Prints from the LulzBot Mini had clean, smooth sides and a great level of detail. We did find that it sometimes left thin filaments of printing material hanging off the edges of some prints, but these were easy to remove. We tested printing using both ABS and the newer HIPS filament that LulzBot sent to us.

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The Mini had no problems with our first test print — an intricate geometrical sculpture. It handily created and printed the complex support structure required during the print, which was easy to remove afterward.

The edges of the sculpture were nicely sharp, but there was a fair amount of whiskers of filament between the tips, caused by small amounts of plastic still coming out of the extruder as it moved between parts of the print. These were easy to trim off, though.

The Mini also did well with our second print — a set of planetary gears that came out with fine detail. I did have to file some of the holes in the frame for the long screw part to fit through. This didn’t take long, though, and the mechanism fitted well together after this minor trim.

Our final test print is a tough one: a 4.5-inch replica of Rodin’s Thinker, derived from a 3D scan of an original. We printed this at the highest detail setting, a layer height of 0.18 mm. The Mini aced this test as well, producing a print with smooth surfaces and accurate detail.

Like most 3D printers, the layers of the print were definitely visible, though, especially in the subtle curves on the top of the head and shoulders. However, the layers were less pronounced than those we've seen from most printers we've tested, and they didn’t detract much from the print quality.

Print Process: Average Speed and a Bit Noisy

Our test prints took roughly average amounts of time compared with other printers using similar layer heights. Print times ranged from about 2 hours for the geometric sculpture on the fast preset (with a 0.38-mm layer height), to just under 7 hours for our large, detailed Thinker model print.

The Mini is a little noisy while printing, with no enclosure or shielding to block the sound. The motors that move the print head left and right produced a rather irritating high-pitched whine — like that of an angry bat — that was audible in the next room. It was more annoying than the usual clank-clank-clank of a printer in use.

Bottom Line

There is a lot to like about the LulzBot Mini. It has an attractive design and provides high-quality prints at good speed. It is flexible, handling a wide range of materials that are unknown factors with other 3D printers, and the software is mature and easy to use. The Mini costs significantly more than competitors like the Cube 3 and da Vinci AiO. However, the LulzBot Mini printer is better than both rivals' offerings. Its extra cost is justified by its greater flexibility of printing materials and the higher quality of its prints.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: Based on our review and complaints from customers, Solidoodle says it has looked into and resolved all the problems cited, repairing or replacing defective units when necessary. We will be reviewing another unit and will update this review if the results are different and we're confident they represent what consumers will get.

Who it's for: No one.

The Solidoodle Press promises a lot, with a handsome enclosed design and an appealing price just under $600. But it fails to deliver on that promise. Nearly all of our test prints — on two different units — failed completely, resulting in amorphous blobs of plastic on the printing tray. The Press also suffers from buggy software; and the design, though good-looking, has some basic functional flaws. Furthermore, similar bad results from a sister site, Top Ten Reviews, jibe with our findings, as do user forum comments and at least one review by another site (though it was more charitable in its rating).

We've been in contact with Solidoodle throughout the review process and have followed all the company's troubleshooting tips. However, the 3D printer has not functioned properly. Furthermore, at least one of the units we tested went through the company's quality checks before it was sent to us. Solidoodle maintains that our results are anomalies. We will continue to consult with the company, and if it is able to address the issues we've outlined, we may revisit this review and rating.

Promising Looks Don't Deliver

The Solidoodle Press is an impressive-looking printer, wrapped in a shiny black case that protects the printing area from drafts. There are two doors on this case: one on the top that covers the filament spool and one on the front.

This main door is partly see-through, and a light illuminates the interior so you can monitor your print. However, the print is level with the top of the see-through part of the door, so you only get a very limited view of the print during the critical early phase. That's when things are most likely to go wrong — and that they did.

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One culprit may be the filament spool that sits in a tray in the top of the printer. The filament feeds through the center of this tray, down into the printing head and all-metal extruder. This design causes the filament to bend quite a bit as the print head moves. In two instances, the print failed because the filament snapped above the print head, presumably because of this constant bending.

Next to the extruder is a touch sensor that the Solidoodle Press touches to various locations on the print surface, in order to judge how level the tray is.

Controls and Software:  Promising but Half Baked

Aside from an on/off button atop the printer, everything is controlled through the included SoliPrint software. This is a simple and mostly straightforward program that has the major features a 3D printer control program needs. It can load and manipulate models, scale and rotate them to fit the build space, and provide a visual guide to the printer status, showing the temperature of both the bed and the extruder.

However, we found several problems with SoliPrint.  With several 3D models, the program was unable to automatically center them in the print area — a basic function for such software. SoliPrint was also slow and laggy, sometimes taking several seconds to respond to a button press. Status messages are inconsistent, sometimes appearing in the Status window of the program and sometimes at the bottom of the screen. Overall, SoliPrint feels more like a beta test version of software, rather than the final release.

Prints Almost Always Fail

We could accept some design and software glitches if the Solidoodle Press delivered great prints. But most of the time, it delivered only blobs of plastic — no matter how many tips and tricks from the company and third-party user forums we tried. We tested two units (both supplied to us by Solidoodle), but both struggled to print, having problems such as the print failing to stick to the print bed, and layers of the print failing to stick to each other.

Most of our print attempts failed at the first obstacle: sticking to the print bed. The plastic that the printer extrudes didn't stick to the glass sheet that forms the print bed, and the glass sheet isn't held firmly in place, so it can easily slip during printing. (Our colleagues at Top Ten Reviews got a successful print by manually holding the bed in place.) The image below shows what should have been the Thinker — which the Press failed to print further than the first few layers. All of the other 3D printers we've tested have been able to get past this point without incident.

Below is the same print, which we made with $349 Printrbot Simple Maker.

To get the prints to stick, we tried various techniques offered by Solidoodle tech support and forum users, including using white glue, hair spray and blue painter's tape, but the majority of prints still failed to adhere.

One culprit may be the inability of the printer bed to reach an adequate temperature to make the ABS plastic stick to it. with the second unit, I set the SoliPrint software to the default print bed temperature of 95C. However, when I measured the temperature, it was only  76C. When I increased the bed temperature setting in SoliPrint to 110C, the temperature of the glass print rose to just 81C.

When the first layer did stick correctly, we often found failures in subsequent layers. The ABS print material failed to stick to the layer below, instead collecting in a goopy mess on the print head itself. On several occasions, the filament got jammed in the extruder, which required taking the extruder apart, clearing out the jam and rebuilding the device.

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Our second test unit had similar issues, as well as another problem: At random intervals, the printer would reboot, like someone had pulled the plug and quickly reinserted it. We were not able to discern a reason for this issue: We tried multiple power outlets, computers and USB cables, none of which prevented it.

Those few print attempts that did succeed were of poor quality, with very visible layering and a lot of stray whiskers of filament in what should be clear space in the print. For example, look at the part below, which is a component of the planetary gears model we regularly test with. The three holes around the center are where the screws fit, and they should be clear with a well-defined thread. Instead, they are filled with loose filament and have no clear thread structure.

Bottom Line: Avoid this Product

3D printing is still a developing science, so we expect the odd print failure and glitch. But the Solidoodle Press had far more than its fair share of problems, and when the failed prints outweigh the successful ones by such a large margin, the product is simply unusable.

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Follow Richard Baguley @rbaguley. Follow us @TomsGuide, on Facebook and on Google+.