If you’re looking to dive into the world of 3D printing without breaking the bank, you’re in luck. We’ve rounded up the best 3D printers under £500, perfect for both beginners and experienced makers. These models offer a great balance of affordability, performance, and reliability. Let’s dive into the top picks and explore their key features and benefits.
1. Creality Ender 3 V2 (Best 3D Printers Under £500)
Key Features:
- Build Volume: 220 x 220 x 250 mm
- Improved stability with an all-metal frame
- Carborundum glass platform for better adhesion
- Silent printing with upgraded mainboard
- User-friendly interface with rotary knob
Pros:
- Excellent Community Support: The Ender 3 V2 benefits from a large, active user community. This means plenty of resources, tutorials, and mods are available, making troubleshooting and upgrades easier.
- Wide Range of Upgrade Options: From auto bed leveling sensors to improved extruders, the Ender 3 V2 is highly modifiable to suit advanced users.
- Improved Stability and Quieter Printing: The V2’s silent stepper drivers significantly reduce noise, making it suitable for home use.
Cons: Requires manual bed levelling, occasional quality control issues.You do have to assemble this printer yourself, this does give the user a better understanding on how 3D printers work but can be a deterrent for some people who want a simpler set up or a plug in a play type model.
2. Anycubic Kobra 3 Combo (Best 3D Printers Under £500)
Key Features:
- Build Volume: 250X250X260mm
- Sturdy metal frame for enhanced stability.
- multicolour prints are now possible with this Kobra 3 Combo 4 different colours. you can get up to 8 if you upgrade and get another ACE unit.
- Touchscreen interface for easy operation integrated with their app. This can make controlling your print much easier and you can keep track remotely.
- Fast print speeds of up to 600mm/s also has vibration compensation. Also an anti clogging sensor to help you avoid blockages.
- flexible Heated bed for better print adhesion
Pros:
- User-Friendly Interface: The responsive touchscreen makes it easy to navigate settings and start prints, even for beginners.Along with their app which makes it even easier.
- Sturdy Build: The all-metal frame reduces vibrations, resulting in more precise prints.This accompanied with the vibration compensation create a sturdy platform for printing.
- Good Print Quality Out of the Box: simpler assembly auto calibration included , allowing you to start printing high-quality models quickly.
Cons: some assembly required it has been made simpler than their previous models.
3. Saturn 2 (Resin Printer) (Best 3D Printers Under £500)
Key Features:
- Build Volume: 218.88 X 123.12 X 250 mm
- High-resolution printing for intricate details 8k
- Sturdy structure dual metal Z-axis rods
- Comes with a plugin air purifier system to reduce odor / fumes.
Pros:
- Excellent Print Quality: The Saturn 2 excels at producing detailed prints with smooth surfaces, making it ideal for miniatures and detailed prototypes with a larger build volume than most SLA printers it can deal with most prints easily .
- Reliable Design: With its robust build and quality components, the Saturn 2 ensures consistent performance and reliability.
- Safety: The plugin air purifier helps to reduce the fumes inside the enclosed print environment making it safer when coming to deal with the finished prints.
Cons: Smaller build volume compared to FDM printers, resin can be messy and requires post-processing. We do recommend when purchasing an SLA printer buy a wash and cure station of the appropriate size this will help to cure the prints faster and reduce any exposure to fumes from the resin.
4. Bambu Lab A1 Combo (Best 3D Printers Under £500)
Key Features:
- Build Volume: 256 X 256 X 256 mm
- quick swap nozzle change makes it so easy to change from 0.2mm up 0.8mm
- Active noise cancelling for quieter printing
- Touchscreen interface
- Heated, textured, flexible build platform.
- Integrated app making controlling the printer easy and able to control remotely.
- Full auto calibration
- Camera Timelapse supported
- If bought as Combo you can have the capabilities of printing in full colour (4 colours at once)
Pros:
- Build Volume: The Bambu Lab A1 can handle decent sized prints of 256mm x 256mm x 256mm.
- Ease of use: Full auto calibration making using this print simple and user friendly.
- Quieter Printing: The active noise cancellation helping to keep the noise from the motors to a minimum.
- The Combo package: Amazingly you can get this FDM printer with multicolour capabilities for under £500
Cons: Slightly more complex to set up and maintain, occasional firmware issues.
5. Creality K1 (Best 3D Printers Under £500)
Key Features:
- Build Volume: 220 X 220 X 250mm
- Automatic bed leveling
- Removable print bed flexible for easy part removal
- High-quality components
- Comprehensive customer support
- Print straight out the box
Pros:
- High-Quality Prints: Prusa printers are known for their excellent print quality, and the Mini+ is no exception.
- Reliable and Consistent Performance: the creality K1 offers dependable results, making it a favorite among hobbyists and professionals alike.
- Great Customer Support: Creality customer service is highly regarded, providing peace of mind with your purchase.
- Self test one click: One click and the printer can run a check and if any errors occur it ill display them and you can fix them before printing your final component.
- Print speeds: Higher print speeds of up to 600mm/s
Cons: Higher price within the budget range.
