There was a time when a cheap 3D printer meant a kit of highly questionable “Prusa i3” clone components, with the cheapest possible components that, when combined, would provide a uniquely uncomfortable experience. In most hackerspaces one of these cheap printers collects dust somewhere, usually a rat’s nest hanging on one side of it. But those awesome kits have been replaced by sub-$ 200 printers that are better now, so what’s the current low end of the market? The answer lies in printers such as the Sub-$ 100 Easythreed X1, which All3DP gave a review of. We’ve been curious about these printers for a while, but $ 100 is a little too much to spend on a toy, so it’s interesting to see them adopted.
This is a small printer marketed as a baby toy with a non-heated bed and a tiny 100mm cubic print volume, so we don’t blame them for lowering their expectations. They found the supplied slicer to be buggy, but the printer was surprisingly better than they expected. It seems that Easythreed may not provide reasonable but remarkably small print in occasional crashes, but below $ 100, we would assume that Any A result of printing. Nevertheless, we will join them in their assessment that it is worth spending a little more on a good printer.
We’ve seen another small Easythreed model before, when someone made a fancy wrist-mounted wearable version.