I've noticed some members here have had items 3D printed both in plastic and metal. Are there any 3D printer recommendations for hobbyist? e.g. affordable and willing to work with somebody who only wants 1 or 2 copies.

or do you guys just own your own printers.

I have a Creality Ender 3. Its pretty much the most basic 3D printer but it works well once dialed in. Cost about 100-200$ two years ago. I think they have come out with the successor called Ender 3 Pro now.

It does take a bit of mechanical aptitute and analysing skills to dial a machine in to where it consistently makes good parts but there is plenty of youtube videos, forums and facebook groups for help. Just be aware that your first prints may not be perfect and that it is a process to find the settings for YOUR machine. Your settings may vary slightly from someone elses even if they have exactly the same machine. I'm using Cura as a slicer programme. Works well and its free to use.

We bought a Ender 3 pro from Sain Smart about 8 months ago just to print a few parts. We have been pretty happy with it. My son has it printing face shield parts for the Navajo tribe right now. His school has everyone with a printer at home running parts plus what their engineering instructor can print on the industrial printers at school since they are closed.

Our first printer he built from the Printerbot kit when he was 10, after bugging me to get a 3d printer for at least a year. Summer was coming up so told him if he build it then he should be able to keep it calibrated. Same as any machine. After a few years of upgrade and mods it was such Frankenstein we could not keep it running anymore.

The Ender takes about 20 minutes to assemble and calibrate. It has been rock solid and prints really well out of the box.

If you are looking for plug and play, I purchased a Snapmaker for my son. They are not cheap, but they are pretty well built and easy to use for the "never done this before" crowd. We make all kinds of things with it. He took a class in high school that sparked his interest in engineering so it has been fun to share time with him and learning how to make things. The print bed on the original one is small, so parts bigger than 4 inches by 4 inches by 4 inches you would need to buy the bigger ones.

Is printing metal viable on hobby use ones?

Not currently, they melt the metal powder together with a laser. You could have different color 914 for everyday of week for the cost of the metal printers.

30 years ago it cost something like 6k to have 3d print made, now you buy good printers for 200-300 dollars. So who knows in ten years what metal printer will cost.

Thanks for the confirmation @914e

If you need something printed in metal I would use a printing service. They a pretty reasonable. Most of the time much less than machining. You could test print the part on hobby machine to test it. It just would not have the precision of metal prints.

I joined a local Meetup 3d printing group. The host owns a company (garage) that does contract work. Also there were many that are hobbyists that were super helpful.

There are quite a few of us with machines that might be able to print what you want, in plastic. Metal printing is still super expensive and commercial grade.

Filament and printer time is super cheap, it's the hours/days to print things that adds up. Depends on size but you can likely get parts made for $5-30.

Toughest part for me is learning the design software, but you can get that done from basic drawings too.

I have enough projects on my wish list that I bought one. I went with a Creality for the support network and it's a well liked machine. I just happened to score a CR10S PRO V2 for $400 being the right place at the right time. I did look at the Ender3 but it was more useful to have the 300x300 table.

You can check your local library. Many of them (up here anyway) have a 3d printer you can use after a short course and time of use fee.

I have a Creality CR-10S at home and paid extra for Simpliy3D software (slicer program)

Plenty of free programs for making a part from scratch or just download files online for free.