Low-ish cost S3D compatible printer for Mac OS?

[kristjanr]

Hi,
I'm a total noob in this 3D printing game and I'm looking to buy a sub $1000 3d printer that will work out of the box on Mac OS 10.10 Yosemite. I don't mind assembling a kit as long as it comes with human readable instructions but I don't want to be constantly messing around hacking third party firmware etc...

So farI've narrowed my sleection to a few couple candidates that are available from retailers in my vicinity I noticed are supported by S3D:

• Velleman K8200 or K8400
• da Vinci 1.0A or da Vinci Junior

Has anybody here used one of the above printers with a Mac?
Are there any other printers in my price range that anybody can recommend?
What is their print quality? I'm not expecting crystal ball smooth surfaces but I'd like to not have to put disproportionate amounts of work into smoothing crude step-pyramid type surfaces.
Is S3D a complete package deal? i.e. Is it the only software I need?

[jimc]

the printer itself doesn't make a difference what os it runs on. its the slicing software. basically you can pick any printer you want as long as its not a complete closed source type with its own slicer and firmware. i don't know of any off hand in your price range that would be like that. don't know much about the velleman. davinci though has never had a good rep for quality prints. I'm not sure if they have improved on that in the past year or not. i hear nothing but good things about the printerbot simple metal. s3d is the only software you will need.

[MichaelHerron]

Hi,
I'm a total noob in this 3D printing game and I'm looking to buy a sub $1000 3d printer that will work out of the box on Mac OS 10.10 Yosemite. I don't mind assembling a kit as long as it comes with human readable instructions but I don't want to be constantly messing around hacking third party firmware etc...

So farI've narrowed my sleection to a few couple candidates that are available from retailers in my vicinity I noticed are supported by S3D:

• Velleman K8200 or K8400
• da Vinci 1.0A or da Vinci Junior

Has anybody here used one of the above printers with a Mac?
Are there any other printers in my price range that anybody can recommend?
What is their print quality? I'm not expecting crystal ball smooth surfaces but I'd like to not have to put disproportionate amounts of work into smoothing crude step-pyramid type surfaces.
Is S3D a complete package deal? i.e. Is it the only software I need?

Check out the Powerspec 3DX Pro from Microcenter. It is identical to the Flashforge Creator Pro (it even has pcb's that are labeled as flashforge Creator Pro).
Last i looked, they were retailing for $699, but can be found cheaper if they're open-box or refurbs... They are excellent printers and the support from Microcenter isn't too bad if there is a hardware failure.

Im using one of these on Yosemite and on El Cap beta and have no issues with simplify3D--IF i print from SD card. Printing directly from USB does hang sometimes, but this appears to happen in windows too...

[Ricardo]

Hobbyking Fabrikator 3D

I've been using this printer and am very happy with it!

[magicwiser]

I have three different Flashforge printers and I am very happy with them. The original creator is about $950 retail but you may be able to find it cheaper on Amazon. However, Flashforge just came out with a new printer they call the 'Finder' which is only $600. Haven't used it but based on their other printers, I imagine it is pretty solid.

Regardless of what printer you buy, Simplify3D is going to be a much better slicer than anything else you get for free.