The Ultimaker 2+ is one of the best 3D Printers we carry in the shop. It’s a workhorse machine that can produce high quality parts. It has a great user experience and is very easy to set up and get printing. With a large build volume, it features a heated glass bed – So no more blue tape, glue stick or other sticky adhesives. It’s open and can be controlled via OctoPrint or print straight from the SD card. This printer includes a nozzle kit, which allows you to change of the nozzle for printing really high quality parts or very large parts at faster speeds. Bonus: It can use both 2.85mm and 1.75mm filament! Be sure to check out our video on how to use 1.75mm filament on the Ultimaker 2.
Crowned as the Honda Civic of 3D printers, this machine is a workhorse. It’s basically a clone of the Makerbot Replicator 2x but with some improvements. It features a direct drive, dual extruder so it can handle flexible materials like Ninjaflex. Dual extruder means you can mix/match materials like conductive PLA and Ninjaflex to make integrated circuits. It features a nice LCD with useful features such a pause and filament swap so you can change out materials during a print. The heated bed requires a printing surface – we carry PrintInZ skins that work great! We have a video that showcases projects that utilize dual extruders.
In the entry level spectrum, we have a small yet capable 3D printer. If the name doesn’t give it away, it’s pretty darn tiny. But don’t let it’s size fool you, there’s actually lots of benefit for being small. It’s quiet, compact and aesthetically pleasing. Combined with Simplify3D and OctoPrint, this machine can produce some fine quality parts. If you’re looking for an entry level 3D printer, and plan to print small parts, this printer is a great choice. Check out our review of the M3D Micro.
On the professional level we have one of the best desktop CNC machines – Although technically not a 3D printer, this machine can mill material in 3 axises. It’s flag feature is superfine high precision PCB milling. It can mill a wide variety of materials such as wood, soft metals, plastics and more. Controlled via their Otherplan software, it simplifies the traditional complexity that once plagued CNC machines. You can easily import SVG files to quickly generate GCODE. The Othermill Pro is faster and much more precise than the original. It’s compact design fits on any work surface and is perfect for anyone looking to quickly prototype their next big project. Be sure to check out our Milling Monday series on YouTube to see this baby in action.
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Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
