If you want to print plastic then this will be a great blog for you. If you want to print food or candy then you will have to wait for a future blog on that. If you wanted to print a different material including: aluminum, titanium, gold, silver, brass, bronze, steel, or sandstone then you will have to pay a ton for a printer or use a company to print for you such as http://www.shapeways.com. You can find printers for materials such as clay for ceramics at a lower-end price as well.

I would avoid any powder or resign based 3d printer, which will use lasers, unless your sole purpose is for display. Besides, these types of printers are usually in the $10,000+. And the resign is very expensive. The advantage of powder is its ability to be colored and it's fairly inexpensive.

There are three popular types of material that will be printed: PLA, ABS, and PVA. (Material types are furthered explained in a future blog). I would highly recommend choosing a printer that prints PVA. This will make 3D Printing complex objects absolutely worth the extra costs to get PVA. PVA washes away in water giving support to your print. Otherwise without PVA you will have to add supports and break them off, which is not fun. Not fun at all and requires much more skill. Decide if you will need supports, (look at a future blog about supports for more information). For example if you only wanted to print name tags there wouldn't be a need for PVA. However if you were wanting to print sculptures PVA would definitely come in handy. 

Most people wouldn't know the difference between PLA and ABS. And most printers accept both. The most important difference to mention is that ABS is more durable and melts at a higher temperature. Both are strong plastics. Something to note is how many extruders the printer has. An extruder is where the material comes out. If the printer has PVA capability there will be 2 extruders. Otherwise most printers only have 1 extruder. 2 Extruders are often used to do multiple colors. However I wouldn't get 2 unless you were going to get a printed with PVA capability.

At my job we use a white PLA which is the easiest material to work with. We don't use ABS because PLA has a sweet smell and environmentally friendly unlike ABS. The white color is also easy to paint, so we don't have to mess with changing the color mid-print. I would recommend clear or white PLA/ABS unless you knew for sure you wanted another color. 

The size of your printer will not matter if you do not have a heated bed plate or heated printer (area where the object is printed) because your object will warp terrible. PLA warps the least however it still will signifigantly warp your object if printed large.

3D printing depends a lot on a stable, level surface. Examine how the bed plate is attached. Will it wiggle around? Will it stay even? Especially look to see how level and steady the edges of the bed plate will stay relative to the center of the bed plate.

I feel like resolution gets way too much attention. Much like how people don't want a TV with 720p but 1080p even though you can only slightly tell a difference as both are HD. Similarly I feel like the resolution of printers is usually over-rated. I would aim for something that can get 100 microns (.004 of an inch) or in other words it will print each layer as thin as paper.

From my own experience I prefer 200 microns over the 100 option on the printer I use at work because it is twice as fast and seems to print better. I only use 100 microns upon request or if there needs to be more detail. The lower the microns the better detail you will be able to achieve, but even 200 microns is pretty dang small. 

Some people complain because the 200 microns leaves noticeable layers, but I have come to really like the layers because to me it looks like wood and how wood has rings. I think the layers are beautiful, but if you do want something to be smooth you will need to be below 100 microns or sand your object after it has been printed.

Your printer will break. I would say every month or so we run into a problem at work. (At the same time we print almost continuously so it gets more wear than you will probably give a printer.) The problems have usually been with the extruder getting jammed. From my experience, MakerWare is a horrible company for customer service, not to mention their badly designed printers and software. When I need help, they don't. When I need a spare part it takes weeks, leaving me with angry customers who need something printed in the next few day or so. When something happens, I dredge having to go to MakerWare. If you can find a printer with a good forum or customer service, it would definitely be nice when something goes wrong.

Please leave your comments.

and as always thanks for visiting,
The 3D Printing Ninja
3DNinjaneer@gmail.com