Three questions before you buy a printer

Almost everybody who buys a 3D printer compares the wrong things first. They read about frame rigidity, sensors, volume and speed, and they feel informed.

The machines are the visible half of the decision. The other half is invisible and decides the total.

What are you making

A machine is good for one kind of work and bad for another, and the difference is usually material and size. Small parts in one filament is a different purchase from large enclosures in another.

ImpressorasBR is arranged around that: printers compared by what they do, filaments matched to the machine, services by city, at https://impressao3d.org.

What the material costs

A kilogram of filament has a price, and a print has a weight, so the cost of a part is the price times the weight. The weight depends on infill, walls and layer height, which means you need to know your settings before you can price anything.

And then there is the part nobody puts on the invoice: setup, the failed first attempt, the cleaning. A job that succeeds eight times out of ten costs a quarter more than the quote.

Whether the shop is closer than the machine

Some parts are simply wrong for a home machine, and at that point the question is not which printer to buy but which shop is near enough that the deadline is not a risk.

Hatsumeika works that way for Anápolis, printing in the city for pieces and gifts, at https://hatsumeika.com.

None of these are hard questions. They are just questions that have to be asked before the money moves, which is the opposite of how most purchases happen.