3D printer for 13 year old

[ninjaturtlesmum]

Can anyone recommended a 3D printer (and accessories needed to go with it). My 13 year old DS has asked for one for Christmas but I only have a budget of around £150-£175. Would this get anything half decent. I don’t have a clue about them. Thank you

I think it would be a novelty for a couple of weeks and then it would end up stored away. That's what has happened to people I know whose kids had them for Christmas last year. Is there anything else she would like? Sorry for being negative, its just a lot of money.

Good point @Beagledbybeagle, he is very adamant that the printer is the only thing he wants.

Don't forget that your 3D printer would need filament (is that what it's called?) to print anything. I guess that could get pretty expensive.

@Knittedfairies, hmm, I think I need to price up everything first.

The Ender 3 ones are good, and will probably be in Black Friday sales. Aldi did a good one last year too.

We buy filament from Amazon, Banggood.com, or eBay, by the kilo - it lasts ages.

You don't really need anything else to get started, assuming you have a spare SD card/USB stick around for file transfers.

Fancy nozzles for carbon fiber filament etc. can come later.

Ours is used all the time, 13+ is a great age for one, they are quite technical things so not really for younger kids.

Tomtop often have decent deals, creality ender 2 or one of the many clones fits the bill and can be decent, but they need constant attention and tinkering.

A lot of the cheap ones have a habit of catching fire occasionally or going awry with the printing if left to their own devices....

@FixTheBone, eek thank you, will make sure I don’t get too cheap a printer. @lughnasadh, thank you. He is quite a creative boy and do think he’ll get quite a lot of use out it (I hope anyway). Good to know that the filament lasts for ages. I’ll wait until Black Friday and see if I can get a deal.

The ender 3 pro is a great entry level printer. There’s a fabulous reddit page full of really helpful people

You do need to build it yourself but it’s straight forward enough following a YouTube vid

My ds was the same last year..desperate for one. It’s fun but there is a certain amount of tinkering needed. It’s part of the fun I guess

Thanks @Handsnotwands, I will keep an eye out for the Ender 3 pro. I think he will quite enjoy the tinkering and will probably mean he will use it more. (I think he’ll love building it himself too, he’s always been interested in how things work).