I know there are many kindred spirits here, so I posting this here. In fact this forum is where I found out about getting my first 3D printer. It was to hold me over while waiting to get a my forge.
Anyway monoprice is running a sale on their Maker Select Plus 3D Printer $100 off for $299.
https://www.monoprice.com/pages/3d_printers
I maybe upgrading soon for a larger print area. 
How do y’all feel about that thing for the price?
I’ve heard decent things about it. If they don’t screw it up, that’s a relatively solid design. Simplifies a lot of issues.
I have one, and it is a workhorse. Excellent prints with the right filament, of course. I’ve printed a couple of mods (frame stabilization, cooling fan duct) which have enhanced my printing experience. One of the better printers in my stable (nine currently… more than half of them much more expensive) and at the current sale price it’s a no-brainer in my opinion.
I have a delta mini now. It was $150, pretty amazing for the price. Double the volume for twice the price? Not bad either.
I’m just about ready to get a Creality CR10S. Need bigger printer area and I get impatient with just one 3D printer. I keep it running pretty well non stop. You can’t have enough tools.
In fact, I needed a little butcher block oil for a project. I had all the materials I needed, but I just had to by about fifty dollars worth of tools. Chisels and a back saw. I’m tired of hauling them back and forth from my farm. Plus odds and ends. No project is a real project unless you buy a tool for it.
Hi all,
I am a high school teacher in a school lucky enough to have four 3D printers. They run at least one print, most days for more than half the school year. (probably 500 to 600 models a year). At the moment, the most reliable ones are the monoprice minis (one v1, one v2). The only downside on these printers is the load/unload process tends to break pieces off filament in the Bowden tube (a bit of a pain, but not impossible to deal with). I have only had to replace one nozzle in the last year.
Our Monoprice Select needs re-leveling more often (once a week/every 5 to 10 prints) for consistent printing. But otherwise is a workhorse. I have not had to replace any nozzles this year. Apart from the levelling, maintenance has been minimal.
All three of our Monoprice machines say they work with ABS, but we have only got consistent prints from PLA. However, for the price all three of the Monoprice machines are a good deal, but we do not expect them to last long.
We also have a MakerBot Replicator2X which is older (5-ish years) that prints ABS pretty consistently.
ABS really needs a very warm environment for quality prints. Building an enclosure around the entire printer to contain the heat during printing makes a world of difference for ABS.
That said, ABS seems to have fallen out of favor with much of the 3D printing community due to its being so finicky to print. PETG has similar physical characteristics to ABS, but generally prints as easily as PLA.
Thanks for posting this. I’ve been fighting the urge to buy another 3D printer for a while now, but I can’t pass up that price.
OK, I hope this is a good little machine becasue this is my plan when …
…this shows up at my door in 3 days and hubby asks where it came from. 
Mine won’t be here until Tuesday.
Whew, if you bought it, I feel better about jumping in without any research. I normally agonize over these decisions. I’ve been wanting one though and sometimes ya gotta say WTH and just dive in.
I bought the Maker Select Plus version; my understanding is that it’s not bad/pretty good as is but most people are doing some basic mods to improve things (that you can mostly just print yourself lol, how cool).
Moding something made with the machine you’re moding is pretty cool. I’m going to start searching where to start so I’ll be ready when it gets here!
Dang it, now I’m sitting here thinking I should go bigger and get the Maker Select :-/
What to do, what to do…
I figured for the extra ~100 bucks (and just ~$20 extra over the Select V2) that the extra build volume and material compatibility were worth it.
Yeah, that’s exactly what I decided too and I was all set to change my order, but I couldn’t find my order number! The only thing that had made me hesitate about the Select was the larger footprint. Since I couldn’t cancel, I ended up watching videos etc until 3 am and I was happily surprised on how large you could actually print with the mini. It will suit 90% of my tinker needs and the smaller mini footprint won out in the end. (I’m trying to avoid my ittybitty house looking like a maker space lol. ) I also learned that it can handle a wider range of filament than advertised as well. Looks like the most important mod it will need is to reroute the wires to prevent chaffing, so that will be one of my first projects. By 4 am I was done researching PLA filament and had a hefty order from Amazon done. I can’t wait!
After all the fancy demonstrations of what the could do, this simple perspective was the one that sold me.
This is a good place to start learning about your new machine (I’ve owned two…).
I bought one a few months ago for use at a school. So far so good.
Oh thank you! I’ve been reading up all day. I have no idea how to work a 3D printer lol.
Holy cow, I just went to check it out and this is an amazing resource! Thanks again.
