Silhouette Alta Plus for 3D Printing - any good?

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kiocorrina

New Member
Sep 9, 2020
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I am debating whether I should get the Silhouette Alta Plus for my 3d projects. It costs about $260 plus. I am a beginner ...no experience with 3D printing at all. I have plenty of time to spare at home and thought of picking up a new hobby. You can find the specs here Shop Lowest Prices & Deals on New Silhouette Machines

I know the machine uses filament (Filament Type: 1.75 mm nonproprietary PLA filament). Any experience using them and where are the best online retail stores I can find them - ebay?
 

amalurk

Active Member
Dec 16, 2016
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No, I think it is a poor choice. The print area is too small, you couldn't even print a 3.5 caddy which is about 6 inches long because the print area is only 5 inches.
 

ttabbal

Active Member
Mar 10, 2016
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For more budget friendly, but good quality printers, check out Creality. There are a lot of good reviews of them, and they make good prints. For a more premium option, Prusa is highly regarded and is generally a better quality setup with better support. To a point, you do get what you pay for, so figure the really cheap ones are likely more of a kit you have to troubleshoot, while slightly more expensive units tend to work well out of the box.

I haven't used either, but they are the ones I'm considering after researching a larger format printer than my Lulzbot Mini. The mini is great, but expensive and the smaller bed size (6x6) can be limiting.

Note that printing is a bit of an art, so you will have to tweak settings per filament and printer.

For filament, try to find out what is working well for other people. I've had good luck with eSun and Makergeeks, but the later has had some issues with fulfillment. It's good quality, but delivery has been an issue for people. There are also some bigger names like Village Plastics and Taulman that are good quality, but a little more expensive. I've also had good results from cheap import filament, but people have reported a lot of trouble with some of them.
 

kiocorrina

New Member
Sep 9, 2020
3
0
1
For more budget friendly, but good quality printers, check out Creality. There are a lot of good reviews of them, and they make good prints. For a more premium option, Prusa is highly regarded and is generally a better quality setup with better support. To a point, you do get what you pay for, so figure the really cheap ones are likely more of a kit you have to troubleshoot, while slightly more expensive units tend to work well out of the box.

I haven't used either, but they are the ones I'm considering after researching a larger format printer than my Lulzbot Mini. The mini is great, but expensive and the smaller bed size (6x6) can be limiting.

Note that printing is a bit of an art, so you will have to tweak settings per filament and printer.

For filament, try to find out what is working well for other people. I've had good luck with eSun and Makergeeks, but the later has had some issues with fulfillment. It's good quality, but delivery has been an issue for people. There are also some bigger names like Village Plastics and Taulman that are good quality, but a little more expensive. I've also had good results from cheap import filament, but people have reported a lot of trouble with some of them.
Thanks Ttabal. I will check out Prusa, eSun and Makergeeks for sure.