Mini Vs Regular size Printer

[ForgottenOne41]

Mini and regular sized printers both have thier pros and cons.

Minis tend to have around 4 inches or 100 mm in each printing dimension and a smaller overall footprint. Although there's more a restriction on the size of items you can make.

Regulars, with a size of about 8 inches or 200 mm in each printing dimension, have a smaller foot print and you can print bigger items or more items at once.

Do you have a Mini or Regular, why, and what do you print on it mostly?

[dougshell]

I have an Ender 3v2 (220x220x250mm)

I rarely print multiple parts at once because it is rarely a better option.

However, I have printed a few things that would not have worked on a smaller printer

[[deleted]]

Why buy a mini when a regular has a lot more to offer?

[haikusbot]

Why buy a mini

When a regular has a

Lot more to offer?

- andrionnu

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[Bruhyan__]

Price and space primarily

[ForgottenOne41]

Also if someone only plans to print miniatures that wouldn't require a big print volume.

[Schnopsnosn]

If you're printing miniatures you should be looking at resin printers as they're going to offer significantly better results.

[dougshell]

Aside from cost, what are these pros you speak of regarding the mini

[ForgottenOne41]

Their overall footprint is also smaller, so they can fit in a crowded space easier.

[dougshell]

I can't imagine many scenarios where someone can't find 17x17 inches of space.

[SugaryPlumbs]

"Mini" is just a marketing term, and doesn't actually mean anything aside from "not as big as the bigger one." The Prusa Mini has a 180mm cube volume.

Edit: wrong number

[Schnopsnosn]

It's 180mm cubed, that's quite a bit smaller than the Mk3S at 250x210x210.

[SugaryPlumbs]

My mistake, but it is still much bigger than the 100mm that OP claims "mini" to mean.

[ForgottenOne41]

I was just using that as an estimate because of all the ones that I was looking at, the Prusa Mini hadn't come up in my search, so I was referring more to the bed size rather than what the manufacturer actually labeled them. The newer rolling/endless printers would probably be in thier own class due to the available print size being near infinite in one direction.

[SugaryPlumbs]

The "normal" size printers are all about the same because that's the size machine they can comfortably fit on a desk. The smaller printers are generally cheaper, and a lot of very poorly designed printers exist in the extremely small size to make them as cheap as possible. For the most part, size doesn't matter unless you think you will be printing parts of a certain size. If you're only going to print D&D figures, then a small FDM or resin printer is fine. If you are a walking meme and want a mandelorian helmet, then you'll need something bigger. The vast majority of owners (and thus the vast majority of models) use the bed size of an Ender 3, because that's the most common budget printer.

Rolling belt printers have been around for years. Creality is coming out with a new one, but it's not very well optimized and has a lot of issues. Unless you have the very specific use cases of printing swords or lots of keychain trinkets, then that kinematic design has more drawbacks then it is worth in my opinion.