I became interesting in 3D printing while looking at mechanical keyboards and finding a community that was developing some awesome mechanical keyboards. In many builds, various parts and pieces need to be printed from a 3D printer. I then began researching 3D printers and came to find that there are lot of printer manufactures such as Prusa (maker of Original Prusa i3), Creality (maker of Ender 3), Bamboo Labs, and many others.
I knew nothing about these printers and watched tons of YouTube videos and read lost of review articles. I decided that I wanted to put my toe in the water slowly and looked at options on eBay. I then came upon lots of listings for “parts only” printers at really low prices, often under $75 with shipping. The only caveat was that the printer was likely a return and was sold as-is with the understanding that is may need some repairs to get the printer fully working. I purchased a Biqu B1 printer for $65 including tax and shipping. It arrived in under a week from when I made the purchase and I started putting it together.
To my pleasant surprise, the printer needed nothing extra to get it fully up and running and in about two hours later I was making my first test print, a small bear figurine that was on the included mini-SD card. The next print was a squirle-like figurine that was also on the SD card. Needless to say, I was hooked and looking forward to working to print the parts for the Rook Mk2 printer.
Here is the $65 preowned printer that I purchased.
Here are the two initial figurine prints.