First, to provide context. I own and operate McDougall Designs LLC, an independent retailer and 3D printing service. I have been printing for hobbyists as a business for 3 years now. Full disclosure - for a significant chunk of those 3 years, my printers have been inoperative due to a variety of personal and business factors.
There are two main types of 3D printers in use by hobbyists. Resin printers and FDM (Filament deposition modeling) printers. Resin printers have a vat of liquid resin that sits on an LCD screen and selectively solidifies the liquid resin with light based on the files you print, layer by layer, upside down. FDM printers heat a strand of plastic up and extrude that heated material through a nozzle, printing upwards from a bed-plate. FDM machines are mostly used for terrain whereas resin printers are used primarily for miniatures, due to the much higher
