This is a great article which dives into some of the challenges of someone who wants to get into 3D printing but doesn't know what to buy. There is soooo much crud out there and it is so hard to know.
Yeah i've bookmarked this in case i ever change my mind.
For now i think paying someone else to print is the best option, for low volume. I guess it's been the same with many new technologies, initially at least.
That's also my view, in part because paying someone else to manufacture parts also retains significantly more flexibility about which processes to use, depending on the part/application/volume. I can get some things CNC-milled, other things 3d-printed using Material A, another thing 3d-printed using Material B, something else injection-molded, etc. It's not clear to me that there's currently a single process that's best for everything, and I don't have the space, capital, or knowledge to own and operate three or four machines.
