The natural assumption is that we think that the higher the cost, the better the quality of something. It is understandable when we take a look at how products are promoted in the market. But yet, that may not necessarily be the case all the time.

I used to print using MakerBot in my university for my projects. The machine itself costs quite a bit of money - the last I recalled it was around two thousand Singapore dollars. Well, it is a reputable brand for FDM printing, so you tend to expect that quality to go with it. Well, it had its fair bit of issues. Now and then, the printer would break down from overheating or other issues. At times, you will need to print supports and rafts (basically support structures to ensure that your product does not collapse during printing). Because of the configuration of the software, it is very difficult to remove, resulting in parts which may break, or parts with uneven surfaces.

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![photo_2017-04-14_17-43-40.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmZEzGmSAvagMkrJHnRQUzaxLgVmfAL5AbZHQUKGq8ZmzJ/photo_2017-04-14_17-43-40.jpg)
Fig. 1 - The support can be clearly seen, and probably can be removed only by sanding or filling it off. Fortunately, I don't need this part to be precisely printed - but it certainly does not look nice. If every part of the print is functional, this can become a big issue.

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At home, my father brought a 3D printer, which costs around three hundred dollars. Now, strangely though, with a bit of tweaking and experimenting, the quality of the printer is actually better than what I have printed in school. The most notable part is the support, which was really easy to remove, hence making the post-processing much faster. That, coupled with the ease of printing at home, made me shift from printing from school to printing from home.

Does the cost support the quality? Sometimes it takes a deeper look to see what if the quality really justifies the cost.