My boss bought a 3D printer in kit form, which was designed by some Tsechian person or Romanian person, who is known to design quality printers for low prices. I forgot, it has been quite a while since.
Anyway, It is a pretty good device, has a bed of 25x25 centimeters. Which is the limiting factor in object sizes to print. In the beginning, my boss used the parts as described in the kit, and started to create parts to improve the capabilities of the printer. Last time he was busy with a print head that can take 4 different colors of PLA/ABS at the same time and print objects in multiple colors, making/adjusting print heads that block much lee frequently, etc. But also a higher frame (to print taller objects), continuously finding ways and objects to improve automatic alignment and making the printer more stable for less "bumpy" prints.
The model he has, doesn't make that much noise, but it is far from silent. The sounds it makes do not sound irritating to me, but I might be weird about that.
Resin printers are more silent, but have a fan that can make noise. Resin is nasty to work with and printing must occur in well ventilated rooms. However, any resin that was not used in the print, you can pour back into the resin bottle and use for the next print. Also, you can reach a much higher level of detail and smoothness on 3D resin printers. That is a seriously big difference when compared with PLA/ABS printers.
Resin printed solid objects are less strong when compared with standard 3D printers. Resin prints are affected by sunlight and resin printers come with a encasement that filters the most troublesome UV light, so the resin isn't hardening when it is not supposed to. And once a resin print is done, you have to put it out in UV light for a while to harden it.
If you want to spent time tinkering and improving your 3D printer, by all means go and buy the kit my boss bought, if you don't then spend a boatload of money and get a 3D Maker printer, which have most, if not all of their kinks already worked out. Those can also be used for semi-professional work, more or less automated, so could be tax write-off if you have your own maker shop or something.
Get a resin printer if you wish to print models/puppets/figurines. The level of detail weighs up against all the disadvantages of resin. For general purpose things, get a standard PLA/ABS printer. Also, don't skimp on the quality of filament, because there are many who sell you crappy quality filament. Using good quality prevents a lot of clogging in the print head and less failed prints means a roll of filament lasts you a lot longer.
My boss got so fed up with the quality of filament he could get here in Paraguay, he now imports filament himself and started a store where he sells filament online. Even though he lives in a location that is out of the way of anything, he sells more than enough to make a profit of this hobby.
