Hi. I've been looking to buy a 3D printer for my local FTC (

3D Printing
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Hi.

I’ve been looking to buy a 3D printer for my local FTC ( some US citizens might know it) as sponsor, but I need to find something that is easy to setup and to service. They already had one that had some issues on mobo and their warranty was voided (the shop removed the warranty stickers when they wasn’t able to fix it) and now I want to buy for them something that easy to find spare parts. They tried to buy arduino and RAMPS but they weren’t able to calibrate it enough for decent prints. Even if they succeed a second printer would be helpful.

So some suggestions with printers that are reliable and easy to service would be appreciated. The budget would be around 1200$ including tax

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The Prusa i3 M3 kit is $750 or fully assembled for $999. Great support and a HUGE community. And they have the Multi-Material upgrade for $299, so you could stay under budget if you get the kit and the MMU.

We got the i3 Mk3 for our Robotics Team and have been really happy with it. Features include auto-leveling, auto filament loading/unloading, filament sensor, flexible bed, stealth mode and power-recovery.

EDIT: It’s also easy to upgrade the Firmware via USB using the dedicated Slic3r program. They also have a simple GUI version of the Slic3r program called Prusa Control that makes it really easy for beginners.

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Cr-10 s just was on sale (expired) on light in the box.
Great starter printer out of the box.

It will be my first 3D printer, but at around $400 still, it would be under your budget to add filament rolls, Arduino/raspberry pi cameras/additions with the remaining budget…

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@Kyle_Taylor @Phil_Weeks I think I’ll go with a Prusa MK2 only because I can’t buy for sponsorship only things that are for sale in my country and sadly here we have only Prusa MK2S. Cr-10 was an option but again it wasan’t for sale in my country. It’s all about a shitty law applied to our type of organisation

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@Soviet_Skeppard in that case you might look to see if the Mk 2.5 upgrade kit is available as well. I think it brings the Mk2 up to many of the same features as the Mk3

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@Kyle_Taylor yep. that was my ideea too