I am looking to buy a 3d printer around the 1500.00 range any suggestions?
I would also like to get into the 3d business. Any ideas in this area?
Complete units:
Lulzbot - AO-101 - ~$1700 USD -From what I can tell they look like an awesome company. They are based on the open sourced model, they are active in forums, their products are sturdy and well designed, and they publish the plans for their models so you can make your own if you wanted to. If I was going to buy a complete unit, this is who I would choose.
Solidoodle - Various models - ~$500 - $800 - Their owner is committed to sell pre-assembled units with high quality and low prices.
Makergear - M Series - ~$1500 - ~1750 - They make very nice machines and are well regarded
Kits:
Mendel90 - ~$900 - This the kit that I’ve ordered for myself. The design is beautiful and the creator is very active in the open source community and gives back regularly.
RepRapPro - ~$1100 - Tri-color Mendel is the newest addition, this could be very helpful if and when PVA support material(water soluble) is more common. This would be my second choice for a kit.
Ultimaker - ~$1500 - They make beautiful kits and are well regarded
Makerfarm - ~$500 for the deluxe kit. I think the kit still requires you to source some materials, but I’ve seen a lot of chatter that they are a well run company with great customer service.
DIY:
RepRap Wiki - $450 and up - This is the wiki for the RepRap community. Start here - and you’ll probably end up on a Prusa model.
I’ve seen many people post that while you can save money via the DIY route, there are often ordering mistakes, delays, or quality issues that will result in your spending more time and money than you originally expected. It is often recommended to buy a complete kit to ensure you have what you need in the first attempt.
Business: I don’t know about making a business out of the level of printer you’re talking about. They will not have the consistency you will need for continuous production and the time to print things makes it very hard to be profitable.
Directly from @nop_head
He has a post on his blog: http://hydraraptor.blogspot.com/2012/12/mendel90-updates.html that details how he has complete kits available to order. There is a link to a http://reprap.org forum that he monitors via PMs and will add you to the queue. His wife handles quite a bit of the correspondence while he’s busy building kits and she is a real treat. It looks like his turnaround times are about 2 - 3 weeks right now.