I am so psyched for this group. We are in the market to buy a few 3D Printers and am only familiar with a few models.
How much money do you have to spend on them? There’s a reasonably linear relationship along the lines of price = print quality / amount of work
I suggest Makergear M2 or RepRap Pro Mendel. You could get two Reprap Pro Mendels for your range.
I was just looking at the Form1 and wondering if anyone backed it?
Up! was also recommended to me. http://www.up3dusa.com/#!up-plus-sale/c3ag Any thoughts on that appreciated.
Closed source = boooooo. Same goes for Makergear.
What do you think of the Tantillus? Seems like a nice compact design as long as you don’t need too much build volume. http://www.tantillus.org/Home.html
I’m disappointed that he got rid of the fully-printed frame. That was the really cool thing about the design, and was something I’d been meaning to try since I first got into 3d printing.
Me too; you could still print the frame though right (even though he went with the laser cut one for the kits)? Or maybe he never released the models for the printable frame?
@Tara_Tiger_Brown Both I think. I just did a word search on the form 1 kickstarter and no mention of opensource. Up! is most certainly closed.
Both, as well as makergear and solidoodle (even though the last two were listed as open in @MAKE1 's 3d printer guide >:(
@Whosa_whatsis OK. Do you have a recommended list? We have about $4500 and would like to get a minimum of 2.
If this if for a uni then there is no reason/benefit to being opensource elitist. I’d probably buy 3 Up’s. The only problem with the Up! is that you have to buy their more expensive higher-temp plastic (if you’re printing ABS) unless you want to mod the machine, but if people are going to use this in labs then that is probably fine.
Choosing open source isn’t about being elitist, its about supporting companies and projects that support the community instead of destroy it.
@Tara_Tiger_Brown Well, I’m not unbiased, but you should stop by our shop in Pasadena and check out the Bukobot. Other than that, I like the Ultimaker, Type-A, and Prusa i3. I would not recommend previous Prusa models or anything else with the word “Mendel” in the name (with the possible exception of the Mendel90), not due to quality/value, but because they are needlessly complicated and difficult to build and tune, and because there’s one significant design mistake that they all include.
Supporting the community, as @Jason_Gullickson mentioned, is huge, but it’s not the only reason to choose open source. An open source machine can improve as time goes on and the community learns and comes up with new ideas, while a closed machine is stagnant. An open machine also has all the information you need to repair it if something goes wrong, unlike closed machines. @Justin_Hubbard 's UP recently burned a board, and he had to get another UP user to dissect a working machine to figure out how to fix it.
Hey @Tara_Tiger_Brown , psyched to have you also a part of this group! I noticed that you’re the one behind the LA Makerspace Kickstarter campaign, I’m planning on doing something similar in Fargo, ND, it’d be great to pick to pick your brain on some things.
As far as the printers go, I’m with @Whosa_whatsis on going open source if at all possible, primarily because of the community support you’ll have if/when something breaks or goes wrong.
In regards to the Form Labs printer, I think it looks phenomenal, but their retail price point is going to be around $3,299, which seems out of your price range, at least for now.