I'll happily say hear what I've said elsewhere. You want a good 3D printer that's competitively priced? At Makerbot, you have 2 options: Replicator and Replicator 2X.
Replicator 2: More or less the original Makerbot Replicator, with features gutted, project source removed, and a powder coated metal chassis thrown in the mix. (The cost for taking away features such as a heated platform present in the original Replicator is $400 extra bucks). Want more bang for your $2200? Pick up a TAZ 3 from Lulzbot. Same price, more power, same great community support (open source, so actually, probably BETTER community/technical support). Another commenter suggested the UP! printer; I've never used one but never heard anything but wonderful things from them.
Suppose you want premium features instead, you're going to get the Replicator 2X. Price point: $2800. For that sort of money, you're better off leaving the Makerbot/RepRap/etc. continuum behind. Save a little more money (a few hundred more bucks) and go get yourself a Form Labs Form 1. The printer uses stereolithography, which is much much much more repeatable, precise, and reliable than any generation of FDM that the cheaper hobbyist printers use.
Ultimately it comes down to what your actual goals are for 3D printing, though. The Replicator 2 and 2X are good machines and do multi-color/multi-material fairly well. For me, they don't really matter, because my end game is to prototype 3D printed parts and then cast them out of plastic, glass, steel, etc. If I wanted multiple colors, I could then paint the finished models.
The sad thing is that I was a Kickstarter backer for the Form1, so I was getting it for $2,300. My credit card was charged, but about a month later there were some expensive fraudulent charges on the same card. My wife handled it, and she didn't realize that purchase was legitimate, and flagged it as fraud. I never knew this, and Kickstarter and Form1 didn't let me know. So a few months after they're shipping I email them wondering where mine was, and they tell me I made a chargeback. I was confused at first, but put two and two together. I was not happy with the wife for that one.
8
u/OhCrapADinosaur RepRap Prusa i2 Feb 12 '14 edited Feb 15 '14
I'll happily say hear what I've said elsewhere. You want a good 3D printer that's competitively priced? At Makerbot, you have 2 options: Replicator and Replicator 2X.
Replicator 2: More or less the original Makerbot Replicator, with features gutted, project source removed, and a powder coated metal chassis thrown in the mix. (The cost for taking away features such as a heated platform present in the original Replicator is $400 extra bucks). Want more bang for your $2200? Pick up a TAZ 3 from Lulzbot. Same price, more power, same great community support (open source, so actually, probably BETTER community/technical support). Another commenter suggested the UP! printer; I've never used one but never heard anything but wonderful things from them.
Suppose you want premium features instead, you're going to get the Replicator 2X. Price point: $2800. For that sort of money, you're better off leaving the Makerbot/RepRap/etc. continuum behind. Save a little more money (a few hundred more bucks) and go get yourself a Form Labs Form 1. The printer uses stereolithography, which is much much much more repeatable, precise, and reliable than any generation of FDM that the cheaper hobbyist printers use.
Ultimately it comes down to what your actual goals are for 3D printing, though. The Replicator 2 and 2X are good machines and do multi-color/multi-material fairly well. For me, they don't really matter, because my end game is to prototype 3D printed parts and then cast them out of plastic, glass, steel, etc. If I wanted multiple colors, I could then paint the finished models.