[hackerspaces] reliable 3d printer recommendations?

[Tim Saylor]

Hi all,

After a year or so of fiddling with repraps, Pumping Station: One is
looking into buying a hobbyist 3d printer that will more or less "just
work" as a tool to be used by people with minimal training on how to run a
3d printer.  I'm looking for a similar experience to a laser cutter:
someone explains how to make a file and how to send it to the machine, you
do that, maybe run a test to make sure it's what you expect, and then you
have a thing.  In your experience, which printer is closest to this
experience in the $2k-3k range?

So far we've talked about the Ultimaker with NetFabb software and the
Replicator 1 or 2*.  Anyone have any experience they'd like to share that
would help with our decision?

Thanks!
Tim

* The politics of open source are a discussion we are having, but it's a
separate one from which tool is best for the job.  Since we already have an
active discussion about that question, I'd appreciate keeping this one on
the pros and cons of each printer as a day to day tool.

-- 
@tsaylor
http://www.timsaylor.com/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.hackerspaces.org/pipermail/discuss/attachments/20120925/a8185e97/attachment.html>