[mappum]

This guide has the Reprap "Prusa Steel" printer listed, and says it is $500, with a 9.1 rating. However, I strongly recommend the acrylic version made by many Chinese electronics companies which sell for $220 for the same print quality.

I have been using one of those for the last few weeks and I couldn't be happier with it. It all works much better than I expected for the price, and has been suitable for printing various home items and custom robotics parts.

You can find them on AliExpress (the consumer-oriented version of Alibaba): http://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?catId=0&initiative_id=SB...

If you want to get into 3d printing but don't want to drop $1k+ on a printer, try one of these.

[TD-Linux]

>acrylic version made by many Chinese electronics companies which sell for $220 for the same print quality.

Eh, have you actually done comparisons? That acrylic printer looks pretty iffy - the vertical acrylic supports are in the wrong direction to brace against acceleration from the printhead.

It's hard to compare exactly because they didn't specify a specific kit, but that $500 probably also gets you important items like a genuine hotend. As another comparison point, the Makerfarm i3v kit for $490, although partially wood, is still a much better design and is going to be stiffer. You also get a proper hotend, heated bed, and nice V-slot linear mechanisms.

[ThatPlayer]

I had one of these until the hotend somehow died on me. Unfortunately the most of the chinese printers do not believe in open-source or GPL, so I'm planning on completely replacing the X-carriage and upgrading to an E3D-Lite6.

I would still recommend the printer as it does come with everything. A few kits that do seem nice like that Makerfarm Pegasus (which does come with the Lite6) is missing power supply and glass.