What do I start with?

Hi, I've been interested in 3D printers for the longest time, and now I'm going to start looking into building one myself. I have some electronics experience, but I've never built something this intricate. I've noticed there are a lot of models on a lot of different price ranges. Which one is the best for the price, a good intro machine to 3D printing? A Prusa? A Mendel? What can I expect to pay for these kits, or is it better to just source parts myself? I've heard of people making them for $350 by sourcing their own stuff...

What's the difference between a 1.75mm and 3mm printing head? Resolution? I apologize for all of the questions, but man, is this one technological revolution I would love to be a part of. Thanks.

i'm a noob and don't even have a machine assembled yet but i will share what i have found
there seems to be 2 big schools of thought in reprap design
1. the younger "practical machine for the cheapest possible cost" school which focuses on giving you a machine that is neither necessarily fast or high resolution but is easy to assemble and practical enough to use this school includes machines like printrbot, wallace, prusa(depending on how you source it), and a few upcoming
2. and the older "best bang for your buck" school which focuses on giving you a better value or a machine machine that is more expensive but has proportionally better performance this seems to includes machines like mendel max, mendel90, prusa(again depending on how you source it), and a few more upcoming designs

3mm filament seems to be recommended for beginners and there seems to be debate at whether 1.75 has any sort of benefit

here is the cheapest prusa BOM i've seen [www.thefrankes.com]
here is the cheapest kit I've seen [printrbot.com]

I'm kind of considering a RepRapPro Huxley, I've heard some not-too-good things about the printrbot. Would this be a good choice?

I wouldn't know about the reprappro Huxley aside from its good enough to make it to the reperap.org front page. but I'm curious what did you hear about the printrbot?

I've heard people jokingly call it the "Wobblebot", and this was at a place where they were using what I believe was a Prusa to print things. I asked them about it, and they said it couldn't compare to the quality of a traditional Reprap design.

the first printer i ever saw in person was a prototype printrbot (stopped in at the norcal reprap meetup last fall) its big selling points is affordability by sacrificing frame parts and drastic improvements to ease of assembly again by sacrificing framer parts so yes its not going to get you the highest quality prints at the top of it build height at high speed (a pretty specific weakness if you ask me) but from all appearances it looks functional and practical enough to make a good first bot (that and printrbot appears to run their entire bot farm off these machines and a laser cutter)

but as for me I'm building a prusaV2

I built a Prusa V2 and love it so far. It was a lot of fun and Ive been doing a lot of experimenting to get the best quality on my unit. A kit that I bought (had everything but my motors, powersupply, and rods) was 70% of my cost.My build was around 700 but I could have easily gone cheaper if I sourced it more.

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Ryan
Quality Engineer & Hobbyist
thingsandtrains.blogspot.com

The consensus on the IRC at this point is pretty much go with a Prusa Mendel Iteration 2 if you want to go a bit cheaper with a bit more complicated build .. if you want to spend about $80 more .. the MendelMax is a fantastic machine with certain aspects being simpler to assemble (less precision cutting of rods, less jigging of frame etc). Tons of both machines have been built and there are many people who can help with questions on the IRC channel.

My personal project at the moment is a Mendel90. Love it. Going together well. There just is not many of them out there yet. So for a new RepRapper I would stick with a Prusa Iteration 2 or MendelMax.

From the comments I have been seeing in the IRC you really do not save a lot of money by going with a Printrbot or varient. Most of the cost of any build is motors, electronics and hot end.

I'm starting out too... long time electronics and mechanical tinkerer (cars, motorcycles, robotics, etc.) so this is right up my alley of things to play with. I'm starting with a MendelMax 1.5 build. I like the way the frame is put together with the extrusions. Should make for a rock solid machine.

I build a Mendel (way too many parts), build a Prusa (great machine), build a smaller Prusa/huxley (small z-height). Tried Printrbot, but i was way too wobbly, and now have a Mendel90 (out of wood).
I would 100% recommend the Mendel90, if you absolutely can't figure out how to build it (the instructions are minimal), the Prusa2 is a good alternative.