What's better in terms of:

Experimentation - I want to be able to tinker with my machine; i.e add an LCD or change the hot end
Surface Finish - bare surface finish
Tech Support - How bad is it if it breaks?
Reliability - Can I depend on this?
Dual Extruders - In the future?\
Build Volume Expansion - On either?
Different Plastics - Laywood, PC, Taulman Nylon
Other features - I heard Robo is getting Lights in their new Robo

Anybody have experience with both?

What are your thoughts?

Robo3D is moving to closed source:

[www.reddit.com]

How come no one talks about the Mendel90 anymore? Great kit.

Quote
greenman100
Robo3D is moving to closed source:

[www.reddit.com]

How come no one talks about the Mendel90 anymore? Great kit.

Yeah <3 Mendel90! I am still on it, Nophead made a beautiful machine, he is a dedicated person, and most importantly, unlike *most* vendors, he is a 3d-printing person himself. Ohhhh the amount of vendors in my home country that sell printer but don't even use one themselves is just saddening!

Anybody?

I was baffled when you posed these questions on the PrintrbotTalk forum, and I still am. The cynical part of me is sensing poorly executed market research. Why, specifically, only these two printers when there are so many available?

Anyhow.....

Surface finish? One is laser cut Baltic birch and the other has a plastic case.

Build volume expansion? In what axis? Z is easy, just some longer rods. Other axes can be expanded with the proper skills.

My advice (Hey, you asked) is that you get a printer with the build volume you need, right from the get-go. Or build it yourself.

You can start looking here: [www.3ders.org]

By surface finish I meant the surface finish of finished prints. I asked about the extension of the build volume, because I was not sure of firmware limits, and if I want to expand in the future I would be curious to see if I could.

I looked at these two printers mainly because:
Commercial, company support
Large build volume
Hackable and big community
Easily sourceable components
I also already have a printrbot Jr. so it would be nice to stay in the ecosystem

I considered some other things like the Prusa i3, Mendel90, Rigidbot BIG, and even the Ultimaker original, but for separate reasons, such as community, support, quality, expandability, upgradability, price, and open source-ness (I think the Rigidbot used a proprietary controller) I narrowed it down to these two.