Reprap or Makerbot? beginning to choose.

Well I have some money now to choose a 3d printer. Appears that only the home build ones are close to my budget. The two I have heard about are the Reprap Mendal and the Makerbot model. Any suggestions to pick the best one? It would be nice if it could print itself and use different materials to print with. I heard some say they can print with food.
Are there other models to consider? Where are good places to buy them. Are their problems with each to consider? Are there other questions I should ask.?

http://reprap.org/wiki/What_Tooling_Do_You_Have?

Any suggestions to pick the best one?
You may detect a very slight pro-reprap bias over here in the reprap camp.

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-Sebastien, RepRap.org library gnome.

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Remember, you're all RepRap developers (once you've joined the super-secret developer mailing list), and the wiki, RepRap.org, [reprap.org] is for everyone and everything!

I would suggest a vanilla http://reprap.org/wiki/Prusa_Mendel with some flavor of the
http://reprap.org/wiki/"Official"_Electronics.

If you have a drill press the http://reprap.org/wiki/Clonedel are good value.

Good luck!

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-Sebastien, RepRap.org library gnome.

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Remember, you're all RepRap developers (once you've joined the super-secret developer mailing list), and the wiki, RepRap.org, [reprap.org] is for everyone and everything!

Makerbot going to the Gen4 electronics and only selling the ThingOMatic has made the choice easier IMO. They now cost about 2x the cost of a Prusa Mendel. You could easily fit a heated bed solution in your Mendel build and not come close to the thingomatic cost. A lot of people run the RAMPS electronics lately (Including myself) you can completely build it, get it built from ultimachine.com or anything inbetween... I really like the "Gen 7" solution (Hate the name tho) but would not recommend it for someone starting out yet.

the biggest difference between the Thing O Matic and Mendel w/heated bed is on the Mendel you'll have a larger bed, on the TOM you'll have a smaller bed with a conveyor belt.

I think the larger bed works out great... instead of printing individual parts and moving the conveyor belt I use the multiply skeinforge plugin and give it columns and rows, this lets me print multiple parts at once on my larger print bed, by my estimate it's also faster this way because the XY movement to go between multiple parts on the bed is faster than the Z movement that would be needed for each individual part.

For the cost of the ThingoMatic I've built a McWire Printer which I PLan to turn into an etching Mill, at least 5 extruder hot ends, built a Prusa Mendel + heated bed, have a bunch of extra parts, and about 8 pounds of plastic.

Either solution will be a lot of building and tweaking tinkering, upgrading and fun.

If you have a drill press the [reprap.org] are good value.

Actually, if you have a drill press and a handsaw, the
http://reprap.org/wiki/1X2
and
http://reprap.org/wiki/1X2_Tallcat

look like a lot of fun. Best to wait a few hours for Mr. Kim to finish polishing the documentation, the pages just went up tonight.

I really like the "Gen 7" solution (Hate the name tho)
Yes, I'm thinking of renaming them "Teacup" or "Generation 8".

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-Sebastien, RepRap.org library gnome.

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Remember, you're all RepRap developers (once you've joined the super-secret developer mailing list), and the wiki, RepRap.org, [reprap.org] is for everyone and everything!

If you are doubtful of your technical hobby skills you should get the Makerbot. I got one, and the learning curve was manageable. I am currently a month into building a Mendel and have yet to get it to do what it's supposed to do. Mostly, it's a software difference. ReplicatorG+Makerbot's firmware just works. With the Reprap printers you have to deal with the fact that no one is promising you the bot will work. For that reason, if you do decide to go with one of the Reprap models, I suggest buying it from a vendor who will support you if some part of the tool chain breaks down.