Men's Shed wants recommendation for 3D printer.

I belong to a Men's Shed in Brisbane, you know, a group of old farts who get together to talk sh.. and make things. A couple of us have a backgound in electrics, electronics and IT.
We just got a $500 grant to purchase a 3d printer and I was looking at the Tevo Tarantula which we can get for $500 but that doesn't leave anything for mods/upgrades or filament. I've tried researching the subject but the more I read the more undecided I become. An alternative is an Anet A8 or A6 plus upgrades and filaments but I would welcome recommendations from those with experience.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/09/2018 07:02PM by lesterb.

Hopefully you have held off buying a printer until now as they have come down significantly in price and have gone up in quality. $350 will get you are really nice 2 colour printer with a 220mm square build volume with an all metal frame.

Looks like this forum is inactive but I'll post and update just in case someone stumbles on it.
In the end we purchased an Anet A6 3D printer.
I made a number of mods from Thingiverse.
Last week the motherboard died mid print. The printer just hung. All I could do was turn it off and when I turned it back on it reboot then hung immediately. Every turn on since then just displays a blank screen. I have tested the 12v supply which is ok. I've turned it on with all extruder, hotbed and steppers disconnected and still it only shows a blank screen.
I'm now awaiting delivery of a MKS Gen L kit as a replacement and will install the latest Marlin on it. Once it is working I'll be able to implement auto levelling.