Need some advice please

Hi I'm hoping someone might be able to help me my 10 year old son really wants a 3d printer for his birthday. It would be a joint present from many members of the family (so NO pressure!). He has aspergers and is very tech minded which is why I thought a prusa i3 might be a good option as he can build it with his dad and really feel he's created it and learn how they work. But i'm so confused there is so much choice and I'm worried about buying a naff one which just causes frustration. We live in the Uk and unfortunately money is an issue so can't afford an original. Any advice or anyone selling a decent second hand one would be most welcome

The amount of work involved in getting it working reliably is probably proportional to how much the price is less than $1000.

Depending on you and your son, that might not be a bad thing... if you see it as a challenge & learning experience to make the thing do what you want.

Where in the UK are you?

Doug

What's your budget?

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

Many may advise against the Afinibot A3 but I am satisfied with mine as it came boxed with all needed parts and once assembled had no trouble printing right away. Of course expect your first month of printing to be extreme learning and failed prints but that will be with any printer you get. This is a chinese printer kit but they are not fly by night like many others out there. Instructions on build are available on the net. The price was only 450 Canadian, they also make a delta style and other higher priced versions

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rwt

In high school i bought pretty much the cheapest china i3 kit that hat a heated bed and had quite a time putting it together and getting it running. They didnt send me a 40mm fan to cool to cold end, and one of the z axis threaded rods should have been a reject in QC as the threads were only half cut. The power supply was a bit shoddy so replaced it with a computer ATX psu, and then I accidentally ruined the 5v regulator on my arduino.

All in all, no regrets, I learned a ton from it. If you aren't handy with a soldering gun or willing to learn how to mess with some basic firmware code I wouldn't recommend it. But now it prints really well and have designed a lot of my own upgrade parts for it.

Oh, if your son is going to have a 3d printer, I hope he has access to a half decent computer and some CAD software, designing your own stuff is where I feel the real value comes from in a printer. There are many free CAD software's, I use Inventor pro, you can get a several year free student license.

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If you need some help, or don't understand what I just said, feel free to send me a PM anytime

Printer: Prusa i3, 2 E3D v6 Hotends, Arduino + RAMPS 1.4 with a Bypassed 5V Regulator, 400w Insignia ATX PSU, Custom Designed Bowden Extruders

Link to a post about a good cheap printer

Link

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/18/2016 12:50PM by DaGameFace.