Complete beginner looking for advice

I want to build a RepRap, and am looking for advice on which model(s) are easiest, cheapest, nicest, etc. The information on the main site seems rather confusing - there are a lot of different options to choose from! Ideally, I'd like to spend under £150 on materials, since I'm but a poor student.

I have some advantages that others may not have, materials-wise - I have free access to a laser-cutter at my school, so could cut acrylic, plywood etc easily. Also, my dad teaches an electrical engineering course, so I could borrow some components from his workplace, such as a microcontroller board that could work as equivalent to an Arduino/Sanguino.

I'm just leaving school and have good maths and physics skills, but have never undertaken a practical project like this before.

I'd like to know where to start, what model would be best to build, and any other useful advice you can think of. Thanks!

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/24/2009 09:47AM by wannabee.

Having access to a laser cutter is handy.

You could cut out the Ponoko design:
[www.ponoko.com]
[reprap.svn.sourceforge.net]

Or a Makerbot from plywood:
[wiki.makerbot.com]
[wiki.makerbot.com]
(this would be my choice if I were in your position)

Or the bits-from-bytes design:
[reprap.svn.sourceforge.net]

In terms of extruders, I would recommend a pinch-wheel rather than the old screw thread ones, you could cut out the Makerbot one.

I am not a fan of the mc-wire screw thread driven machines as using screw threads means everything moves very slowly giving you slow print times.

As you will be able to laser cut pieces, the motors and electronics will probably the most expensive parts.

If you use an alternative electronics board, then you will of course have to port the arduino firmware onto it.