Few thoughts on printers

[JuniorJack]

Hi,

I am new to 3D printing. Just got my first printer (Chinese clone of Replicator 2X). Have been experimenting a lot in the last 10 days. My first impressions are that this technology is amazing, but is real pain to use. The knowledge and tinkering required to print anything useful is enormous. I am making an enclosure for a hobby electronics project, it consists of three parts each 194x74 mm. I had to adjust a lot of the design to be able to print it. Level of the bed, keeping the temperatures right, preventing warps - it is a truly full time job. Anyway, not complaining, just my first impressions. I can also say that i am happy as this 3D printer saved me lots of time compare to machining each part on the CNC(making a working CAM program is orders of magnitude more painful). The other option is making a injection mold, but out of my price range for this project.

Even after multiple failures and repairs, i have almost finished all little details and have good to go STL files for (small time)mass production. It is obvious this printer will not
make 50, 100 or 1000 pcs of my enclosure, so my question is - can somebody recommend a better model that i can use for production, still in the hobby price range, but with better build quality:

- thicker, well built to precision heated platform
- don't really need two extruders, leveling with two is much more difficult
- ABS material
- better method of leveling - probably screws with micro-threads
- aluminum body of the printer
- no belts at all

Thank you.