Please help me choose a 3D printer

[curious aardvark]

blimey used to be $799

I actually won mine in a competition on here about 18 months ago.
Must be selling the stock off. they never really pushed it. The company makes crafting machines and supplies - I think they were reckoning on their crafting customers all rushing to buy a 3d printer.
Really well engineered machine. super quiet, excellent extruders and I didn't even have to calibrate it for dual extrusion. Was perfect right from the get-go.
Solid metal chassis - you don't want to drop it on your foot.
The only criticism I ever had was the rubber feet fall off when you pick it up. Tape or glue them on, and that's it.
It even has a slightly larger build plate than the standard replicator clones.
Oh yeah, three point bed levelling - I hate that. But once you eventually get the plate level - it tends to stay level. And unfortunately most replicator clones use 3 point levelling. I have never understood why.

It's at least the equivalent of the flashforge creator pro - just without the enclosing. Which would be easy to do if required. Block the front hole and handle holes and fit a hood on top. job done. I've seen people do it with laminating pouches and mini magnets.
for $399 - just get one ! Hell get 2 :-)

no downtime, no clogged nozzles - to be honest I've only ever had one in 3 years across 2 machines. And that was with the filament my original machine came with.
Nozzles don't generally clog and most filament these days is pretty crap free.
I'm inclined to think that a lot of 'clogged' nozzles are just people pissing about with the slicer settings too much and trying to print too cool or too fast. Or just really really crap filament.

pet-g easy to glue and paint. I use uhu clear glue to glue all my 3d printed stuff. Pretty much any solvent based clear glue will do (it's all the same stuff). I get it from my local pound shop.

At $399 that is currently hands down the best value 3d printer on the PLANET !

I'd also recommend a sheet of printbite. About the closest thing to a miracle surface currently available. http://3dprintboard.com/showthread.p...ntbite-surface

I'd recommend fitting it with some kind of clip so it can be removed should you want to use one of the few materials it's not suitable for. I currently use my knp almnost exclusively for flexible filaments and just use pva gluestick on it. On my standard flashforge creator I have the printbite stuck on.
Just takes all the hassle out of 3d printing :-)
No glue, no tape, no scrapers no models bouncing off the ceiling or delicate parts breaking off. You just print and remove.