First time buyer, budget of £500, what models would you recommend?

[fitzy89]

Hi all

I'm sure you see these questions all the time so sorry if this has been discussed before, and if it would be better suited in another forum feel free to move the thread

I'm hoping to start 3D printing in the next month or so and I'm doing some research on models at the moment and hoping for some suggestions. I've got a budget of £500, I'm in the UK and will likely be purchasing from ebay unless anywhere else is cheaper. I know cheaper isn't always better so if I need to spend a bit more to get something slightly better I'm open to suggestions.

I'm not really sure what I want yet, a large build area would be nice as occasionally I'll be printing larger items and it would be handy not to have to print sections to join together. I'm unsure if I'll use ABS or PLA filament yet, I know each has their own pros and cons which I'll look at nearer the time but am I correct to assume most printers will happily print both? I'm a technically minded person and would love to build my own and have the skills and tools to do so but also as it's my first printer I'm wondering whether a pre-built printer would be easier to get started with. I'm also very familiar with SketchUp and ProDesktop 2000i2 3D software so that shouldn't be a problem. I guess I wouldn't be printing many 'models' but more likely things like control panels, fascias, mounts and things like that for my other projects. My other half would probably end up printing missing limbs for her doll collection as well lol (out of interest has anyone else on here used them for that?)

I've been doing a bit of research, watching videos and looking at prices and so far two models stand out to me, the Prusa i3 (can be had for £279 on ebay), and the Makerbot 2x which I've seen for around £400. I'm open to other suggestions though within my budget of £500. A dual extruder would be nice to have but not essential, I understand the Prusa i3 can be upgraded to dual but it looks like there's a lot of work involved in terms of programming and calibration/offsets to make it print accurately so I'm wondering if the Makerbot 2x may be a better option in that respect, but I do like the idea of building a Prusa from scratch and the upgradability/customisability of it. Maybe I could get the Makerbot and print myself a Prusa as a spare?

For the Prusa i3 I've seen the different frame types and materials, do different materials (wood/LC acrylic/aluminium) have their own pros and cons or are they pretty much the same? Do they flex or wobble during printing or would you choose any type of frame over another for any reason? I like the look of the acrylic ones but feel the aluminium ones would be more durable, I couldn't see much info about these aspects of the frames online.

In other costs, what are they like for running costs, I've heard about them taking hours to print some objects, what's the average wattage of a printer when in use? Does power usage vary widely between models or are most of them around the same? Depending on the wattage I may run it from a UPS as we occasionally get power cuts and I'd hate for the power to go off half way through a large print. For the filament, are any printers tied to any brand of filament or could any filament of the correct diameter be used pretty much? How does one go about changing filament colour, is it as simple as removing one colour and putting a different filament in there and running through a bit or does anything else need changing or cleaning to print with a different colour?

Sorry to ramble on so much and I know it's a lot of questions but as I'm not too flush with money I'm just looking to make the best use of my hard earned cash

[raysspl]

For your budget, the Up Mini is a great start. We've even demoed it at the Art Institute Universities here in U.S.

We carry them on our store if you're interested. We also have them on sale http://eezitec.com/products/up-mini