High quality reliable printer for makerspace under $2K?

Looking for a FDM 3D printer for a makerspace. What we have now are printers that are either sub-par, half built, or always out for repair. Want a highly reliable, solid performer under $2000. No wood parts, etc. From an established manufacturer with a good reputation. Turn-key operation, or as turn-key as can be expected for a 3D printer. Above average quality and capability. Strong user community. A model that an intermediate-level user would be quite pleased with. More materials than ABS and PLA would be desirable as would dual extruders, but are not absolute requirements. Your suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!!

Donor,

PM me if you are interested in a Hyrel.

http://hyrel3d.net http://hyrel3d.com

What is the prices?

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Originally Posted by Davo

Donor,

PM me if you are interested in a Hyrel.

http://hyrel3d.net http://hyrel3d.com

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From http://hyrel3d.net click on "Price List" on the left side.

From http://hyrel3d.com click on "Price List" from the Resources menu.

We have models with list prices from $2500 to $15,000.

Hmm, $2000 is a tricky price point.
What machines do you have already ?

No point recommending something you already don't like :-)

Under $2000?

I would go for the Up Box. Large build volume, software is second to none and great quality prints.

That's easy. Prusa I3 MK2S. http://shop.prusa3d.com/en/3d-printe...d-printer.html

With $2000.00 you can buy two of them. Don't let their sub $1000 price point make you think they are not good printers! In fact I would argue that these printers are better then most $2000-$3000 printers out there.

We have a Prusa 8" i3v kit printer that apparently has a heated bed problem. No one uses it.
A Rostock RepRap, or clone of, on loan that I’ve never seen operating.
A Lulzbot Taz 5 that’s been under construction for over a year and a half.
And a Makerbot Replicator on loan that’s often out for repair.
I’d like to see something more serious, reliable, and working.

I do have to say that so far this has been the most recommended 3D printer (Prusa i3 MK2). Thanks for your reply.

I would not compare the i3v with the i3 MK2,

I'll list some positives and negatives that I can see for the Prusa i3 MK2,

First the positive,

To be honest, the Prusa i3 MK2 makes one lazy. Its so easy to 3d print with. Just wipe the PEI bed off after every print with isopropyl alcohol once the bed cools. Plug in a SD Card, select the file to print, and bam! the printer does the rest. The only adjustments that one may have to do every now and then, is adjust the first layer Z height. This is pretty simple to do and verify. Overall it is a very simple printer to use.

Not to mention that Prusa has very good support for the printer and has a lot of stock profiles for most of the common slicers out there. And the stock profiles work pretty darn good. You wont have to teak very much if any to get great prints.

Prusa uses good components for the printer too and because of this the reliability should be good. "No Chinese cheaptronics" per their website.


Now for the negative,

The only negative that I can see is the bed. Its not removable and one cannot use a glass plate as this will screw up the self leveling abilities. So one is stuck with using a thin PEI layer on top. Don't get me wrong, the bed is great as long as one takes care off it, such as the following,

*cleans it after every print with isopropyl alcohol.
*allow the bed to cool before removing prints.
*one uses a glue stick when printing with PETG or flexible materials because if one does not, the print will stick too well.

And I can see in a Makerspace type environment, you will get all sort of different people that may not do all of the above. And I can see the thin PEI layer being destroyed quickly as people may abuse it trying to get hard to remove prints off because they don't let it cool down completely or did not use a glue stick when they should have.

So I can see the PEI layer needing to be replaced often. But on the positive note, it does not matter if the bed gets tweaked as the Prusa I3 MK2 will automatically self adjust and one will always get the perfect first layer!

Not sure if this helps, buts its my 2 cents worth!

SpragClutch - helps tremendously! Worth way more than 2 cents.

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Originally Posted by SpragClutch

Not sure if this helps, buts its my 2 cents worth!

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well looking at the list of machines you have that are not working. Do you really want to go down the same route again ?

You don't seem to have a replicator clone.
So my advice would be to buy a couple of qidi tech rep pro clones: https://www.amazon.com/TECHNOLOGY-3D...ice+3d+printer
Seriously good machines, quality components, fully enclosed print volume and dual extrusion.

You can use them to fix the repraps you already have :-)

The makerbot replicator dual isn't one of the most copied machines in the world for no reason.
Extremely reliable, easy to use, fully independant of a pc - except for slicing :-)
And the pro version gives you heated build volume for using the more awkward filaments.

These machines are pure workhorses. Drop a sheet of printbite on the bed and you've got a tape,glue scraper free print surface that never needs replacing and should even withstand the rigours of a makerspace that obviously lacks 3d printer oriented users (or more of your machines would be running ;-)

Not autolevel - but pretty quick and easy to level. Just use the firmware's guided process.

Having just built myself a delta with repetierhost. I can't see how people manage without a decent firmware. repetier just displasy information.
Sailfish on the other hand turns the machine into a truly independant manufacturing system.