Folger Technologies Printer Kit Opinions?

Hi Folks,
I've been lurking these forums for a bit of time and I'm getting ready to buy my first 3D printer as a christmas gift for myself.
I've used Makerbots and Ultimakers at school and work, but I can't afford what those machines go for when I'm trying to save up for a house.

I've been really drawn to the Folger Tech kits for the the Kossel 2020 and the 2020 Prusa I3. Mostly due to the price point and location- they are only a half hour drive from me, so if I need parts it's not going to be a huge problem. I enjoy building things and have quite a bit of electronics/maker knowledge so I'm not particularly concerned with building one. I like a challenge.

My question here is the quality difference so drastic between the Folger Tech kits and the next step up, would I be doing myself a disservice in buying a kit?
Would I be better off buying the Monoprice I3 copy already assembled for $100 more?

Also, I can't find this on the Folger Tech website but how is connectivity achieved with the Kossel 2020? Is it just straight connect USB? I need this to have an SD card input as I can't leave my laptop attached to this thing for a whole print cycle. Can their display PCB be attached to it like the I3?

Thanks!

if the company is only a short distance away - I'd get that.

Plus you can go see them working before buying. And most likely for afew more bucks you can probably buy a prebuilt one anyway.

I've bought my components for the past 2 printers from FolgerTech and the quality has generally been pretty good. I had one bad stepper driver out of 10, but it wasn't a big deal given the price. Their packaging is pretty decent, and things like the smooth rod, bearings and threaded rod have all been fairly decent. Their email support has generally been okay, perhaps a bit quicker would be nice, but not the worst I've experienced either. Generally, I usually use them for my components when I need something from North America and don't want to wait for it from China.

Their Kossel kit has an absolutely huge discussion thread over on the RepRap forums (http://forums.reprap.org/read.php?178,445488) and generally it's well received. As of any kit, you only get out of it what you put into it, and there are dozens of modifications and improvements that people have done to theirs, but overall, it is a pretty good kit. I haven't read too much about their Prusa i3 yet, though I would assume it's pretty much in line with any other major i3 kit around.

Regarding your question about the SD card. The i3 does come with an LCD and SD card slot out of the box, but the kossel does not. You can buy the LCD (with the SD reader) and simply attach it to the Kossel, it's just 2 ribbon cables and one config file change on the RAMPS board to get it working!


Ryan