Quote Originally Posted by curious aardvark View Post
or buy second hand - it's no good constantly repeating: 'you have to spend $500'
You have a good point, though when looking for a second-hand printer you have to make sure you don't spend $100 or something and get a pile of rods somebody threw together and tried to call a Prusia.

If you're about to buy a used anything, make sure you know the seller's reason for getting rid of it and that it makes sense. When someone says "It's in perfect condition, I just don't want it." the hair on the back of my neck stands up and my money hides away for another occasion. Even when you're just looking for a used printer, narrow your search to ones with a flaw other than build quality that you can easily tolerate. For instance, the Printrbot printers generally have a very small build area, it's pretty easy to understand someone 'outgrowing' a printer with a 6"x6"x6" build envelope long before wearing it out. Or perhaps figure out which printers are notoriously slow (I can't think of one off the top of my head), as that's a likely candidate for getting sold long before actual mechanical problems start to be a factor.

Also, avoid used kit printers like the plague, people almost always run them till they're falling apart. Because when you make something yourself, you're less likely to let it go prematurely.