Newbie Here, Suggestions on Used Printer

I'd go with the SD, plenty of support here and lots of replacement/upgrade parts readily available.  With the correct mods it'll be capable of quality equivalent to a much more expensive machine.  We have a community store to keep you printing along nicely.
http://www.printitindustries.com/

Hi WardJR,

Thanks for the response. Sounds awesome! My parents own a print shop (paper, not plastic), so I know how hard it is when they have machines that break or need support. Definitely the scariest thing about buying new consumer tech.

I like community support more than customer usually, sadly, it's easier to get info through pages like this rather than calling someone who has less knowledge than people here!

Definitely leans my vote to the Solidoodle 3...

For a bang for your buck scenario the SD3 still gets my vote.  There's a good chance we are familiar with that exact machine.  Tell us what mods have been done and we will guide you to perfection.  I have 3 SD3's and without question (after proper mods and calibration) I would and do sell parts that it creates.  All the printed plastic parts are available (printed on SD2&3's) at the same store listed above.  We've not had any quality complaints yet.

Hi Connor 1+ Ward

I have built a couple of Prusa's from scratch for a few friends. I got an itch for a machine of my own and opted for the SD4 on Ebay knowing it was doomed from a support point of view at the right price. The reason I chose it was the basic frame and platform really, That's the only proprietary things really and unless you are going to run over them they won't go wrong. The rest of the parts are just off the shelf, ideas. ingenuity and enthusiasm you will get right here ;-)

of the printers you had listed, my choice would also be the SD3.

Yes, Solidoodle the company is gone, BUT - replacement parts are easy to get (i never did need to order anything from SD directly with two of the SD4s). and with Printit Industries filling the gap with parts for pretty much all of the SD2, 3 & 4 lines, it is even easier now.
and if you need something that Printit doesnt carry (yet), just ask, someone can point you in the right direction.

Print quality can be outstanding if you take the time to calibrate well & learn the software

just as an example...printed with Inland brand Silver PLA on one of my SD4s...

and a Chess set printed in Octave ABS...

close up of a few pieces - no supports were used to print any of these..

Thanks all, so far I have been loving my SD3! I think I made the right choice! I was able to successfully get prints going after about 30 minutes of re-calibrating everything. I have been able to do a small piston, some brackets, and a bunch of tiny keychains I've pulled from some open-licence webpaged. I am still experiencing some weird printing issues, sometimes I get very profound gaps as well as some other mishaps, such as my perfect circles coming out more like squares, but that just means I need to play with it more!

Okay, I printed something up really fast. I pulled this off of Thingiverse, it is Thing: 177645, a Jeep Grille made by ReplikaPrinting.

First, the headlights (larger circles) are not taking a perfect circle shape as it seems the original STL part is, they are deformed quite significantly. The lower square parts of the grille are pretty decent, though could be sharper. Hopefully in the photos you can see the gaps I am talking about, I won't know until I upload though.

I am using Repetier-Host and Black 1.75mm ABS, printing at 217c (roll recommends 210c-230c) and have the heating bed at 105c.