Printer Recommendation

Unless you have the money to spend on the Makerbot I'd suggest seriously looking at the SD3. I spent a lot of time looking at different printers and for the price the Solidoodles have it hands down.

If I didn't want dual extruders the next choice would probably be a delta style printer for the extended vertical build space.

Thanks for the replies.  They are much appreciated.

I thought about the Makerbot because of the mindshare they have, but it looked like I needed to go to the Replicator 2X to get ABS printing, and cost and availability took that off the list (same for the CubeX). 

I'll go read up on the SD3.  While I don't need dual nozzles today, it would be a nice future upgrade so that I can 'paint' designs on objects with different color plastic.  I'm trying to keep my choices to preassembled, but tinker friendly designs.  I like to know that upgrades are possible/encouraged.

Price.

Some people would rather spend $800 and a few hours tweaking the machine, others would rather spend $2200 and hope to not tweak it, but eventually have to.

I have a SD2 and SD3, I've put 500+ hours on them. The only print failures I get anymore are from running out of filament mid-print. Took some tweaking to get that far (enclosure, glass bed, z-banding fix)

Let me ask you this; since you're in a position I was at a few weeks ago.  Are you comfortable with the prospect of spending $2000+ on something that might end up sitting in a closet gathering dust in a week or two once the novelty has worn off?  Are you going to have to put money aside for more than a month or two until you can pay for it (or, have you already been saving money for a month or two)?

If the first answer is no, and / or the second one is yes; I would heavily suggest picking a unit that was <$1k.  Not saying that the Solidoodle is the best at it's price point; as it does have flaws but there aren't many kits I could find that give you an 8x8x8 build platform for $800, let alone fully assembled units.  Of course I was a little picky; I was only willing to order from a source here in the states.

At the moment I'm printing exclusively in ABS; because I want to be able to smooth my parts chemically (acetone vapor bath); something that you can't do (cheaply or safely from my understanding) with PLA.  The only "mod" I've done to my SD3 in order to get good ABS prints has been a thick glass mirror I already had directly on top of the heat bed (didn't even remove the kapton tape); and adjusting my Z-stop.  Put a little acetone / abs slurry on the mirror and you have a perfectly sticking heat bed every time.  Even with my glass plate; my heat-bed reaches full temp in <10 minutes from room temp; and has the added benefit of providing a more stable, even heat surface.

Is the Solidoodle something I would endorse for a professional environment doing low-level R&D prototyping?  Probably not.  For someone to tinker with as a form of entertainment (either the act of using it, or using what you've printed)?  Sure.

Another couple of things to consider; depending on the age of your kids; is that a kit could actually be a fun project in and of itself; and you get the added benefit of learning the machine more intimately than you could with a pre-assembled unit; as well as teaching your kids about basic electronics and such.

Alternately, if your end goal is simply a source of cheap parts and bits for your R/C toys; and not using the machine itself; is look at online shops that do the printing for you.  Send them the file and a couple bucks, and in a few days you have your part, without any of the effort.

Edit:  I forgot to mention; no matter what machine you go with; even if it were to be a $50,000 industrial behemoth; you are GOING to have to tweak it and calibrate it before you get anything good out of it; and the better you calibrate it, the better your end result.  Even though "printer" is in the name, they are really nothing like the Canon (or whatever) you have sitting on your desk.

Support should be another consideration.  I've heard bad things about Solidoodle support, but personally I have relied solely (and heavily at times) on this forum and have never contacted Solidoodle support.  With this community, I'd be surprised if you ever found yourself in a situation where you couldn't locate a source for parts.

Despite the problems that I've encountered, I still feel the SD3 is a good value.  But there's definitely a time commitment in addition to a monetary one.  I can't compare reliability, ease of use, or print quality with any competitor products as I've only owned an SD3. I can tell you that a good chunk of my time investment was due to the never ending quest for improved quality.  This isn't to say the out of the box quality was bad, it's just when you see what others have achieved, it's easy to chase the same.

There's a software learning side too; not only 3d design, but slicing as well (with an astounding number of setting permutations), filament materials/manufacturers, etc.

Hardware problems often arise from a lack of knowledge; how to prevent clogs, get prints to stick, etc. 

Perhaps a closed system like Cube may be closer to plug and play, but personally I prefer an open system that allows a maker to take it as far as they want.

I put off getting a 3d printer for a several months because I wasn't sure what I would use it for.  Then I realized, I was missing the point (for me anyways).  It wasn't WHAT I could print, but THAT I could print [objects].  And I could justify the expense because of the world it would open up for the kids; much like my first computer in the 80s.

With this mindset my expectations of current-technology were low, and at the SD3 price point, a good relative value.

I have no doubt in my mind that the kids and I will be laughing in the future about how slow our first 3d printer was and how poor the quality; but for today, it's all pretty awesome.

Also keep in mind that people generally come here for help or to collaborate on improvements.  It's the nature of the forum for there to be many more, "Help my printer is broken!" posts than there are, "My printer works perfectly and I have no problems." 

My printer works great.  I love it and would recommend it as a purchase with a couple of caveats regarding the company and communication.