The prototypes I am building required enough printing that I decided to get a second printer. Looking at what was available I decided to go with the Printrbot simple, and all and all I have been impressed with it.
Since I was in a hurry I spent the extra $50 and bought the printer pre-assembled and ready to print. Surprisingly it really was ready to print. I just slid it out of the box, plugged it in, and was printing 20 minutes later. Hey, I read the directions.
Even with the heated bed upgrade the printer was only half the cost of the Replicator Mini – so I was pleasantly surprised to see the print quality rivaling any Makerbot I have used. It definitely is better than the uPrint printers I have used. Given that, and that it does not use proprietary filament I have to say I am quite happy with the printer.
So what I was not happy with was my first real print turning into a blob of molten plastic. It is not as bad as it looks, just 2 hours with a hot air pencil to clean the head up. Recalibrating the auto leveling Z sensor fixed things and the printer has been running non-stop.
The one horrible thing is the Cura software they suggest using for the printer – so I am planning on at least switching to something like Pronterface soon.
So all in all I am very happy with the printer. The blob was my rushing things because I was impressed with the printer and wanted to play with it. I’ll probably build it an enclosure, and swap out the hot end eventually, but it was well worth the $750.