Anybody have any experience with http://printm3d.com/themicro? Good choice for beginning classroom use?
Haven’t personally used one. I know that the motors burn out quite often. For about the same price you can get the printrbot play which offers a similar build area and more usable components. Great for classrooms as well
@Ross_Bagley I appreciate your candid response. What are the biggest negatives about this one? Do you recommend a site that has extensive reviews of 3D printers?
It is slow, quiet, slow, small, slow, compact and produces decent print quality with minimum fuzz. Did I mention that it’s slow? I’ve had one for a while and the only prints that have failed are the ones where I’ve had the filament tie knots on the spool, the filament near the core of the spool has been to tight for the printer to unwind or where I’ve been trying to push the print speed. In comparison with my previous printer (prusa mendel i2) the m3d micro delivers better reliability, space utilisation, print quality and noise level.
Thanks to all. Very helpful.
I’ve had my micro for about 4 months now and also run the M3D G+ community for it. It has had some quirks but mainly getting over the non heated bed and unless your interested in flashing Donovan6000’s custom firmware your locked down to only using The official M3D software to print from. We have had great prints and although small it actually works out well and is quiet so I can put it anywhere in the house . A few of us have made up some Mods for the Micro that work pretty well such as the custom profiles for OctoPrint, repetier, and matterControl (I’m currently putting that profile together) . I also just finished a MOD to use a full sized Nema17 stepper motor with the iMe Firmware from Donovan6000 and it’s awesome ( I keep burning up the small stock motor which is why I made this one work) and other mods like Heated Bed integration and printing at 45 degree angles with extra Fan implementation etc… it’s been a fun printer and as my first commercial printer purchase I’ve learned a lot from it and the motion sense chip is quite nice and efficient for bed leveling. Not sure what else to make of it but if you have a Micro and would like to contribute to the official community here is my link.
Need Any Portable Battery Power For 3D Printer ?
Lulzbot’s taz is your way to go for classes
I tried to get some info about this printer, too. They have a forum, but their forum isn’t viewable for non-registered users. Ok, so I registered. Still not able to view something. Google cache revealed that the “shut down” their forum after many users start to complain about failures. The things and pictures I saw via google-cache were not that positive 
Can’t agree with the lulzbot. Its a good printer and lots of schools are using them but the print volume for price is not there. Check out the printrbot play if you need to keep it cheap but if you have a decent budget the new printrbot simple metal is a great option.
My vote is for the lulzbot. It’s a good printer and lots of school are using them.
I have the backer version of this printer. While I do enjoy it after certain modification and tinkering to a point that the warranty is voided 
I have to say don’t recommend this for school.
My reasons being;
- time: this is probably the slowest printer out there
- setup: this printer use unique method to calibrate. Regular method does not apply here. The process was confusing that to this day I still can’t get perfect circle print out of it
Of course there are other nice thing about this printer but it doesn’t matter if I can’t get perfect circle…
Printrbot would be my recommendation as a decent starting off point. @Brook_Drumm
You can also check out the Delta Go from Deltaprintr
http://deltaprintr.com
Forgot about the deltaprintr go. Another awesome choice
Printrbot makes great inexpensive machines that are available now.
I’m getting my Reach 3D Printer up to mass production speed, and will have educational pricing for bulk orders in early 2017. I’ll also be writing a short textbook on home manufacturing, directed at using the Reach for printing, milling, laser, plotting, drag knife etc… But that may be another year out.
Printrbot Simple or Printrbot Play.
Printrbot makes the “cheapest good quality” 3d printers. There are other printers out there, that are cheaper, but they aren’t worth the lower cost, because you get what you pay for at that point basically.
You really don’t want to be spending less than 400-500 on a 3d printer. If you do, you’ll inevitably run into shortcuts taken on design, parts, usability, maintainability, etc, of the said printer.
Part of people of romamakers… start some project with school …and start with printerbot simple and now we have special version from @KLONER3D_printers where child can’t touch mechanism and during printing door remain close
https://plus.google.com/114285476102201750422/posts/DeCAa4ZVWCL