Does anyone know of any US 3D printing companies that are willing to work with schools? I’ve been trying to find a school friendly company that I can get some printer kits from for my students to build. I contacted printrbot because I thought the simple kit was perfect but didn’t get a response for a week and pretty much got the cold shoulder. I’ve got replicator 2s in the room right now but the students need more experience with building them and understanding the open source 3d printing world. I would source the parts myself but it would be much easier to find an inexpensive kit. Any suggestions?
BitsFromBytes seems to mostly work with schools and universities.
Don’t touch BitsFromBytes with a bargepole. I’ve had dealings with them as a student, as a teacher, and in the 3D printing industry. Just don’t go near them.
@Brook_Drumm has an excellent record of supporting kids and schools with his company Printrbot.
In the About Community Section there is a link to What 3d printer should I buy?, with a list of suppliers of kits and such. IMHO I would say go for a reprap type kit like the I3, easy to source parts , easy to build and lots of people have them and have built them. Just because there are better quality machines available doesn’t mean they are the right ones to buy either, think back to betamax video machines, they were better tech but the majority of the people went with VHS which became the “defacto” standard of the time, don’t get sucked into buying a soon to be orphaned machine. Good luck and props for getting these into schools, lets get our kids playing with these instead of video games!!
@Mike_Rothe I agree with you 100%. One of the walls I have been hitting is the schools have very specific rules, restrictions and policies when it comes to purchasing and I’m having trouble finding a company that is willing to work with me within these restraints. I would love to get a couple i3 kits. I myself have an i2 at home (looking in to converting it) and would love to see these in the school. When I contacted printrbot the answer I received was that they couldn’t work with us as far as the way the purchase needed to be processed and that we had to buy at least ten bots for any kind of discount. I’m not looking for a hand out because we are a school, just someone who is willing to work with is that has prices in American dollars.
You can purchase Printrbot Simple kits from Amazon. School should be able to order that way.
My school has credit card for purchases from companies that don’t deal with PO. We bought 2 Printrbots with a grant via school card.
I don’t know all the bookkeeping stuff but can understand how a small business might be wary of large school purchases with 30-45 day repayment terms.
Just to say also that I’ve had several schools buy Mendel90 kits from @nop_head and had many kids go on to convince their parents to buy them a kit. The documentation is second to none, the price is really excellent, and the printer will match any printer on the market for performance and quality.
@Josh_Ajima god I wish we had a card like that! Unfortunately we don’t have anything like that. It is very hard to use any kind of student fundraiser club account. It’s horrible how backwards the thinking is. Pretty much the only way robust the money is with a check request that requires an invoice. Funny thing is many companies won’t process an invoice with out a PO and we aren’t allowed to PO from those accounts. I used to be able to front the money and get reimbursed but now we have a $100 limit on that now.
@Sanjay_Mortimer r I agree, nophead has been a great help and a wealth of information when I was building my i2 even though I self sourced all the parts. I’ll have to take a look at his stuff.
Thanks!
@Michael_Spano_Jr_Ama , you could also consider #Airwolf 3D. They did a project where they helped 18 teachers build printers for Orange County, CA and I understand they were going to do something for Los Angeles as well. Don’t know what kind of price discounts (if any) the school systems got. But I understand the teachers all came away with working printers and how to tune them so that their students could start designing and printing.
Not sure what happened with the cold shoulder, but my apologies! I love kids and schools - it’s part of our DNA! The Simple 2014 (soon to be called the Simple Maker Edition) is a $349 kit that is student-friendly. The new soon-to-be-released Simple is larger, made of metal and will be $598. A $539 kit will also be available. It is out best bot yet and also a solid choice for schools.
Keep us in mind,
Brook
@Brook_Drumm I’ve heard so much about your relationships with education etc. that’s why I was very surprised that I got the answer it did. I was looking to, at first, get three simples and a Jr. The Jr would be for traveling to other schools for presentations and the simples would be for the students to group up and build. We then wanted to raffle off the simples to the students and community to hopefully help us get more kits for the school makers guild and continue from there. I’ve been very vocal around my area of the benefits of 3d printing to a students education and how it can be used to teach a number of other disciplines in real world applications. Anyway, the other opportunity was that we are starting a new 7th grade industrial design class (6 week cycle class) and depending on the ease of building this year we were looking at making the bot building a part of the curriculum which means a larger bulk order over the summer from our official program budget (it isn’t available until July 1).
The answer I got was you guys were very busy and that you didn’t have the man power to work with us. You see, my school district has very old and strict rules on how we can use club accounts (as I stated earlier in this post) and I can’t create a purchase order from the account. The only way we can use the money is to get an invoice from the company and have some one fill out and sign a check request. Then a check is generated which can be mailed out. I was told in the email that this or even a Purchase Order was out of the question. Unfortunately we have no credit card to purchase from the site.
If you would like, I can send you the email or copy and paste it in a PM I originally wrote about a number of opportunities this could bring over and above my immediate needs. Let me know and thanks for responding I thought something was a little out of line.
Michael my printer is still in the prototype stage but I plan on working with schools when I am ready. You may want to consider just finding a good printer kit supplier and seeing if they will give you a bulk discount.
Michael, FWIW, I’ve met Brook and exchanged messages in the past with him, and he’s always been a stand-up, genuine guy.
If there’s anyone with a passion for this stuff, it’s him, and I’m sure he can fix you up.
I always thought that. That’s why printrbot was the first I thought of. I’m still hoping we can work something out.
In short, I love schools and students! I hate how hard the red tape makes it for passionate teachers to pursue those passions.
I can’t promise to anyone that we will be able to accommodate lengthy purchasing requirements due to my limited resources.
Realistic expectations prevent misunderstandings… But I know the lines I draw sometimes disappoint. I am sorry for that.
I will bring this up in our weekly mtg to are if we can improve.
Part of me thinks that making printers available for $349 (kit) is my way of supporting schools, teachers, and everyone. These slim margins limit my ability to do much more.
I am open to suggestions.
Brook
+Brook Drumm you hit it on the head 100%. I’ve done quite a bit of research and there is no match for the quality of the printrbots in the same price range. I’ve made up my mind a while ago. I’m currently looking into ways I can get around the red tape, at least for now.
My suggestion for you, in relation to school accounts, is start accepting Purchase Orders. Purchase orders can’t be created without being approved by the business admin to ensure the money is available to make the purchase so there isn’t any chance of getting stiffed. This would allow schools to purchase from you from there budgeted supply accounts. For example, say the kits work out well for my kids this year and when the new class starts next year we want to buy more kits using the supply account. We would request a quote and with that quote a purchase order is created. After being mailed or emailed to printrbot, the order is fulfilled and a check is cut for payment. Of course this is based on my own situation and experience but that would be my first suggestion to being more accessible in schools. I can certainly forward my contact email if you want to discuss it fully. I think you have a smoking gun here that can be a benefit to you and education. The only other company I’ve done business with through the school is makerbot and ,even though they do cater to schools, their price point is what is keeping them out of the classroom. Let me know. I would love to help printrbot become more accessible!
Does anyone know if the Jr comes with the alum extruder or is that an optional upgrade?
On Thursday, we will start pre-selling the metal body Simple (6x6x6) and retire the jr. The simple will be cheaper and include the Alu extruder 
The plus will also be updated to include the Alu extruder and an all new z-x assembly with 12mm bars on all axis. The price will bump up as a result of additional machines parts.
The 2014 Simple (4x4x4) will be re-named the Simple Maker’s Kit. It will only sell as a kit, no assembled version.
The Go is now for sale in three versions- all assembled.
This will complete our current line up.
Peace,
Brook
Wow! Nice! So will the only printer with a heated bed be the updated plus?
Currently, yes. The power supply in the Go medium and Large can handle 12v for a heated bed, but not sure what is available in those sizes or if they would suck too much power.