I am looking for a low maintenance starter printer that can be bought piecemeal. My plan is to break the purchase into small pieces that I can ask for Christmas.
Assembly is fun, but I know myself and want to print something eventually, so I am not looking for a diy machine. (There are two xy table prototypes in the shed right now). The airwolf looks like a good starter model and the price is fair, but only full kits seem to be available at this time.
What are your thoughts on the matter?
Anything that is available for purchase in segments is going to be pretty heavy into the diy side of things. A printrbot simple might be a good choice, it’s a fairly low cost and straight forward machine. I’ve also heard that it can be purchased in segments like you want, I don’t know if that is really a good idea as there is probably a very good reason why that isn’t a common practice. The only problem (that I’m aware of) is that the simple has been known at times to be a bugger to get consistent prints from.
The other option is a self sourced reprap like the Prusa i3, a Graber i3 is pretty simple to assemble and is quite sturdy from what I’ve heard. It’s an excellent reimagining of a solid design. In my opinion it’s actually a better choice than the airwolf, and if you have access to a laser cutter you can make a good majority of the printer yourself.
Many of the desktop home variety 3D printers have a bill of materials listed in their documentation specifically for that very reason. That’s how I built my mini Kossel. There is even a cottage industry of people that kit out different bits of these various models. You can literally, in many cases, find a bag pre-packaged with every nut and bolt you will need for a specific model. Many of the reprap machines feature low cost and are well suited to piecemeal purchasing. Hopefully, someone on here will be able to provide more specific suggestions.
In the case of my printer you can find all the printable bits in a kit for some price, I don’t remember how much, at http://makergeeks.com. They have a separate kit that covers the minimum electronics package. There are people that have open frame packages pre-cut specifically for the printer I built on several sales outlets like Amazon. In fact I found pretty much every thing else on Amazon. That was not necessarily the cheapest price but whatever, its done.
The mini kossel may not be the best choice for a starter kit but I could afford a little extra and I wanted to play with a unique geometry. Good Luck
The only printer that is at all practical to buy piecemeal that I would even consider recommending to a first-timer is a Prusa i3, for the following reasons:
1: I would normally only recommend a kit machine to a first-timer. Both total price (especially after inevitably buying some wrong parts or otherwise needing to replace something) and documentation/support make kits a better choice, but the Prusa machines have the widest adoption and thus the most community support of the self-sourced machines. The availability of printed parts (outside a kit for the whole machine) is also probably better for this printer than any others.
2: The pre-i3 Prusa designs have a lot of issues and design flaws that were fixed with the i3. It’s not perfect, but it’s a huge step forward, and is much simpler and harder to screw up.
3: The other self-sourceable printer designs that I might recommend (deltas and other things that aren’t traditional discrete cartesian systems) have pitfalls and complexities that make them unsuitable for a first-timer.
I built my mendlemax 1.5 printer like this, mainly from family gifts providing them links to eBay and other sites for affordable pieces like steppers, drivers, extruders, kits for printed parts, controller PCBs. I bought all the bearings, rods, belts and fastenings myself as I wanted to find the correct and best quality parts for these. The only bit I bought wrong was the flexible shaft coupler for the motor. If you don’t rush ordering parts and do your research the build was really quite easy even for a non mechanical software engineer like myself! I would probably go for the i3 if I was building today though.
I pretty much share @Whosa_whatsis position on kits, and having built my first printer from a kit, I wouldn’t recommend it unless your kit is from a “reference design” and not one that has been “improved” by the kit vendor.
That said, if you really are not up for the DIY route, instead of buying parts maybe just ask for checks and squirrel away enough cash for one of the off-the-shelf machines 
You could also partner with another hacker who likes the DIY part, this might just give you the best bang for the buck, and then they can help you learn how to operate & maintain it too.
What about the Morgan
@Evam_S “3: The other self-sourceable printer designs that I might recommend (deltas and other things that aren’t traditional discrete cartesian systems) have pitfalls and complexities that make them unsuitable for a first-timer.”
@Whosa_whatsis , the Prusa looks like a good bet. I like watching deltas, but I was only considering Cartesian models. Self replicating would be a nice feature, but the price is good.
It’s true that a lot of non-cartesian printers have a lot less documentation.
But, I think that the Morgan is simple enough that its easier than most cartesian bots (although, I like the direction the Prusa i3 takes towards simplification; it definitely gives the Morgan a run for it’s mone)
Also, the Morgan is extremely adaptable and can be housed in almost any kind of frame; you don’t have to use that PVC pipe construction; you just need a way to support the drivetrain. This makes it much easier to do on a budget (although its true that the task of improvising a frame would be kind of daunting to a first-timer)
Non-cartesian printers have a much steeper learning curve, and and not a good choice for your first printer.