Its time for my school to get into the 3D printing pool. So community, what would be a good first 3D printer for us to get? I would like to stay in the $1000 range. Also, beginning design programs for pc and Ipad apps would help also. Thanks for your help.
My Prusa I3 Hephestos was about 1000$, it’s a build-it-yourself package so I think it’s awesome for educational purposes, although if you just want to begin printing right away, it’s not the one you want.
Thomas check out http://www.tinkercad.com Works well on a PC (site seems to get bogged down in the afternoon) and there is an iPad app (with fewer features). It’s easy to use and can download multiple file types for your printer.
Get a Printrbot Simple Metal, add a LCD and some rolls oft PLA and you’re ready to go.
Then Tinkercad is a good starting point. But keep your hands off SketchUp. It’s a surface modeler and therefore not really suited for 3dp.
Depends, what ages are the students? If you have a few capable students and/or a teacher you want to reward, they could build a cheap kit printer without much help, but building a kit as a large group (10-16+ students) is very difficult as there are not enough for each person to do, and you won’t be able to keep an eye on everyone.
I’m building a printer for the high school i work at right now, and chose the Mendel90 sturdy with some of my own modifications, as that is a very reliable printer I’m familiar with.
I’ll do the mechanical construction at home which need to be very precise for the printer to work well, and then do the electronics with my class later.
It will be mostly used for cad drawings to encourage the students and give them a real world feeling for things they design.
Printrbot simple metal with heated bed upgrade. Affordable, pre-assembled, easy to use, not locked to any closed source so the skills obtained is usable later on for students. 123d design is easy to use. It has plenty of video tutorials by adafruit and the skill is usable later on as well.