My daughter’s high school is planning on purchasing a 3d printer. Is there a recommendation as to which printer? I’ve read that lots of people are having problems with the extruders in the Makerbot. Any suggestions?
Have a look at this:
It all depends on their budget, I suppose. And what they will use it for.
A resin printer could be cheap, is most likely very easy to handle, and gives great looking prints. But it is usually for prototypes only, and doesn’t make very durable/handable objects. The resin itself could perhaps be expensive.
A Makerbot type machine (RepRap, Solidoodle a.s.o. too) is rather cheap in purchase and very cheap in filament. But, as you say, it clogs up, and doesn’t give great looking objects. On the other hand these are very durable.
A laser sintering machine could cost a million, but, of course, is the best option all around.
There is middle ground, I think, with the Danish BluePrinter. It uses heat instead of laser, gives great resolutionen, and - I think - durable objects. It’s rather cheap, I think, but don’t have a figure right now. It seems their page is down at the moment (?), but yeah, if they haven’t gone out of business, could be worth checking out.
At least there is info here: http://amreurope.com/en/portfolio/blueprinter-2/
stay away from the Makerbot Industries ones. I found the Ultimaker 2 to be extremely reliable and easy to use. The PrintRBot has a much lower price and good reviews.
that being said, what kind of a school is it? engineering, architecture,…?
what’s the budget?
what continent are you on?
Ultimaker2 is the clear winner IMO … It’s probably the closest to being a consumer ready product that is still incredibly capable. The down side is it’s price tag.
I’ve heard some very good things about the higher end FlashForge printers. They seem to give a good balance of price/quality/features too.
The PrintrBot Simple Metal would be a good option if its for a high school lab where having to tinker or troubleshoot occasionally would be teachable. The price would also allow for more than one to be purchased so there could be more hands on, or printing/making time! 
Reprap barcelona.
Ultimaker 2
Ultimaker 2 or the new Cube 3 which I recently had some hands on with. They print great out of the box, easy to work with for schools but the only drawback is the chipped filament and higher $50 per spool cost.
where are you from?
Zortrax M200 also worth considering.
Stay tuned for a big announcement from Printrbot concerning education on jan. 1. Hint: a price and try before you buy program that can’t be beat.
Brook
http://www.3ders.org/pricecompare/3dprinters/
that might help
Thanks to all the great suggestions!
I’m in the US and was considering the Ultimaker, but didn’t like the chipped filament. I was also going to recommend a flashforge. Glad to see that several of us are along the same path. I will be sure to let the people in charge know of the printrbot education announcement as well. This is an exciting time. They already budgeted for a Makerbot so something like $2500. I warned them about the extruder problems so hopefully they won’t go that route.
And the gen5 makerbots are so much louder than the previous.
@Steven_Hong_BuddieBo what “chipped filament”?
The cube3 is chipped.
@James_Armstrong you made it sound like the @Ultimaker II had chipped filament too…wich it hasn’t.
Sorry I thought the ultimaker had chipped filament.
standard 2.85mm(“3mm”) filament. nothing special.