What 3d printer would you buy for a High School Tech Class with a 3000 dollar budget? What should we be considering? Cost of print medium? Drivers? etc.
I’d buy four PrintrBot Metal simples and some extra filament. Nominally printers are pretty slow to print and for a class to get any sort of through put you will want several printers. Also printers are not as durable as say “table saws” or other equipment and so they can be down for repair a lot. Having multiple printers will insure you always have at least one working printer. Finally @Brook_Drumm has put all of the specs and designs online so you can always fix them and you can source parts from multiple places (a good school appropriations talking point!)
My class has a MakerBot replicator 2 and it serves us very well
Totally agree with @Chuck_McManis . For 3000$ you better order 3 or 4 Printrbot Simple Metal Kits and assembly the printers with the students than buying one MakerBot.
What is the proposed use case for the 3D printers? I’m not sure I’d be doing kits. Most schools I’ve seen want a printer that is used for design and printing, less so than engineering study.
I recommend getting 2x Printrbot Simple Metal with Heated Bed upgrade and 1x Printrbot Simple Metal Plus.
Both printers are great. Printrbot has a special program for schools. Support is fantastic and best of all, these machines don’t clog then require a brand new extruder like Makerbots.
I’d suggest the Ultimaker 2. The Printrbot Simple Metal is a great printer, but it’s a little less robust and they’re not as large of a company for supporting them.
@Mike_Kelly_Mike_Make The UM is a very robust and reliable printer, that’s right. It would be a good choice too. 
But regarding the support: Ultimaker is not well known for that. 
@ThantiK It’s going to be used for design and printing. My hope is to get kids thinking about using computing for things beside social media, word processing, photo shop. I’m hoping that 3d printing is a gateway drug to arduino, coding etc. What is the level of expertise and time commitment to get Printrbots up and printing?
@Kevin_Mitchell You can buy also fully assembled Printrbots. I use them in school.
I put together one of the old printrbot lc models in about 6 hours (over 3 days). Its all learning curve, you could put together 3 in 10 hours.
If you want to learn about the ins & outs of 3D printing, get the Printrbot like everyone else has suggested. If you just want to print and want something that just works, then get the Ultimaker.
@enhydra I’ve kinda heard that here and there, but I think most companies have those few voices that like to badmouth companies. Smaller companies have less funds for it so it can be a real challenge to make everyone happy. UM is growing rapidly it seems so hopefully they’re stepping up their game as well.
@Kevin_Mitchell If you have mechanical know how and can repair something (or teach the class how to) then get a few simple metals. They’re very well designed with several generations. Pretty open and easy to work on, so if something does go wrong you can use it as a learning exercise. I just know there are some teachers out there who want plug and play and forget it printers. I’d be hard pressed to suggest most printers out there. The UM2 is the closest IMO.
Thanks for posting this. Just beginning to explore possibilities for elementary students and looking for thoughts on a durable 3d printer that would allow them to design and print in a short amount of time. Everything here seems a bit daunting and out of my first grade teacher league, but I think my after school tech club kiddos (4th grade/1st grade partners) would love to design and print.
@Bridget_Scofinsky One of the things I was l thinking about doing was to look around for a volunteer to help with the technical side of the printerbots…assembly, figuring out the software and all the backend things that come along with these sort of endeavourers. Some of our subs are retired engineers that I think would enjoy helping out. Maybe you could find a person in your community. I hope you take this on. 3d printers seem to be the erector sets and Radio Shack
@Kevin_Mitchell Thanks!! It’s very exciting. There’s a parent in our building who seems confident about the engineering component. He sent me some things to look into tonight. I’m hoping our partnership will work out and give the kids the chance they deserve to get their hands on this technology early on. I think we often hold them back due to our own fears and in my case lack of experience. I know from my own perspective I have my 10 year old check out coding possibilities and she and her friends have it figured out and are running with it before I even have a chance to sit down and play! (Lol)
I sell 3D Systems printers so I am partial but you can have either model set up and printing within an hour or two.
No need to assemble anything and calibration is fairly easy. Check out the Cube 3 at $999 as it print in two colors and has a build area of 6 in x 6 in x 6 in, much larger than a Makerbot Mini at 3.9 x 3.9 x 4.9. Also it can print at 200 microns like the Makerbot but also has a 70 micron high quality mode (much better resolution on printouts though it takes twice as long with double the number of slices)
Also the CubePro by 3D Systems at $2799 MSRP squeeks in at just under your budget. My Cube Pro prints much better than a Makerbot 2X at close to the same price. Plus it prints in PLA and ABS which lets you use PLA as support material and ABS for the part. The build area is 10.45in x 10.8 in x 9.5in
If you send me info on your school, I can get you an education discount or free shipping and extra filament.
@Artie_Moskowitz , thank you for being responsible in disclosing business ties.
@ThantiK I have had a part time and now full time job with 3D Systems because of my involvement with e-NABLE so I will always let people know. One of my personal goals is to get 3D printing into schools so I have a vested interest in helping teachers to join the movement. If we want capable engineers and scientists in our future, additive manufacturing is an excellent path and needs to start in grade school. @Bridget_Scofinsky If you want to get started quickly and get 1st grade kids interested, look at a Cube 3 printer from 3D Systems ($999), add Cubify Sculpt software ($129) and a LEAP Motion controller (69.99) and the kids will be able to do easy sculptures in mid air with their hands as the model changes on the screen. When they are done, you can send to file to print. Also there is no building required and the Cube 3 will be printing an hour after you get it out of the box. It’s child safe and UL approved too. Many kits will have moving parts that are dangerous for young kids so keep that in mind. There are also some STEM courses for younger kids. Check out the CityX project and Steamtrax for some ideas. If you want more info just contact me and I would be happy to help.
Comparing to makerbot is not fair, their machines suck and clog all the time. Ultimaker comes pre-assembled. So are printrbot or craftbot. Make magazine did a review comparing a bunch of printers recently. All those printers are plug and play.
The problem with cube is they are more expensive than many other printer brands, have less feature and use proprietary printer cartridges that is 400% more expensive than what everyone else is using. Try reading the Amazon reviews on it. People are having very very nasty reviews for the cubify 3.
Then look at printrbot, ultimaker, craftbot,… reviews.