Hey guys, I am considering buying this (low cost) 3D Printer called the Turnigy Fabrikator. It has a price of $449.00 + shipping. Please take a look at the pics and tell if you think it’s worth spending $500 to try.
Here’s the link to the product page → Turnigy Fabrikator 3D Printer
I can’t speak to that particular model, but I have a Printrbot metal simple which has a slightly larger print envelope (6x6x6) and has the ability to upgrade to a heated print bed (very nice).
It is only about $100 more, so if you can swing it I think it is worth considering.
Hi David (@David_Walker)… I’ve never heard of that printer; but, based off a quick search, I personally would not purchase it.
As far as the suggestion by Walter (@wandrson), I have actually been considering purchasing the Printrbot Metal Simple (http://printrbot.com/product-category/3d-printers/simple-metal) to be used in the 3D Fab Room to allow members an opportunity to experiment with non-ABS filaments. From what I’ve learned about it (through research and speaking with members of the 'Space who have used them, they are reliable and pretty durable - which is important in our environment! 
The only reason I’ve not just bought it yet, was because I wanted to post a thread to gauge interest - since we will have a Mendel90 available once it’s built (as part of the class Mitch (@themitch22) is running). Speaking of… I might as well go ahead and make that thread tonight! 
I can’t speak for the printer itself, but the Turnigy brand is reasonably reputable as far as R/C components go.
I just purchased a Printrbot Simple Metal with the heated bed. The KIT was shipped to my door for $712.
I have been using it for about a week now and it is pretty cool. Kind of a small print bed, but it works great, easy to calibrate and works with Octopi.
I have personally printed PLA and ABS on it, and they ‘say’ it will do NinjaFlex also.
I had a little trouble getting the bed up to temp for ABS, but I just put a large cardboard box over the printer and it seemed to hold temp and print fine. There are modifications to the bed heater you can do to get it nice and hot, I just haven’t messed with that yet.
I have been printing PLA, Toner Plastics brand from MicroCenter and I am really happy with the results so far.
I am actually printing something right now. I have it in the garage, monitoring and controlling it remotely from a Raspberry PI2 running Octoprint. I printed the case and camera mount on my printrbot.
Here is a pic of it in progress:
You can pick up the simple metal kit for $540. I recommend the kit over the assembled because with any 3d printer you will need a decent understanding of how it is put together to do the routine maintenance.
You can add the heated bed later if cost is an issue.
I second that…the kit is the way to go…I am VERY mechanically inclined, but it was still great to put it together yourself and know exactly how it works.
The Simple Metal without the heated bed is cheaper but only prints PLA, and you may have a little trouble getting it to stick. I suggest if you get one without a heated bed, definitely get a large cardboard box to put it in while it is printing, or another trick I used when printing ABS was to heat the bed with a heat gun…YMMV…hehehe
When I purchased mine the heated bed wasn’t available yet. While a little tricky you can do pretty well with sticking to the bed.
However as soon as they announced the heated bed I ordered one.
Ditto on the Printrbot Simple Metal recommendation. @redslashace got one from Microcenter and I got to play with it for a little bit. It’s a very solid printer for the price, open source software, upgradable, and 6" is a decent size for most prints. Definitely need heated bed and enclosure upgrade.
If you’re really looking for a budget machine there is also the Folgertech prusa i3 but haven’t hear bad things about the kit, other than probably cheap parts that break, but you can buy/print replacements since it’s open source. Unless you have very good support, I wouldn’t trust a closed-source printer.
