3D printers

[BlueFirePony]

Anyone have any experience or input on any of the lower end 3D printers (sub $2k).
Want to build some small (< 5") items - ABS or otherwise.
None of the end products are critical in use - test enclosures for the DAQ, some promotional items for my wife's company - a half dozen other uses.

[BlueFirePony]

In case anyone else is looking, from my research the sub-$2k printers are completely hit or miss. Seems that all brands are suffering from over-stretching to keep pace in the market resulting in very poor customer sat. - probably a lot of mismatched expectations but some definate quality problems as well.
I think we will wait . If anyone does have input please let me know.

[Fbody383]

have you looked at reviews/product in Make magazine? www.makezine.com

And/or this: http://www.makershed.com/Make_Ultimate_Guide_to_3D_Printing_2_0_p/9781457183027-p.htm?Click=163251

Is it just the case you might need to move the price target up a little?

[Dulaney]

For my limited-quantities, it always has come out cheaper to just have my parts machined. For crazy surfaces, SLA's are good.
Parts from cheap 3D printers are pretty crappy, from what I've seen. They're usually very porous and weak.

As a reminder, Brian, I'll help you with any mechanical design needs you have.

[BlueFirePony]

Thanks Dave. I'll point my wife to the guide.

Jim I do plan to take you up on it! Just don't want to waste your time with my "iterations" driven by 3AM ah-ha moments :)

The 3D printer was 90% for my wife's company for one-off promotional items and I was going to piggy back for some of the weird ideas I had for the enclosures.

For March I am just going to hand-craft the enclosures since I only need a handful. The trick right now is I need to fold in aspects for test harness components that won't be there in the consumer version - and the whole layout is fluid right now.
Hopefully March proves out the functional design then I'll get with you to work up the consumer design aspects.