Hi Tim,
The Anet A8 and TEVO tarantula are i3 derivatives, what with the hardware being open source. Each of these can be found on Amazon. The assembly guides are pretty cryptic though, with lots of skipped steps and a lack of images.
However, If Ab Initio can afford the $600, I would seriously recommend getting Josef Prusa's original version, which he sells on his website.
The manuals are amazing, with an active community of people making revisions on Github.
Monoprice also has a fork of the i3 which they sell as well.
In terms of assembly time: the A8, the Tarantula, and the original i3 will all take a couple days of (hopefully some poor intern's) time to assemble and test. The Monoprice i3 ships semi-assembled, and you can get printing within a couple hours.
Hope that helped,
Ian
Hey Gang,
I've been given clearance to buy a 3d printer, with the caveat of controlling the cost.
There are an infinite number of choices out there.
A co-worker bought this one and had good luck with it:
I've also found this one which seems to be pretty good quality as well:
I'd honestly like to NOT give walmart money if at all possible.
Any recommendations?
Thanks,
Tim.
--
I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers".