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You can print stainless steel (mixed with PLA) on an extrusion printer now:

https://www.lulzbot.com/store/...

I've used some printers at a makerspace, including an Ultimaker2 (which crapped out 12.5hrs into a 13 hr print). Also an Orion which was fine, and then there are a bunch at the place that I didn't use because there was always something wrong with them.

Anyway, I recently got a printer and I was thinking of either the Flashforge or a Lulzbot Mini. The Mini has fewer features, but I swear, it's a "print out of the box" experience. It does a self-leveling routine that works great, the heated PEI surface grips everything (no glue, no blue tape, no kapton). It has a year warranty, and being based on Colorado, support is in a language I can understand easily (plus some people in Colorado have work). Finally, it is totally open source, hardware and software. And not just "here's the source, good luck with that" style of open source, step by step illustrated howto type open source: Guides: https://ohai-kit.alephobjects.... Source for all the printers, even retired models: https://www.lulzbot.com/suppor...

Anyway, you might want to check out Lulzbot.

As an aside, and aimed at the original poster's question, I feel like I'm well on the way to saving the price of the printer in the two months I've had it. The makerspace I was using charged $50/mo and 25c per gram, and you had to pay for the garbage prints -- that 13 hour print that failed there cost me an entire Saturday, plus $15 in plastic. I had the thing printed by Sculpteo, but that cost almost $70. Plastic is actually really cheap -- a kilo spool can be had for $25, or 2 cents per gram -- a 50 gm object costs me a buck, and I can do other things I need to do around the house while it prints. At the makerspace, that would be $12.50, plus sitting around for hours. Have I made anything terribly useful? No. But I have plans, and even if I don't, I'm having fun.

Yes, get a TAZ! :)

https://www.lulzbot.com/produc...

I've done a lot of things to make sure that the company stays free & open. Firstly, by making myself the final word (for now). Per our bylaws, I can only be removed from the company by court order. :)

The board of directors is me, Steven (long time employee, very much for free/open), and Bdale Garbee (very hardcore netgod of free software development). We will only have people on the board that are already 100% on board with free software. So we have another layer of protection there.

The non-libre folks that are very technically savvy that we have on board have influence in how things are done, but they don't have the final say. Though they are still on board with us running a libre company. Even if they earned their chops during the 80s (or earlier), they can see the huge growth in open systems. They just don't have direct experience in free software.

Then ultimately who gets to say what a company does is the owners. Most high tech high growth companies are angling to get bought out, get a lot of venture capital, and/or go public. This is usually the founders' "exit", where they get the pile of cash. When that happens, the company is likely to absorb the traditional non-libre practices of the parent company.

We are taking a different approach. If we can pull this all together, the idea is to convert Aleph Objects, Inc. into an ESOP (employee stock ownership plan). This means we don't have to be beholden to outsiders. It also allows the current owners an exit, in that they sell their stock to the ESOP. There are a lot of other advantages to ESOPs. The earliest we can decide whether to go for it or not would be December 2015, which we could make retroactive to January 2015. ESOPs are complicated.

I used to hack on the N900 too...
http://wiki.maemo.org/User:Jeb...

It's just very expensive to get into 3d printing. A makerbot is over $2k, a lulzbot is almost $2k. (It probably also doesn't help the cause that lulzbot sells 3d printed parts like this or this printed on the very same almost $2k machines that look like crap.) Even build-it-yourself machines cost close to $1k, not even factoring in time spent.

Then there's filament at $40/kg, the occasional hotend replacement, material wasted on prints that don't come out or stop halfway, etc.

The print quality and material strength is also questionable. PLA is water soluble so it doesn't work outdoors, cracks easily, on the other hand ABS releases toxic fumes when melted.

It's hard to justify all that cost even for someone with money to burn to print a $20 stove knob, or odd $5 broken plastic pieces for a car's door to open. It's a great tool for rapid prototyping and for nerds, but not for mainstream.

It's just very expensive to get into 3d printing. A makerbot is over $2k, a lulzbot is almost $2k. (It probably also doesn't help the cause that lulzbot sells 3d printed parts like this or this printed on the very same almost $2k machines that look like crap.) Even build-it-yourself machines cost close to $1k, not even factoring in time spent.

Then there's filament at $40/kg, the occasional hotend replacement, material wasted on prints that don't come out or stop halfway, etc.

The print quality and material strength is also questionable. PLA is water soluble so it doesn't work outdoors, cracks easily, on the other hand ABS releases toxic fumes when melted.

It's hard to justify all that cost even for someone with money to burn to print a $20 stove knob, or odd $5 broken plastic pieces for a car's door to open. It's a great tool for rapid prototyping and for nerds, but not for mainstream.

I know that you can print the plastic parts that hold together the various bars. As a matter of fact, the AO-100 printer I've looked at has printed parts holding it together. You'd need to buy motors, the arduino clone they use, and other stuff like the heating bed. I don't know how heavily modded their motherboard is though. I suppose you could get some parts elsewhere, or get them from the source.

Be prepared to spend at least $400, and that's if you do all of the part sourcing and assembly yourself including soldering the electronics. The reprap.org forum and wiki are good resources (though very slow lately!), as is the #reprap IRC channel on freenode. My experience is the community is generally quite helpful and inviting.

Kits typically start around $700 or so but involve a less assembly work and contain everything you need. I'm a happy owner of a Prusa Mendel machine built from a kit sold by Makergear (not to be confused with Makerbot!) that set me back ~$800. (Kit comes with some plastic but I ordered extra). I can honestly recommend them for what it's worth.
=Smidge=