This is a very good printer and there are many other very good printers. Your money, you choose. Lutzbot was looking for a way to make printers more accessible (cheaper) without compromising quality and I think they've done OK. This printer, like the Taz 4, uses standard filament from any source and has all the features need to get up and going. I've used and seen the Taz in action and it works very well for the price. Like most 3D printers, there is a learning curve to get started and, though I haven't seen this start up guide, I think Lutzbot could be a little clearer about the initial hurdles in their documentation. Overall, I expect this printer will have the excellent quality that Lutzbot has delivered so far, at $1K less that their flagship.

So about all this whining with little substance: If you know of a better printer, and why it is so, state it specifically, not in griping generalities; or be grown up enough to be quiet because the criticism given here so far is completely useless.

I bought one of these on from Adafruit (they put it up one day earlier for order and had cheaper shipping) and have completed the setup and first print. I have been waiting and waiting to make my first printer purchase and so far this has worked very well. I'll make my own statements as to why I bought it to maybe help others sitting on the fence. This is a fairly all-inclusive package from including a nice assortment of hand tools to including accessories that are extra on other printers (the spool holder, the heated bed, etc.) Some have lamented the tiny amount of included filament. I look at this as Lulzbot giving me the option to buy what I want rather than what they decide to give me, but opinions vary. The fact that the entire design is open (https://devel.lulzbot.com/mini) was huge incentive. Even their costed BOM is listed. The all metal hot-end and myriad of filament choices was something I had wanted but not found in another unit in this range. The electrical auto-leveling (evidently designed in cooperation with Sparkfun) seems to be an ingenious solution. I haven't had to touch any adjustments on this thing since it came out of the box. The integrated power supply and electronics (some machines have an external ATX PSU for the heated bed but don't show that in their marketing photos) are also great. Yes the build area may not be the biggest, but the size of this machine is perfect for my space and makes it very portable. Again, opinions will vary but so far I am loving my machine and am glad to pay more for a quality product from a company that seems to espouse the same values as Sparkfun in terms of openness and support. My two cents anyway. Here is a link to a video I took of my very first print. Sorry for the bad quality and lighting but it was hard to keep in focus. http://youtu.be/MThmRpQZ2rk

I purchased a Mini the instant it showed up on SparkFun. I had been looking at printers for about a year and had considered everything from a Makerbot to a PrinterBot to a Formlabs. I finally decided that I would originally go with the Taz 4 as I was impressed by it, but it was just too much machine for my novice needs. Once I found out about the Mini's development, I waited eagerly for it's introduction.

What sold me on Lulzbot was their open source approach and their hand-built and hand-tested machines. I'm a big fan of this machine's auto leveling and auto cleaning functionality.

I am new to the world of 3D printing (I do concert touring video for a living) but I am throughly impressed with the overall quality of this machine. I know there are so many options, higher quality, bigger build volume, quieter, prettier, whatever. But for me, I'm impressed. I like this machine wholly and will be sticking with it.

Thanks Lulzbot and Sparkfun!

For the same price, or maybe a little less, you can get a printer with twice the build volume. This printer incorporates old technology as well. It comes with 1 meter of filament?? You can't make anything with that! My printer came with 2 rolls of 1kg ABS..

Sparkfun, I know this company probably gave a few printers just so you would sell it, but come on. It seems you are drifting away from what Sparkfun used to do. Sell components, not toys.

You don't get a reduced price for when you buy 100 or more of these things, what on earth ;)

I bought this printer directly from Lulzbot after getting an e-mailed ad from sparkfun of course. Needless to say, so far I'm very impressed. After hearing horror stories of cheaper printers, I was very impressed that I essentially unpacked the printer and was able to test print the sample model in a matter of a few minutes. No need to fiddle with custom adjustments.

It was very important to me that the printer not tie me to any specific proprietary software packages or fillament bundles. I can generate an STL model from any means that I wish and simply load the model in cura which translates it into gcode and controls the printer. And since everything is open source, I can even make small adjustments to the software myself if I obsolutely need to.

I like the fact that the package only contains a sample just to test out the printer. Why should I pay for a big role of filement and don't like the material or color? I'm glad that it's a separate purchase.

The only real complaint that I have which I understand is true for most 3D printers is the printing speed. I'm mostly using the printer to make custom enclosures for custom printed circuit boards and a medium size box takes several hours to make. But I understand that's a small price to pay so that I can design the box and electronics together rather then trying to design the electronics to fit a premade box.

I'll take my Robo3D over this (cost = $800, print size = 10x9x8) as a manufactured product. I think that customization is a great path for evolution of the printers... and I don't think the Robo or the Lulz is better/worse at this; I've upgraded my Robo3D with a few things (better vertical bits, e3d hotend, removable bed system, autolevel, LCD panel)...

My next one will be my own because I'd like to do things like: Distance sensor on the tip for level, print resume, etc Swappable extruder head modules (chocolate, sugar, plastic, clay) (and want dual extruder, probably in the Cyclops formfactor) Swap in a dremel for carving or a laser for engraving.

Most of the "commercial ones" don't want to be so open (probably because with openness comes fiddlyness), or they cost ~3k+...

Lutzbot printers look like they are built like tanks. I don't understand why they are using 3mm filament when almost everyone else seems to have switched over to 1.75mm (not that it would make a difference in the quality of your prints). Sure the Printerbot siimple mettal is less than half the price with the same build envelope, but without upgrades it can ONLY print PLA while the Lutzbot Mini can print almost ANY material out of the box. Still for that price they should have included an LCD panel with SD card interface.

BTW if you look closely at those photographs you will see they used a custom version of the Hexagon hot end in this product. This hot end should do a lot better with PLA than the one that comes standard with the TAZ.

I can't comment on this brand but the quoted build volume should not be the guiding factor in purchasing a 3D printer. I have seen many 3D printers that could not level their bed sufficiently across its length and width to actually print something large. If size matters to you make sure you get a printer that can reliably print at that size and claimed volume should not be your guide.

doesn't $1350 for a 6x6x6 sound a little crazy when there are comparable printers at half that price (even with 50 microns and 'exotic' filament possibilities).

I cannot find one video of this unit making something. There is not even one from the manuf. website.