Looking to buy a 3D printer for school, any recommendations?

[typhoon_driver]

STAY AWAY FROM THE NEW MAKERBOTS!!!!!

They have nothing but negative reviews since they went closed source when they were bought over. Nothing but negative reviews online.

[npolanosky]

^^ I will add the caveat that the new ones (5th gen, 2X, mini, z18, etc) do all suck. But the plain ol replicator 2 did alright considering they gave it to us practically for free.

[Shakey]

To be honest you could buy 5 Mendel90's (Mendel90's are some of the fastest non delta repraps around.) for £3000 or 7 i3's (Or buy 2 and save a load of money). For your application it sounds like reprap based would be ideal as then you can upgrade hotends and print in Poly/Carbon/Nylon filaments. Plus repraps have no end to their support.

Of course they take more tweaking than say a replicator but being able to finely control the printer means you can use nice cheap filament too and save money on print costs long term.

2 repraps and then put a bit of money aside to really tightening up the frame and hot end would still struggle to hit £1500 for a couple of fast very capable printers, that can repair each other. Layer heights can be as little as 0.06mm if you do it right.