I am NOT selling anything. I have nothing to do with the product. Just something I ran across.
Tevo Tarantula 3D Printer Kit.
Tevo Tarantula 3D Printer Kit Review | Random Nerd Tutorials
Nice!
Would be interesting to see a comparison of build/setup time between cheap printers like this, and the next level up, where the printer comes at least partially assembled.
While there’s a certain geeky part of me that wants to spend at least some time building the 3D printer, when I hear someone talk about 20 hours of build time, I also automatically think about the value represented by that time, perhaps because I’ve spent most of the last several years working as an independent contractor on an hourly basis. Time == money. 
Even if you value your time at only $10/hr (and I’d wager most folks here value, or should value, their time more highly), that 20 hours of build time equals the cost of the printer. And if you’d bought a $400 printer, you could be up and running in minutes rather than hours, at the same or lower effective cost.
I suppose it depends on the goal. If the goal is to learn by assembling or just to enjoy putting together your own 3D printer, then something like this makes sense. But if the goal is to have a working 3D printer as inexpensively as possible, I’d save up for something that requires less time to assemble and tune.
You bring up some very valid points but I am just the opposite.
The more parts I have to put together, the happier I become. When I was young, toys were almost never given in my home. For some unknown reason I was given one of the very expensive (for the time) Gilbert Erector sets that included parts to make a Ferris wheel and a Parachute Jump. I went Bananas! I spent hours and hours building different things.
We all have different ideas about many things.
I saw something that I really liked for children that like to make things.
A child down the street plays with a Meccano Super Construction Set.
25 Motorized Model Building Set 638 Pieces, For Ages 10+, STEM Education Toy.
www.erector.us/meccano-in-the-classroom
As a child I loved to take apart and rebuild a old metal geared alarm clock. And YES, it would keep time once it was put back together.
(Had to be vary careful with the winding spring though!)
Have a great day!
Actually, I very much agree.
There are times (for example, building a Discrete 555 chip kit from Evil Mad Scientist) when I LOVE building stuff, just for the sake of the building. So I can totally see the appeal of buying a 3D printer kit from that perspective.
My point was simply that if the goal was to get a working 3D printer cheaply, I personally would want to consider the cost in time as well as the cost of the kit.
And given that my frustration threshold isn’t what it was when I was in my 20s, I also figure that I’m better off with a printer that is likely to need less tweaking…but that’s just me. I totally get that others may be happy to tweak with bed leveling, replacing parts, etc. for the joy of it.
you should check out the comparison video that this guy did. Here is his tevo tarantula review. The Anycubic i3 is what @Justin recently got (here’s the Mega review)
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