I have been looking at printers for about a week now, and there are so many out there it is hard to pick one.

I am looking for the best quality printing, with the largest print area, for the least money.

Any suggestions? I think I will want to stick with an extruder type since they seem to have the best print area and the material cost is lower. I know some others can give better print quality, but they cost more, the material costs more, and the material is not as stable when done, so I am ruling those out for now.

I don't mind if it is a kit or already built. I would actually prefer a kit, but I want the best quality prints and I am not sure if a kit will give me that. So, kit or prebuilt does not matter.

I was looking at the MenelMax DIY on the ebay ($795 complete kit), but I am not sure if it can make prints as good as something like an Ultimaker (even though it looks better than the wooden Ultimaker). I also see Trinity Labs has a new one out now as well that looks promising (no belts and has Thomson gear on it), although it is much more expensive.

I am not interested in the the old million rods and nuts looking Repraps, I would at least like something like the Mendlemax 1.5+ which uses an extruded frame. I don't mind paying more for something that is going to be less fussy about flex in the design and looks better. I may even consider the Beta Mendelmax 2.0 if anyone thinks it is worth the extra cost.

I don't care about the printer using printed parts in the build, in fact I prefer a more industrial and stronger look of extruded aluminum parts etc. Printed parts are ok though (like the Mendlemax uses some, but has an extruded frame).

I should also note, that building stuff is no problem for me. I have a pretty good home shop with some decent fabrication equipment (welders, cutters, benders, CNC mill, lathe, etc.) So, a kit is fine. I also have no problem with electronics (it's my day job).

I am not interested in sourcing a million parts from different places and reinventing the wheel. If I end up doing a kit, I would want to build a proven design and preferrably buy the kit parts from one or maybe a couple sources.

Anyway, that is some basic info, hopefully we can get a good discussion going and come up with the best choice for me.

Thanks