Well, I went ahead and ordered a Prusa Mendel 3D printer kit from MakerGear. I saw them over at Maker Fair Detroit.
I came very close to ordering one of their Mosaics instead, as they say you can get the same quality out of either of them but the Mosaic is more for people who just want to print, the Prusa is more for people who want to screw with the printer too. I think it's likely that I'll want to experiment; for instance, with a Prusa there are all kinds of extruders available including ones that can print in cake frosting, Nutella, or ceramics clay.
The Prusa is also $175 cheaper and is more capable, having an 8x8x8" build area instead of 5x5x5" for the Mosaic printer.
It's a 2 week lead time on the Prusa. Build time will probably be a few weeks at least since even the electronics are a few circuit boards and a bag of parts. I get to learn surface mount soldering on this. I think I'd better order some flux paste.
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