I own a
PP3DP Up! 3D printer.
The printer comes preassembled and pre-tested. The accuracy is .2mm. They are currently selling for $2690.
I'm very happy with the device. See below for caveats on 3D printers in general.
The Up! is well supported by its manufacturer - there have been several major updates to its hardware, firmware and software over the life of the device and all of those updates have been made available to current owners. The latest round of hardware updates, for instance, can be purchased for $100.
The
forums are great, with lots of active Up! users. Not as big or active a community as the RPF, but a good group of people.
A word of caution about 3D printers. Operating and maintaining a molten plastic 3D printer (like the Up! or the Makerbot) can be time consuming. You may have to change settings in order to get a particular model to come out the way you want. The support material required for certain shapes is usually the same material that the shape is made from and can be difficult to remove. Support material removal often damages the model cosmetically. Keeping the model at a good temperature throughout printing is important to prevent warping and can be very tricky. The jury is out on whether or not molten ABS is OK to be around, but ventilation can impact the temperature. Do a search on google for 'perfboard raftless kapton plate tape' to see how much experimentation the community has been through to resolve all kinds of issues.
Options like Shapeways and i.materialise.com use a much different technique (Lasers and powder) to build models - they produce cleaner, more accurate models and can output some complex shapes that are not possible with current 'home' 3D printers. Per model, they are much more expensive, but you have to print a lot of models to approach the $2000-$4000 price tag of these home printers. Turnaround time is also an issue. i.materialise has an expedite option for one of their materials, but you are looking at 2-5 weeks turnaround from these services depending on the service, the material, etc. Online options also give you more than a dozen materials to choose from (including SILVER).
Edit: I should also mention PLA. PLA is an alternative material that many people are using instead of ABS with good results. I haven't used it myself, but my understanding is that you use higher temperatures, it's safer to breathe and it warps less than ABS. I also hear that it smells worse and makes support structure harder to remove.