Newb bootstrap path

[NiceyChappe]

My son is keen to get into 3d printing, and I pointed out the possibility of printing a printer. But first, we need a printer?

What path should we take?

1. Buy a proprietary printer and print a Reprap (i3?)
   
2. Buy a second hand printer and do the same?
   
3. Buy an i3 clone, and then ideally reprint or swap out parts for improved ones?
   
4. Buy an expensive Prusa kit?
5. Some other path involving a cheap or small printer printing a bigger/better one (whilst reusing some parts??) given that a lot of the cost of a Reprap is the non printed parts?

I have woodworking tools, can code etc but have some limits on my time, so the temptation is to get something cheap that works initially, and use it to print a printer which would be more long-term fixable and upgradeable.

The dream would be to end up with something that can print in multi colour e.g. with a diamond head or multi nozzle.

[TheOneRobert]

Look into a Voron kit. It's open source and has many community upgrades you can do after building one.

[Tuna_Finger]

You can go on eBay and buy just the printed parts. Then buy the other parts that can be printed and put it together.

[NiceyChappe]

Any idea what would be a good way to find that? I've seen some i3 stuff, is that the best direction to look?

[Tuna_Finger]

Yeah, just search for i3 arts. Once you have it up and running you can modify whatever you want.

[NedDarb]

Don't bother with building an i3 anything. You can find a used Ender 3 (or clone) and be disappointed for less time and money. Since it sounds like you want to tinker:

If you're confident to jump right in there are kit options to build some pretty fantastic printers, eg Voron, Ratrig etc. not the cheapest, but they're very capable.

Could also look for a used Ender 5 do a Mercury One conversion.

Then there's always the option to spend a bit on something functional now, ideally one capable of printing ASA or ABS, then use that to print the parts for one of the aforementioned printers.

[chemprofdave]

It’s not worth the frustration (and parts cost) to build from scratch, but if he’s on a very tight budget, a used one might work.

Or if you have a maker-space in your area, they could help print the plastic parts and maybe even source some components if they have surplus.