I understand why it isn't endorsed by the 3D printing community much, but for practical cheap 3D printing I suggest taking a look at the XYZPrinting Da Vinci V1

I understand why it isn't endorsed by the 3D printing community much, but for practical cheap 3D printing I suggest taking a look at the XYZPrinting Da Vinci V1.x models. They are inexpensive (I got one for $400 on sale at Amazon, they are usually closer to $500), fully enclosed, have very well designed bed height calibration and nozzle cleaning systems, have a heated bed, etc. The only real drawaback is the filament "DRM" which you can sidestep by using 3rd party software (I use Simplify3D, the default printer firmware and a cheap cartridge resetter (which is basically just an arduino programmer) other people use repetier host setups where they flash the firmware so the cartridge DRM is just never even run, which gives you even more control but at the cost of being in something of an arms race with the manufacturer where they occasionally change the host board to be incompatible with new firmware). My first couple of 3D printers were RepRap Prusa i3 models that I built, and I wouldn't trade that experience since it gives you a great idea of how these things work (and an appreciation for how simple the hardware side of them really is), but they were so much more fiddly and a pain-in-the-ass to calibrate than the Da Vincis, if you just want to print and not fiddle they are great options in terms of price/value if you're willing to sidestep the DRM.