If you've been interested in the world of 3D printing, but wary of the high cost and labor-intensive setup, Brook Drumm has the solution for you. His Kickstarter project Printrbot is billed as "your first 3D printer," and promises an inexpensive, pre-soldered 3D printing kit that can be set up in forty-five minutes and have you up and printing in under two hours.

The Printrbot was designed to adhere to the RepRap goal of creating a truly self-replicating machine (don't worry – not that kind of self-replicating machine), so it can be used to produce parts to expand or modify the device, or help your friend put their own Printrbot together. Also, the machine doesn't require any finicky calibration, marking a pretty big departure from previous kit designs.

A full Printrbot kit including shipping within the USA can be yours for a pledge of $499, but readers that are interested can head to the project's Kickstarter page linked below to take a look at the various pledge levels and kits available. Remember that a funded Kickstarter project still isn't the same as a shipping product and that any number of issues could crop up to delay the final product from shipping. That said, the project has already well exceeded the initial goal of $25,000 in startup capital and (barring some freak accident) will receive funding on December 17th.