3d printer coming out soon, $1300 Endless possibilities

[Shortbus]

Check out this quick CNN report on this affordable 3d printer, ohhhh the possibilies:

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2012/03/31/nr-kaye-3d-printer.cnn

company website,,,,even shows a joystick made with this thing in the pics/ideas section...

totally fricken awesome! 

Thought I'd share with the forum,

I want one!

[Shortbus]

after researching more, not even sure if that is the correct website. but the company name is 3D Systems Corp demonstrates a home 3-D printer, which can print anything from shoes to prosthetics.

[hypernova]

I was told our company dished out 60K for one of these things a few weeks ago...considering we're a smaller company (about 50 employees) I wasn't too happy when I heard that news.

[fallacy]

Ya 3d printers are most defiantly the future. Pretty soon when we need small parts for things we will be thinking in terms of; how should I go about printing that out.

[SammyWI]

Interesting, $1300 for a commercially made 3D printer is pretty sweet.  I found some more info here: http://cubify.com/cube/index.aspx

The video seems a bit misleading: this is a single head printer and they talk about printing in multiple colors.  Maybe doable with a single print head but you'd have to change out the colored material manually and you need to pause the print at the right time, clear the material in the head and restart in just the right spot.  Nothing on the product page is shown as a multi colored print, so i'm doubtful that this particular printer was used for the multi colored prints.  Still, it looks pretty cool and it's great to see these prices dropping.

Personally, I've decided to jump into 3D printing with a hobbyist kit: http://printrbot.com/  At $550 for a 6" cube build volume and an expandable design, it was enough to pry open my wallet.  Of course this one is a start up, so I have some waiting before I actually get anything.  I'm betting it will be May before I see anything.

[Howard_Casto]

3d printers are a fun toy, but they aren't exactly practical atm.  Their biggest drawback is that they can't make anything smooth, even with that model I can see grain all over the objects.  Now yeah for prototypes and such they are great, but nothing is going to beat injection molding in terms of small plastic parts.

[JONTHEBOMB]

On the University of Minnesota Solar Car we are using 3-D printing for battery modules and some other stuff.

[SammyWI]

3d printers are a fun toy, but they aren't exactly practical atm.  Their biggest drawback is that they can't make anything smooth, even with that model I can see grain all over the objects.  Now yeah for prototypes and such they are great, but nothing is going to beat injection molding in terms of small plastic parts.

There are a lot of overstatements and exaggerations, definitely.  People are excited about the possibilities and others are trying to sell stuff.  The shoe they show, for instance: That printer has a 5.5" cube build volume - the shoe they show seems too big to have been made on that printer.  He also mentions printing a hearing aid: maybe a hearing aid housing, but the electronics are going to have to be made separately and assembled.   

Smoothness is another issue.  High end commercial units can print very smooth objects but they cost big bucks.  For the hobbyist stuff, you can reduce the layer heights to get smoother, more detailed results but they take more time and are still limited by your equipment's capabilities.  Post processing can also be done like sanding, smoothing with solvents or painting.  Not quite the utopia of press a button and out pops a perfect finished product but it may be worth it for custom, one off types of things.

I for one, welcome our new 3D printing overlords! 

[Howard_Casto]

Definately.  Yeah the high-end ones can do a much better job but they are so costly and consume so much energy that they aren't really worth it. 

I think the claims are pie-in-the-sky examples personally.  I've seen the goop they use on the extruders and I sure wouldn't want to put anything made out of that in my ear. 

I think in 10 or 15 years they are going to be just as popular as a high-end printer at your local kinkos, but I don't think in home use is going to catch on for some time.  Not that it really matters, so long as you can easily get stuff printed. 

[RandyT]

I was impressed with the Cubify product, until I saw the price tag for consumables.  $50 for a spool of ABS is nuts, if the yield ends up being a handful of smallish plastic parts per.   Looks like they may be going for the "give away the razor and make money on the blades" marketing approach, and at $1300, it's still a hefty entry cost.  The upside is that it looks like it will accept a standard STL file, and if they become popular, it won't take too long for someone to figure out how to refill the cartridges.  

But it will be a boon for companies doing in-house prototyping.  I may actually pick one up when they become available, just for that sort of thing.

*edit*

Same machine without it's clothes on?  If the spools carry that much material, it might not be as bad as first thought, but the cased in ones seem a lot narrower, so....

[Vigo]

I think that one in the video is the UP! printer.

http://www.up3dusa.com/

Slightly more expensive at $1500, but the product is already out there.

[RandyT]

I think that one in the video is the UP! printer.

http://www.up3dusa.com/

Slightly more expensive at $1500, but the product is already out there.

The higher cost is probably due to the metal vs plastic construction.  Looks like the technology is the same, and just being repackaged for mass market.  Can't sell everyone a 3D printer until it looks (and acts) like a 2D printer .

[yotsuya]

But it will be a boon for companies doing in-house prototyping.  I may actually pick one up when they become available, just for that sort of thing.

We'll be expecting the Groovy NovaGem 3s soon after.

[mountain]

We use a 3D Systems prototyping machine here at work. It uses a composite type of material and UV light to cure each stepped layer. The damn thing breaks A LOT. I would be hesitant on buying one of their ABS based machines this early.

[RandyT]

We use a 3D Systems prototyping machine here at work. It uses a composite type of material and UV light to cure each stepped layer. The damn thing breaks A LOT. I would be hesitant on buying one of their ABS based machines this early.

The UP! system has been out for a couple of years now, and seems to be pretty stable.  This tech is different than the SLA tech where liquid is solidified by UV.  This is essentially stepper motors (very old and common tech) and a modified hot melt glue gun with an automated plastic feed.  It's a "light duty mini-mill" with extruding head.  I'd trust the metal ones more than the plastic over long term (stability is important for accuracy), but this tech isn't nearly as tricky as the other types out there.

Did more research on these types of units.  You can buy a 2 lbs of material on a spool for less than $40.  That's probably double the capacity of the "cartridges".  Anything one would save on the purchase of the plastic encased unit would, very likely, quickly be outweighed by the materials cost.  Something to consider for those looking at the Cube unit.

[ChadTower]

It is going to suck when every paper jam costs you $15.

[RandyT]

It is going to suck when every paper jam costs you $15.

Heh, I've had them cost a lot more than that on a large format 2D printer.  But, it'll probably be easier to recover on these as the layers are so thin that it might not be a deal breaker for the part (depending on the use) if one of the layers in the middle are a little bunged.

[SammyWI]

The UP! printer looks interesting.  Although they do charge $100 shipping - kind of a kick to the nards.  I also notice some ABS plastic filament sellers say their product is not recommended for the UP!.  I wonder what the issue is.  I've seen a lot of talk about needing to tweak settings between different sources of ABS or even different colors.  If these ready built printers don't have many adjustments available in their software, you may be stuck with only OEM plastic at whatever cost that may be.

[RandyT]

The UP! printer looks interesting.  Although they do charge $100 shipping - kind of a kick to the nards.  I also notice some ABS plastic filament sellers say their product is not recommended for the UP!.  I wonder what the issue is.  I've seen a lot of talk about needing to tweak settings between different sources of ABS or even different colors.  If these ready built printers don't have many adjustments available in their software, you may be stuck with only OEM plastic at whatever cost that may be.

It looks like the UP! machines are of Chinese origin, and ship directly.  The factory home page looks like it is here.  The prices are a little lower, but the shipping is higher as it is coming from China.  There is a forum on the site where some of this filament compatibility is discussed, and it may be a case of temperature, and filament uniformity.  With a couple of exceptions, users seem to have good success with filament from other sources.  The machines have undergone an upgrade recently which removed the temp control pot from the mainboard.  It's still up in the air as to whether it was made to be a fixed temp, or replaced with a digital pot which can control temp through software.  If the latter, the function hasn't yet shown up in the software, so there is a bit of concern about this.  Regardless, I'm guessing a bit of modification through the addition of an external temp control would give users a much better control over the material than even the original setup, but it may already be there waiting for software integration.  I guess we'll find out eventually.

[kahlid74]

You all gotta get on kickstarter! That's where Printrbot started a while ago.  Getting closer to Affordable 3d printing at home.

Here's the original Kickstarter page - http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/printrbot/printrbot-your-first-3d-printer.  His goal was $25,000, he raised $830,000.  Talk about there being a decent demand for 3d printing at an affordable price!  His page is below where you can buy one.

http://printrbot.com/

$549 for a 5x5 surface
$699 for a 8x8 surface

[Mysterioii]

There's lots of hobby-level 3D printers popping up... reprap, makerbot...  I'll probably end up with one eventually but I have hardly any free time right now.  Yeah, you've really got to think of these things as prototyping tools or for one-off things, you wouldn't mass produce anything with these.  Injection molding is great if you've got a finished mold to inject stuff into.  Check out this link on Instructables... the guy talks about manufacturing your own designer toy... he modeled it and had it printed on a 3D printer, sanded it to an acceptable finish, then made his own mold and ran the figures on a used rotocasting machine...

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-manufacture-your-own-designer-toy-or-start-/

I've also seen several stories where people needed a one-off quick bracket or something to replace some obscure broken part, and they were able to get out the calipers and model an acceptable replacement and print their own...  Now, the wife probably wouldn't greenlight a ~$1000 machine to replace the occasional $3 plastic bit, but it would be cool to be able to make something like that yourself rather than hope to find the part you need on the web then wait for shipping.

Plus, if you get a kit and build it yourself, it's always resume material.     And a potential tax writeoff if you're self-employed, depending on your business.

[yotsuya]

I just paid $5 for a replacement flap for a part for my pool skimmer. I'm sure someone could have made one on one of these printers for minimal effort and maximum profit.

[SammyWI]

You all gotta get on kickstarter! That's where Printrbot started a while ago.  Getting closer to Affordable 3d printing at home.

Here's the original Kickstarter page - http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/printrbot/printrbot-your-first-3d-printer.  His goal was $25,000, he raised $830,000.  Talk about there being a decent demand for 3d printing at an affordable price!  His page is below where you can buy one.

http://printrbot.com/

$549 for a 5x5 surface
$699 for a 8x8 surface

FYI: the $549 version was bumped up to a 6 x 6 bed.  I missed the Kickstarter but I put in an order as soon as their store opened.

[kahlid74]

You all gotta get on kickstarter! That's where Printrbot started a while ago.  Getting closer to Affordable 3d printing at home.

Here's the original Kickstarter page - http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/printrbot/printrbot-your-first-3d-printer.  His goal was $25,000, he raised $830,000.  Talk about there being a decent demand for 3d printing at an affordable price!  His page is below where you can buy one.

http://printrbot.com/

$549 for a 5x5 surface
$699 for a 8x8 surface

FYI: the $549 version was bumped up to a 6 x 6 bed.  I missed the Kickstarter but I put in an order as soon as their store opened.

I'm super intrigued to buy one but I find that I want to build my CNC machine first.  Once I have that then I'll build/buy the 3d printer.

[Unstupid]

We use a 3D Systems prototyping machine here at work. It uses a composite type of material and UV light to cure each stepped layer.

This sounds like an Objet machine... we were looking into purchasing one... right now we have a Dimension Elite 3D printer but we were looking for something with a little higher resolution....

[Gray_Area]

I was told our company dished out 60K for one of these things a few weeks ago...considering we're a smaller company (about 50 employees) I wasn't too happy when I heard that news.

It seems the suits are still listening to salesmen....


It sounds like something from...Star Trek....

Really? I guess only people older than dirt are watching CNN. She looks about in that camp.