Two-color Makerbot released • Hacker News Board

Re: Two-color Makerbot released

#21

Post by angusgr » Tue, Jan 10, 2012, 12:04 AM UTC

This is pretty exciting for Makerbot. The Thing-O-Matic (previous model, mostly sold as a kit) was described by them as:

a hot rod style device on the cutting edge of 3D printing technology and like a hotrod, you'll have to oil it and do occasional maintenance. There is no service warranty.

... on the other hand this feels a big step closer to a consumer product - they're advertising it as ready to print out of the box, marketing it at CES.

I guess it makes sense they want to cross over from making a "niche" hobbyist-focused built-it-yourself product to the emerging broader market.

Re: Two-color Makerbot released

#22

Post by MartinCron » Tue, Jan 10, 2012, 12:06 AM UTC

replicatorblog wrote: post #12

Intropy wrote: post #2

I'm new to the 3D printing scene and I was about to order a Makerbot last week but heard they would be making a CES announcement this week. Any advice from more experienced hackers regarding whether it is worth holding out for this new model with the dual extruder?

Intropy - I've been blogging about MakerBot and other bits and atoms businesses for 4+ years ( http://replicatorinc.com ). Just after Thanksgiving I bought a discounted MakerBot Thing-O-Matic. If you have an extra $900 I'd recommend the Replicator. The extra size, dual extruders, and preassembly are a huge upgrade. Being able to print support materials will give you huge flexibility and the Automated Build Platform o…

the MakerBot assembly instructions are horribly out of date and can be misleading. The software UI is kind of flaky. The support documentation is not very helpful and is filled with errors. I'd be very concerned about buying something preassembled by that crew.

Yikes. I'd be concerned about buying anything at all from that crew.

Re: Two-color Makerbot released

#23

Post by regulus1980 » Tue, Jan 10, 2012, 12:32 AM UTC

This looks like the best makerbot yet, maybe I really should be getting into the 3D printing scene!

Re: Two-color Makerbot released

#24

Post by codehero » Tue, Jan 10, 2012, 5:09 AM UTC

Some other significant improvements over Thing-o-Matic: -Thankfully they have abandoned the Automated Build Platform. -The extruder is now moving within the build plane, which is superior to moving the printed object. Perhaps one will be able to print thin tall objects.

Re: Two-color Makerbot released

#25

Post by Quequau » Tue, Jan 10, 2012, 6:42 AM UTC

I've set a sort of personal flag for when I want to jump into hobbyist 3D printing and that's that's the ability to build a TV remote or something like an old Nokia feature phone.

So basically that's a few different kinds of plastics (like the soft keys and the hard case); simple circuit boards which could be finished by populating by hand and soldered in a toaster oven; and other similar sorts of things.

So this represents a step closer and I'm all for it.

However, I really prefer to support openness and sharing. So I prefer the reprap. And besides, their goal of a self printing more closely matches my interests of electronic devices.