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MakerBot Is Outsourcing Its Brooklyn Manufacturing Jobs to China

makerbot.com

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Re: MakerBot Is Outsourcing Its Brooklyn Manufacturing Jobs to China

#11

Post by santaclaus »

sbarre wrote: post #5
dammitcoetzee wrote: post #3

Of course they are. It's been lies and flim flam for a while. Worst printers on the market, just look at the reviews. They had US manufacturing going for them, but I guess even that much of their previous reputation, honor, and pride was too much to hold on to.

So what would you say is the best 3D printer on the market right now?

We've had good luck with the products out of formlabs (the print quality is awesome), although dealing with their resin is a royal PITA.

Re: MakerBot Is Outsourcing Its Brooklyn Manufacturing Jobs to China

#12

Post by jason46 »

sbarre wrote: post #5
dammitcoetzee wrote: post #3

Of course they are. It's been lies and flim flam for a while. Worst printers on the market, just look at the reviews. They had US manufacturing going for them, but I guess even that much of their previous reputation, honor, and pride was too much to hold on to.

So what would you say is the best 3D printer on the market right now?

I can't comment on "the best" but I know enough that a printer can be had for roughly half the price of a makerbot that will achieve better results. The "fifth generation" makerbot doesn't have a heated bed, can't print ABS...

Re: MakerBot Is Outsourcing Its Brooklyn Manufacturing Jobs to China

#13

Post by jackhack »

deepnet wrote: post #9

Caveat Emptor. If you can't fork you aren't free. The Makerbot rose up from a spirit of sharing and community goodwill, made money and employed local Brooklyites - so it was a flagship for the sharing economy and open hardware. Now there is an impression that they closed it off. Make4rbot was bought by the holder of a patent for the sintering 3D printing technology, seen as an impediment to this useful methods commun…

In a number of ways this echoes the early microcomputer industry (thinking the 1970s-80s), when dozens of competing and incompatible standards existed. Atari, Apple, Commodore, Amiga, just to name a few. And as the industry neared middle age in the 1990s, shopping for a "PC Clone" was a cornucopia of options: a copy of PC Shopper was hundreds of pages thick, each with ads for "custom made" PC clones "built to your specifications". Lead times of weeks, hundreds of case, motherboards, CPU, RAM and Video card options existed... and prices were in the $2000+. Now it's settled down to a few big players who essentially sell poorly-differentiated commodity items for paper-thin margins. It is to be expected as an industry matures.

A company must choose where to place itself. Go after the high-end boutique market and risk pricing yourself out (if one can't communicate the price/value argument to customers), or become another "me too" supplier in a race to the bottom, following all the same steps as the competition, facing extinction due to lack of margin.

Re: MakerBot Is Outsourcing Its Brooklyn Manufacturing Jobs to China

#14

Post by pj_mukh »

Totally understand being disappointed in MakerBot for a myriad of other reasons. But the whole, "omg stuff is going to be shitty because its Chinese" is a tired old trope. If you know what you are doing and aren't needlessly cutting corners you should be fine.

P.S: Not Chinese, I've just enjoyed enough Chinese mfg'd (even Chinese designed) products now to know that trope is old.

Re: MakerBot Is Outsourcing Its Brooklyn Manufacturing Jobs to China

#15

Post by legitster »

A lot of people wonder why large companies can't just stay in the US and compete on quality, and here is a great case for why. It doesn't matter how great your workers are, you can't sell a product for $3,000 when others are selling it for $600. Especially when it's a technology still in development.

And I know we pay extra for the warm and fuzzies knowing that something is made in the states, but I'm sure the home tinkerer in Indianapolis doesn't get super warm and fuzzy thinking of paying an extra $2000 just to support some exorbitant Brooklyn rent.

Re: MakerBot Is Outsourcing Its Brooklyn Manufacturing Jobs to China

#17

Post by talmand »

legitster wrote: post #15

A lot of people wonder why large companies can't just stay in the US and compete on quality, and here is a great case for why. It doesn't matter how great your workers are, you can't sell a product for $3,000 when others are selling it for $600. Especially when it's a technology still in development. And I know we pay extra for the warm and fuzzies knowing that something is made in the states, but I'm sure the home t…

I often wonder if costs could be lowered for many of these companies if they would stop locating in some of the country's most expensive places to operate and for their employees to live. I know the arguments about workforce availability and all that, but I've never seen a proper look into it.

Re: MakerBot Is Outsourcing Its Brooklyn Manufacturing Jobs to China

#18

Post by 3dfan »

reustle wrote: post #4

First the Closed Source discussions [1], and now completely outsourcing to China? What sets them apart from any other hardware company now? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MakerBot_Industries#Closed_sou...

We really should try to promote 3D printing companies that support the open source movement and local manufacturing. Maybe we should set up a wikipedia category for open source 3d printers?

Product Chart has a section for 3d printers with open source design:

http://www.productchart.com/3d_printers/sets/4

Re: MakerBot Is Outsourcing Its Brooklyn Manufacturing Jobs to China

#19

Post by Animats »

MakerBot sucked at manufacturing. Laser-cut wood frames for a production product? Please. What they need from China is manufacturing expertise. People who can design injection molds and stamping dies. They were in love with their "replicator" fantasy of one-off manufacturing, forgetting that 3D printing costs orders of magnitude more than injection molding in quantity, and produces inferior plastic.

Re: MakerBot Is Outsourcing Its Brooklyn Manufacturing Jobs to China

#20

Post by bradyd »

deepnet wrote: post #9

Caveat Emptor. If you can't fork you aren't free. The Makerbot rose up from a spirit of sharing and community goodwill, made money and employed local Brooklyites - so it was a flagship for the sharing economy and open hardware. Now there is an impression that they closed it off. Make4rbot was bought by the holder of a patent for the sintering 3D printing technology, seen as an impediment to this useful methods commun…

GPL doesn't even protect against this kind of situation. The copyright holder is not bound by the GPL license, they are the one licensing it. Anything release under the GPL is still available as GPL, but the copyright holder has no obligation to release future changes under the GPL. They can instead have a proprietary license. Things can get a little more muddied with community contributions as the contributor owns the copyright to the change, unless they sign over the copyright as part of a contributor agreement.
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