Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

3D Printer for less than $400

kickstarter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 80 posts

Re: 3D Printer for less than $400

#41

Post by m_eiman »

iandanforth wrote: post #8

Does the market need a cheaper printer, or a better one? I've used 6 types of 3D printers. (Extrusion type, ABS or PLA) 3 from the 'consumer' grade and 3 from the 'pro' grade. Each of the consumer grade printers was an exercise in frustration. All the printers had ugly, clunky software, but the pro printers would almost always make the thing I wanted. The consumer printers I've tried take 3 or 4 failures to get 'set…

Would you mind sharing which printers you've used? I'm looking at alternatives, but so far it looks like I'll have to wait at least one more generation before they get to the "just click print and wait" stage…

Re: 3D Printer for less than $400

#42

Post by druiid »

masonhensley wrote: post #6
nakedrobot2 wrote: post #4

"If you want to use your own filament, you may do so without the cartridges" GOOD! I dismiss other 3d printers immediately if they require some proprietary filament cartridge. Nice to see the price dropping on 3d printers. :-)

It looks like it is just a hopper instead of a proprietary spool[1]. I would imagine you can use any 1.75mm filament in it. [1] Example of a proprietary spool: http://cubify.com/cube/store_parts.aspx

Oh man, I've never heard of their printers before. The multi-color $2500 version looks really cool. Now if this Kickstarter project could do that for $400 I would be all over it.

Re: 3D Printer for less than $400

#43

Post by erva »

iandanforth wrote: post #8

Does the market need a cheaper printer, or a better one? I've used 6 types of 3D printers. (Extrusion type, ABS or PLA) 3 from the 'consumer' grade and 3 from the 'pro' grade. Each of the consumer grade printers was an exercise in frustration. All the printers had ugly, clunky software, but the pro printers would almost always make the thing I wanted. The consumer printers I've tried take 3 or 4 failures to get 'set…

You are assuming that "the market" is one homogeneous mass, which it is not.

>Does the market need a cheaper printer, or a better one?

Yes. Some are in the market for a cheaper printer as demonstrated by the popularity of this kickstarter. Some are in the market for a better one. There is plenty of room for both.

Re: 3D Printer for less than $400

#44

Post by bulltale »

mrbill wrote: post #33

I've found that the more over-funded a Kickstarter project is, the higher the probability that delivery of perks and products will be delayed or have problems. In my experience over the past two years, I've seen a number of projects that I funded where the project creators got bogged down after deciding to add features not originally specified at the time of funding, or continually "tweak" features that then result i…

This is of course part of the risk associated with Kickstarter, projects may fail or be delayed. As you seem to be an avid backer, do you feel satisfied with the general delivery of projects you backed?

Re: 3D Printer for less than $400

#45

Post by foobar456 »

druiid wrote: post #42
masonhensley wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It looks like it is just a hopper instead of a proprietary spool[1]. I would imagine you can use any 1.75mm filament in it. [1] Example of a proprietary spool: http://cubify.com/cube/store_parts.aspx

Oh man, I've never heard of their printers before. The multi-color $2500 version looks really cool. Now if this Kickstarter project could do that for $400 I would be all over it.

so if you could get a $2500 product for $400 you would buy it?

Re: 3D Printer for less than $400

#46

Post by smoorman1024 »

Don't they only need to make one really good printer that can print other printers? That should bring margins down.

Seriously though, as someone very interested in 3D printing this is awfully tempting to back. The best option for me though seems still to be to use a service that will allow you to send your model to a third party that will print it on a professional 3D printer and send it back to you. Internet + professional grade printing + next day delivery = just about as good.

Re: 3D Printer for less than $400

#47

Post by masonhensley »

nnnnni wrote: post #36
masonhensley wrote: post #3

From what I understand, margins are pretty good right now for ~$1k+ printers. This however looks looks too polished for the price they are trying to deliver. Reliable wifi connectivity, air filtration, fancy box, mobile apps, cloud software, scale to weigh amount of filament in the hopper... hmmmm. Existing sub $400 printers[see below] havent shipped in mass quantities yet (well, besides the printrbot jr). Whoever ge…

I'm pretty sure that Maki is well-known in the 3D printing community for being a scammer. I'd stay away from the Makibox...

Ya, I shouldn't have included them. Can't edit that post now.

I had an post crowd funding order with them at some point in Q1 2013 and canceled it after not seeing much progress.

Re: 3D Printer for less than $400

#48

Post by nwh »

kunai wrote: post #34

The first thing that came into my head as soon as I saw it was: power mac g4 cube I think it needs a little more originality in the design department.

I'd forgotten that this was a kickstarter page for a second, and just saw a G4 Cube (there's a real one sitting on my desk too).

Re: 3D Printer for less than $400

#49

Post by nwh »

jfoutz wrote: post #25
elmuchoprez wrote: post #23

When it comes to consumer-grade 3D printing, it seems like all the focus on developing a cheap machine and none of the focus is on figuring out something that people actually want to print. So you can print a spoon and a bowl... great. But I actually already have one of those. If I ever have a need to print an endless supply of 1-inch square cubes, I guess 3D printing is just the ticket. I'm not saying they need to b…

FWIW, don't eat from 3d printed stuff. The extrusion process creates this wonderful internal maze for bacteria to thrive in. A single use shot glass is probably ok. And, the ceramic prints you can get now are food grade. But any home made abs or pla will inevitably get you sick, because it can't be cleaned.

Shapeways.com is probably the exception, their glazed 3D models are specifically designed to be eaten out of.

Re: 3D Printer for less than $400

#50

Post by busyant »

jfoutz wrote: post #25
elmuchoprez wrote: post #23

When it comes to consumer-grade 3D printing, it seems like all the focus on developing a cheap machine and none of the focus is on figuring out something that people actually want to print. So you can print a spoon and a bowl... great. But I actually already have one of those. If I ever have a need to print an endless supply of 1-inch square cubes, I guess 3D printing is just the ticket. I'm not saying they need to b…

FWIW, don't eat from 3d printed stuff. The extrusion process creates this wonderful internal maze for bacteria to thrive in. A single use shot glass is probably ok. And, the ceramic prints you can get now are food grade. But any home made abs or pla will inevitably get you sick, because it can't be cleaned.

why can't you wash the items with soap?
Post reply on HN