Cheap 3D Printers

[no0se]

Hey all,

just came across a Kickstarter for a 3D printer that is running for $300 that prints 15x15x15 inches!

It has already reached its funding goal and now is just working towards better and better stretch goals. If you're looking to get into printing on the cheap this is probably the best chance you're ever going to get. (at least for a couple years, we'll see)

Check it out here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cobblebot/cobblebot-3d-printer

I already ordered mine.

If anyone else knows of more awesome deals like this add it to the thread

 

[lharles]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! I wish I wasn't broke. Nice find.

 

[jamesmcintoshjr]

very interesting esp at that price.

One of the big things with a 3D printer is prolonged reliability and fixability, 2 things I'm having issues with at the moment with my replicator 2, but at this price point there's not much risk..

 

[no0se]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! I wish I wasn't broke. Nice find.

Yea I saw it and was like well there goes this paycheck. But worth it I'm hoping

very interesting esp at that price.

One of the big things with a 3D printer is prolonged reliability and fixability, 2 things I'm having issues with at the moment with my replicator 2, but at this price point there's not much risk..

Cheap enough that if it isn't perfect it isn't a huge deal but if it does turn out to do a good job I will be very pleased. The next cheapest I've seen was in the the $5-600 price range

 

[BORN1977]

Talking to wife today I need my July Christmas present

 

[jamesmcintoshjr]

well there's a bevy of printers coming out all at different price points and levels of complexity. Software is also another thing too, these guys are probably relying on any number of free slicer programs which have varying degrees of quality, but things like Simplify 3D are going to be out soon so that might level the playing field with a more unified (albeit not-free) alternative to makerware/makerbot desktop.

The key thing is to see if these guys can ship this at that price. $300 is incredibly suspect, same as the pirate3D guys, who wound up renegging on stretch goals and raising the price. I do thing that they might be able to pull it off based on the design, but with things like a bad wiring harness potentially making a 3D printer unusable (trust me on this one) it'll be interesting to see how it gets supported.

I'm excited to see this go through though. any strong competition is good overall.

 

[no0se]

Talking to wife today I need my July Christmas present 

I wish you the best of luck lol

well there's a bevy of printers coming out all at different price points and levels of complexity. Software is also another thing too, these guys are probably relying on any number of free slicer programs which have varying degrees of quality, but things like Simplify 3D are going to be out soon so that might level the playing field with a more unified (albeit not-free) alternative to makerware/makerbot desktop.

The key thing is to see if these guys can ship this at that price. $300 is incredibly suspect, same as the pirate3D guys, who wound up renegging on stretch goals and raising the price. I do thing that they might be able to pull it off based on the design, but with things like a bad wiring harness potentially making a 3D printer unusable (trust me on this one) it'll be interesting to see how it gets supported.

I'm excited to see this go through though. any strong competition is good overall.

I agree. I have a version of Makerware that I'm hoping will be compatible but worst case I'll find a different route to get it chugging along. I'd hate to think that they can't pull off what they are thinking they can but only time will tell. And more competition that drives overall cost down and potential functionality up is good in my books

 

[jordandau]

I don't have the spare cash to test the waters on something like this. But I will be closely watching a lot of these to see how they pan out.

 

[Rovingjack]

printrbot simple is about that price but with only a 4x4x4 print space unless you get an upgrade kit. I'm also considering building a reprap morgan. it's a greatly simplified design that you are meant to be able to build out of really common and simple parts including things like plywood and plumbing parts for the frame. The goal was to get it reasonably close to $100 to build. and looks like the print areas might run just under 8 inches cubed, or 200mm cubed. I've heard that the vertical range is only really limited by how tall you build the frame and how stable you build it against vibration.

The thing I like about the idea of the morgan is the simplicity of the design and elimination of exotic parts from it. Meaning that at some future time if I wanted to print the low detail structure of something I could do so with a morgan, and either print finer detail parts to glue to the surface of the bulk form or sculpt a finish layer onto the bulk form. I could build a couple of morgans and have them all running at once on parts to assemble on a project to cut print time and risk of total loss from a small error on a single section.

 

[TylerHam]

One thing that worries me is that 3D printing is the wild west right now - I mean there must be a hundred companies at least making of kickstarting 3D printers - How many will survive?? Will parts replacement be an issue? Customer service???

I use 3D printing ALL THE TIME and I personally still use service agencies to do my printing.... Im a good 3 years away from investing in a home unit - I want to wait for the dust to settle a bit.

 

[no0se]

printrbot simple is about that price but with only a 4x4x4 print space unless you get an upgrade kit. I'm also considering building a reprap morgan. it's a greatly simplified design that you are meant to be able to build out of really common and simple parts including things like plywood and plumbing parts for the frame. The goal was to get it reasonably close to $100 to build. and looks like the print areas might run just under 8 inches cubed, or 200mm cubed. I've heard that the vertical range is only really limited by how tall you build the frame and how stable you build it against vibration.

The thing I like about the idea of the morgan is the simplicity of the design and elimination of exotic parts from it. Meaning that at some future time if I wanted to print the low detail structure of something I could do so with a morgan, and either print finer detail parts to glue to the surface of the bulk form or sculpt a finish layer onto the bulk form. I could build a couple of morgans and have them all running at once on parts to assemble on a project to cut print time and risk of total loss from a small error on a single section.

Yea the morgan looks like an entirely viable option if you can get the structure assembled. I seem to recall somewhere online offering the files needed to get it laser cut or CNC'd for free. Maybe something to investigate?

One thing that worries me is that 3D printing is the wild west right now - I mean there must be a hundred companies at least making of kickstarting 3D printers - How many will survive?? Will parts replacement be an issue? Customer service???

I use 3D printing ALL THE TIME and I personally still use service agencies to do my printing.... Im a good 3 years away from investing in a home unit - I want to wait for the dust to settle a bit.

That is a good point. Because these guys will have largely exceeded their funding goal on this project, I would assume they'll have some money to spare to stay operational until they can establish themselves as a serious contender, or at least until I have run the course of this machine and upgraded to something else. What agencies are you using to get things printed? services like Shapeways? Any printing I've had done I sourced through my university's rapid prototyping shop but it wasn't cheap.

 

[Darksyde13]

I would go back through kickstarter and look how some of the older low cost printers have panned out. Rigidbot, makibox, bukito, QUBD 1up, and phoenix printer have all had a lot of delay issues and quality control problems that caused even more delays. The rigidbot is finally shipping but over a year past estimated ship date though the few prints that have gotten off the machines have seemed pretty good. Just do some checking in to older 3d printer kickstarts so you have a little heads up of what to expect. You never know, these guys may have everything in place and their timeline is rock solid but so far the track record for KS printers is leaning more toward heafty delays. Don't get me wrong, I only know this because it's what I've been doing. I also would like a printer and don't have thousands to toss at one so I've been keeping an eye out, but I'm kinda of the opinion at this point that other people with more money can get these funded, I can watch how it plays out, and then if things run smooth and the machine performs I can always get it from them directly post KS. Looks up those older machines, check the updates and comments tabs. Good luck and I hope you find a machine that works well for you.

 

[zenix]

I work for Tinkerine, and used to work for makerbot. I've been 3d modeling since 97 and saw my first 3d printer in 2000 and started using 'em in 2004. The DittoPro recently came out and it's made with reliability, quality, and usability in mind, at the forefront of the design. We're a publicly trading company, have been around for a few years, and have had nothing but great reviews from our users of the Ditto+ and Litto in the past. The printrbot is great for price, and when you're ready to step up to higher quality, keep us in mind.

 

[MichaelTurner]

I really want to get a 3D printer to get into printing some of the stuff I have to make by hand. But I am trying to find something decent for under $800 or my wife would kill me. We finally have our first kind on the way and I want to be able to do awesome halloween costumes and stuff. It would be alot easier to do a 3D model, scale it, and hit print than to have to make each piece by hand.

 

[Darksyde13]

Everyone has their own preferences but if I were to buy a printer today I'd go with one from Printrbot. They have a solid background, good reviews, and a helpfull forum comunity. If you just want to get your feet wet and see what's what I'd go with the Simple Makers Kit Model 1405 with a build volume of 3x3x3 for 350$. If you need larger there are any number of mods out there to up the build size as well as an upgrad kit from Printrbot directly. If you want something a bit sturdyer and have a little more cash to spend then upgrade to the SImple Metal with a build volume of 6x6x6 for 540$ (600 pre-assembled). So far those are the two best bang for your $ IMO and they utalize all the same software that any other printer will at their pricepoint. You can find a lot of print videos for the metal on youtube as well as a few for the new 1405 simple (it will have the probe on the front.)

I do feel the need to mention that software is kind of the odd duck with budget printers. There is a lot of custom this and custom that for each printer and while the slicing and printing software is free none of it is super user friendly. Keep the manual pdf and links to helpful forums handy.

 

[MEOWorksCreative]

Agreed on the Printrbot, I've been tempted to get the metal as a secondary machine.

If you have patience and technical/assembly knowledge, the MakerFarm Prusa i3 kits are extremely good for the price. Their new models have V-Slot rails for better stability and faster prints. I have the older 8" Prusa. People complain about the plywood frame but it's never caused me any issues and the printer is rock solid and outperforms $1200+ FDMs

 

[NerdMeat]

If you spend some time learning about the basics (and even better if you know someone with a printer you can learn from) it's not hard to build your own 3d printer. I did. Actual cost probably $400 worth of electronics and hardware, but I built it in South America where that stuff isn't cheap. But I made mine with lead-screw drives for all axes, which is a lot more pricy than belts but also a lot more accurate and maintenance-free. So really if you scrounge to find the parts cheap, you can probably make one for $200-300. Don't skimp on the motors; the nicer ones with higher torque are worth it.

 

[Saludaranger]

I have a 5th gen maker bot. (Actually we own 3 at my work and I play with them a lot.)

I have the two year service agreement. I have had the bots... 2 months? Used the service agreement three times. The printer works well, nice smooth finish... But even as a 5th gen... It screws up and when it does... It always finds a way to get broken. Extruders get clogged, led / camera gets snapped off, glass base cracked during homing... You name it.

All in all though, it still the best one for the money...(IMO) That is saying something. None of them are perfect.

The technology is changing so fast...

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[Saber Concepts]

I have the DaVinci and it cost me just under $500. I use it to print prototypes before I machine them and it has done pretty good so far. The main downside is it has it's own special filament cartage instead of the standard rolls.

 

[wolfchild59]

As a Caveat emptor - Just because a Kickstarter printer exceeds it's goal doesn't mean it's going to be successful as a company or it's delivery goals.

A story, from personal backing experience - the Pirate 3D Buccaneer printer raised over $1 million when they only had a goal of $100,000. Plus they'd had $500,000 in a grant before they even got to Kickstarter. It's now been over a year since the campaign ended and they still don't think they'll have any printers delivered until the end of this year. And the ones that will be delivered at that time don't have all the features that the campaign raised it's money with.

If backers are willing to wait until April 2015, they'll get printers with one additional feature that was promised (heated bed) that the end of 2014 backers aren't getting, but so far the company has said that they haven't found a way to make that work yet. And they pulled a number of features that are never coming back, such as a fan to vent fumes, ABS printing support, and their original auto-bed calibration set-up.

Add on to that that they originally sold the printers on Kickstarter for $400 and under, with $700-$800 being their final retail price goal. Then the pre-sale went up last year for $899. And now they are saying that the printer will cost $1300 retail, at the same time they are also reducing the build area size from 146mm x 125mm x 155mm to 136mm x 96mm, 146mm for both backer and retail units.

So, don't take the fact that any company got more money for their campaign than they said they needed as a sign of stability and guarantee of product. That will only come if the people behind it are on top of things and understand the world they are operating in.

I originally backed Cobblebot as a replacement for the Buccaneer (P3D thankfully offered refunds for people since they weren't able to deliver what we backed). But, in trying to ask questions about the printer and watching how they interacted (or didn't) with the campaign backers, I was getting a strong sense of deja vu and pulled my backing. I hope that they pull through and are able to deliver what they promised, when they promised it. But I just wasn't willing to take that gamble again.

I actually ended up going for the Craftbot on Indigogo. It's a company that was already working on production of their printers, but needed additional funds to keep the production line moving. They answer any and all questions within a day and post almost daily (sometimes twice a day) updates. The dedication to their backers, proof of product availability, and complete transparency as they go through each step of the process made me feel confident enough in them as a company to back the campaign.