Fwd: [MakerBot Boston] Printrbot: Your First 3D Printer by Brook Drumm — Kickstarter

[W. Aaron Waychoff]

Joseph,
I thought I'd weigh in on your assessment of some of these kits. As someone who has looked into these just enough to know that none of them are for me, I will take a bit of a critical stance. (Sorry to all you MakerBot owners/operators - it's amazing, really, but not for me. Yet!)

>
> KITS
>
> RepRap - Like the desktop Linux community this project seems more
> focused on ideology than practicality e.g. the focus on making a "Self-
> Replicating" design. Their work has been fundemental to the hobbyist
> 3D printing sector, but its not going to become the main stream
> product in the space.

If you want tinkering with your printer to be as much of the experience as actually printing with it, this is the path to go. *everything* is configurable - so much so that it suffers from the classic "too many choices" syndrome. However, it's probably the most capable-for-the-price but it comes with a larger sweat-equity price.

> MakerBot - MakerBot reduced the "Self Sourcing" problem for hobbyists
> which was a tremendous leap forward. Combined with Bre's connection to
> the Maker community, smart use of PR, smart R&D (e.g. Thingiverse),
> and early entry into the market they have become THE brand.

This is the place to start if support and community is what you are looking for. While other printers (like the RepRap lines) have phenomenal communities, you can find people here across the spectrum of experience and patience. If you follow the recipe, you're likely to get what's advertised - a reasonable printer with reasonable maintenance requirements that can make reasonable prints. If you want more, it takes effort - sometimes bordering on the heroic.

> Ultimaker - Ultimaker reminds me of a hot rod. It looks kind of like
> other 3D printer kits, but is only purchased by people who want to
> hack it to make it bigger, faster, etc. It also suffers a bit from the
> fact that it looks almost exactly like a MakerBot, but at a higher
> cost.

This is the printer I was closest to getting. I think I can see where you are coming from with your assessment, but I think it's skewed because the machine has not been on the market long, and almost all of them are in the hands of major enthusiasts. It's a superior design, I think, than the current Makerbots (moving the head and not the platform just makes sense to me) but it doesn't have the community around it that MB does. Still, my gold star goes here.

> MakerGear - Seems like a nice product, but again, looks just like the
> MakerBot. This might have some legs over time since their fully
> assembled kit is so low.

It does look a lot like a "MakerBot, only different" but, then again, just about every DIY project based on laser cut plywood seems to fall into this category. This is my least-researched kit, so I'll leave it at this: they used to have some attractive-looking hot-ends, but I haven't noticed them innovating much. They always seem to be 1 step behind, but usually a bit cheaper. (My impressions. Those who follow them closer may have more info to share)

> PrintrBot - I think the only limit to their success will be the
> entrepreneurial appetite of the founders and could present the first
> real challenge to MakerBot in the market.

It's cute. It has a long way to go, and I'm seriously skeptical of their ability to deliver the goods at the prices they have advertised now. While they have a good chunk of change to start with, I think that without a *lot* of caution, they will run out of $$ long before they've delivered most of the kits. However, if that doesn't happen (and I hope it doesn't!) then I think they will be competitors for sure - if they can get their print quality up!

>
> PRODUCTS
>
> Botmill - Botmill also solved the sourcing problem for enthusiasts and
> offered a pretty affordable, fully assembled system. Their marketing
> seems to be focused far more on schools than hobbyists. In fact they
> antagonized their community by scraping blog posts and having horrific
> customer service. They were acquired by one of the market leaders in
> 3D printing, 3D Systems, and seem to have benefitted from the deal as
> they now offer a fully assembled system that has 2X the build area of
> the MakerBot, but at half the price (and only a smidge above the MB
> kit cost). They are also the only one of these companies that can ship
> a product next day, most others have 4-6 week lead times.

With the backing they now have from 3D Systems, I expect these will boom if they embrace the hobbiest/enthusiast community. These are probably the guys anyone selling kits should be scared of. However, at the current time, they seem to be more talk than walk, as you point out above. If 3D Systems plays this right, this bot can even be a loss-leader for them in some markets, getting people into the next-step-up machines they are/will be offering.

> Up 3D printer - This printer looks the most "professional" in that the
> workings are all hidden from the user. The parts I saw coming off it
> at MakerFaire were excellent, and its priced just a bit above the cost
> of an assembled MakerBot. However, their site has a bunch of grammar
> errors and it calls the professionalism of the operation into
> question.

I was also impressed - plus the printer is *adorable* - I can see my non-tech friends using it. I haven't looked further, though.

Just my thoughts,
~w

[Aaron Double]

I would argue that makergear's mosaic is actually many steps ahead than makerbot. Rick has a history of thoroughly testing his products before he releases them (something makerbot should do a bit more, look at the automated build platform as an example). One of the reasons you haven't seen much change in his hot ends is they just work, they are easy to repair and there are many different designs of extruder motors that work with them.

He also came out with a stepper extruder before makerbot.

I personally would suggest a mosaic to someone who doesn't have a printer, and has the building chops to put a kit together. If you go through his instructions you'll see that it is actually pretty simple and is a very robust design.

I'll let you know about the printrbot, I kickstarted the kit without the printed parts (then again, I am also printing out the parts for a prusa right now and have blown the dust off the minimaker design files for gen2) and my studio mate has a BFB3000.

Aaron Double

[Joseph Flaherty]

Aaron,

Thanks for the thoughtful comments, I'm glad that a fellow window
shopper shares the same general view that I do.

I finally broke down and bought a MakerBot with the Black Friday
discount and am excited to see how it performs for someone who wants
to print more than maintain the printer.

The only other option I seriously considered was BotMill. My main
concern was customer service. I figured there is enough critical mass
behind MakerBot that I could find help if needed. BotMill might own
the market in a year or two, but I've heard too many horror stories to
this point (And my office has a $50K 3D system and the CS for that
isn't great so i'm not holding my breath). Ultimaker and Mosaic both
seem to have the geek cred, but I worry that the community will tend
towards the RepRap model.

Joe

[Aaron Double]

Watch out, there's two Aarons here :-)

Shout if you. Need a hand on the
T-O-M.

Aaron Double