Re: [MakerBot] New York City Makerbot owners?

[c f]

It really depends what you want it for, what your expectations are, and, to some extent, what your skillset is. I've had a thing-o-matic for about a year and I'm extremely happy with it so far. I pretty much only use it in a hobby capacity, but I probably average ~10 hours a week of printing time (mostly prototyping mechanical contraptions with gears and things). Most of the parts I make don't have very fine details, aren't terribly large and don't need to be strong enough to warrant the use of metal. That being said, the biggest advantage is how low the cost of 'failing' is when you have a machine on your desk (vs. using a printing service like shapeways). I might go through 8 different iterations of a part I'm designing before I get one that I'm satisfied with. I can let my machine run for an hour and go through $0.15 worth of plastic, decide "oh, I should change the shape a little to make it fit better", and have another part in my hand an hour later. I'm not good enough at mechanical design to just design something correctly the first time, so being able to iterate quickly is a godsend.

Just be aware of the limitations of the machine in terms of resolution and things (you won't be printing super-detailed 1/2"-tall figurines or anything), and you probably won't be disappointed.

-Chris

On Thu, Sep 13, 2012 at 10:16 PM, Chelsea Downs <ced...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hey I'm a hobbiest interested in a Makerbot, I want one but I have reservations, are you happy with your purchases, was it worth it or should i just send my design off to be printed.

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[Mark Cohen]

It is not exactly buy a makerbot and begin printing. You need to learn the software a bit and make sure your design is actually printable.

[Dan Newman]

On 14 Sep 2012 , at 3:24 AM, Mark Cohen wrote:

> It is not exactly buy a makerbot and begin printing. You need to learn the
> software a bit and make sure your design is actually printable.

And, what Mark writes also holds true for doing

>> Hey I'm a hobbiest interested in a Makerbot, I want one but I have
>> reservations, are you happy with your purchases, was it worth it or should
>> i just send my design off to be printed.

Which is to say, regardless of how you will have the piece printed, there's
learning to use the tool chain and then learning how to design your models
so that they will print successfully on the target output device/technology.
There's a fair number of folks who use Makerbots (and similar) to refine
their models before sending them off to a fabrication house to be "professionally"
printed. (I put the "professional" in quotes since many Makerbot operators
are more than capable of achieving or exceeding "professional" results on their
home printers.)

Dan

[Kurt Wendt]

I agree with all that was said here - and, Mark here is my Mentor and helped me get my Bot on track.

 

I recently printed something with ShapeWays - but, its because they had a special material - which was flexible - and my patent attorney associate suggested I should produce my design in something flexible.

 

That said - anything that isn't Really THIN Walled, or Small - ends up being VERY Costly on Shapeways! Where as, for me - like others said here - I have gone thru Multiple Design revisions on one product design - and did it on my Bot - and it gave me aQuick turn around - and also done cheaply. Right now - I am producing a Huge Project - attempting to make a LARGE Chinese Dragon - and its going to be 3 feet long - or longer - and, doing it in parts - but, doing it thru Shapeways would have cost me $1K to $2K or more to produce - where as, on my Bot - maybe $20 - $30 of materials. Sure, I have to build it in MANY Parts and assemble it - But, I would Never have done it via ShapeWays -as this is Truly the Perfect project for a MBot!

 

-K-

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