1 Topic by jjc (edited by jjc 2014-12-12 05:31:05)

  • jjc
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Topic: Why Buy the Da Vinci?

Disclaimer:

I do not come from the hobbyist or maker world, I'm not a hacker (if that's even the right word in this context) so I don't have a background in DIY 3D printing.

My Background:

I come from the opposite end of the spectrum.  I'm an Engineer from Silicon Valley and have been using 'commercial grade' 3D printers for many years now.  I didn't like the initial quality of SLA printers and didn't like the mess of the baths and all the post processing needed to get a clean print.  So I ignored 3D printing for a few years.

I then started using fused filament printers with ABS in a laboratory setting to build fixtures for experiments.  Never had the time to play around with them as a hobby.  But I liked the idea that I could design something in Solidworks, do a minimum of work in the Preprocessing software to place the model in the right orientation, and send it to the printer and go to sleep.  When I woke up, I had a part with less 'post processing' needed than I used to deal with when I used SLA.

That Laboratory work convinced me that it's time for 3D printing to become mainstream.  Over the past two years, I've noticed all the 'maker' activity and the DIY activity . . .

When I quit the lab to start a partnership and create a 'virtual' company, I was convinced that this technology would play a large part in the business.

But what to buy?

Why I bought the Da Vinci:

The company is just getting off the ground and we are avoiding investments.  The thought is to invest our own money and effort and bootstrap it ourselves.  We had a hard time deciding how much to spend on a printer, and an even harder time figuring out how much time to devote to learning how to use it. - ah, 'tune' it.  I already knew 'how to use it' in the business, but my partner was really skeptical about us having to spin our wheels tuning a 'low end' consumer printer.

I looked at the sub $1,000 printers, my partner looked at the $5,000 to $10,000. 

When I saw a $500 printer, I decided why not?  I was about to spend $500 at a 'service bureau' just to get some parts printed, and I figured it would be an easy gamble with the Da Vinci.

My partner was against it, so I just bought it myself.

So that's why I bought the Da Vinci.

My question is why would someone who has used the other printers, someone with experience with the DIY printers, someone who has used some of the other, more 'open source' printers buy a Da Vinci.

It's not lost on me that this forum has it's roots in the solidoddle printer.  I'm also aware that SoliDoddle and Makerbot and other companies have come a very long way since their first printers were built and shipped to their first users.

-------------------------------------------

I've watched 'Print the Legend' and was amused to see a you tube video about printing a dress. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdRswasftfI

I have a friend who was scanned (for a dress she was told) several years ago, but I don't think her scan went anywhere but towards miniature artwork.

The dream of 3D printing has a long way to go, but technology is approaching the dream from opposite directions:  Large companies selling very expensive printers, and makers doing it themselves, and now small companies beating a path to a consumer market.

Engineer in the Medical Device Industry, used high end 3D printers, but exploring what can be done with inexpensive printers.  Own a Da Vinci 2.0 Duo

2 Reply by armadilloexpress

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Re: Why Buy the Da Vinci?

I like what you have to say. After the main Game player in open Source stopped leading the way for the little people . The game Did change yes. And How do you take the wind out of the sail of an excited young talented person who has the opportunity to compeate   in the real world market. Well You cant package kits for sale without enclosures for 700-800 any more.when you can buy a beautiful XYZ Divinchi 1.0 that is easy to use. (People want control over charicteristics. Materials,Settings. and What they want to print. It is there private information tracking .can they loose proprietary design? Every Design ever printed can be reprinted somewhere else to see what you created. If your online. Enbedded Log file registries. paper printers have them. when the updates go out so do copies of the log files. accessed only by who can open the files language.(That is why offline open
Source is the best solution for the inventer,Creator,maker.) There work may be original,marketable.You want to Draw with your license you paid for privately. print a test to see how it worked out.

3 Reply by armadilloexpress

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Re: Why Buy the Da Vinci?

And the printer works,can be adjusted to bring out the part of your design that may need a flexable portion fed into the print.
now it dose what you envisioned so you see its possible,and will work and will it be durable enough. (Now the Ultimaker, I3,P,
Open source is worth the 800-1000 mark. to less people, but makers are born everyday. It will grow into Evelution of its owne.
If makers were allowed 20 years ago. We would already be Gorge Jettson . 2015 We are way behind. The capability Has been here. Just the people don't have it. It will come Slower but it will come .God will use the foolish things to confound the wise in this generation. all wisdom and ideas come from above and are granted to people Worthy. Arrogant say look what I have done . you would have nothing not even health to think if it were not given too you from above. so be responcible,to credit to whome it is due,or you may loose that blessing to another.   God is Good all the Time. Admathaideas.

4 Reply by armadilloexpress

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Re: Why Buy the Da Vinci?

And the printer works,can be adjusted to bring out the part of your design that may need a flexable portion fed into the print.
now it dose what you envisioned so you see its possible,and will work and will it be durable enough. (Now the Ultimaker, I3,P,
Open source is worth the 800-1000 mark. to less people, but makers are born everyday. It will grow into Evelution of its owne.
If makers were allowed 20 years ago. We would already be Gorge Jettson . 2015 We are way behind. The capability Has been here. Just the people don't have it. It will come Slower but it will come .God will use the foolish things to confound the wise in this generation. all wisdom and ideas come from above and are granted to people Worthy. Arrogant say look what I have done . you would have nothing not even health to think if it were not given too you from above. so be responcible,to credit to whome it is due,or you may loose that blessing to another.   God is Good all the Time. Admathaideas.

5 Reply by jjc

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Re: Why Buy the Da Vinci?

Hmmm . . . I like what you say, and your thoughts cover a lot of ground.  To answer one single question:

"Why Buy The Da Vinci?" (if you are a maker at heart)

I think your answer is:

Well You cant package kits for sale without enclosures for 700-800 any more.when you can buy a beautiful XYZ Divinchi 1.0 that is easy to use. (People want control over charicteristics. Materials,Settings. and What they want to print.

That makes a lot of sense.  If you are a maker at heart, then buy a Da Vinci as a start point and hack it.

It's not perfect, but it's inexpensive and has a lot of the features that are now important.

Engineer in the Medical Device Industry, used high end 3D printers, but exploring what can be done with inexpensive printers.  Own a Da Vinci 2.0 Duo

6 Reply by boxcarmib

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Re: Why Buy the Da Vinci?

The only caveat I would add is "AS LONG as you can hack it".

XYZprinting seems to be continually raising the bar with respect to the difficulty of hacking the machine. The jury seems to be out on whether or not the 1.0A can be hacked. And if it can... how long before its replaced by the unhackable 1.0B or 1.0C etc.
Although I'm currently running stock machines, my interest and enthusiasm for the DaVinci will only last as long as I can easily print the objects I'm interested in. Currently, the filament resetter provides me with that flexibility. It's not simply the high cost of the proprietary filament that has me using a resetter... its also the fact that without a resetter I would HAVE to use XYZ filament. Which means only the 14 colors of ABS that they offer. No transparent, no natural, no glow-in-the-dark, no flexible, no PLA, no PVA , no Nylon, no TPE , no PET, no you name it.
If they continue with their business model I don't think they will ultimately triumph in the American market... if you look at their gallery of objects on their website you'll see that it is almost entirely comprised of trinkets that most of us wouldn't even consider worth the investment of a $10 machine to print out let alone $500. However I am told that these kinds of trinkets are all the rage in Japan. Being able to print off a "Hello Kitty" in all sorts of different colored plastics and sizes is just what the Japanese consumer wants. As it stands, a daVinci is NOT a 3d printer that will let you print ANYTHING, it's a 3d printer that'll let you print a comparatively small subset of what can be printed.
I can't really complain of course, they're selling a basic machine for far less than their competitors specifically because they believe they will make it back on high priced filament. Who am I to take advantage of their underpriced printer and then complain that in the long run it costs more than a comparable filament-free system? While I wouldn't spend $500 MORE for a filament-free daVinci, I would willingly spend $200 or $300 more.
So I wish them well, I'm grateful that they pitched in a 3d printer at a price that was within my budget. It's been a great learner machine and I at least know I'm now sold on 3d printing and that I'll probably be buying far too many more machines before i'm too old and feeble to press a button. I'm just a little disappointed to realize that if they succeed in locking down the machine with no opportunity for hacking, if they don't modify their business model for that american market, there there will be no opportunity for my imagination to take me where it leads me and I've already bought my last DaVinci.