1 Topic by pcm81

  • pcm81
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Topic: State of the industry?

Usually with DIY or open source projects user can either save on cost or gain some "experimental/state-of-the-consumer-art" technologies at the cost of few more headaches than with off the shelf available commercial models. What I am curious about is the state of the 3d printing industry today. For example, i got sd3 and after a fair bit of tinkering with it i am getting decent quality prints. Lets say i'd buy makerbot instead. From what i can see MB would need much less tinkering than is needed with doodle; but it also costs more. Does the added cost of a product like makerbot simply removes the need for user to tinker with the printer or does it also lock the user into a certain rigid set of constraints which the user can not overcome, like he can with open source printer like SD is?

2 Reply by IanJohnson

  • IanJohnson
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Re: State of the industry?

From what I've read, 3x the price does not get 3x less tinkering with Makerbot.  Cube seems to be much less tinkering, due largely to rigid constraints, and a $10K mojo gets you no tinkering at all.  The price tag comes from the extra engineering that makes that possible (cartridge loading, heated chamber) but also very rigid constraints in the form of very slow printing with solid infill.

So far it looks like nothing under $3k will give you plug and play.  I don't think it is totally possible without locking the user into filament sold by the printer company, so the ideal temp and flow settings for each plastic and color are known and tested.

3 Reply by pcm81

  • pcm81
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Re: State of the industry?

IanJohnson wrote:

From what I've read, 3x the price does not get 3x less tinkering with Makerbot.  Cube seems to be much less tinkering, due largely to rigid constraints, and a $10K mojo gets you no tinkering at all.  The price tag comes from the extra engineering that makes that possible (cartridge loading, heated chamber) but also very rigid constraints in the form of very slow printing with solid infill.

So far it looks like nothing under $3k will give you plug and play.  I don't think it is totally possible without locking the user into filament sold by the printer company, so the ideal temp and flow settings for each plastic and color are known and tested.

Thanks for info. I guess it is a good thing i got the doodle. I'd kill myself being as restricted as you describe.