3D Printer for less than $400

Does the market need a cheaper printer, or a better one?<p>I've used 6 types of 3D printers. (Extrusion type, ABS or PLA) 3 from the 'consumer' grade and 3 from the 'pro' grade. Each of the consumer grade printers was an exercise in frustration.<p>All the printers had ugly, clunky software, but the pro printers would almost always make the thing I wanted.<p>The consumer printers I've tried take 3 or 4 failures to get 'set up' then a few more tries to find the bugs most of the way through a build, and eventually you might get one nice print. (After 4-6 hours)<p>The difficulty of getting a good print scales dramatically with the initial footprint, and not as much with height.<p>I have no intention of actually buying a printer until I've seen one <i>work</i> that I can afford. I can't manage the cost of most pro machines, but I can't accept the headache of 'consumer' printers today.<p>I'm glad 3D printing is taking off, but I think we've reached an inflection point where we need to go from <i>possible</i> to <i>easy</i>.

From what I understand, margins are pretty good right now for ~$1k+ printers. This however looks looks too polished for the price they are trying to deliver. Reliable wifi connectivity, air filtration, fancy box, mobile apps, cloud software, scale to weigh amount of filament in the hopper... hmmmm.<p>Existing sub $400 printers[see below] havent shipped in mass quantities yet (well, besides the printrbot jr). Whoever gets it right first will become the market leader for entry level printers.<p>If these guys ship all their preorders I'll buy one from them. Until then, based on the research i've done, im planning on buying a printrbot jr to build the parts for deltabot like this: <a href="http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:34146" rel="nofollow">http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:34146</a><p>Also, it is a little disingenuous for them to compare it to the makerbot replitor which has ~4x the build volume[1].<p>================================<p>Makibox: $200-400 + shipping from asia (has only shipped a few beta units)<p><a href="http://makibox.com/products" rel="nofollow">http://makibox.com/products</a><p>Printrbot simple: $299 + s/h<p><a href="http://printrbot.com/shop/printrbot-simple-beta/" rel="nofollow">http://printrbot.com/shop/printrbot-simple-beta/</a><p>Printrbot Jr: $399 + s/h<p><a href="http://printrbot.com/shop/printrbot-jr/" rel="nofollow">http://printrbot.com/shop/printrbot-jr/</a><p>================================<p>[1]: Build area (28.5<i>15.3</i>15.5)/ (15<i>10</i>12) = 3.75<p>*Sorry I keep editing as I read more.

I've found that the more over-funded a Kickstarter project is, the higher the probability that delivery of perks and products will be delayed or have problems.<p>In my experience over the past two years, I've seen a number of projects that I funded where the project creators got bogged down after deciding to add features not originally specified at the time of funding, or continually "tweak" features that then result in delay after delay.<p>Looking through my backing history, some examples: - Honey Badger BBQ sauce: first run had bacterial problems. Had to send out new batch months later.<p>- Electricity | The Life Story of NIKOLA TESLA: "Oh, that perk you chose, is out of production, if you want something equivalent to it you'll have to send even more money". Nope.<p>- L8 SmartLight The SoundLess Speaker: "Ooops, we forgot about CE/FCC certification..."<p>- NeuroDreamer sleep mask: "Oops, battery problem." Funded July '12, finally shipping June '13?<p>- Ouya: ETA was March '13, now it's 3 months later and I finally have a tracking number.. we'll see.<p>- HexBright - funded July '11, delivered Feb. '13.<p>- IronBuds earbuds: Funded Aug. '11, sent "freebie" 3-piece earbuds Sep. '12, still haven't sent the 6-piece IronBuds originally advertised as rewards.<p>The projects that I've seen with the quickest "fulfillment" and so forth? Custom sets of playing cards.

"If you want to use your own filament, you may do so without the cartridges"<p>GOOD! I dismiss other 3d printers immediately if they require some proprietary filament cartridge.<p>Nice to see the price dropping on 3d printers. :-)

Printrbot Simple is $299. <a href="http://printrbot.com/shop/printrbot-simple-beta/" rel="nofollow">http://printrbot.com/shop/printrbot-simple-beta/</a><p>My son wants to get a 3d printer for his birthday (and he wants to print a lot of airplanes with it) and I think it'd be a fun project to do together; to learn about computer controlled robots and programming with OpenSCAD. I've been reading the Printrbot forums and there's a bunch of work to do to get a good print, which is fun, but probably won't get the best prints. I'm not sure if I want a "consumer" or "hobbyist" printer given that it's going to be for education and fun...<p>EDIT: Though having read the page, this looks totally awesome, and if I could buy one right now then I probably would (instead of the printrbot).

Their team sounds like they are just taking too much on at one time and something is going to give in the way of quality or missing deadlines. Reliable wifi connectivity, air filtration, product design, mobile apps, cloud software... The list goes on.<p>With 3d printing being such a community focused arena, I think a focus on building a platform where the community could hook into and develop on is the way to go.<p>Haven't we learned anything from companies like Zynga? The user/community will always be able to produce content and add value faster and cheaper than an in-house team can.<p>Focus on the hardware, a robust platform to build onto, and some example software (maybe an iOS app + PC app). Empower the community.<p>If you are going to go the Amazon route and win on margin you need to look at the overhead costs you are going to incur in the form of technical debt supporting all of these services. Offload the cost to the community.

I stopped watching when I realised this printer is "cloud based" and "connects wirelessly to their servers".<p>You know what? Call me when it can connect wirelessly to my computer, just as my 2D printer does right now.

Seems as though it may require you to upload all G-code or .STL's to Pirate3D's server for printing. Question addressing the issue was just asked in the comments section.<p>IP questions as well as hardware behavior with spotty internet connection both jump up as potential issues in my mind. I would imagine this is for a standardized file preparation &#38; troubleshooting service.<p>I wouldn't be interested in purchasing a 3D printer that I cannot directly feed G-code or STL's to without an internet connection or someone else's server getting involved.<p>[EDIT] I stand corrected, there is a 'backup' mode for printing without involving their servers or network connection.

It's clear Kickstarter has failed in trying to convince people that "Kickstarter is not a store".<p>* "I would order this..." * "I wouldn't be interested in purchasing..." * "I often buy things [from Kickstarter] in the hundreds..." * "I have no intention of actually buying a printer..."

When it comes to consumer-grade 3D printing, it seems like all the focus on developing a cheap machine and none of the focus is on figuring out something that people actually want to print.<p>So you can print a spoon and a bowl... great. But I actually already have one of those. If I ever have a need to print an endless supply of 1-inch square cubes, I guess 3D printing is just the ticket.<p>I'm not saying they need to be able to print out a Ferrari before I'm interested, but they need to be able to print something that is at least mildly useful or interesting.

"Best layer resolution: 100microns"<p>So 0.1mm in z, but what about x and y? Or does the above imply that they are all 0.1mm? Is that for the final product output or is that a nozzle head movement resolution?

Man I just think naming this thing 'pirate' anything is a bad opening move. Or is this by the PirateBay guys? Then I guess it sorta makes sense.

3D PLA printers are non-trivial to build, but very do-able at a hackerspace.<p><a href="http://reprap.org/wiki/Prusa_Mendel_%28iteration_2%29" rel="nofollow">http://reprap.org/wiki/Prusa_Mendel_%28iteration_2%29</a><p><a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/stl4su/files/" rel="nofollow">http://sourceforge.net/projects/stl4su/files/</a><p><a href="http://www.openscad.org/" rel="nofollow">http://www.openscad.org/</a>

Slightly off topic but I built my own CNC 3 axis milling machine (X, Y and Z) some years ago which is mostly collecting dust :-) It's pretty high precision, solid, screw/stepper drives.<p>If I want to convert it into a 3d printer what would be my best/cheapest route? I.e. getting a printing head and software setup to drive it all?

If price was the only concern, printrbot simple and junior would fly off the shelves. 3d printing seems like it will be important in how some things are made in the future, but anyone getting in now should do it out of interest, not utility.

Don't they only need to make one really good printer that can print other printers? That should bring margins down.<p>Seriously though, as someone very interested in 3D printing this is awfully tempting to back. The best option for me though seems still to be to use a service that will allow you to send your model to a third party that will print it on a professional 3D printer and send it back to you. Internet + professional grade printing + next day delivery = just about as good.

This sounds a lot like the solidoodle, minus $125,(<a href="http://store.solidoodle.com/index.php?route=product/product&#38;product_id=56" rel="nofollow">http://store.solidoodle.com/index.php?route=product/product&...</a>). Smaller build dimensions though.

I still wonder if 3D printing is going to be a one in every home thing or something more akin to copiers (copy centers, businesses, and some individuals)? I get the feeling the current direction to go would be more Xerox than Apple.

The first thing that came into my head as soon as I saw it was:<p><pre><code> power mac g4 cube </code></pre> I think it needs a little more originality in the design department.

"Add $100 to ship outside the US." Ouch. That's $150 for international shipping total, plus import tax :(

Why does this sound almost too good to be true?

I would order this, but I have already heard about people getting ripped off from kickstarter. I know that most of these people actually deliver what they are supposed to on their end, but one bad apple can cause hesitation when it comes to my hard earned cash.