The Cheapest 3D Printer (So Far...)

Ding, ding, ding...  In fight to be the lowest has a new contender.  MakiBox starting shipping it's A6 LT model in the beginning of August with its first 5 units.  Check out the details below.

The MakiBox A6 LT has been designed to be the best of both worlds, affordable and dependable. It comes with a frosted acrylic printing bed that is suitable for PLA and similar lower temperature plastics. All MakiBox kits come partially assembled. They have been designed to be more simple with less parts and very little configuration.

Specs:

Outside Dimensions: 290mm wide x 235mm deep x 235mm tall
Printing Output: 150mm wide x 110mm deep x 90mm tall
Positional Resolution: 0.04mm (full step resolution) in XYZ, output resolution depends on output speed and nozzle size.
Movement System: Drive Screws (8mm movement per rotation) and Stepper Motors
Nozzle: 0.4mm Default, 0.3mm and 0.5mm available
Drive Electronics: Printrboard Rev B with MakiBox Firmware

Kit contains:

1 MakiBox A6 Frame
4 Stepper Motors with Drive Shafts
1 Controller Board
1 60W or higher power supply (100V-220V AC)
1 Hot End with 0.4mm diameter output
1 Acrylic Print Bed
1 Clear Acrylic Casing
0.5kg of PLA 1.75mm Filament, Assorted Color
Assembly Instruction Manual

Now get ready for this...  The price is only $200!!!!  The next closest 3D printer is The Buccaneer at $347 which is currently a Kickstarter project that (to my knowledge) is not yet in production.

To my knowledge this is the lowest priced 3D printer in production.

Who will be the next contender?

Stay tuned....

The Afinia H-Series 3D Printer

Just ran across another company that is making a 3D printer for home use.  The Afina H-Series is another 3D extrusion ABS printer with a build box of 5x5x5 inches and with an accuracy of .2 mm (8 thousandths). The printer weighs only 11 pounds making it fairly portable and can print in natural, black, red, blue, yellow and green (one color at a time).  For a basic 3D printer the Afinia H-Series seems a little expensive at $1,499.  However, this printer won the Make Magazine Best Overall Experience, Easiest Setup, and tied in the Easiest To Use category out of 15 other 3D printers.

3D Printing News

MakerBot received a couple new updates yesterday:

MakerBot Firmware was upgraded to version 7.0 which "includes greatly improved acceleration, using contributions from our rockstar community members, Jetty and dnewman, to allow for smoother movements, better quality on high-detail prints, and a quieter machine."  This update also appears to enable the MakerBot to print from a SD card as well as a new file format.

MakerWare 1.1 received the following updates:

• Major print quality improvements in MakerBot Slicer (formerly known as “Miracle Grue”) make it significantly faster and more accurate in slicing and printing detailed models on the Low and Medium settings. 
• Slicing profiles for Skeinforge and MakerBot Slicer are now fully editable! Customizing slicing profiles is recommended for advanced users only, but if you’re ready to take the plunge, see our Advanced Settings documentation to get started.
• Automatically arrange a cluttered build plate using the Auto Layout option – choose Edit -> Auto Layout All or press Ctrl-L.
• Many other small improvements and bug fixes!

So far community comments seem positive.

Go 3D Print Yourself!

Mixee Me is a company started in 2012 that lets you create a miniature version of yourself (or another person).  It reminds me a little of the Mii Channel on the Nintendo Wii.  The design interface is easy to use and I managed to make the "Me' shown below in just few minutes.  Once your "Me" is finished you can order a 3D print for $25 (plus $6.50 shipping and handling) which will be printed by the good folks over at Shapeways and then sent to you by mail.  According to the Mixee Me website "We believe that creation should be fun, quick, and simple. We believe that 3D Printing should be accessible to everybody regardless of expertise."  Go try to create one for yourself at the Mixee Me website.!

More Models in My Shop... And Some 3D Printing News

I have added more models to my shop on Shapeways. Actually, I have put models back into my shop that I had previously removed.  Two of my most popular models are back:

The first one is a 6-Sided Spiked Die which will make your Yahtzee game a Yowtzee game.

The second is a 4-sided Spiked Die for any place you need a 4-sided die.

In the news:  Read Write posted an article and video about a 3D printed record.  I don't think the recording industry has anything to worry about for the near future.  The record sounds horrible!  But, At least you can tell it is a record.  The first song is Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" which sound like "War of The Worlds" (the original) and most likely smells like hot plastic.  It does however show the advances in the resolution of 3D printing technology.

Just to show how mainstream 3D printers are becoming, I found a 3D printer for sale on Amazon. The Afinia 3D Printer H-Series is on sale now for only $1,499!  This printer has a build envelope 5-1/2"(w) x 5-1/2"(d) x 5-1/4"(h) (140x140x135mm) and prints ABS plastic.  Actually, this is not the only 3D printer on Amazons site.  As the number of models increase, hopefully the prices will drop so the that average person can buy one.  If it follows the emergence of computers in the home we could see some rapid price drops in the next year or two.  In 1969 the first truly home computer, the Honeywell 316 Kitchen computer cost $10,000 and weighed over 100 pounds.  In 1977 the Apple II cost $1,298 for the base model.  We will have to see what happens as this technology become more and more popular.  My question is who will take advantage of this boom and develop an easy to use and cheap 3D design tool.  CAD software vendors like Solidworks and PTC still have their prices in the thousands of dollars unless you are a student.  This seem like a market ripe for the picking.

Please feel free to comment on this post to let me know what you think is the future of 3D printing.

The Replicator Revolution Begins?

I have decided to start a blog to discuss the new and exciting advances of 3D printing which many think is the beginning of what will eventually become the "replicator".  For those of you who are not familiar with that term, please watch a season or two of Star Trek.  Or, continue reading this post...

The replicator basically made almost anything you asked it to make on a molecular level.  At first, it was for making food and drinks, but then many other things were replicated as the series continued.  Everything from pork-chops to power converters were made by just asking the computer to "replicate" whatever they desired.  "Earl Grey, hot," was one of the most common requests from a certain well know captain on the series.

So how does this a blog make?  For the last 12 years I have been involved in some form or another of 3D printing.  Additionally, I have been working on creating 3D models for printing on demand on various sites which I will feature in future posts.  I predict that in the next 5-10 years a 3D printer will be as common in most homes as a laser printer.  You will be able to print a replacement plastic part for your small appliance by downloading a 3D model from the manufacturer or make a replacement knob for a piece of furniture.  Perhaps children will print out their own toys or a scaled model of themselves and their friends to play with.  The possibilities are beyond our current vision but very close on the horizon.

This blog is about my use of 3D technology as well as developments in the technology of 3D printing and its progression into the mainstream and into the average household.  I hope we both enjoy the journey and also appreciate looking back to where we started this revolution from.