The RoBo 3D Printer is for the “average joe.”
Posted on 01/11/2013 10:25:31 AM PST by null and void
New Kickstarter project could well be first affordable at-home 3D printer brought to market
Staples may be planning to bring 3D printing to the consumer marketplace, but three men from San Diego want to bring it right into your home office, and they’ve created an overwhelmingly successful Kickstarter campaign to help them do it.
Called the RoBo 3D Printer , the device is not the first personal 3D printer out there, but it is one of the most inexpensive. Its creators believe that they’ll be able to sell the product for just over $500 — a veritable steal compared to home 3D printers with price tags in the thousands.
The RoBo 3D Printer is for the “average joe.”
“For the average joe, there’re not many opportunities to buy a 3D printer without breaking the bank,” says co-founder Braydon Moreno. “So we decided to build it ourselves for people like us and to keep it open source so there’s no barriers to how this machine can evolve.”
Additionally, Moreno and his partners say that RoBo 3D was designed to remove many of the entry-level barriers associated with in-home 3D printing. They promise that the printer will be easy to use and require very little design knowledge, making it the perfect starter printer for beginners, hobbyists, educators, and artists. It is plug-and-play with a USB connector and works with open-source 3D modeling software, like Google Sketchup.
Model of Yoda printed by the RoBo 3D.
For those interested in a more advanced printer, RoBo 3D stands up well to its more costly competitors. It has a 10 x 10 x 8-in. print area — large for an at-home printer, but still small enough to fit into the personal office. It prints at 100-micron layers in 3-mm-diameter PLA plastic filament, which results in strong, hard-wearing products.
With just under a month left in their campaign, RoBo 3D and its founders have already well surpassed their funding goal, with more than $121,000 pledged by nearly 300 backers. Once the campaign is completed, the trio plans to begin mass-manufacturing the printers — ordering some components and printing others in their RoBo 3D farm.
For more on 3D printing, read How 3D Printing is Building Our World and 5 Things to Know: 3D Printing .
For more information about RoBo 3D, visit the Kickstarter page . ■
Yep. Clockwork. You could probably run that out of this thing too.
The real ones don’t use a clockwork. A short length of use suffices.
I went to their site and I will be pledging so I can have one sent when they go to manufacturing. Unlike the Replicator2 @ $2200 this one will also do ABS which is much better than the PLA. Since both have a 100 micron high resolution capability, this is good enough for me to make models of my SolidWorks designs.
I wonder if the resolution will be high enough to use it to build version 2.0
WANT!
ABS would be great for makin’ car parts.
Me too. Holy cow. The possibilities.
I am almst surprised the powers that be have allowed it to get this far.
ESOBEE!
wannaneedagottahave it.
from the practical to the absurd: thats some heady stuff.
“One Pls”
I dunno, man. They’re kinda like prunes. You know, is one enough? Three too many?
This is truly a breakthrough product.
Regards,
GtG
http://www.paladin-press.com/
Regards,
GtG
All I can think of is *3D art*!
Wooeeee!
;D
AA 12 ?
“I think there will be some inventor uses”
This will be actually be incredible - things can be printed that were never before possible.
Machines within machines - the mathematics alone to describe the parts will be amazing.
People can invent and create break through devices from their desks. Plop in a power source during the printing process, or an integrated circuit and you can print moving parts that can think and move.
(your right the porn industry will love it... aaaaahhhh)
If I were young, this would be great career choice. Ignoring home use, the potential for business uses is incredible. Home use will be limited until they make 3D design easier.
Oh, yea?" Try this:
Home use will be limited until they make 3D design easier.
It’s possible it may not be an issue. I own a Kurzwiel keyboard. It’s amazing what sound patches I can download from the internet. Think “open source” item design. Kinda like the “printable gun parts” we’re hearing about now.
Twenty years ago for most people there was no such thing as an “internet”. Look what it’s come to and how we all depend on it. For kids today, imagining a world without internet is like I, as a kid, imagined a world without indoor plumbing.
In all seriousness, this really could be even bigger than either.
Is that a 3D ping list? This is something I’m pretty interested in.
I want one of the printers. I am already thinking of sculptures, pottery ... like, wow ....
And, like someone else said farther up the thread ... think of the crap we WON’T have to import from China!
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