gCreate's gMax 1.5 & gMax 1.5 XT

gCreate has just unveiled two new 3D printers. The company which had a smashing hit with their gMax 3D printer on Kickstarter last August, has just announced their gMax 1.5 and gMax 1.5 XT machines. More details on these new 3D printers can be found here: http://3dprint.com/19205/gcreate-gmax-1-5

Below you will find the general specs that are present in both new 3D printer:

• Printer Technology: FFF – Fused Filament Fabrication
• Printer Size: 28.5”W x 24”D x 21.5”H
• Nozzle Diameter: 0.5mm (recommended) or 0.35mm diameter
• Print Resolution: 50 micron to 450 micron
• Filament Type: ABS and PLA

The XT version has a build envelope of 16 x 16 x 18 inches, while the regular gMax 1.5 has a build envelope of 16 x 16 x 10 inches. Below is a picture of the gMax XT:
http://3dprint.com/wp-content/upload...3-1024x910.png

nice looking beasts.
If you add the second extruder comes in just under $2000 - not bad for that print volume.

I'm going to print the rocket with the smoke cloud :-)

Any good info from owner's of the original gMax ?

It looks good, but it is not all that new. I have been selling printers with that build size for six months now ( http://www.alayax.com/3d-printers/av...inter-108.html ). My price is double, but it includes shipping, and I can not work out if theirs do or don't. If it does then it is a good deal indeed.

If anyone is interested, I built this printer from scratch and have a BOM for it I could share. The total came to around $1k for me. I was going for as authentic a build as possible. It could definitely be done cheaper than that.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Alayax

It looks good, but it is not all that new. I have been selling printers with that build size for six months now ( http://www.alayax.com/3d-printers/av...inter-108.html ). My price is double, but it includes shipping, and I can not work out if theirs do or don't. If it does then it is a good deal indeed.

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So what you're saying is, you sell the same printer, for the same price, but charge $2000 to ship it?..........

I am saying that I have been selling the same size printer, for ages, so can't see what the fuss is about.

Dhl charge on distance per volume mass, and this printer is both heavy and big. If it ships to Australia, I just about break even, if it ships to Canada I Ioose, and if if ships to the UK, I actually make a profit. In the price is import taxes for the various countries, shipping cost, and shipping insurance.

I just got jack of liking something's price online, and the getting a shipping cost slapped on top.

Do you ship your printer assembled or as a kit? I imagine shipping as a kit is considerably cheaper. It looks like gCreate is charging $200 more for the pre-assembled gMax 1.5.

gCreate's wording on their order page, "We are currently shipping only within the 48 Contiguous United States and the estimated lead time is 6-8 weeks. gMax Printers that are picked up locally will be refunded $50," makes me think the price they list includes shipping.

I just had a look and I think you are right, they do include shipping, and they seem to be shipping internationally now. The delivery of 6 to 8 weeks makes me think they are shipping by sea, so that would bring their cost down a fair bit.

Shipping as a kit would be much cheaper, it would reduce the shipping volume by about half, but it comes with risk. When any assembly is required, most people will do it correctly, but some won't, and then warranty becomes tricky. Who is actually at fault if assembly is complicated, the customer for not doing it right or me for not having a simple to use product? And after assembly, the customer would have to level the brint bed and calibrate.

If the machine needs warranty replacement, I would pay for return shipping, and lose massive amounts on the sale. That is why I make pretty damn sure of the quality of anything I sell online.

This printer is aimed at small businesses, and they need to thing to work out of the box, so it is fully assembled and tested. Open box, remove packaging, plug in, load filament and print, within a hour or so is the ideal.

I will get onto the manufacturer to see by how much they can drop the price. When they bought this out there was no real competition, so they loaded the price a bit, as they do. The square frame design of mine adds a fair bit of mass, but that frame is rigid as, and it does give better print quality. Not sure if any reading this is actually in the market for one of these, but I will post the results when I get them.

The gMax started as a kit and only recently (with the 1.5 version) gained the option to ship pre-assembled. It is a very well designed, high quality, and large version of a RepRap, but its origin shows through some. The kit version is for those who have experience building much like a RepRap printer is. Even for the pre-assembled version, the fact that it uses printed parts means even if it can pull of the same quality of print, it can be broken more easily (in fact, I did bump into mine and broke one of the z-axis motor mounts as I was building it). The issue is more that those parts are plastic than that they are printed. The printer you are selling looks like it uses aluminum for everything structural.

For those reasons I wouldn't quite put these two printers in the same category. I'm very happy with what I have for what I paid (though I paid considerably less than their prices by sourcing everything myself). If I needed a printer for a business setting that I could pull out of the box and be sure it would print well right away, I would be looking at a different category of printers than the gMax is in and I would be expecting to pay more for it.