Our goal with beta testing (perhaps better called alpha testing?) is to get the printer from the lab into the home. That's going to mean having inexperienced people building it themselves with their own tools. I suspect we'll see lots of variation in the final builds, with some better quality than others. It will give us a chance to see what problems occur during the build and where we can improve performance and buildability. We are also hoping to be able to work closely with the beta testers (many of them professionals) to get ideas for how to make the printer perform better.

One possible cause of delay right now is getting the high quality mirrors. They are on order, but it's going to be at least a few weeks lead time. It looks like we may be faced with the choice of giving beta testers our existing, low-quality mirrors, or delaying the release until the mirrors are available. We'll see how that turns out as we progress.