Mod-T Future and Rendering Accuracy

[evanedstrom]

I'm really excited about the Mod-T, but I have two questions.
1. What will happen with the Mod-T after it ships next year? Will the price go up or will it stay sub 300? Will there be a version 2? I'd hate to back this, have them send me a beta version, then release a much more polished "version 2" a year later.

2. Will I get a truly consumer ready product and how close will the actual thing be to the renderings? I know renderings never turn out perfect in real life, but I'd expect the first batch to be high quality and good looking, much like the renderings.

I'm just trying to be realistic here, what can we expect to see?
Thanks.

[Feign]

1. I don't see where they could put more "polish" on it, if the model ships looking as good as advertised. I would expect the software to be going through a whole lot of updates, but the hardware is about as simple as one could expect for the price. The only things I could think of them improving hardware-wise is for it to have an adjustable hot-end temperature/heated bed option for printing with other materials, but that's more likely for some kind of "pro" version that would likely cost quite a bit more than $250. It's almost certainly not going to be cheaper to buy it in a store later on than on the IGG campaign now.

2. Frog designs has a pretty good track record for keeping their concepts realistic. Besides, it's not like the renderings are of an especially difficult-to-build object. IMO, the main thing that might be an unplesant surprise is the noise of the motion system and the smell of melting PLA (not as bad as ABS, but it's certainly a factor). I think a lot of people underestimate in general how loud and smelly the 3D printing process actually is.

All in all, it's an Indiegogo campaign, there's a lot of trust and hope to be utilized if you donate. For me, $250 is pretty much impulse buy money, so I went for it. It's all a judgement call you've got to make for yourself.

[NewMatter]

New Matter expects to have a long life extending well beyond the Indiegogo campaign, and it is critical for our reputation that we do right by our Indiegogo backers. From the amazing response we've had, we'll be doing an initial production run of thousands of printers, and from just a practical point of view, they have to be done right - way to much work to think about a "beta version" for IGG backers and then a "real" follow-on model. That's why we've partnered with frog and Dragon Innovations who have lots of experience in getting a polished product out the door the first time. Sure, there will be some adjustments to some of the design details, but it will be very close to what we've promised.

There should also be some pleasant surprises. For example, we will be using servo motors both for reliability and because they are much quieter than the steppers used by most 3D printers. The production MOD-t will be a very nice machine and we expect our users will be proud to own one.

[evanedstrom]

Thank you both for your insights. I think I'll go ahead and get one, it really does seem like a great product. It should be a welcome addition to my shop, now I just have to wait for it