Quote Originally Posted by djbrowny View Post
I will be so, so disappointed if this project isnt removed by kickstarter.

I have never seen a more blatant cash grab in the history of 3D printers on kickstarter. $322,000 off a video that shows it moving without printing anything, and a 1x1 inch cube. wow.

I dont like to be the one to say 'I told you so' but I mean really, I have no sympathy for the people that back this project and never get anything. This creator will walk away with all that money and just bail once he realises the cost of building 1k printers is around $400k, so he will just keep all the money and claim 'manufacturing delays' until people eventually realise their claims for refunds will never work.

Heres a quick shopping list of critical flaws in this printer design and the campaign

1) The cost. I'm sorry, but there is no way the printer, as is, can be built for under $299. He clearly states that the prototype cost over $1k to build and that seems reasonable. The vitamins and core components of any printer come in art around $180. Then you add things like heavier motors, the frame, LCD screens, build plates, longer rods, stiffer supporting structures for his giant machine and... the cost of actually building it which is about half a days worth of labour. I can feasibly see with all parts injection molded and with a garbage, cheap build plate, it could be bought for $299, but it couldnt be built.
2) The time line. from finishing the design of injection molding, give at least 2 months lead time to receive your parts. As of now, he hasnt even finished the design. he would be able to start building them by october at best.
3) the parts currently are 3D printed and JUST LOOK AT THEM. They are bizarrely shaped and completely not optimised for injection molding. How long will this take? the entire printer is going to need an overhaul in its design to allow its parts to even be built. Some of them are just enormous.
4) who will build these? He says hes not going to make a lot of money from this and thats clearly true since if he hopes to build them all hes going to go into a fat debt. However building ONE THOUSAND?? Where is he going to find a team of like 6+ people who will all gladly work for nothing? He has made absolutely no mention of his plans to upscale production at all.
5) Good luck printing anything that large without the worlds worst curling. The thing needs a heated bed. an acrylic plate that large will just be awful. And where exactly are people supposed to source their own 15" heated bed? that thing alone would cost hundreds! And it needs an enclosure too. An enclosure that large is going to be hundreds again! You are going to have to spend twice as much as the printer costs, just to get it to print anything bigger than a yoda head figurine.
6) The frame is wobbly as all hell. There is a clear reason why large, high quality printers have super-rigid frames. The vibrations will tear this machine to shreds. Why is the printrbot metal so good, and why are fortus series printers even better? They are as steady as a rock. His design will get more and more wobbly the higher it goes and further away from the centre it builds. The thing looks like it could sway by up to a centimetre at max extension, its just so flimsy.

But none of these reasons actually matter compared to the only one that does, which is no one will ever see their printer. From what I can see, he is going to take his design to get injection molded, they will send him back to re-design everything from scratch to be optimised for mass production. Some of his critical components will require a complete overhaul. This will take about 3 months. Then 2 months delay after that taking him to next year before actually purchasing any parts. Then he will buy a small fraction of the parts to build backers' printers, maybe 10 or so of them. The printers will be wobbly as hell and nothing will stick to the build plate. he will have $200k left over and decide the business cant possibly succeed and claim delays for the next year.

I am just so, so upset that someone can make a video of himself saying 'small printers are bad, all they can do is print figurines. you need my printer which is 20 times as large. here is a video of it printing a 1 inch cube' and get $322k. There is nothing that adds up about this campaign. NOTHING. The printer doesnt exist, his costs dont add up, he doesnt have a team. Its just one person with a great idea to ring in 1000 people on the belief that he has invented a 3D printing miracle machine on the side while working as a lawyer.

Let this campaign be the harshest lesson 3D printer backers on kickstarter will ever learn. From now on, every failed campaign will be compared to the cobblebot, and people will joke that 'hey, and least its not COBBLEBOT bad' and people will laugh and cry about the money they lost.
So, in short, it's all a load of cobblerbots?