Cobblebot 3D Printer

[Zenica]

"defamation suit"?

That is comical. John Pinette kind of funny...and that is saying something considering John was a riot to see in person!

Nothing to do or say but wait, time will reveal all hidden truths....and lies.

[3dspider]

"defamation suit"?

That is comical. John Pinette kind of funny...and that is saying something considering John was a riot to see in person!

Nothing to do or say but wait, time will reveal all hidden truths....and lies.

Considering you appear to be one of the people who only registered here to slam this product... why don't you tell us all why you feel like trolling this product? eg. what do you gain if Cobblebot fails?

[LambdaFF]

Considering you appear to be one of the people who only registered here to slam this product... why don't you tell us all why you feel like trolling this product? eg. what do you gain if Cobblebot fails?

I don't think anyone has much to gain by a company making wild claims and going under. If anything, it will fuel deception on this technology and crowdfunding and might prevent actual projects from going forward. And everybody loses somewhat from that.

I worked a lot in manufacturing and now in customer support. My guts tell me that 300$ is low for an assembly with so many components with "fixed price" (e g motors, slides, ...), but still doable (not talking about the quality of the end result here). What it does not include is support, warranty, room for failure and recovery. And that is not a way to do business : there's always mishaps, and that's life so you have to have some margin to recover. That is only my personal feeling and I wish everybody well. But this story and another similar seen on this forum did make me rethink my personal expectations towards crowdfunding in general.

[3dspider]

I don't think anyone has much to gain by a company making wild claims and going under. If anything, it will fuel deception on this technology and crowdfunding and might prevent actual projects from going forward. And everybody loses somewhat from that.

I worked a lot in manufacturing and now in customer support. My guts tell me that 300$ is low for an assembly with so many components with "fixed price" (e g motors, slides, ...), but still doable (not talking about the quality of the end result here). What it does not include is support, warranty, room for failure and recovery. And that is not a way to do business : there's always mishaps, and that's life so you have to have some margin to recover. That is only my personal feeling and I wish everybody well. But this story and another similar seen on this forum did make me rethink my personal expectations towards crowdfunding in general.

First, let me say this: I don't usually expect a crowd-funded product to meet commercial standards. The cobblebot is no exception. However, I will support any company that brings down the cost of 3d printing.

  One of the big problems I see with most crowdfunded projects is when they hire a person to do full time customer relations before they start shipping a product. If the Cobblebot fails to fulfill its first "early-bird" orders, then I'd expect to see concern over it. Then they could hire a customer service rep to do "updates". Until then, all these concerns people have are unfounded.
  As far as the cost goes, they will probably take a slight loss on the "basic" $299 models, but will make up for that on upgrades. For instance, a heated bed costs $150 extra. An extra hotend? $90. An Enclosure? $145. Also, the creator has stated that he already has funding and the kickstarter was more of an effort to get his foot in the door as it were.
  Anyway, we'll see. I am willing to give him a chance.

(Crowdfunding in general is like investing in the stock market... Don't spend what you can't afford to lose. You may receive a payout, you might not. It's a gamble either way.)

[djbrowny]

In light of what has gone on here,

If it wasnt painfully obvious, everything stated here was my opinion based on my experiences. If anyone ever construed what I said as fact, well that is their own fault. I made it fairly clear throughout here that everything was my opinion, I doubt something, or made assumptions.

Therefore in the interest of making things perfectly clear, I retract all that I said on this project. I have always believed it is possible to deliver them at $299 and I did state that, I just worried that the machine is going to have issues printing objects full size and the timeframe to deliver given lead times on injection molds. My assumptions on viability assumed a large-person team on a salary and this project might not have that. Again, clearly I never made that it was fact what I said.

Then again, with $383,000 you can have a decent amount of bargaining power.

Good luck to the backers of this project. With some DIY mods it probably could work really well.

[SystemsGuy]

I think it's pretty clear that all stated in this thread is speculation and opinion based on information that's publicly available about the project. There are very few "facts" released about the printer other than what the creator has stated on the pitch page of the kickstarter project. I guess in two months we'll all know how that plays out.

[Brian_Krassenstein]

Anyone see this? http://3dprint.com/58371/cobblebot-shipment/

Holding back shipments now if you 'defame' them on internet forums.

[soofle616]

Wow, that's ballsy. Here's some defamation for you Cobblebot:

You're morons with no business sense of any kind. For the act of suing or even threatening to sue those who helped build your business based on on the promise of a product that they paid for your principles deserve to fall into the deepest pit of bankruptcy. It is my sincere hope that you are publicly shamed for your immoral acts and lawfully blocked from continuing to do business (or whatever it is that you've been doing with all those people's money) in texas or anywhere else.

[JRDM]

The whole thing was pretty shifty. The fact that he has a lawyer despite the meager budget only puts the legitimacy of the campaign into further question.

The first campaign was haphazardly run, it looks like he didn't even have a running 3D printer when it was first posted. The first video of a running 3D printer was posted a 9 days later, of a *calibration cube* being built. Despite that, he gave the impression that printer built a Yoda and a Dalek in the original video, and there's no reason to believe that was true.

[SystemsGuy]

The fact that he has a lawyer despite the meager budget only puts the legitimacy of the campaign into further question..

The fact is he is a lawyer, which makes it pretty easy and cost effective to issue C&D letters as and where he feels appropriate. I find it more surprising that they have shipped printer kits but not included the instructions for assembling them than the fact that this is their fourth round of sending letters to suppress what they feel are defamation.

It would seem shipping a working printer would solve 90% of the problems alluded to in the posts I've read.